The first time I remember eating mushrooms, I was probably five or six. There was a chain of fried chicken restaurants in town called “Brown’s Chicken,” and my parents would bring home a bucket of Brown’s every once in awhile for us to eat. They had all sorts of sides as well – baked beans, cole slaw, corn on the cob – but one side stood above all of them for me, and that was their fried mushrooms. Batter dipped, deep fried and golden brown, these things were magical. Crunchy on the outside, meaty on the inside, and complex in flavor, at least to a child.
Brown’s disappeared from Kansas City after awhile (they seem to be still in business though, but only in the Chicago area), and took with it those mushrooms. It would be quite some time until I found mushrooms in my life again, this time on pizza. It happened quite accidentally – we didn’t order any, but a sliced ‘shroom got stuck to the bottom of the pizza. I ate it by itself, and those memories came back. At that point, I was hooked. Any dish that mentioned it had mushrooms jumped to the top of the list. The best fried mushrooms I’ve ever had, hands down, is from Jack Stack Barbeque. These massive mushrooms are probably around 2″ in diameter each, and they come with a delicious horseradish dipping sauce that complements the meatiness of the mushroom perfectly. Any time I go there, I order a half rack and chow down on their crunchy goodness.
Stuffed mushrooms aren’t my favorite application, but they’re not bad either. The stuffing, of course, is what makes or breaks the dish, so I was somewhat concerned when the recipe he presents calls for stuffing large button mushroom caps with sauteed creminis. Don’t get me wrong, I love both of these, but it seemed a bit redundant. Still, a job’s a job, and I lined up an angle on a friend’s place to make the dish. I headed over with a package of ribeyes, a trio of potatoes, and the fixings for the mushrooms: four pounds of mushrooms, split between creminis and button; fresh herbs; clarified butter; a shallot; some Cognac; heavy cream; Parmesan; panko.
I spent the first hour or so prepping the mushrooms. It takes awhile to destem and slice two pounds of creminis, even with an egg slicer doing most of the work. Once that was done, I set those aside and tossed the button caps with some olive oil, rosemary, thyme and garlic. The caps were then roasted in a 350 degree oven for about ten minutes. While they cooled, I went to work sauteeing the creminis. Heating up a pan, I dropped in the butter, which immediately hissed and jumped around the pan. I threw the creminis in immediately, as I needed to cool off the pan some – otherwise, my delicious butter would burn. Two pounds of mushrooms let off a lot of liquid, which slowly evaporated as the mushrooms cooked down. After the liquid was almost gone, I threw in the shallot, and cooked just to warm it. The Cognac went in to deglaze the pan, and scoop up all the browned mushroom bits off the bottom. Chives, creamy, Parmesan, dried tarragon and pepper were added, and brought to a simmer. This was removed from the heat, and a tablespoon of panko was added to thicken. Once everything was cool, the cremini filling was added to the cooled caps, and topped with a bit more panko. The twenty went under a hot broiler for a few minutes, just to brown the top.
A relatively simple recipe for a hearty meal. How was it? Well, sadly, underwhelming. It wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t amazing. I actually would have been much happier to take the sauteed mushrooms and dump them on top of the steak. It was a bit too one note – one friend suggested more cheese, and I think that the single ounce of Parmesan that the recipe suggests is far too small to really be noticed. Two or three would probably be better. I thought it could also use a bit more salt – as it happens, not a grain is called for in the entirety of the recipe. That’s perplexing.
Would I make it again? Probably not. Besides the fact that it’s not a very complex flavor, it’s rather pricy – gathering the materials was about $40. When three steaks cost about as much as your appetizer, something’s going on. I’d recommend skipping this one, even though I love mushrooms to death.
Next time: Pie, and what lies beneath.
Recipes:
February 9, 2013
misroi
goodeatseaten 