Rosemary Mushrooms

Today is the last day of May, thus we have come to our last recipe featuring an herb from my garden. Have you been keeping track? The only one left is: ...Rosemary! Rosemary is such a flovorful and fragrant herb (I feel like I've been saying that about every herb so far...). It's used for its flavor in everything from breads, to potatoes, to sauces, and meat marinades. It's used for its aromatic quality in everything from soaps, to shampoos, to cleaning products (I've linked to some of my favorites for you!). It's truly an herbal all-star.

I use rosemary often when I cook and actually can't believe I waited the whole month to use it in a recipe! I guess I saved the best for last...

The recipe I'm going to share is a personal re-creation of one of my favorite dishes at my favorite restaurant, José Andrés' Jaleo. I think on their menu it was called "setas al ajillo," or mushrooms with garlic. I first had this dish maybe four years ago or so, and quickly got to work with some friends on re-creating its magic in our own kitchens. We spent a lot of time trying to figure out what all of the ingredients were that created the complex flavor we loved. My recipe is a take on the one we think we figured out. That one included more herbs than just rosemary, but my recipe includes only rosemary as the herb star because I think it does such a great job on its own and doesn't need the support from the other herbs (which included thyme, bay, and parsley). You could say I simplified it a little and it turned out fantastic!

This is a fairly simple recipe, as I said, but the flavor payoff is incredible. It's salty and deep and garlicky and the rosemary tops it all off. My friend Katie was over for dinner when I made it and she loved it! She also wanted me to note that it's pretty figure friendly as well as tasty :-)

One note before we get started. My rosemary bush is in the beginning stages of its life and therefore isn't producing full, bushy stems like you find in the grocery store. See?

You will notice in the pictures and ingredients list that I used four sprigs of rosemary because I used the ones from my own rosemary bush. But if you're buying from a store and the stems are nice and full, you should probably knock it down to two sprigs.

OK, let's get cookin' good lookin'!


Rosemary Marinated Mushrooms

Servings: 2
Prep. time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 40 minutes

Ingredients:
2 8-ounce packages of whole button mushrooms
4 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
5 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup dry white wine
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper
1 8-ounce can beef stock
4 sprigs of rosemary (use only 2 if they are full, bushy stems)
1 tablespoon of butter

Take a few minutes to clean off your mushrooms. Use a damp paper towel to wipe off the small specks of dirt from each mushroom. (You don't want to rinse them under a running faucet like you would do with most other veggies because they will get tough.) Set them aside.

Heat a deep sided skillet on the stove over medium-low heat. Add the olive oil & garlic and let that cook for two minutes.

Next, add the mushrooms to the skillet and toss them in the oil & garlic. Pour in the wine and allow that to cook for two minutes.

Sprinkle in the salt & pepper and toss the mushrooms to spread the S&P around.

Add the beef stock and the sprigs of rosemary. Stir the mushrooms around so that they can marinate in the stock and infuse with the rosemary.

Turn up the temperature to medium heat and add the butter. Stir around so that it melts into the stock. Allow the mushrooms to simmer and marinate in the stock for about 30 minutes.

When they've cooked for 30 minutes, remove the pan from the heat and pull out the rosemary stems. (The leaves should have fallen off the stem when cooking.) Pour the mushrooms and juice into your serving bowl. Allow to cool for about five minutes before serving.

To eat, pluck the mushrooms from the juice - you don't want to eat it like a soup and eat the juice with the mushrooms. The mushrooms should be eaten on their own. Salute!