Sauteed Mushrooms!
7 January 2003, 11:47 PM

I always loved sauteed mushrooms, but mine always came out a bit soggy and greasy. They tasted great, but the texture and color leaved something to be desired.

I finally saw the Good Eats sauteed mushrooms episode. A lot of what he showed - washing the mushrooms, the butter, the spices used and cooking time were similar to what I did. But some of the techniques were new to me. The very next day I tried some of those new techniques and "deglazed" for the first time...

I'm in absolute *heaven*! They came out PERFECT and absolutely delicious. I promptly made some and then tried deglazing with some chicken, white wine, lemon pepper and rosemary.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. I am *so* glad I learned this! It's not so much the recipe, as the technique.

First, I traded in my lighter, Teflon coated frying pan for a much heavier and shiny saute pan. The shiny surface worked better to see the browning effect too.

I washed my mushrooms (crimini) as before, and then used his trick of using an egg slicer to slice them all evenly. (It was MUCH faster to cut them this way too!)

I used a mere two pats of butter (I didn't have clarified butter, but it didn't seem to matter) - about a tablespoon I guess - and made sure that was melted before I added a handful of the mushrooms.

I used tongs to push the 'shrooms about and make sure I had a single layer browning. I'd turn them over after a minute or so and when they were done I pushed them to the edges and added the next handful (EXACTLY like he did in the show). At this point it was already obvious that they were turning out much better than before.

After two handfuls were cooked I added one more pat of butter for my last handful to brown in. His advice that the light browning on the bottom of the pan was okay helped me to resist the urge to add more oil/butter/liquid which would have made them soggy.

When they were done I added a whole chopped shallot and stirred everything in the pan for a bit. I added a few pinches of kosher salt, some freshly ground mixed peppercorns, and a sprinkling of dill weed. Lastly I added about 1/4 a cup of white wine vinegar (the vinegar gave it a bit of a tangy bite) and "deglazed" the pan. (Dissolved all the brown bits on the bottom of the pan.)

Wonderful!