As with our previous Happy in the Kitchen meals, we began with shopping.  The ingredients for this meal were pretty straightforward; no special cuts of meat or highly unusual ingredients.  We needed four pounds of Cremini mushrooms which was almost the entire supply at our small local grocery.  We also needed springroll wrappers; these required a bit of searching but otherwise shopping was painless. 

The first day we made the mushroom puree and mushroom jus.  Compared to our other Happy meals this was really simple.  Food process the mushrooms, boil (yes boil them) and strain.  Michel Richards says this is the only time he ever boils mushrooms.  What it gets you is a very flavorful mushroom jus. The remaining mushroom pieces form the mushroom puree.  They definitely still tasted like mushrooms but on their own are a bit plain.  After we finished the Happy Mushroom meal we had some of the mushroom puree left which we used to make into calzones.  Combined with some ricotta, spinach and a light sauce, the calzones were a great way to use up the leftover puree.

After the minimal work the first day Husband and I were bracing for unexpected difficulties that would ruin the meal on the second day.   Happily that didn’t happen.  These dishes were very straightforward to prepare even though we were making two of them at once.  That’s not to say everything went flawlessly.  We had one rather large problem: our attempt at making homemade mayonnaise.  Neither of us had ever done this and boy did it show!  Things were looking good until almost the end at which point the oil separated from the egg and we could not get it to re-emulsify. We did a mad hunt in our cookbooks for clues of what we did wrong and then gave up.  We’ll try again another day.  Truthfully, we’ve been expecting much bigger problems in making these sometimes elaborate Michel Richards dishes and using purchased mayonnaise wasn’t a show stopper. 

On the second day we cooked for about 2.5 hours.  The results tasted great and fit the effort level to prepare them.  The ‘Shroomwiches had the feel of very elegant grilled cheese sandwiches with a pleasant mushroom surprise within.  The Mushroom Cigars had an interesting Indian accent from the curry added to the filling and the Ginger Remoulade we dipped them in.  

Overall, my favorite Happy in the Kitchen meal is still the Silky Syrah Short Ribs but the mushrooms were good.  What’s next?  I’m leaning towards a Happy Seafood meal unless the garden produces before we get to it… Oh and we’re taking the brave step of making the Silky Syrah Short Ribs when family visits next week.  Will happy food make for a happy family visit?