Wild Mushroom Cream Sauce

Plan Z Phase: This is a Z3 (ZReboot) recipe. This sauce is my new favorite. I was pleased as punch when I finished this up. I decided this would be great on turkey at the holidays but it can also go really well with chicken, steak and even fish.

Serving Size: Serves 8. Can easily be doubled.

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds of assorted wild mushrooms, cleaned, sliced and stems trimmed*
• 2 -4 Tbl of olive oil
• ½ cup of minced shallots
• 2 Tbl of minced garlic (jar garlic will work fine)
• 1 tsp of dried thyme
• sea salt and pepper to taste
• 4 cups of whipping cream
• 1 cup of grated Parmesan cheese

*Let’s discuss the mushrooms. You can use many mushrooms for this dish; even domestic button mushrooms. I recommend a mix. I used cremini, shiitake and porcini. I feel Porcini are the most important ones I feel that give this dish a hearty and wonderful taste. Usually porcini mushrooms must be purchased dried. They come from Italy. I used one half cup of porcini for this dish.   To prepare them just cover the porcini in hot water until they are soft.  To loosen them up the fastest put them in your microwave floating in the water and heat the water on high for one minute. Then let them sit for a few minutes to soak up some liquid. When ready to cook, drain off the water and put the porcini’s on paper towels. Put another layer of paper towel on top and dab at them to get as much liquid out as you can. Then dice them. I leave the other mushrooms in much bigger pieces but the porcini are rich in flavor so the smaller pieces work better. For the cremini I just buy them sliced and ready to go. For the shiitake I take off the stems and cut them into strips. Now, make your sauce….

Instructions:

In a large sauté pan add the olive oil and the shallots. Cook on medium until the shallots loosen up. Stir and sauté for a minute more and add the mushrooms. Cook on medium high to get the mushrooms cooking. When they just begin to brown a teeny bit add the garlic and sauté a couple of minutes more. Stir often. Season with sea salt and pepper. Add the cream. Turn up to high and get the cream boiling. You must be careful and keep an eye on this. Turn the cream down far enough that it will still bubble but you don’t want a rolling boil or it will boil over. Don’t even turn your back for a minute or this can happen easily. You need the cream to be lightly bubbling and burbling so it will thicken.

When the cream is beginning to thicken you are almost done. At this point it can be turned off, let to cool and stored for a day in your refrigerator if you want.** When you are ready to serve heat the mixture back up until it’s hot but do it slowly and stir often so you don’t scorch it. Let the sauce bubble so it thickens some more. When it’s thicker yet smooth, add the Parmesan, stir and serve.

Leftovers are great.  Just gently re-heat.

**When preparing for a large meal I make this in the morning and then I can put the final dish together at the last minute without a lot of fuss.

Enjoy!

Cheers,