I have to admit, it’s been hard coming up with ideas to write about now that school is done. More than ever, I’m strapped for cash and dining out and exploring the New York food scene, well, that takes moola …
So I’ve been cooking a lot at home and spending weekends away … maybe in the hopes of curtailing my spending and making me feel less envious that I can’t enjoy all that New York and spring has to offer. But believe me I haven’t been suffering that badly …
This morning I had some cremini mushrooms that I had to use before they went bad, and nothing makes me more upset than seeing produce spoil, so I made a simply mushroom gravy, that can be a topping to meat or used in pasta.
Using what I had in the kitchen I sliced and sauteed the mushrooms in olive oil. The trick with mushrooms is that you have to let them “sweat” before adding any seasoning. Mushrooms are full of water and need to break down before adding salt and pepper, if added to early, the mushroom will essentially sweat out the seasonings.
After the mushrooms have condensed, I added pepper and white truffle sea salt. A great gift from my culinary school bud Vanessa at graduation, and although its quite potent, it goes great with the earthiness of mushrooms.
Pushing the mushrooms to the side of the pan, I added about a tablespoon of butter to the empty side. After the butter was melted, I added about a tablespoon of flour and whisked. This is a roux in French cooking, or in simpler terms, a thickener. From here you can make a cream sauce by adding heavy cream or milk, or to make a lighter gravy use white wine and/or stock. Since I had wine on hand (a Sancerre from France) I added wine and stirred the whole pot together.
Actually another tip is that wine, even if its gone “bad” and no longer drinkable, you can use it in your cooking. This wine had been opened (and refrigerated) for over a week, and although it wasn’t good for drinking, I used it to cook!
Because lunch was approaching, I toasted the bottom side of a roll, topped it with a sunny side egg, mushroom gravy, baby arugula, goat cheese, tomatoes, and a little lemon juice. It was delicious!
