Mystery Lovers' Kitchen: Spicy mushrooms and peppers with green sriracha sauce

Saturday, April 11, 2015

Spicy mushrooms and peppers with green sriracha sauce

By Victoria Abbott aka Mary Jane Maffini

We are trying to eat more veggies! Of course, it’s early days in the frozen north and the great local fresh veggies and the open air markets aren’t here yet. Everything else was getting a bit ‘same old same old’. We were looking for a way to add some zip to the usual suspects. Mushrooms and peppers are full of good stuff and we’ve come up with this easy side to give them a new flavor. We found this sriracha sauce at Chilly Chilis, a local hot sauce emporium in our little village.

Here’s what we did!

Spicy mushrooms and peppers with green sriracha sauce

1 pound mushrooms, sliced

2 ripe peppers (one red, one orange), seeded and cut into strips

3 green onions (green and white parts) sliced

2 – 3 cloves garlic, depending on how garlicky you like things

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 ½ tablespoon olive oil

1 ½ tablespoon butter

1 ½ tsp sriracha sauce (we picked a mild sriracha sauce and gradually worked up to 1 ½ tsp) There are no rules!

S & P to taste

Of course, you can add or subtract veggies and spice, according to your preferences and what’s in your fridge.

How to make it:

In a large pan, heat olive oil and butter. When bubbly, add green onions and saute for a minute or two. Add mushrooms and garlic. Saute for a couple of minutes. Add peppers and cook uncovered, stirring every now and then until mushrooms are browned and peppers are cooked. That might make your camera lens a bit foggy. Ahem.

Add lemon and sriracha sauce. Cook for another minute or two. This makes a tasty (and bracing!) side for chicken, pork, beef. We’ve tried it with cold ham last night and with tiny lamb chops previously.

Add S & P to taste.

PS If you have a favorite hot sauce or spicy sauce, leave a comment. We love suggestions.

Enjoy!

Victoria Abbott is the mysterious collaboration between the artist and photographer Victoria Maffini and her mother, the mystery writer, Mary Jane Maffini.

Wait! That's us! Strangely enough, our three book collector mysteries, The Christie Curse, The Sayers Swindle and The Wolfe Widow all contain lots of food. No wonder we love it here at Mystery Lovers Kitchen, on our day and on everyone else's day.

By the way, we're still celebrating this cover for The Marsh Madness. We think it looks good enough to eat. We do try to keep dogs off the table in our kitchens, but you know, covers are a world of their own.

The Marsh Madness is due out in September 2015.

BUT

YOU CAN PRE-ORDER IT HERE!