I recently took a trip to northern California to visit one of the few friends who nerds out over food as much as I do. Her current obsession: porcini mushrooms. She demanded to know if I was equally infatuated. But here’s the thing – I really don’t get excited about mushrooms.
I’ll now eat my words (and my mushrooms) after that weekend and the amazing porcini dishes we tried. Upon my return, I was inspired to buy a pack of dried porcini mushrooms and play. This recipe was the winner.
If you do not have a spice grinder, you can blitz the porcini mushrooms in a food processor. It won’t be as fine, so add an extra tablespoon of oil when whisking the slather ingredients together and let rest one hour to soften the larger pieces. You can also find porcini powder in specialty shops. Ozark Forest Mushrooms makes a lovely one available at Larder & Cupboard.
With apologies to linguists, I am used the word “slather” as a verb and a noun here. The woodsy, savory porcini mixed with shallot, sugar and pepper make this decadent sauce worthy of such wordplay. I served this steak with the remaining slather slathered on my sides of potatoes and Swiss chard, cursing myself for not doubling the recipe.
Steak with Porcini Slather
2 servings
¼ oz. dried porcini mushrooms
1/3 cup olive oil
1 shallot, finely minced
2 Tbsp. granulated sugar
1 Tbsp. kosher salt
½ Tbsp. red pepper flakes
½ tsp. freshly ground black pepper
2 8-ounce, strip steaks, about 1-inch thick
• In a spice grinder, grind the dried mushrooms into a fine powder.
• In a small bowl, whisk together the mushroom powder, olive oil, shallot, sugar, salt, red pepper flakes and pepper. Set aside.
• In a cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat, sear the steak 4 minutes, then flip and cook another 3 minutes. Slather some of the mushroom sauce over the top of the steaks and cook 1 minute more for medium-rare.
• Remove from the skillet, cover with foil and let rest 5 minutes. Serve with the remaining sauce on the side and slather at will.
This article appears in March 2016.