Welcome to the decadent food I dream about every year in late December, when I want even simple food to feel festive. Yes, I seriously argue that baked brie should be dinner. Or, if not dinner, perhaps a luxurious part of it, so perfect for that boisterous, festive time of year. For dinner, you can eat this with a large green salad and a cup of soup. You can serve this as an accompaniment to a large roast. You could also display it as part of a party card, an oasis of savory among all the cookies and melted cakes.
We’ll start with the mushrooms roasted in garlic butter in the archives, which I describe as a “snail” treatment on mushrooms, meaning they’re simmered in a not-inconsiderable amount of butter and garlic, then tossed with lemon juice and a shower of parsley until they’re done complex and wildly more delicious than so few ingredients might seem. But why stop there? When you end up snuggling into a little brie (or camembert) and letting it warm up in the oven, there’s no turning back: you’ll likely scoop it over and over onto slices of toasted baguette and completely forget to eat dinner — there really aren’t any right now Rules and I say we lean on them.
Smitten Kitchen Keepers, my third cookbook, is out exactly six weeks today and nothing makes me happier than to see how many of you are already cooking from it. I know it’s been quiet here while I’ve hopped through Washington DC, Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, Toronto, Denver, Boulder and even Spartanburg, South Carolina. The busy season continues into the new year with book tour stops in Minneapolis (next week!), 92nd Street Y (in NYC), then Austin, Houston, California, Portland, Oregon, Seattle, Vancouver, oh and I just got a March- Appointment added in Columbus, Ohio! All booking stops and ticket details are on this page and I’ll update them as we add new dates. I hope we finally get together. You know what else is going to be really fun? If I may start cooking all the recipe ideas I collected on the road this winter. I can barely wait for it.
Until now
6 months ago: Summer ricotta with grilled vegetables
1 year ago: Russian Napoleon
2 years ago: Small eggnog and baked brie with red balsamic onions
3 years ago: Plain mushroom casserole and banana toffee cake
4 years ago: Baklava Babka and Cosmopolitan
5 years ago: Dutch Apple Pie and Salted Butter Chocolate Chip Shortbread
6 years ago: Allspice Cheese Potato Bites
7 years ago: The brownest biscuits, gingerbread cake and feta tapenade Tarte Soleil
8 years ago: Deep dark gingerbread waffles, fairy tales from New York and crostini made from roasted grapes and olives
9 years ago: Breakfast Slab Pie, Gingerbread Snack Cake and Rum Campari Punch
10 years ago: Fromage Fort
11 years ago: Cinnamon, Brown Sugar, and Spring Onion Meatballs Breakfast Puffs with Soy Ginger Glaze
12 years ago: Spicy Gingerbread Cookies, Crescent Marmalade and Cheese Cookies and Milk Punch
13 years ago: How to throw brunch and still sleep in, spinach and cheese layers, pear bread, parmesan cream crackers, walnut pesto and flavorful caramel popcorn
14 years ago: Cranberry Vanilla Coffee Cake, Seven Layer/Rainbow Cookies, Locust Brownies, Braised Beef Ribs, Sugar and Spiced Candied Nuts
15 years ago: Chocolate truffle and caramel cake by Robert Linxe
16 years ago: Biscotti with parmesan and black pepper
Baked Brie with Garlic Butter Mushrooms
- 1 pound mushrooms of any kind, here I use cremini and oysters
- 2 tablespoons capers, drained and chopped
- 3 large garlic cloves, chopped
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt (I use Diamond, use half other brands)
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into chunks
- juice of half a lemon
- 1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
- 8-ounce loaf of brie (or camembert)
- A few sprigs of thyme (optional)
- Toasted baguette slices
- Heat oven to 450°F. In a 2 liter casserole dish, mix mushrooms with capers, garlic, oil, salt and plenty of pepper. Butter and sauté, turning once, until mushrooms are browned more deeply and a bubbly garlic sauce forms on the bottom, 15 minutes. While the mushrooms are frying, use a sharp knife to slice off the top of your brie—it’s fully edible, but this makes it easier to dip when warm. Make room in the middle of the mushrooms and nestle in the brie and garnish with thyme if using. Return to the oven for 10 minutes, until the brie is warm and fluffy, adding a few more minutes if needed. Squeeze the lemon juice and sprinkle the parsley over the mushrooms. Arrange baguette slices around the brie and mushrooms. Add a small spoonful to the brie and a larger spoonful to the mushrooms. Serve immediately, turning out the brie and scooping the mushrooms and their juice onto the toasted bread.
- I usually use cremini mushrooms but I also had some oyster mushrooms and tossed them in and you should use whatever you have around.
- You didn’t ask, but my favorite place in NYC to buy cremini, shiitake, and oyster mushrooms is the Bulich Mushroom stand in the Union Square Greenmarket. They are usually on the north end on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The prices are reasonable and the quality is impeccable every time.
- Yes, there are capers in this and you want to tell me you hate capers and ask what else you can use – I would use anchovies. If you’re going to tell me that you don’t like anchovies either, I suggest that maybe you don’t like salty things, and that’s fine, you can skip it. Nobody has ever complained about mushrooms just roasted in garlic butter. But I insist the capers add an amazing nuance here.
- The mushroom portion of this dish is adapted from the late Gourmet magazine. You can also find the mushrooms fried in garlic butter here in the archive.
Remarks: