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Mushrooms Provide Some Wild Possibilities

Photo by MICHELLE BAKER

A variety of mushrooms provides the basis for this wild mushroom gratin - a taste of of the Northwest.

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By GREG and MICHELLE BAKER

Tribune correspondents

Published: January 14, 2009

Few ingredients we work with inspire such joy and giddiness as wild mushrooms.

Perhaps it's that they are relatively hard to find in the warm, humid, mosquito-ridden, swampland of our glorious home state. Maybe it's that these little fruits of fungi defy cultivation; they are truly wild and are hand-harvested from the forest floor. Or it could be that they just taste really, really good?

We're not talking about those stark white and slimy button things. These babies are meaty, savory and intoxicating.

Going back the better part of 20 years, the only wild mushrooms that were going to be found around here came from a can. Tiny, pallid chanterelles, packed in a putrid liquid to be allotted in dibs and dabs atop a grilled veal chop. This was a far cry from other, more temperate areas of the country, where - before regulations prohibited such things - fresh morels, chanterelles, hedgehogs and hen-of-the-woods could be had by waiting for a random hippie to knock on the back door of the restaurant.

"Hey bra, I've got some mushrooms for sale, you want some?"

"Where did you get them and how much do you want?"

"Uh, up on Mount Hood, bra. I'll sell these chanterelles for 2 bucks a pound."

Done and done, friend. Yeah, constant rain and gloom aside, the Northwest did have its advantages (besides paying two guys $10 for a day's work).

We recently had dinner with a few friends and there was a plethora of ingredients to get excited about, but a box full of wild mushrooms had Greg saying, "Hello, Lova."

There was no real game plan of what to do with them. But rummaging through our bag of tricks, we arrived at a simple yet almost deadly delicious gratin using chanterelles, hedgehogs, black trumpets and hazelnut-smoked bleu cheese from Oregon. And now, we give it to you. Enjoy, Tampa. Enjoy.

WILD MUSHROOM GRATIN

Serves 4

1 tablespoon butter

1 shallot, minced

1 pound wild mushrooms, cleaned (you can use just about any mix of oyster, portabella, shiitake or whatever you can find at the store)

Kosher or sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 pint heavy cream

¼ pound bleu cheese (Stilton, Maytag, gorgonzola or the like will do, but that smoked bleu was a good choice.)

Preheat your oven broiler.

Melt the butter in an ovenproof saute pan over medium heat. When the butter starts to foam, add the shallot and saute for 1 minute. Add the mushrooms, season with salt and pepper, and saute for 2 to 3 minutes, just until they soften.

Add the cream to the pan and cook until the liquid has reduced by half - about 2 to 3 minutes. Add the bleu cheese and stir to incorporate it into the cream. Check the seasoning and adjust the salt and pepper, if necessary.

At this point, if you want to be all fancy and stuff, you can divide the mushrooms into four individual serving ramekins, or you can just leave them in the pan for family-style fun. Either way, put the vessel containing the mushrooms under the broiler and let the heat work its magic - in 1 to 2 minutes, the cheese and cream should get nicely brown and bubbly. This would mean that it's done, by the way. Remove from the oven and serve, being careful not to burn you, the people around you or any pets running through the house.

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