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Ancestress  by Dreamflower

 Chapter Twelve: Home Cooking

The meal had been wonderful. There had been Bilbo's marvelous bread and a trifle for afters. Frodo had made a salad of young spinach, with pears, dried berries, and nuts. But the crowning touch had been Adamanta's mushroom stew. Bilbo and Frodo had watched with pleasure as she bustled about, clearly knowing her way around a hobbit kitchen. The stew had been rich and savoury and most satisfying.

Bilbo leaned back and patted his stomach. "Adamanta, that was truly wonderful! I liked the addition of rosemary as well as thyme and parsley."

Frodo gave a smile of dreamy contentment. "I don't think I've had mushroom stew like that since I was a small child. My mother used to make it like that." He put his elbows on the table and his chin in his hands as he studied her. "You certainly cook like a hobbit."

She sat down and poured herself another cup of tea from the pot which still stood upon the table. "Tūk taught me how to cook."

Bilbo smiled. "He must have been a very good teacher."

"He was. He taught me all I needed to know about being a hobbit." Her smile grew distant, and her eyes for the moment were grey as she remembered. "I learned to appreciate the gifts of my mistress in a way I had never appreciated them before. Smell and taste, colour and life, food and drink, the joys of the hroa. My children were his gift to me." She paused and looked at Frodo intently. "Save for the eyes, you are very like him, Frodo."

Frodo ducked his head, abashed at her scrutiny. He felt as though she knew him rather more than their brief acquaintance would account for.

Then he looked up. "Mirimė, did he know who you were?"

________________

Author's Note: 

Grandmother Adamanta's Mushroom Stew

1 large sweet yellow onion, finely chopped
½ stick of butter
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound of mushrooms (I use a mixture of common white button mushrooms and portobellas, but other varieties or even wild ones if available, would be good)
2 Tablespoons finely snipped fresh herbs* (Parsley, thyme, chives and rosemary are good, but you can combine them as you wish, or just use one. If you don't have fresh, just use a smaller quantity of dried.)
¼ cup of beef or vegetable broth or red wine
1 Tablespoon of flour
1 ½ cups of sour cream
Salt and pepper to taste

In a heavy Dutch oven over medium heat, melt the butter and cook the onion. Clean the mushrooms, and then cut them into quarters if they are medium sized. (Cut smaller ones in half, and slice larger ones. The main thing is for all the pieces to be of a similar size so that they will cook evenly.) When the onion begins to turn golden, add the garlic and the mushrooms. Continue cooking over medium heat until mushrooms soften and begin to sweat their liquid. Then add the herbs. Slowly stir in the flour, and then the broth or wine. Turn the heat to low, and continue to keep warm until almost ready to serve. Just before serving, stir in the sour cream and raise the heat to medium. Once the sour cream is heated through, remove from heat and serve immediately.

*In order to snip fresh herbs, I put a quantity of washed and dried fresh herbs in a very small condiment bowl, and use the tips of my kitchen scissors to snip them up finely. Start with about twice as much as you mean to end up with, as the snipping reduces the volume.





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