A Plethora of Portabellos

[dockhl]

I am the lucky recipient of 8 large portabello mushrooms, complete with stems. I am going to make some duxelles to freeze and use a bunch in cooking but I have a thought.

I'd like to make a very intense mushroom stock for soups and sauces (also to freeze) All of the recipes I google have a combination of dried and fresh mushrooms.

Any thoughts? (And not just on the stock! I hate to waste these)

BTW, can I freeze mushroom slices?

Edited July 2, 2007 by dockhl (log)

[Shalmanese]

Heres what you can do: Finely chop the mushrooms in a food processor (or by hand if you have 3 hours you need to kill) and then put them inside a cheesecloth. Wring the cheesecloth really tightly to squeeze as much juice out of the mushroom pieces as possible. Now, use the dried out mushroom pieces to make duxelles and reduce down the mushroom liquid. Because there is no gelatine in the mushroom liquid, there's almost no limit to how much you can reduce them. I went down to a 10X reduction before I felt the mushroom flavour became too intense. It would be a waste for soups but it's fantastic as a sauce as it's just the pure essence of mushroom.

If you have any dried porcini or shiitake, you can powder and then hydrate them, and then mix them with the chopped up mushrooms. You get a more complex duxelle and mushroom essence at the same time.

[dockhl]

Thanks, Shal~

"It would be a waste for soups but it's fantastic as a sauce as it's just the pure essence of mushroom."

That is exactly my thought and what I am looking for.

[Tri2Cook]

"Duxelle, use a bunch in cooking, a very intense mushroom stock, frozen slices"... 8 portabellos aren't going to go that far I don't think. Unless those are some seriously huge 'shrooms. When the matsutakes are in here I usually collect and freeze some and they hold up really well. I've never stored portabellos before, they're pretty much always available, so I don't know how they behave with freezing. I don't like to use only fresh mushrooms for stock, maybe if you use a ridiculous amount of mushrooms and reduce it way down. A relatively small amount of dried mushrooms alone or in combination with fresh launches the flavor and aroma to the moon.

[dockhl]

"Duxelle, use a bunch in cooking, a very intense mushroom stock, frozen slices"... 8 portabellos aren't going to go that far I don't think. Unless those are some seriously huge 'shrooms. . A relatively small amount of dried mushrooms alone or in combination with fresh launches the flavor and aroma to the moon.

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Well, they are about the size of a saucer, so 6-8 inches across. I didn't necessarily mean I was going to do everything ( ) hence the call for ideas !

I do think the idea of adding dried is a must. Frozen is a last resort. Nice t hear that yous hold up pretty well, tho.

[Henry dV]

Could you not try drying them yourself, just slice into thin strips from tip to base then thread onto a string and suspend in a very low oven with the door open and remove when they are going from rubbery to firm.

Go on you know you want to !!