Garlic Butter Roasted Mushrooms

Right before the Calgary Farmers' Market left their Currie Barrack's location, B.'s mom hooked us up with some Missing Link sausages. Owners Mick and Deneise make massive, 8-oz chicken sausages (with the occasional lamb thrown in) in an eclectic variety of flavours (with punny names to match) out of their own home. Since the sausages could hold their own flavour-wise, the focus was more on cooking up some yummy sides to match.

When I saw some cheap Quick Sale/Vente Rapide mushrooms at the store, I remembered at the time Deb from Smitten Kitchen had just shared her recipe for escargot-inspired garlic butter roasted mushrooms. I thought they'd be perfect with the "French Connection" (Dijon mustard and Alberta honey) sausages.


I am a cheap Asian.
Usually I'm a little intimidated by recipes that involve casserole dishes and roasting because I always assume that they are going to take a long time, but this recipe came together very quickly - you literally toss everything into the casserole dish and the roasting time itself is short; just 15-20 minutes and the mushrooms have soaked in all the garlicky, buttery goodness of its surroundings (while producing some extra sauce to boot!)



    
Deb chose to make the recipe "as is" from the Gourmet website, but I didn't really want to buy a jar of capers only to have them go to waste, so I decided to add use soy sauce instead for that extra "umami" kick. We also didn't have any parsley on hand, so I chopped up a bunch of green onion instead. It turned out ok.


Deb recommends buying some crusty bread (my personal favourite is the PC Blue Menu Whole Grain Demi-Baguette) and using it to scoop up all that garlicky sauce, but instead I spooned some over the pasta I had with my meal as a sauce and poured the leftover sauce with the mushrooms and sausage over rice for B.'s lunch the next day.


Yummy.

Garlic Butter Roasted Mushrooms
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen/Gourmet
Serves 4 (but I alone can eat half of this, really)

• 1 lb. (454 g) crimini or white mushrooms, halved lengthwise if large
  
• 1 tbsp (15 mL) low-sodium soy sauce
  
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
  
• 2 tbsp (30 mL) vegetable oil
  
• 3 tbsp (45 mL) butter, cut into pieces
  
• 2 tsp (10 mL) lemon juice
  
• ¼ cup (60 mL) flat-leaf parsley or green onion, chopped
  
• Salt & freshly ground pepper, to taste

1. Preheat oven to 450˚F (230˚C) with rack in middle.
   
2. Toss mushrooms with soy sauce, garlic, oil, salt and pepper in a 1.5-2 qt (1.5-2 L) shallow baking dish. Top with butter and roast, stirring occasionally, until mushrooms are tender and golden, and bubbly garlic sauce forms below, 15 to 20 minutes.
   
3. Stir in lemon juice and parsley. Serve immediately, with crusty bread on the side for swiping up the juices.

Nutrition Info (per serving, about ¼ lb mushrooms): 169 calories, 15 g fat (6 g saturated), 22 mg cholesterol, 6 g carbohydrate (1 g fibre), 3 g protein, 218 mg sodium. An excellent source of riboflavin (vitamin B₂), pantothenic acid (vitamin B₅), vitamin K, potassium, copper and selenium. A good source of niacin (vitamin B₃), folate (vitamin B₄) and vitamin E.