This recipe is so filled with garlic it will make a grown man wince. Just the way we like it. Text And Photo By Brittany Thomas
In my twenty five years on this planet, I have eaten a lot of mushrooms. I’ve eaten countless slices of pizza with paper thin wafers of mushroom dotted across the bubbly cheese; I’ve swapped out a hamburger for a Frisbee-sized portabella cap; they’ve been my staple side dish at nearly every steakhouse meal, swimming in butter yet lacking in real flavor; and I’ve cursed under my breath as the raw mushrooms split and cracked during my best attempt at skewering them for a kabob barbecue. Mushrooms and I? We go back a long way.
When I was in high school, we took a class cruise to the Bahamas. Now, for anyone who has ever been aboard a cruise ship, you are already aware of the sinful gluttony that takes place every time a meal is served. It’s course after course, plate after plate, each one with a heavy cream sauce pooled underneath some expensive cut of meat we’d otherwise never buy at home. And that’s the sort of indulgence you expect, I suppose. After all, my last cruise experience was for my parent’s wedding anniversary and thanks to the late night room service option, my father walked off a seven day cruise twelve pounds heavier than when he first boarded. That’s a true story.
It was on that high school cruise that I first had escargot. No one at the table wanted to order it, yet we all dared each other to, and nobody wanted to look like a pansy. So my roommate and I ordered it and waited anxiously for it to arrive. When the server set the dinged up silver tray with its tiny potholes filled with strange caramel-colored knobs of meat in front of me, I didn’t see what all the fuss was about. It looks sort of boring, actually. Now, my mother explained to me once how to enjoy escargot: you don’t chew; you just sort of suck all the garlic and butter off of each one and swallow it right down. Easy. So I scooped up one of the little creepy-crawlies and down the hatch it went. It was hot, swimming in melted butter, with the scent of garlic so strong it made your eyes water just a bit. It was fantastic. As lovely of an experience as it was, I didn’t make it through the entire plate. Somewhere along the line, I spotted two of the tiny antennae poking up through the butter like a sad little flag of surrender and I couldn’t carry on.
When I came across this recipe for garlic and butter roasted mushrooms in Gourmet, it was delightfully disguised as a substitute for the escargot experience. I don’t like to think of it that way – this dish is a surrogate for nothing. You roast a few handfuls of meaty mushrooms with sweet butter, tangy capers, and enough fresh garlic to make a grown man wince. After they’ve submitted to the heat of the oven, you squeeze over a bit of tart lemon juice to liven things up a bit and a bit of minced parsley, lemony and green and wonderful. With a few wedges of crusty bread to sop up the juices in all their glory, you’ll never miss the escargot.
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Clean the mushroom with a wet paper towel and put them into a baking dish, halving them if they are a bit large. Sprinkle over the capers, garlic cloves, salt & pepper, & vegetable oil and toss it all together. Dot the butter over the top.
Roast for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Immediately after removing from the oven, squeeze over the lemon juice and parsley. Serve hot.
Prep Time:10 mins
Cook Time:20 mins
Brittany Thomas
Brittany Thomas is a freelance food writer and the author, photographer, & publisher of the award-winning blog "If You Give A Girl A Cookie." Her writing has been featured in The Urbanite, Hagerstown Magazine, The Baltimore Sun, & The Frederick News Post. She likes chocolate cake, asparagus, blood oranges, and lemon desserts. She lives in small-town Pennsylvania with her new husband and mischievous puppy, Kona.
Garlic – For sharp depth of flavor. I add it right at the end of the cooking process so that it doesn't burn in the hot pan. Extra-virgin olive oil – It helps the mushrooms brown and adds richness to the final dish.
First, make sure the mushrooms are completely dry, then cook them in a hot skillet with some oil or butter as you normally would. Wait until you take them off the heat to shower them with a sprinkle of salt. This seems like a really small thing, but it actually makes a big difference.
Roasting mushrooms is easy and one of the best ways to cook them. I roast mushrooms with olive oil and herbs until golden brown, then stir in fresh garlic a few minutes before they come out of the oven. Our oven-roasted mushrooms are simple and so flavorful.
Butter is great because it adds lots of flavor and produces a nice golden brown exterior, while adding oil allows the mushrooms to cook a little more quickly at slightly higher heat.
Do I need to wash the mushrooms before I cook them? Never wash mushrooms. Instead, Wipe off any dirt with a damp paper towel. You can wash them but they won't be as good in texture/color.
Yes, folks, you can indeed wash your mushrooms. The critical step is to wait to wash them until right before you cook with them so they don't get bogged down with water. After giving the mushrooms a rinse, dry them off, and you're ready to cook.
The study demonstrated that cooking methods have an effect on the flavor profile of white mushrooms. Sear mushrooms for a more intense roasted, charred and smoky flavor and overall aroma. Roast mushrooms to get more sweet, salty and umami tastes with caramelized, nutty and buttery flavors.
Salt draws out moisture from ingredients, and if you're drawing out moisture from your mushrooms, you're ultimately going to be steaming them. And we know what happens when we steam mushrooms, don't we? (See point no. 1). Wait until the 'shrooms are completely cooked before seasoning them.
For our roasted mushrooms recipe, we use cremini mushrooms but you can make it your own and roast portobello, shiitake, or button mushrooms – whatever you have available! Cut into quarters and drizzle with olive oil and salt! Pro tip: place them cut-side down in a single layer to get that crispy bottom!
Think right in the middle. "Medium-high heat is the way to go with mushrooms. You want their liquids to slowly evaporate while they caramelize," says Norton. High heat can burn mushrooms, while low heat will make them cook in their own liquid, she says.
You also want to hear a gentle sizzling the whole time you're cooking mushrooms. This means that the pan is hot enough to quickly evaporate the moisture and caramelize the mushrooms. If you don't hear sizzling, adjust the heat until you do.
Salt your mushrooms at the end: I know this seems odd, but mushrooms are one of the only things I salt towards the end of cooking. Salt brings out moisture, which, in the case of mushrooms, prevents them from browning in the pan.
Some believe that by washing the mushrooms, they would absorb the water, turn soggy, and never achieve the desirable browning that makes them so delicious. The New Food Lover's Companion supports the damp paper towel route and advises that "if necessary," rinse mushrooms with cold water and dry them thoroughly.
Onion is the first to go in the pan because it needs time to become translucent, meaning it's cooked, which takes about 10 minutes. Garlic, on the other hand, cooks quickly and burns easily, so introduce it after the onion is cooked.
Do You Sauté the Onions First? To keep the onions from cooking in the mushroom juices, wait to add the onions until the mushrooms have released their excess liquid and almost all of that liquid has evaporated. Once you get there, add the onions and let them sauté and brown in the fat alongside the mushrooms.
To help cooks avoid burning their garlic, a lot of recipes call for sautéing other aromatics first, like onions, carrots, and celery, and then adding the garlic for the last few minutes.
Add sliced onions and Worcestershire sauce and cook, stirring occasionally for 3-4 minutes or until edges start to get a little brown. Add mushrooms and cook for an additional 5-8 minutes depending on the size of the mushrooms and your preference for doneness. Whole mushrooms will take the longest.
Introduction: My name is Melvina Ondricka, I am a helpful, fancy, friendly, innocent, outstanding, courageous, thoughtful person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
We notice you're using an ad blocker
Without advertising income, we can't keep making this site awesome for you.
