I have a hard time pronouncing bourguignon correctly, but, that’s okay. It’s a difficult word to get exactly right. Does that also describe you? If so, you can do as I do and simply call this dish mushroom boogeyman. It’s easier, and, if you’re like me, at least it’ll seem funny. Well, a little bit funny. A tiny bit?
Many years ago, well, perhaps 5 or 6 years ago, we checked out The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook, by Deb Perelman, from the library and found this and a few other recipes that we wanted to try. However, for some reason, we just didn’t do it. I’m not sure why, but we didn’t make it. It wasn’t as if we forgot; we always knew we wanted to test it, but, it just didn’t happen.
Then on Christmas day, it did.
We did change a few things, such as using a shallot in place of onion, searing the pearl onions to brown them in spots, and reducing the wine slowly, so as to minimize changing the flavors.
Mushroom Bourguignon
Ingredients
- 2 Tbs olive oil divided
- 2 Tbs unsalted butter divided
- 2 pounds mixed mushrooms bite-sized pieces
- 1 cup pearl onions, peeled
- 1/2 carrot, finely diced
- 1 shallot, finely diced
- kosher salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 cup red wine cabernet sauvignon, for example
- 2 cups vegetable stock
- 2 Tbs tomato paste
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme
- 1 1/2 Tbs all-purpose flour
- egg noodles for serving
Instructions
- Heat one tablespoon oil and butter in a large saucepan over high heat. Add mushrooms and sear until they begin to turn golden, 2-3 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl.
- Add pearl onions to the pan and sear until browned in spots. Transfer to the bowl holding the mushrooms.
- Lower heat to medium, and add the remaining tablespoon of oil. Add carrots, shallot, and thyme. Season with salt and pepper. Cook until carrots are tender and shallots are beginning to brown, Add garlic and cook an additional minute.
- Add wine and stir to scrape up any stuck bits. Lower heat to medium low and simmer until wine is reduced by half.
- Stir in tomato paste and broth. Stir in the pearl onions and mushrooms, along with any liquids. Simmer until mushrooms are tender, about 20 minutes.
- Mash the flour together with the remaining tablespoon of butter and stir into the soup. Simmer an additional 10 minutes to thicken. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Serve over egg noodles.
Ingredient discussion:
It might seem to be a lot of ingredients, but it’s not too bad. For the mushrooms, we picked up a nice mix: portobello, white button, and some oyster mushrooms. With the portobello mushrooms, we cut off the stem and gills before cutting into 1-inch pieces. We specifically bought pearl onions for this, and were glad we had. Sure, they taste pretty much like ordinary onions, but they look great in the dish, which is also important. For the noodles, we made our own pappardelle. Roll out our Basic Pasta Dough and cut into 1/2-inch wide strips of various lengths.
Procedure in detail:
Sear mushrooms. Searing adds flavor and great color and we’ll do quite a bit. Break out a heavy saucepan and heat 1 tablespoon of oil and 1 tablespoon of butter over high heat. When melted and sizzling, add the mushrooms and let sear for about a minute. Shake the pan to move them around and let sear for another minute. Shake again, and sear for a third minute, then transfer to a large bowl.
Sear onions. Drop the onions into the pan and sear just like the mushrooms, shaking the pan just a couple of times while the onions brown, then transfer the onions to the bowl holding the mushrooms. Don’t be surprised at the bottom of the pan, but don’t worry too much; the wine will help scrape up some of the burnt pieces sticking to the pan.
Cook carrots and shallots. Lower the heat to medium and stir in the carrots, shallot, and thyme. Sprinkle with a bit of salt and pepper, and cook, stirring often, until both are tender and the shallots are beginning to brown, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic, stir, and cook 1 minute more.
Reduce wine. Add the wine and stir to scrape up any burnt pieces adhering to the pan. Reduce the heat to low and let the wine simmer, pan uncovered, until reduced by half, about 30 minutes, perhaps longer. Try to go slowly on making the reduction so you don’t cook off too much flavor.
Add broth and simmer. Stir in the tomato paste, add the broth and the reserved mushrooms and pearl onions, along with any liquid they’ve released, and bring to a simmer. Continue simmering, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms and onions are tender, about another 30 minutes.
Add flour and butter and simmer. In a small bowl, use a fork to mash together the flour and butter (technically, you’re making buerre manié, a quick and easy thickener for soup that won’t form lumps — sounds fancy, doesn’t it?) until completely mixed. Stir into the simmering soup. Let the soup simmer another 10 minutes, not only to thicken, but to cook the flour so your soup doesn’t taste like raw flour.
Serve. Taste and season with salt and pepper as needed, then serve over bowls of egg noodles
We loved this mushroom boogeyman. It has great flavor, and it’s really not that difficult to make, although we definitely think of this as a special occasion meal, rather than an any night meal. We really think that, even though this is a soup, it’s rich enough and filling enough that it should be considered a main dish. This is an easy five-star dish. Thanks, Smitten Kitchen!