Practice Makes Perfect Mushrooms

I am finally getting to a point in my cooking life where I can know what will taste good and what techniques to use without recipes or suggestions. I think it would be awesome if I was one of those people who can say "Oh ya, I have been cooking since I was 5 and I have all these fantastic recipes that I just pull out of my butt at any given moment that have been in the family for generations..." But no. It has been a long long road to get where I am today and there is still more road to go. As a young girl I can honestly say I really had no interest in cooking. I loved my mom's garden and I liked her homemade salsa and her home cooking every night, but I was never the little helper that some kids are. It was not until I became insanely passionate about health and nutrition that I began to look at food in a different light and started to try to navigate my way through the kitchen. As it turns out, the first foods I would attempt and get excited about were all vegetarian. When I was very young I got sucked into the bloody leaflets of PETA and decided that eating meat was inhumane, so I was on a mission to be the best vegetarian I can be. For a 13 year old, that means eating whatever your mom makes but without the meat, and I ended up eating a lot of cheese, bread and other not so good for you things. I believe I must have been quite hypoglycemic by the end of my trail vegetarian run, and I eventually caved at a Jack in the Box at midnight where I hit the drive-thru and bought an ultimate cheeseburger. I had been craving something "meaty" with the fury of a meat addict and had often found it in mushrooms. At that time in my young teenage years I ate a lot of mushrooms, and was very excited to come up with my first vegetarian recipe: a mushroom and tofu sandwich. It was actually a horrible idea and I did not execute it very well. Being young and an amateur in the kitchen, I was not too familiar with basic kitchen skills like sauteing and my mushrooms came out not so pleasant. I can still remember how greasy the whole thing would come out! I would lug way too much olive oil into a pan, scoot around some mushrooms until I thought they were done, and then put some tofu slices in the pan and heavily season it with whatever was in the pantry. Then I piled it onto a roll and dug in! At the time, excited to have made it myself, I thought it was delicious. I actually fed it to my high school boyfriend and he ended up throwing up at football practice... I think that says it all. :)

But luckily for me and for my boyfriends, time, practice and lots of patience and reading has greatly improved my cooking! As I got older I eventually came back to the idea of not eating animals, but I took it one step further and decided a vegan diet was for me. I bought two vegan cookbooks from Barnes and Noble and read them cover to cover. Armed with these new cookbooks and paychecks with no rent or bills to pay, I went on a wild cooking frenzy, creating some fantastic, and some horrendous, vegan meals. I taught myself techniques and began to learn what flavors go well together. By the time I made it to culinary school, I was confident I already had a pretty firm grasp on what I was doing. School would teach me a few new techniques and inspire me to begin eating meat (Okay, I admit it, I actually began eating meat to spite some very annoying vegetarian classmates) and I continue to learn more and more every day! I sill buy cookbooks and read them cover to cover and a lot of my ideas come from the Food Network as I am sure a lot of people have found is a fun and fantastic tool. And now, thank goodness, my mushrooms are amazing! Which I proved to myself tonight with my yummy spur of the moment mushroom chicken topping.

So if you are a struggling cook who is maybe not so skilled in the kitchen (as I was) here are some tips to help you along the way. First of all, mushrooms will absorb water like a sponge. Never wash them under the sink! Get a paper towel damp and wipe them clean. Sounds tedious but your mushrooms will thank you. Second, don't lug in 1/4 cup of olive oil! Not that anyone would, but keep in mind you don't need tons of oil. I prefer butter with mushrooms anyway. Third, do not crowd your mushrooms! Leave enough space in the pan so that you are sauteing your mushrooms and not steaming them. A pan with steep high sides will steam them more than saute them. Saute them until they are nice and golden brown.

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Delicious Mushroom Sauce (great on top of chicken!)

1 package crimini mushrooms
3 Tbsp butter (for a non, non-stick pan. Less for a non-stick pan)
1 Tbsp flour
1/4 to 1/2 cup champagne
water if needed
salt and pepper
fresh thyme

1. saute your mushrooms in the butter with your new found mushroom knowledge.
2. Once golden brown, add the flour and cook for 1 minute to cook out the flour taste.
3. Add the champagne, and if there is any "kitchen treasures" stuck in the pan scrape them with your wooden spoon. Yum! :) The amount of champagne depends on how your sauce looks. If 1/4 cup looks like not enough then add 1/2 cup. This is one of those things you can "eyeball". Let the sauce simmer until thick and the alcohol is cooked out. You should be left with a slightly sweet and very savor sauce. If it still tastes strong of champagne, but it is really thick, add some water and let it simmer a little longer.
4. Season with salt and pepper and fresh thyme. Serve over chicken or just eat right out of the pan with a big spoon!