Wild mushroom and garlic crostini

I have to say, im really not into mushrooms, god i find them booooring. But wild mushrooms....yuuuuuum! This recipe uses dried which are so easy and have such a great strong flavour.
This dish is makes lovely starter or something fancy and posh for lunch! And...obviously it goes very well with a big glass of really cold white wine :-)


Serves 4....
What you need....
600 grams of mixed dried wild mushrooms(porcini and chesnut are good)sliced if possible
100 grams of fresh button mushrooms, sliced
2 large shallots or 2 small onions, cut in hald then thinly sliced into half moon shapes
a big knob of butter
2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
3 - 4 cloves of garlic,depending on the size, crushed
a handfil of fresh thyme, leaves only, or dried if you cant get fresh
250 ml of fat free or low fat creme fraiche
a glug of reduced fat double cream
sea salt and black pepper
250ml of white wine
2 large spring onions sliced diagonally into thin strips, for garnishing
A handful of grated cheddar or feta, optional

What you do.....
Soak the dried mushrooms in boiling water until soft...this usually takes hardly any time at all, about 20 minutes if that.
Once soft, squeeze all the excess water out of them and set to one side.
Put the oil and butter in a heavy bottomed pan and heat over a medium hob until the butter has melted.
Add the sliced onions/shallots and crushed garlic.
Cook until the onions are see through, keep the heat low so they dont burn.
Add the mushrooms, dried and fresh, and stir well.
After 5 minutes add the wine and thyme.
Cook for 10 minutes until the wine is reduced.
Pour in the creme fraiche and add some cream just to loosen it up a bit and get a nice thick saucy consistency.
Season with plenty of salt and pepper and taste it!
Now, if you love cheese and arent really fussed about the extra calories...add a good handful of grated mature cheddar, or feta works well too. oh my god its really really good! If you want to skip the cheese though, dont worry its still really really good! :-)
I serve this on a nice chunky slice of toast, no butter.
Pile up the sliced spring onions to make it look pretty :-)  scoff scoff!