Tuesday, June 14, 2011

The Mexican Mushrooms You Neven Knew

Along with the beans previously-listed for the dinner party I had for my friend Traci, I found a delicious and utterly new (to me at least) way of serving mushrooms in Mark Miller's Tacos. I don't know about you, but when I think of Mexican food, the first thing that comes to mind certainly isn't mushrooms. True, I've read about Huitlacoche, the exotic fungus that pops up occasionally in Mexican recipes the same way morels and porcini do, the authors seemingly blind to expense or availability. Yet, there it was "Portobello Mushrooms with Chipotle." As an aside, the recipe in the book confusingly specifies "small portobellos", which really aren't portobellos, they're criminis (aka those brown mushrooms usually found next to the white mushrooms at your local grocery store. If you can't find criminis, white mushrooms will work as well.) Although I had never had a mexican mushroom dish before, I LOVE mushrooms, and chipotles and mushrooms certainly didn't sound bad. To make matters even more interesting, the mushrooms were not served as a side dish, like sauteed mushrooms on a steak (yet another thing I LOVE), they were the MAIN dish, served as a taco filling. So, I thought, "Why not?"

I am sooooo glad that I tried this recipe. These mushrooms are amazing! The smokey chipotle flavor only enhances the luscious mushroom flavor and the herbal flavor of the cilantro only heightens the experience. Added to that toasted corn flavor of the tortillas adds a sweetness that serves to add the perfect note to the entire taco. To make matters even better, this is a very easy and quick recipe to make that will make both your meat eaters and your vegetarians happy.

For two people, this recipe definitely makes leftovers, which is at the better. I happily at these for lunch for two days afterwards!

CRIMINI MUSHROOMS WITH CHIPOTLE
as adapted from Mark Miller's Tacos

INGREDIENTS

1 lb. crimini mushrooms (if you can try to buy the smaller ones with closed gills)
3 tbls. butter
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 tbls. chipotle puree (a can of chipotles in adobo, pureed in your food processor--will keep for up to 1 month in a sealed container in the refrigerator)
1/8 c chopped fresh cilantro leaves
8 soft corn tortillas

DIRECTIONS

1. Clean mushrooms (if the gills aren't showing, you can rinse them in a colander, otherwise, wipe the caps with a damp paper towel). Then, quarter medium and larger mushrooms and half the smaller ones.
2.  Preheat a heavy skillet large enough to hold all of the mushrooms in a single layer. (If you do not have a large enough skillet to do this, you can do this in batches, but you will need to add extra butter.) Melt butter, then add mushrooms, salt and pepper, and cook for 5 minutes. Then, turn mushrooms, and cook for another three. Then, add minced garlic and allow to cook for another 2 minutes, cooking until the garlic is fragrant. Then add the chipotle and cook for another 2 minutes, or until the chipotle is fragrant.
3.  Remove mushroom mixture from the heat and mix in the cilantro.
4.  Serve alongside toasted corn tortillas.

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