Mushroom Bourguignon

Ok, I made this dish after first thinking, hmmmm, I really would love some Beef Bourguignon...then I realized, hey, that's a very heavy meat centric meal and I am not one that eats low carb high protein, so maybe I could bourguignon something else. I waffled and considered. Then I wrote the stew blog for Calorie Count and needed a picture to post with it. A search brought up the most delectable looking stew ever. Turned out, it was a mushroom stew. Win! Now, mushroom bourguignon is a much done before me dish, although I had never heard of it before. Never one to just follow a recipe, I took the idea and came up with my own version. The nutrition facts are here, the serving size in the nutrition facts is about 8 oz which is meant to be a single bowl served up as stew with a nice biscuit or two. If you use it as a garnish for steak or a topping for mashed potatoes your serving will be smaller and lower in calorie! On the other hand, just go ahead and eat a bowl cuz it's good.

Mushroom Bourguignon

Ingredients:

1 T grapeseed oil
3 pounds fresh mushrooms – assorted types
1 cup chopped onion
1 T butter
1 T olive oil
2 tablespoon all purpose flour
1 carrot, finely chopped
4 large garlic cloves, chopped or pressed
2 cups good Burgundy wine
1 1/2 t thyme
¼ t fresh cracked black pepper or to taste
2 generous teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

Directions with some notes on what I did:

Clean, stem, and cut the mushrooms into large chunks.

Heat the grapeseed oil over medium high heat in a large pan. When the pan is very hot, add the mushrooms and onions. Sear quickly removing as they turn a gorgeous brown. To properly caramelize them and enrich the flavor of the bourguignon, saute about 25 minutes. Do not over stir or they will not brown. Place the pretty brown things in a bowl.

In a large heavy saucepan, place the butter and pure olive oil and heat over medium. Saute the carrot until it begins to soften, add the garlic and saute for another couple minutes. Add the flour and stir quickly to incorporate.

Add mushroom onion mixture and stir. Add wine, broth, carrot mixture, all seasonings, and the Worcestershire sauce, stir until well mixed, and bring to a simmer.

Cook over low heat until mushrooms are tender and sauce thickens and takes on a rich dark color. Stir occasionally for about 40 minutes.

Taste and adjust seasonings. I kept mine simple so the flavor of the mushrooms stayed prominent. You may prefer a more complex dish, if so, get creative with the flavors you love.

Stir in parsley and serve.

Notes on the great flexibility of this recipe:

Great over egg noodles, rice, mashed potatoes, on top of slices of baguette toasty with melted Swiss cheese, in a tortilla, or simply speared with each piece of a very good steak. Another wonderful idea for this is to add beef broth to thin it a bit and add seared chunks of lamb to make a lamb stew.

If you don't cook with wine, just use beef broth! If you are a vegetarian, use veggie broth.

If you don't cook with butter, use just the pure olive oil in the second saute.

Want the complete bourguignon experience? Skip the chopped onion and dump in some frozen or fresh pearl onions when you add the wine and seasonings.