Mushroom and Cheese Decadence

Tried a new recipe for brie en croute - you can see it here http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/ ... oute-15732

Basically you cut a brie or camembert weighing ~ 1 lb. in half ending up with 2 discs of cheese. Obviously you want a cheese that isn't so mature that the innards all run out when you try to slice it.

Then you spread one half with a mix of mushroom duxelle (with onion or shallots and a bit of sherry), put the other half on top and encase it in phyllo pastry and bake it for 20 minutes at 425 deg. and let it cool a bit before cutting it up.

I'de received suggestion of red Burgundy for a wine that would match it, but went my own way and opened a 1983 Graf von Plettenberg Kreuznacher Brückes Riesling Auslese, which has become golden in colour and remained sweet but not too sweet. Made a superb matching with the very rich cheese course.

And yes, the four of us ate the whole thing!

PS - any extra duxelles can be used on top of a bit of goat cheese on a toast point or cracker with a bit of chopped parsley on top, or just tossed into an omelette.

That looks like a good idea. I have some wild dried mushrooms that I want to use up and this will display them nicely.

Decadent, indeed! Sounds delicious.

Sounds great. I think I'll make it for my next Drink Up The Cellar Party.

I made this yesterday with a huge (2.3#), incredibly ripe wheel of brie and all those dried wild mushrooms. Easy and really good recipe! We also did not have Burgundy with it; we had Chinon and Saumur-Champigny.

Anyway, it is an easy recipe but there was nothing easy about what I did: Firstly, that huge cheese only just barely fit in the puff pastry, even with considerable rolling-out. You are warned not to stretch the pastry when wrapping it, though the recipe doesn't say why. Well, I had to... and the reason why is that the weakened pastry will tear during the cooking and melted cheese flows all over the baking sheet.

And then there are -- were! -- those dried wild mushrooms. I had bought a few ounces each of black trumpets and mousserons some time ago. I had read that they grew in sandy soil but jeez louise: The first meal I made, I figured I'd just give them a couple rinses and that would be that. Nope. Plenty of grit made it into the sauce; I had to throw it out. I was determined to use up all of the remaining mushrooms in one go when I had the time to clean them. This recipe was going to be it.

Fifteen waters.

And I found debris: grit, leaves, twigs, you name it. Ugh. The were good but they weren't that good.

But I can see how a normal size wheel with normal mushrooms this would be totally groovy.