Duxelle

We used the recipe for Tyler Florence's Ultimate Beef Wellington, but there's no need to follow it to a tee. At its core, duxelle is finely chopped mushrooms sauteed with herbs and spices to make a delicious mushroom paste. You can serve this on bread as hors d'oeuvres.

Ingredients

• 3 pints mushrooms
• 2 shallots, peeled and roughly chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
• 2 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves only
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Recipe

Add mushrooms, shallots, garlic, and thyme to a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Add butter and olive oil to a large saute pan and set over medium heat. Add the shallot and mushroom mixture and saute for 8 to 10 minutes until most of the liquid has evaporated. Season with salt and pepper and set aside to cool.

Notes

The butter is totally unnecessary. Just use olive oil for a healthier version.

Because there are so many mushrooms, the fine chop in the food processor can be challenging. Since it basically becomes a paste when cooked, we thought it's find to basically grind it to a paste in the food processor. We didn't find that to be the case, because when you sautee the paste, the water is already released, and you're basically boiling the mushrooms.

It's better to pulse in batches so that the mushrooms are truly finely chopped, not ground into a paste. It will release the water more slowly in the pan, which will actually result in faster, better cooking.