Sautéed Mushrooms and Onions (Duxelles) – Step-by-Step Recipe

Name: Sautéed Mushrooms and Onions (Duxelles) – Step-by-Step Recipe
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 1 h
Yield: 4
Cuisine: French cuisine
Ingredients: Button mushrooms 500 g; Red onion 2; Garlic 1-2 cloves; Butter and olive oil for frying; Parsley, thyme fresh herbs; Sherry or Madeira 0.5 cup; Salt, black pepper to taste

Sautéed mushrooms and onions are a wonderfully simple dish. Serve them as a cold or warm appetizer, or as a main course that easily stands in for meat. They also work on sandwiches, as a side dish, and as a filling for pies, stuffed vegetables and much more.

In its ingredients and method the dish is close to duxelles – a finely chopped mixture of cultivated or wild mushrooms, shallots, herbs and spices, cooked in butter until almost dry. In French cooking this mixture is made ahead: it keeps quite well and is used as needed as a filling or as a base for sauces.

Sautéed mushrooms and onions are more fragrant when made with porcini. The aroma of duxelles comes from thyme, parsley and black pepper. Cream is often added, which turns the mixture into a paste. A splash of sherry or Madeira deepens the flavor; this trick is used mostly for tart fillings or for the mushroom layer in beef Wellington.

Still, even famous chefs use ordinary cultivated button mushrooms and turn the dish into a masterpiece. The filling has to be dry: Escoffier's Le Guide Culinaire recommends driving off as much of the mushrooms' moisture as possible. Sautéed mushrooms and onions used as a filling also taste much better when they hold little moisture. That, in fact, is the difference between ordinary fried mushrooms and duxelles for sauces and fillings.

If you have wild mushrooms, use them. Button mushrooms should be medium-sized, very fresh and not overripe. You can use the stems alone – they are firmer and the dish turns out better. Save the large mushrooms for stuffing.

Sautéed mushrooms and onions can turn out very wet, because a mushroom is more than 80% water. The key step in this recipe is cooking that moisture off. While the mushroom pieces are releasing water, they are not frying. But once the frying begins, all the mushroom flavor concentrates, even though the volume shrinks several times over.

Ingredients

4 servings

Button mushrooms 500 g
Red onion 2
Garlic 1-2 cloves
Butter and olive oil for frying
Parsley, thyme fresh herbs
Sherry or Madeira 0.5 cup
Salt, black pepper to taste

Step-by-step recipe

Sautéed mushrooms and onions are best made with fresh ingredients. Some recipes suggest dried mushrooms, wild ones included. The aroma is far more intense, but the texture leaves much to be desired – you can feel the tough bits. Be sure to have fresh thyme and parsley on hand: they are important ingredients.
Heat the fat for frying the mushrooms in a deep skillet. Butter is the usual choice. I prefer a mix – 1 tbsp each of extra virgin olive oil and real butter. Peel the red onions or shallots and chop them finely. Cook the onion in the fat for a few minutes until soft. Do not let it burn under any circumstances.
Add garlic if you like. You need only a little – it gives a barely noticeable aroma and a hint of flavor. 1-2 cloves are enough; peel them and chop finely with a knife. Do not grate the garlic – it will release too much juice. Add the garlic to the onion and cook them together for 1-2 mins.
Pick over the mushrooms and clean off any remaining growing medium. Overripe, darkened gills are best trimmed away. Chop the mushrooms finely with a knife or pulse them in a food processor. Add the chopped mushrooms to the softened onion. Cook the mixture over medium heat without covering the skillet. A lot of liquid will appear almost at once.
Stirring, cook off all the free liquid. Only then will the mushrooms and onions start to look the way they should. Keep cooking the almost dry mixture over low heat until the mushroom pieces begin to brown lightly and there is a strong smell of fried mushrooms. By the way, mushrooms that have lost their moisture soak up butter and oil very readily.
Strip the leaves from the sprigs of fresh thyme – you need about 0.5 tbsp. Roughly chop the green thyme leaves with a knife. Add them to the mushrooms and onions. Salt very lightly and season generously with pepper. Pour in half a cup of Madeira or sherry. That is the best option. In a pinch, a not-too-dry white table wine will do.
Cover the skillet and simmer the mushrooms and onions for 10 mins. Then remove the lid and let all the moisture left in the mushrooms boil away, stirring the mixture so it does not burn. The mushrooms may darken as they cook – that is normal. What matters is that the mixture ends up almost dry, with just traces of fat. It will have a strong mushroom aroma.
Strip all the leaves from the parsley sprigs. Discard the stems – they are tough and are not used in this dish. Chop the parsley leaves finely with a knife – you should get a heaping 1 tbsp. Add the parsley to the mushrooms and onions and stir. Take the skillet off the heat right away and let the mixture cool to room temperature.
As an appetizer, sautéed mushrooms and onions can be spooned into a serving bowl and sprinkled with fresh thyme and parsley. Do not chill the mushrooms – their aroma will fade considerably. Use them as a topping for canapés and sandwiches, or on their own as a side dish.
Duxelles made for fillings or sauces keeps in the refrigerator for a while, or it can be frozen. Thaw a portion as needed and make a sauce or very tasty mushroom-stuffed eggs, or use it to stuff peppers. The mixture is perfect for omelets, ravioli and dumplings – for filling just about anything.