I have the darkest kitchen in the world so I am contemplating renaming my essays from the ambiguous David the Tornado to the mysterious From the Dark Kitchen. The Goth Kitchen? Salty and Sullen? Seriously, we’ve just waxed to the summer solstice and my house, shrouded in trees, lets but a peep of sunlight through. (I won’t bitch once it starts heating up–the trees do in fact keep our place cool at the very least.)
OK whatever, anyway, this is a recipe I have been meaning to post for awhile. It’s a favorite and this version is gluten-free.
You will need
- 2 tablespoons butter
- dried package of porcini mushrooms (I recommend imported Italian)
- gluten free flour (I used Trader Joe’s) you can also use regular flour
- salt/pepper to taste
In a medium sized bowl add your dried porcini mushrooms. Boil water in a kettle. Important: after the water reaches its boiling point allow to set for 4-5 minutes. Pour the water into the bowl of dried mushrooms making sure to fully cover them but not to exceed a volume where the mushrooms begin to float. It should be about 1 1/2-2 cups of water depending on how many mushrooms you use.
In a sauce pan add 2 tablespoons of butter and 3-4 tablespoons of gluten free flour. This is a basic roux which will thicken our “mushroom tea”. There is a lot out there regarding making rouxs.
I tend to melt the butter directly with the flour over low heat constantly combining the two ingredients until I have a nice consistent paste.
After establishing a lovely roux add the mushroom tea, excluding the rehydrated mushrooms. Increase the heat of the sauce pan to medium–this is to activate the roux and thicken the sauce. Keep a watchful eye and make sure to stir often to eliminate any globs.
While the sauce is thickening, dice the porcinis into small pieces.
Add the porcinis to the sauce and continue to stir over reduced heat (lowest heat setting). I was so amazed at how supple and viscous this sauce turned out using gluten-free flour–so much so, that I almost think gluten-free flour makes a superior sauce over conventional flour.
So what to do with this sauce? I found a really nice gluten-free pasta from Gimmie Spaghetti via a farmer’s market over the weekend.
Along with some grilled chicken from a farm in Vermont (sorry to my veggie readers)–this made for a delightful meal.
And finally plated…
I added a few hunks of four year cheddar and a sprig of herbs from our garden. So delicious!
You could add cream to this, but honestly the flavor of the Porcini is so readied to the palette–it seems kind of a waste to add milk or cream. Anyway, that’s it from the The Dark Knight’s Kitchen.
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