IOTM: Oven Roasted Wild Mushrooms

[Jenise]

Credit for the idea of oven roasting mushrooms goes to Tom Douglas (famous Seattle chef), but I demand credit for how I featured them in our meal. I used up the rest of my porcinis (yes Stuart, somewhat slimy caps and greenish yellow pores), and supplemented them with a handful of shitakes for texture variation. There was probably a little more than a pound in all.

Anyway, the mushrooms were sliced and tossed into a skillet in which I'd lightly sauteed about two ounces of thin bacon slivers in about several tablespoons of olive oil, and to which I added six sprigs of thyme and two sprigs of fresh rosemary before placing the lot in a 400 F oven to roast for about 30 minutes. I stirred them once during roasting. When they came out of the oven, I removed the herb wood, deglazed the pan with some strong chicken broth, and removed the mixture to a soup crock. To serve, I put the crock on a big board with two teaspoons for scooping, a hot loaf of crusty bread, a single large bowl of watercress and radicchio tossed in an emulsified Dijon vinaigrette and two forks, two wine glasses and a bottle of Leoville Barton, and we dined on the floor in front of the fire place.

Delish!

You need to get a different mushroom supplier. Slippery Jacks are a poor substitute for porcini, and it's unconscionable to sell them as porcini.

In any case, I did a similar dish to this the night that TOS and I were guest chefs at the late, lamented Spiedini. Since then, we've added a few touches, like some diced potatoes and roasted garlic cloves. Oven roasting really makes the flavor of the wild mushrooms pop ("The Maillard Reaction is your friend"), and the resulting match with extroverted red wines is quite magical.

Once cooked, may the mushrooms be held (say, for a day in the fridge)?

Yes. Cooked mushrooms freeze very well, too. When we end up with an excess, we sautee in batches, then freeze. Keeps us going through the lean times, mycologically speaking.

Thank you!