Plain and simple, yes. Boring? Absolutely not…
Heat butter in a skillet until it is quite hot but not brown.
Sauté finely chopped onion and shallots, until just barely translucent. Sprinkle with a pinch of dried thyme. Remove from heat and place in a warm dish.
In the same skillet, sauté finely sliced garlic. Lower the heat and watch closely. When the garlic is soft, mash it with a fork. Sprinkle with a little salt and freshly ground pepper and add it to the onions in the waiting dish.
Add more butter to the hot skillet. Increase heat, but be careful not to burn it. Toss finely chopped (not minced) white button mushrooms in the butter to coat.
Sizzle the mushrooms on very high heat, just once over lightly. Quickly sprinkle with a pinch of dried thyme. No salt.
Add it to the waiting warm dish.
Now, deglaze the skillet with your favourite brandy or wine. Reduce the liquid to almost nothing and scrape the skillet drippings into the waiting warm dish.
The mushrooms might start to leak liquid. If cooked swiftly on high heat, this is less likely to happen. Watch closely.
Now add to the hot skillet a quarter cup of half and half cream. Scald, and bring the warming dish contents back to the skillet. Merge all the flavours.
Gently reheat and serve one of several ways: On toast as a midnight treat, or use it as stuffing to make savoury profiteroles. It’s a beautiful choux paste delight.
Or as a delightful tempt-your-taste-buds treat, serve on crispy black olive bread, as tapas.
To indulge your senses further, sprinkle the mushroom trinity with crumbled blue cheese or fresh grated Parmesan.
However you serve it, sprinkle with homemade fresh crispy bacon bits and a fluttering of fresh chopped parsley and/or fresh basil. (Mint doesn’t work.)
A bold red wine such as shiraz goes beautifully with this treat and cleanses the palate.
You will find this charmer on your table often. Guests will rave, and family will indulge in the sensory love from the kitchen as the fragrances permeate the air.
The working title for Carolyne’s Gourmet Recipes cookbook is From Lady Ralston’s Kitchen: A Canadian Contessa Cooks. This kitchen-friendly doyenne has been honoured and referred to as the grande dame of executive real estate in her market area during her 35-year career. She taught gourmet cooking in the mid-70s and wrote a weekly newspaper cooking column, long before gourmet was popular as it is today. Her ebook, Gourmet Cooking – at Home with Carolyne is available here for $5.99 US. Email Carolyne. Scroll down to the comments at each recipe column. Carolyne often adds complimentary “From Lady Ralston’s Kitchen” additional recipes in the Recipes for Realtors Comments section at REM.
