<i> Duxelles: </i> French Hash
Duxelles is a time-honored French concoction of cooked chopped mushrooms flavored with shallots or onions. It is one of those magical mixtures that chefs in classic kitchens keep on hand to slip into their culinary creations.
Like stock, duxelles is a basic preparation that is not served on its own but is treasured in the kitchen as a filling, flavoring or sauce base. But duxelles has a great advantage over stock--it is ready in practically no time.
In fact, making duxelles is the quickest way to cook mushrooms. They are done in just a few minutes, and their taste remains intense because they saute briefly over high heat. Cutting the mushrooms is a snap--you simply chop them in a food processor. When I studied at a Parisian cooking school, the chefs demonstrated that they could chop mushrooms for duxelles with a knife as fast as we students could with a food processor. For home cooking, however, the convenience of chopping mushrooms in the processor is what makes duxelles suitable for quick meals.
At the school, we used duxelles in many festive dishes. We enriched duxelles with cream and eggs and baked it in tart shells or made it into a filling for puff-pastry turnovers.
But we learned that duxelles is ideal for everyday cooking as well. We spread it on fish fillets as a stuffing or rolled it inside omelets. For stuffed mushrooms, we made duxelles from mushroom stems and used it to fill the caps. We discovered that the tasty mushroom mixture was perfect for stuffing other vegetables as well, such as eggplants, zucchini and tomatoes.
Once you have this mushroom essence on hand, there’s no end to what you can do with it. It’s great mixed with rice or small pasta shapes such as orzo because the little duxelles particles give you a touch of mushroom flavor with every mouthful.
When you briefly simmer wine, stock or cream with duxelles , the mushroom taste permeates the liquid to quickly produce flavorful sauces for vegetables, fish, poultry or light meats. Duxelles is one of those rare mixtures that combines excellent taste with sensible nutrition, as it consists mainly of mushrooms. Of course, many classic formulas call for sauteing the mushrooms in plenty of butter, but I have found that vegetable oil works well too, and a tiny amount suffices.
Duxelles can be a good vegetable alternative to ground meat in many stuffings, spaghetti sauces and other recipes. Stir duxelles into tomato sauce, for example, and you’ll have a satisfying tomato-mushroom sauce for spaghetti or for a favorite pasta. Mix duxelles with cooked rice or pasta for a quick entree.
BASIC DUXELLES (Mushroom Hash)
8 ounces mushrooms, rinsed and patted dry
1 1/2 teaspoons oil or butter
1 small shallot or green onion, minced
Salt
Freshly ground pepper
Chop mushrooms in food processor with pulsing motion into fine pieces. Heat oil in medium skillet over low heat. Add shallot and saute until tender but not brown.
Add shallot or green onion. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Cook over high heat, stirring, 3 to 5 minutes or until mixture is dry. Duxelles can be kept, covered, 2 days in refrigerator. Makes about 1 cup duxelles.
The sauce is a light and easy adaptation of the classic duxelles sauce from Escoffier’s “Le Guide Culinaire.” It is also good with roasted or poached chicken and with such vegetables as cauliflower, zucchini and potatoes.
BROILED CHICKEN WITH EASY MUSHROOM SAUCE
Basic Duxelles
1/4 cup dry white wine
4 teaspoons tomato paste
1 1/2 cups chicken stock or low-salt broth
1 teaspoon dried leaf thyme, crumbled
1 tablespoon cornstarch dissolved in 2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
Salt
Freshly ground pepper
4 boneless chicken breast halves or boneless thighs, with or without skin (1 1/4 to 1 1/2 pounds
About 2 teaspoons vegetable oil or olive oil
Mix Basic Duxelles with wine, tomato paste, stock and thyme in medium saucepan. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low. Stir in dissolved cornstarch. Return to boil. Add parsley. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Heat broiler with rack about 4 inches from heat source or heat ridged stove-top grill pan over medium-high heat. Rub chicken with oil. Season to taste with salt and pepper on both sides. Grill or broil chicken until meat feels springy, 5 to 7 minutes per side. (To check whether chicken is done, cut into thickest part with tip of sharp knife--color should be white, not pink.) Serve with sauce. Makes 4 servings.
For this simple version of stuffed eggplant, duxelles is mixed with the baked eggplant pulp to make a savory stuffing. Serve the eggplant halves as an accompaniment for roast chicken or lamb, as an appetizer or as a vegetarian main course with tomato sauce and rice.
EGGPLANT STUFFED WITH DUXELLES
2 to 2 1/2 pounds small or medium eggplants, unpeeled
Salt
Basic Duxelles
2 medium cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
Cayenne pepper or bottled hot pepper sauce
3 tablespoons fresh bread crumbs
2 tablespoons olive oil, vegetable oil or melted butter
Halve eggplants lengthwise. With sharp knife, score flesh of each half lightly to make border about 3/8 inch from skin. Score center of each half lightly 3 times (so heat penetrates more evenly). Sprinkle cut surface with salt. Place eggplants in lightly oiled roasting pan or shallow baking dish, cut side up. Bake at 450 degrees 20 to 25 minutes, or until flesh is tender when pierced with knife. Let cool slightly.
Cut each eggplant gently along scored border and remove pulp carefully with spoon without piercing skin. Place eggplant shells in oiled gratin dish. Chop eggplant flesh and mix with Basic Duxelles. Stir in garlic, parsley and cayenne pepper to taste. Adjust seasonings.
Spoon stuffing into eggplant shells. Sprinkle with bread crumbs, then with oil. Bake 10 to 15 minutes at 350 degrees, or until eggplant is hot. If bread crumbs have not browned in that time, brown few seconds under broiler. Serve hot. Makes 4 servings.