Baked Brie with Garlic Butter Mushrooms

Foods LoVeRApr 3, 2023

Welcome to the decadent food I see at the end of every December when I want even simple foods to feel festive. Yes, I am seriously arguing that baked brie should be a dinner dish. Or, if not dinner, then perhaps a luxury portion of it, perfect for this boisterous, celebratory time of year. For dinner, you can have it with a big green salad and a cup of soup. You can set it as a side dish with a large roast. You can even lay it out as part of a party spread, a delicious oasis among all the cookies and melted cake.

We start with the Garlic Butter Roasted Mushrooms at Archives, which I describe as giving mushrooms the “escargot” treatment, which is to say they’re cooked in negligible amounts of butter and garlic, then drizzled with lemon juice. and a shower of parsley. Unless they’re complex and wildly more flavorful than it seems, there can be very few ingredients. But why stop there? Once you’ve finally seared a small Brie (or Camembert) and let it warm in the oven, there’s no looking back: You’re probably going to be scooping it over and over again on toasted baguette slices and Completely forgetting to eat. Dinner – There aren’t any rules right now and I dare say we lean into it.

Smoked Kitchen Keepers, my third cookbook, is out today for exactly six weeks and nothing makes me happier than seeing how many of you are already cooking with it. I know it’s quiet around here when I’ve driven around Washington DC, Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, Toronto, Denver, Boulder, and even Spartanburg, South Carolina. Minneapolis (next week!), 92nd Street Y (in NYC), then Austin, Houston, California, Portland, Oregon, Seattle, Vancouver, OH, and I just added a March date, busy season continues into the new year. in Columbus, Ohio! All booked tour stops and ticketing details are on this page, and I’ll keep updating it as we add new dates. I hope we get to hang out eventually. Do you know what’s going to be fun? I started cooking up all the recipe ideas while I was on the road this winter. I can’t wait.

Baked Brie with Garlic Butter Mushrooms

1 pound of mushrooms, any kind, here I’m using cremini and oyster
2 tablespoons capers, drained and chopped
3 large garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt (I’m using Diamond, other brands use half as much)
freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
juice of half a lemon
1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
8-ounce wheel of Brie (or Camembert)
a few sprigs of thyme (optional)
fried baguette pieces

notes:

I usually use cremini mushrooms but I also had some oyster mushrooms and tore them, and you should use whatever you have on hand.
You didn’t ask, but my favorite place to buy cremini, shiitake, and oyster mushrooms in NYC is the Bullich Mushroom Stand in the Union Square Greenmarket. They usually take place on Wednesdays and Saturdays at the North End. The prices are reasonable and the quality is impeccable every time.
Yes, there are capers here and you’re about to tell me you hate capers and ask what else you can use – I’ll use anchovies. If you’re going to tell me you don’t even like anchovies, then I’m going to suggest that you might not like the briny stuff and that’s okay, you can leave it out. No one ever complained about mushrooms roasted in garlic butter. But I insist that capers add a wonderful subtlety here.
The mushroom portion of this dish is adapted from the late Gourmet magazine. You can also find Garlic Butter Roasted Mushrooms here in the archives.