Ingredients:
- 2 1/2 pounds assorted wild and cultivated mushrooms, such as shiitake, oyster, chanterelle, black trumpet, or portobello
- 2 tablespoons bacon fat, duck fat, or unsalted butter
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- Twelve 4-inch fresh thyme sprigs
- Four 4-inch fresh rosemary sprigs
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1/4 cup Chicken Demiglace (page 9), or store-bought demiglace (see Sources, page 265)
- Eight 1/2-inch-thick Garlic Toasts, cut in half
Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 450°F.Clean any dirt off the mushrooms by wiping them with a damp cloth and trim off the tough bottoms of the stems. Leave small mushrooms whole and cut the bigger ones into large attractive pieces. Set the mushrooms aside.
Put the fat and olive oil in the bottom of a roasting pan large enough to hold all the mushrooms in a single layer. (If you are using butter, add it to the pan when you add the mushrooms so the butter doesn't burn.) Place the pan in the oven for 5 minutes to get the pan and the fat hot. Remove the pan from the oven, add the mushrooms, thyme, and rosemary, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Shake the pan to distribute all the ingredients. Return the roasting pan to the oven and roast until the mushrooms are thoroughly cooked, about 25 minutes turning once with a spatula. The mushrooms may initially throw off a lot of juices, but as you continue roasting, much of the liquid will evaporate. Remove the pan from the oven and pour in the demiglace. Return the pan to the oven for a few minutes more to heat the demiglace and combine the flavors. Remove the pan from the oven and season to taste with salt and pepper. Pile the mushrooms onto a large platter and surround them with the garlic toasts.
NOTE: If you're making the whole menu, clean the grill with a grill brush after you remove the salmon, then grill your toasts for the wild mushrooms.
Makes 8 servings.
The foregoing is excerpted from Tom's Big Dinners by Tom Douglas. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced without written permission from HarperCollins Publishers, 10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022.
