Umami is a many-splendored thing. I love just piling it on in my dishes, and I am even known to add a scant whisper (or sometimes more of a prattle) of MSG to my dishes. Oh, lower those eyebrows, you. MSG is harmless. I see you raising your fist and getting all fired up about this, but shut it down for a minute and let this simmer:
If MSG is so bad for our neurology, why are Asians so much better than us at math?
Yes. “Touche.”
Harp all you want, MSG makes food taste really good. But sometimes, lilies need no gilding. This dish is packed with four different natural sources of umami: bunashimeji (beech) and black trumpet mushrooms , bok choy, Gorgonzola cheese and walnuts. It is a veritable umami party, and everyone’s invited. Well, actually, I only made enough for my family. Sorry about that.
Craterellus cornucopioides
This sinister-looking relative of chanterelles, the black trumpet mushroom, is wonderfully earthy and spodic, tasting of sweet duff and chipmunk-industry. The comparatively placid bunashimeji, or beech mushrooms, take aggressive heat wonderfully; it just nudges them in a nuttier, chewier direction.
Hypsizygus tessellatus
This is how we do it:
How’s about you get some butter and olive oil sizzling away, and you add a minced shallot? Heck, add a couple mashed garlic cloves, too, while you’re at it. Stir them around a bit, and should they start to get browned on this medium-high heat, add those mushrooms. (Trim off the woody, dirty bit of the stems. Slice the black trumpets into a fungal chiffonade of sorts; the bunamshimeji can stay whole since they are teeny-tiny.) They will release some of the 90% of the water of which their bodies are composed, and this will deglaze the sticky shallot and garlic quite nicely. Add some cleaned and quarted baby bok choys – three should be just about right. Now why don’t you add about a cup of half and half (to which you’ve stirred a few tablespoons of flour), and let that thicken and gelatinize into a creamy bechamel? Shoot, you could even use just whole milk if you’re being particular. Then when it’s bubbly and good, add a good hunk of Gorgonzola or blue cheese, just all crumbled up. Taste and add the proper amount of salt and pepper. Then toss in some chopped parsley, and cooked penne (or other bite-sized pasta, I suppose) and ooh, mommy.
Top with chopped toasted walnuts and serve with a brambly Côtes du Rhône.
Your recipe sounds great, but I wanted to comment about your silverware. What a pretty and unusual fork! I like it!
I guess I am going past the shops on the way home then… that’s dinner sorted! “Fungal chiffonade” – god I love the way you write, woman!
Oh gosh that looks amazing. I have a bunch of regular old criminis at home, but now I’m thinking that I should saute ‘em up for pasta tonight for dinner.
Hope you’re well!
Scrumptious! And that is a very nice fork, or fawk as they say here in Massachusetts.
This looks very good. I never know what to do with my baby bok choi and always stick it in some sort of Asian application. Also, I never knew how much of the stem to use. It looks like you use the whole thing. This is opening up a whole new world of baby bok choi cookery for me. Thank you!
I love it when you talk dirty to us mycophagists.
Oh yeah. I’m all about the oooh Mommy. And if you put gorgonzola in your shoe, I’d probably try to eat it, but this. This is sublime. I am so making this.
BIG fan of black trumpet mushrooms, the poor man’s truffle. I love the “chipmunk industry” line, and you should expect me to steal it soon. Did you collect those shrooms or buy ‘em?
Again with those awesome mushrooms. Gosh, Heather, I love you so. Can I come live at your house? We can umami together
i love pasta in any shape and form and your dish looks so yummy. i am definitely making this for dinner soon