The Wednesday Chef Presents: Mushroom Salad
Posted by MushroomChannel on February 2nd, 2009This week’s featured contributor is Luisa Weiss who regularly posts recipes and beautiful photos on her food blo
g, The Wednesday Chef. All photo credits are hers.
Mushrooms are an unsung star in most kitchens, I think. Affordable, quick to prepare, important in ethnic cooking across the world, and delicious in so many forms. Here’s my own personal list of preferred mushroom preparations: Shriveled and blistered on wood-oven pizza; earthy and smooth in pureed soup; flat and roasted as part of a proper English breakfast; brined and pickled, too, a vinegary kick rounding out their soft, little forms.
But I’d never eaten mushrooms in salad form. That is, until I stumbled across an unassuming recipe hidden in the depths of Jeremiah Tower’s gorgeous and idiosyncratic cookbook, Jeremiah Tower Cooks. “Mushroom salad” sure doesn’t sound like much – I had visions of mayonnaise-cloaked mushrooms lying prone and flaccid against an iceberg wedge – and I was inclined to turn the page. But as I fingered the paper, my eyes scanned the ingredients and I stopped myself.
A pound of mushrooms, sliced thinly, is dressed with olive oil, lemon juice and some fresh, minced rosemary. You sprinkle the mushrooms with salt and let them sit for a bit, the special alchemy of acid and salt rendering the mushrooms juicy and flavorful without a single hit of heat.
Yes, yes, you think. It’s just mushrooms and a lemon dressing, big deal. But then Jeremiah has you pour a few spoonfuls of cream over the mushrooms. You toss them gently, let them sit a bit longer, and before you know it, something special has come together in your kitchen. Snip a mess of chives over the top, grind a bit of pepper (white, if you’d like to be fancy; black, if it’s all you’ve got) and suddenly, an innocent pile of plain button mushrooms has been transformed into a salad at once elegant and simple.
The cream tames the brighter lemon juice and the strong flavors of rosemary and chives, softening their hard edges. The mushrooms become tender and juicy, yet still retain their structural integrity. There’s no mushiness here. The salad tastes incredibly herbal and fresh, which is a welcome thing at the dinner table on your average cold, January night.
This versatile salad could hold its own as easily on a holiday buffet spread as it could served alongside your next family meal of tomato soup and grilled cheese. And I’m quite happy to add paper-thin mushrooms, brightly and creamily dressed, to my list of favorite mushroom preparations. Mushroom salad, welcome to the fold.
November 5th, 2009 at 6:52 pm
[...] Mushroom Salad with Chives and Rosemary- Can you blame me for including one of our own entries first? This is one of my favorites from The Wednesday Chef. [...]