What kind of a French dish can you make when your family is having a "baked potato bar?" That was the challenge I faced and, of course, my old friend Julia Childs came to the rescue with Duxelles (minced mushrooms sauteed in butter). Duxelles are an interesting dish although "dish" is probably a bit of an exaggeration. As Julia explains in her book, "Duxelles is a dry, mushroom flavoring for many kinds of stuffings and quick mushroom sauces..." That sounded like a pretty good topping for a baked potato to me as well.
It was kind of fun to make actually and I learned a few things along the way. I started off by slicing and then mincing a half pound of mushrooms. Not only were they minced, but these were "finely minced." My knife skills definitely had a lot of practice and the longest time in the preparation of these was definitely the mincing. Once they were minced, small amounts were wrapped in a double layer of paper towels and then squeezed to remove the liquid. Mushroom juice?? Who would have thunk it! I'd never thought of mushrooms as being juicy before but sure enough, when you squeeze a bundle of mushrooms a bunch of juice comes out
Julia said I could keep the juice to use in a soup but I just let it go down the drain. It took several bundles but I was finally able to get all of the mushroom bits de-juicified and ready to cook. Not having a shallot, I used a small onion and also finely mined that. The mushrooms and onions then went into a nice hot skillet with butter and oil. Remember that lesson from long ago? Adding the oil (in this case, one tablespoon of butter with two tablespoons of butter) lets the butter be heated to a higher temperature without burning or browning. Then it was just the fun part of sauteing the mushrooms and flipping them around in the pan. I even managed to do it with no personal injury or tossing anything on the floor.
After about six minutes or so the mushroom pieces began separating from each other and browning slightly. A little salt and pepper was added for taste and it was ready to go. This was surprisingly tasty and I can see how it might be used in the future with some other dishes. It turned out to be a nice addition to baked potatoes as well since there weren't any Duxelles left over!
There you have it, a simple mushroom flavoring you can use for sauces, stuffings and...baked potatoes. Try it, you'll like it!
Bon Appetit!
They were great on the baked potato bar and even better plain.