Marvelous Mushrooms

The pictures and recipes are piling up, so it’s time to get back to regular posting! Tonight’s post is about an especially great technique for cooking mushrooms. All too often, a big batch of sliced mushrooms is thrown into a pan, salted and stirred constantly. The mushrooms throw a bunch of liquid and essentially boil and steam into grayness. For only a little more effort, this technique will transform your expectations of even the humble white button mushrooms found in the supermarket. And if you use it on wild mushrooms, it becomes transcendental (a little hyperbole for late on a Sunday night with a glass of wine by my side…)

Anyway, I learned this technique from Tom Colicchio’s book “Think Like a Chef”. He is the chef at Craft and Gramercy Tavern in New York. I’ve had the opportunity to eat at Craft and was greatly impressed by the purity of his cooking style. His approach is to use great ingredients, use cooking methods that concentrate flavors and combine ingredients in synergistic trilogies. (For example, Lobster, peas and pasta). His approach to cooking mushrooms is simple and foolproof, but relies on cooking the mushrooms in small batches, so the elapsed time takes longer than traditional methods.

First, clean, dry and slice the quantity of mushrooms you want to use.

Heat a sauté pan and add some olive oil. Get the pan quite hot. Add a small amount of mushrooms (less than a single layer). You want to ensure the mushroom slices are all in contact with the pan and the volume of mushrooms doesn’t cause the pan temperature to drop. High temperature and low volume ensures moisture evaporates instantly.

After distributing the mushrooms in the pan, resist the urge to stir them around. And definitely don’t salt! The mushrooms will brown and caramelize on the bottom side. Flip the over and start to brown the other side. Once browned, add a little butter and toss.

Ready a plate with a couple of layers of paper towels. Remove the mushrooms and drop on the paper towel. I lightly salt and pepper them at this stage.

Repeat these steps batch by batch until you have cooked the desired quantity of mushrooms.

You can eat the mushrooms as is (it’s hard not to nibble!) or throw them into whatever dish you are making. They will add significantly more flavor and texture than you would ever expect. If you want to use them as a side dish, just return the entire batch to the serving pan for brief reheating with a little butter before you are ready to serve.

Enjoy!