French Mushrooms Marinated with Tomato and Coriander

These French-style marinated mushrooms are one of my favorite ways to cook mushrooms when I don't want to rely on butter, heavy cream or dairy. especially mild-tasting ones that need a boost in flavor.

Most French mushroom recipes are very simple and are a variation on sauteed mushrooms with garlic and parsley, or mushrooms bordelaise (Bordeaux-style). This recipe is a little different. It's a marinated recipe you serve warm as a side dish or garnish.

The marinade is a little trick I borrowed from chef legend Joel Robuchon. He's famous for being the most Michelin star awarded-chef in the world. He also made mashed potatoes fashionable with his legendary pommes de terre Robuchon.

I worked for a while with a chef who did a tour in Robuchon's flagship Las Vegas restaurant. He shared tales of crushing pressure and crazy sous chefs with me. My favorite behind the scenes story was how the restaurant got raw French cheeses. All cheeses came vaccuum sealed, smuggled in the bellies of whole fish air-freighted overnight from Europe.

Here's the basics of the recipe. Take some mushrooms, brown them gently, then add garlic, shallot, tomato juice, lemon, coriander, and crushed chili. After everything has cooked together you top it off with some oil and refrigerate to let the flavors marinate.

In the book, Chef Robuchon says you might use white button mushrooms for the preparation. They would be fine, but tomato in screams milk cap to me so they're what I used.

Whatever milkcap you use. will taste great here. Lactarius indigo, saffron milk caps, and Lactifluus volemus are my favorite.

That said, anything with gills to soak up the spiced tomato juices would be just fine. It will also work well with mild tasting mushrooms like shrimp of the woods. There's an example of how I use things like this at the bottom of the post, too.

Milkcaps vary in quality between species. All will benefit from being caramelized and lightly browned, and will soak up the tomato marinade well.

How to serve

Think of these as simple marinated mushrooms you can serve with different dishes as a garnish. I usually warm them up before adding to a dish. There's an example of a simple French-style salad below made with fresh greens from my garden, and sauteed shrimp.

Wilted Arugula and Nasturtium Salad with Shrimp and Marinated Milkcaps 

Warm up the mushrooms, saute some shrimp and drain for a moment on paper towels. Spoon the mushrooms over fresh arugula, purlsane, shrimp and nasturtiums and let it wilt as you eat. Drizzle with olive oil and a dash of lemon. See the full method here.