So I came home from work with a hankerin (yes, hankerin, still thinkin about those Texans!) for something garlicky. In my quest to use all the veggies I got from my last shipment before I leave Friday for a trip, I noticed there were still a few packages of mushrooms in the back of the fridge. A few days past perfect, these were not meant for eating raw in salad or the like. Sooooo.....I harkened back to one of my favorite harrrrrible-for-you foods, and decided to go for some sauteed mushrooms.
Doesn't sound that bad for you you say? Well a little context- when I say 'sauteed mushrooms', I mean these butter and garlic covered fist-sized wonders we used to get at the renaissance fair (yes, I was/am a dork, nothing revelatory there) when I was a kid. My aunt would take my cousin and I, and we would get a cone full of these things that probably took 10 yrs off my life. There was no better warm up on earth for a whole day of whining about wanting to do things and looking for just the right opportunity to shove ones' little cousin in elephant poop (sorry Stephen, I can't believe you still talk to me!). From that moment on, I had a love affair with mushrooms.
Believe it or not, I was the pickiest eater in the world when I was a kid. The one somewhat commonly disliked type of thing I would dig into with abandon was mushrooms, the earthier and more fungus-like the better. My best friend from high school shared this love, and often, as we started inching out into culinary worlds beyond Olive Garden (probably more for love of the idea of being rich/fancy/sophisticated enough one day to regularly enjoy them vice any actual love of food), mushrooms were often the motivating factor for selecting a dish on a confusing and unfamiliar menu. Although I exercise a little more caution now (filled with breadcrumbs and cheese is reserved for sports bars and my living room), I still can't get enough of the little guys.
So here I am, freed from my food aversions and fear of trying things by a few years in a country where food was weird, I had no money, and my ability to grasp the subtle linguistic nuances between 'feet' and 'cabbage' was limited to say the least, nevertheless hankerin for some comfort food of my childhood.
Ingredients:
2 cartons of mushrooms (white button are best)
1/2 stick butter
a TON of garlic- as much as you can stand to peel and squish really- I used about 1/4 cup of fresh stuff here
2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 cup yogurt or sour cream. I like good thick greek yogurt, but any thick sour milk product will do
1/4 cup fresh parsley (roughly chopped)
2 tbsp fresh dill (roughly chopped)
Melt the butter in a large saute pan. Add the garlic (shallots are a good addition here too if you are in the mood) and saute for 2 minutes. Slice the mushrooms and add all at once. Put about half of the parsley in at this point. Add the salt and pepper, and saute until mushrooms are soft, but not totally cooked down (about 3 minutes on high).
Once mushrooms have cooked down, poor a little of the liquid from the pan into a bowl. Whisk in the yogurt (this will keep it from curdling when you add it). Then poor the yogurt mix back into the saute pan, add the rest of the parsley and dill, and simmer until hot all the way through.
Remove from heat, and serve! Delicious!
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4 comments:
2 teaspoons of salt is a bit over the top! One quarter of a teaspoon is more than enough.
I made this with yogurt according to the instructions, and it curdled. :-( Use cream cheese instead. That's what I normally do.
Cream cheese is a little heavy-handed as an option, and makes the dish loose some of its delicate flavor. If you add the yogurt a very little bit at a time and whisk constantly, and don't have your heat turned up all the way, it shouldn't curdle. Make sure you are using full-fat yogurt as well.....This is the same way you would make many middle-eastern sauces for meat.
I would personally never use that much salt, butter or garlic.
However, thanks for the idea to use greek yogurt for a mushroom sauce.
I cooked my mushrooms in the same pan i had just browned steaks in (steaks were in the broiler at that point). So mushrooms picked up some of that meaty flavor and spices. Cooked mushrooms on med-high heat, stirring constantly until they began to release their liquid. Added a clump of butter(about 20 grams i estimate) and a bit of veggie broth (really just crumbled part of a bouiliion cube into some hot water). Turned heat way down and stirred in full fat greek yogurt that had come up to almost room temp. Thickened sauce a bit with some Maizena. Added a shake of salt after tasting. Voila! Much healthier than cream sauce and just as tasty. However it's still quite heavy to eat, maybe even more so than regular cream sauce.
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