Mushroom Bourguignon | Part 1

Mushrooms can be the worst food but also the best food. I say this as one who recently did a food and wine pairing exercise whereby one of the foods was a cooked mushroom with no seasoning. Yuck!
It did; however, remind me of the best of mushrooms. Big Guy and I started talking about a mushroom dish we used to eat at a now closed restaurant. Thanks to our friends on Twitter, we rediscovered the identity of the restaurant as Tokens owned by Ali Kasim.

Mr. Kasim created a beautiful appetizer highlighting mushrooms. It was rich and beefy which satisfied our hunger, especially on a cold evening. With that memory reactivated in our memories, we started looking for a recipe that may be its equal.

Thanks to Melissa Clark and the New York Times, we were excited by her Mushroom Bourguignon recipe.  The recipe claims to take one hour, but I admittedly took extra time to really cook my mushrooms and pearl onions in smaller batches to make sure I consistently cooked them for the recipe. I was rewarded with a dish that created shouts of “Wow” and “OMG.”

I remember Mr. Kasim sharing his joy and passion for food. I am not sure we recreated his recipe, but I would hope he would cheer on our efforts.