QUICK TREATMENTS: Soft Mushrooms
A long sauté for fast-peaking mushrooms
“Mushrooms that are getting soft but that are not yet bruised- my wife cuts them up and sautés them with garlic and onions until they almost have the consistency of ground beef. Beef Wellington has a layer of chopped mushrooms in it like that. She also enjoys it on bread.” (Source: Chef Jacquy Pfeiffer, French Pastry School, Chicago)
“If mushrooms start getting shrivel-ly, I cook them up and toss them with pasta.” (Martha Rose Shulman, recipe developer, New York City)
“Use mushrooms when they’re just getting wrinkly (but not wet) on the outside. Fry them in clarified butter* with white wine and double crème and you’d never know.” (Chef Richard Fox, Love Food Hate Waste Roadshow)
*To make clarified butter,melt unsalted butter slowly and skim off the white foam that rises to the top. Pour off the clear yellow liquid. What remains will be a pure, liquid butterfat easier to use at higher temperatures.
