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Amaranth Cakes with Wild Mushrooms

A savory cake made from amaranth, mushrooms, and herbs, served with sautéed wild mushrooms and shaved cheese.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 19 ingredients
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Why it works: Amaranth and flour share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 22 recipes mention both. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

The recipe

Time25 minutes

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Prepare the mushroom liquid

  1. Pour 2 cups boiling water over dried porcini and let soak 15 minutes.

  2. Using slotted spoon, lift mushrooms from water.

  3. Carefully pour mushroom water through fine sieve into another container, discarding any sediment.

  4. Rinse mushrooms again and chop very fine. Set aside.

Make the amaranth batter

  1. Place amaranth, shallots, salt, chopped mushrooms and 1 ½ cups mushroom liquid in medium-sized saucepan.

  2. Bring to a simmer, cover and reduce heat to very low.

  3. Cook for 25 minutes or until grain absorbs all liquid.

  4. Transfer to mixing bowl and cool.

  5. Stir in egg, flour and marjoram.

Cook the mushroom mixture

  1. Heat olive oil in large skillet over medium‑high heat.

  2. Add mushrooms, season with salt and cook, tossing from time to time, until mushrooms release moisture and begin to brown.

  3. Add shallots and garlic, cook 1 minute more and add wine.

  4. Continue to cook until only a few tablespoons of liquid remain.

  5. Stir in butter and marjoram, and transfer to bowl or saucepan. Keep warm while making cakes.

Cook the cakes and serve

  1. Pour a 1/8‑inch layer of olive oil into large skillet and heat over medium heat.

  2. When oil is hot, drop in 2 tablespoon‑sized mounds of amaranth batter and flatten with fork into pancake shape.

  3. Cook until browned on bottoms, about 1 minute, flip and brown top.

  4. Repeat with remaining batter until used up.

  5. Alternate layers of amaranth cakes and mushrooms on individual serving plates or large platter.

  6. Top with shaved cheese and serve immediately.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Amaranth + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together22 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Marjoram + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Mushroom + shallottop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,960 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Mushroom + olivetop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together4,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  5. Mushroom + marjoramtop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together424 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Amaranth grain
Forms the body of the cakes and sets firmly as it cooks and cools.
Egg
Binds the cooked amaranth so the cakes hold their shape.
All-purpose flour
Adds starch that helps the batter bind and firm up.
Wild mushrooms
Provide the main savory, earthy flavor and meaty texture of the dish.
Dried porcini mushrooms
Concentrate deep mushroom aroma in the soaking liquid used to cook the amaranth.
Dry white wine
Adds acidity and depth as it reduces into the mushrooms.

The step that matters

Cooking the mushrooms until they brown. Mushrooms release water first; they must cook until that moisture evaporates so the surface can brown. Crowding or stirring too early leaves them steamed and pale, with less flavor.

Flavor stand-ins for the marjoram

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mushroom, amaranth, shallot, egg, flour, olive, pepper):

  1. Thymebetter flavor fit
  2. Parsleybetter flavor fit
  3. Capersbetter flavor fit
  4. Marjoramthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, amaranth, shallot, egg, flour, olive, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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