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January 5, 2006
Shrooms
I had a craving for mushrooms the other day. Recalling my conversation with Grace on mushrooms, I made sure to fry them brutally. Mushrooms, oddly enough like cashmere, are something that one assumes need coddling but actually respond better to rough treatment. Please make your jokes in the comments section.
Made this way, ordinary store mushrooms smell and taste closer to their wild relations. Try it. I served this over buttered orzo. Though it brings up shades of ladies lunching at old-fashioned department store cafes, it tasted even better spooned over good white toast.
Simple mushrooms with cream
8 oz. white button mushrooms
1 T olive oil (more if necessary)
½ tsp each of dried thyme, basil
½ onion, roughly chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 oz. lean ham, coarsely chopped
1 tsp sun dried tomatoes, coarsely chopped
¼ cup sherry or marsala wine.
¼ cup broth (beef or chicken)
¼ cup heavy or sour cream.
Salt and pepper to taste
Slice the mushrooms thickly, about 3/8 in thick. Sauté over high heat in the oil, preferably in a heavy skillet (I use cast iron). Keep sautéing until the point beyond where the mushroom is exuding moisture and when it begins frying again. You’ll see this because the slices will turn golden and fried, rather like bacon, and there will be no more water in the pan. The mushrooms will also have much more aroma at this point. Lower the heat and add the other dry ingredients in the order listed, sautéing a few seconds in between additions. When the onion has become translucent and is beginning to fry, add the liquids, starting with the wine to deglaze the pan. Raise the heat to thicken.
Serves 2, or one ravenous mushroom fiend.
Posted by Leigh Witchel at January 5, 2006 5:41 PM
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Comments
Oh ... yes. Yumyumyum. Leigh is absolutely right. Cut chunky and fried brutally - no mere sauteeing going on here - mushrooms develop a depth of flavour that might surprise you.
You may not even pass through the leaking-liquid-all-over phase if your pan is hot enough. They get limp and then flash right over to starting to caramelize and brown. Push those mushrooms! you'd be surprised how long you can keep right on frying and have them keep right on caramelizing and getting deeper and deeper in flavour.
(Uh, you might want to have your kitchen fan on, or be prepared to wave wildly at your smoke alarm. But it's worth it.)
I'm gonna say --- skip the beef broth; canned beef broth just ain't worth the $ you spent on it, even if you got it for free. And you can use white wine if that's what you've got.
Funny. I had something similar for dinner tonight, only I left out the garlic, thyme, and basil and put in tarragon and white pepper instead - and a dash of ground chipotle, added chicken chunks instead of ham and there wasn't any sundried tomato, but there WAS some grated parmesan.
Yum.
Posted by: Grace at January 5, 2006 11:42 PM
I apologize, I shouldn't use the words "broth" and "stock" interchangeably ("jealousy" and "envy", anyone?) I don't usually have canned broth in the house; I almost exclusively use homemade stock that I keep frozen in 1/2 cup servings.
Chipotle - that's how I know you live two hours drive from Mexico!
And I admit with embarrassment that I just removed the battery from my smoke alarm ages ago because I was sick of it going off when I was cooking.
Posted by: Leigh Witchel at January 6, 2006 11:48 PM
Ha! funny.
The ground chipotle has nothing to do with living less than 100 miles from Mexico. It's from Penzey's: www.penzeys.com. All my spices and herbs (well, 99% of them) are from Penzey's. Everyone who cooks should know about Penzey's; my bad for not having told you about them before.
But surely you already knew???
Posted by: Grace at January 9, 2006 10:21 PM