Sherried Baby Bella Mushrooms

This idea comes to me from Rebecca Celis.  These mushrooms are a fairly quick and very easy way to elegantly supplement a meaty meal.  They’re earthy, a bit sweet, and richly flavored.  Here’s the recipe:

Sherried Baby Bella Mushrooms

Baby bella mushrooms, rinsed and halved if large

Butter

Dry sherry

Kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Heat about 2 T of butter over medium heat in a saute pan.  Preferably, use a saute pan large enough to hold the mushrooms in a single layer.  When melted, add the mushrooms and season generously with salt and pepper.  Let them cook, undisturbed, for 5 minutes, or until the mushrooms have taken on a nice color.  Toss the pan or stir and continue cooking until the mushrooms are about 80% done.  It should take roughly 10-15 minutes but that’s only an estimate and keep a close eye on them. 

Now add some sherry.  Depending on how much you like the flavor of sherry, you can really add as much as you like.  But a good rule of thumb would be about 1/3 cup per pound.  Increase the heat to medium high and cook until the sherry has evaporated and left a bit of glaze on the mushrooms.  At this point, the mushrooms should be cooked all the way through.  If desired, add another pat or two of butter to make a sauce for the mushrooms.  Serve.

I apologize in advance for the rather informal nature of the recipe but, if you’re using nice ingredients, there’s really no way you can screw this up.  What’s the worst that could happen?  It tastes too much like sherry or butter?!  I can think of many, many worse things in the world.  The real keys to the recipe are letting the mushrooms get that initial “brown” which will deepen the flavor of the dish and to add the sherry at the appropriate time.  Mushrooms are pretty forgiving and don’t taste terrible when overcooked but a nice, just tender mushroom really is a thing of beauty.  I served my mushrooms with Simple London Broil with Simple Maître d’ Sauce.  (A photo can be found there as well.)

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