Making Mushrooms Last (Duxelles)

Recently I made a large batch of chili and by the time all the other ingredients were in the crockpot, I could only fit about half of a pound of chopped up mushrooms in and still get the lid to close. Since I bought a 2 pounds of mushrooms, that left me with a bit of an issue.

I love the flavor mushrooms add to a dish, but I am not a big fan of the texture of cooked mushrooms. My solution is to chop the mushrooms up really small before i add them to the dish ... All of the flavor and none of the spongy texture.

Mushrooms are notorious for not lasting long before they start to go bad. Remember the only time you want to see spots on your mushrooms is in video games.

A Duxelle is defined as a preparation of mushrooms sautéed with onions, shallots, garlic, and herbs and used to make stuffing or sauce

For this batch I went very basic. It consisted of just mushrooms, onions, and garlic sautéed in butter.

I ran the onion and mushrooms through my hand cranked food processor until they were finely chopped. The garlic was already minced so I just added a few forkfuls to the mix.

Mushrooms grow by pumping water in to expand their cells. So as you cook the mushrooms you are going to drive out alot of the moisture and reduce the size of your pile of chopped mushroom by a considerable amount.

in a saucepan over medium heat melt a few tablespoons of butter. ad in the onions and garlic and let them sauté for a few minutes before adding the mushrooms. Once you add the mushrooms it will take a few minutes for them to reduce. This batch was done in about 10 minutes and when it started out it filled my large saucepan almost halfway full.

Once the Duxelles was done cooking I let it cool and then spooned it into a clean jar. I started out with a pound and a half of mushrooms 1 medium sized onion and a few tablespoons of garlic. After cooking it all reduced down enough to fit in a pint jar.

Once I had it all jarred up, I added olive oil to the jar to help preserve the mix. As long as the Duxelles stay covered in the oil it should keep for several months in the fridge. Although at the rate it has been making its way into various recipes, that won't be a concern. This jar will be empty in a few weeks.

***IMPORTANT NOTE***

Because you drove most of the moisture out of the mushrooms during cooking you will need to top off the oil in the jar after the first day because the mushrooms will absorb the oil you initially put in.