Balsamic Mushrooms to Die For

So shamefully I forgot that the equinox happened yesterday. For some reason, I thought it would be in October?! Bottom line, I was planning a special post to welcome Autumn and yesterday would be the perfect excuse. Now I just have to do it when I feel like it. I wanted to do something special, and now I have to post something delicious but not exactly autumn related.

Complaining apart, I wanted to share this recipe for months but kept delaying it. Now is finally the time to tell you the best way to do mushrooms. Since I did it for the first time, it has been a family favourite. I’m just going to warn you that it will hook you up. I found this recipe on Yummly when I wanted to do something different with a few maroon mushrooms I had in the fridge. I’m always looking for different recipes, and Yummly is perfect for it.

If you never heard about it, be ready to have a new best friend. I’m always using this app for new recipes and inspiration. It has thousands of recipes gathered in one place. Those recipes are from blogs and websites that you can find online, and they just make it easy having all in one database. Also, you can adjust your preferences like a diet regime, allergies, cooking technic, by courses or preparation time and even taste. For me is the best food app at the moment.

I actually would like to link to the original recipe, but I can’t find it anywhere, so to be clear I did not create this recipe from scratch but had adapted it over the time. There are so many ways to do, that mine can be the same as another person. Although, I’m going to take you through some of the tests I’ve made and some bits of advice.

Now to the real deal! This recipe is quick and easy to do. And these ingredients made up for two people unless you love them and keep them all to yourself (glutton alert!). You can add this mushrooms to a salad or eat them as appetizers with bread. I never tried to mix them with nothing else because eating them by themselves is delicious already.

Ingredients:

250g of Maroon Mushrooms
1 Shallot or small Onion
1 Clove of garlic
1 tbsp of Balsamic Vinagre cream di Modena
Olive oil
Parsley
Salt & Pepper

Instruction:

Step 1: Start by washing and rubbing the mushrooms with your hand to clear from any leftover dirt they might have. But don’t leave them in water. The mushrooms are mostly water, and they don’t need to absorb any more.

Step 2: Cut the end of the stalk. I prefer doing it because it has been exposed to unknown environments since it was picked up. I’m no expert so until someone says it’s all right to eat it I’m going to keep cutting it out.

Or

Another way you can do, it’s to break the stalk from the cap. You just have to apply pressure away from the mushroom, and it will come off easily.

Step 3: Cut the mushrooms into quarters. It will seem like huge bites but remember when I said the mushrooms are partly water? Well, they will reduce for half of the size. So no worries.

Step 4: Peel the shallot and the clove of garlic and grate both to a pan. Add a drizzle of olive oil and heat it up on medium-low heat. Be careful, since the shallot is reduced to pulp and juice it will burn easily. Keep staring until it changes to a golden color.

Step 5: Add the mushrooms and envolve it well together. Season with salt and pepper but be aware you will add the balsamic in the end. Leave the mushrooms to lose all their water occasionally staring, so they don’t burn.

Step 6: Once the mushrooms have reduced to half of their size, lose all the water and soften up, add the balsamic vinegar cream. I usually draw a spiral on top of the mushrooms to have about the same amount of vinegar every time and spread all over the mushrooms. Envolve it all well together and turn the heat off.

Note: I once used a no-creamy/regular balsamic vinegar, and the flavor wasn’t too intense, and also it didn’t darken the mushrooms. You can still try it, but I personally prefer with the cream.

Step 7: Just before serving, finely chop the parsley and add to the mushrooms. It’s important to do this off heat since parsley it’s a delicate herb and shouldn’t be cooked or it will lose its flavor. Also, it’s important only to chop it when serving to preserve as much flavor as possible.

Hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do.