Poppy's Black Garlic Mushroom Base/Consomme
A good way to spend a rainy day when you are holed up inside...
This is a simple recipe that produces upwards of 4 quarts of mushroom base/consomme, and about 1 pound of cooked mushrooms that are easily bagged and frozen for later use in sauces, gravies, pizza etc.
In the process of making black garlic you are left with another source of incredible flavors. After fermentation, the skins of the cloves and the top of the heads have a remarkable amount of the black garlic oils, bits and pieces left for flavoring. Waste not want not...
Difficulty = Medium
Time
Preparation = 1/2 - 1 hour (+/-)
Cooking = 2 - 4 hours
Storage = 1 hour (+/-)
Total = A good portion of a rainy day...
Ingredients:
3 lbs white top button mushrooms
3-4 +/- quarts filtered water
1/4 - 3/4 pound black garlic skins, stems and head caps
Remains of black garlic from your empty black garlic infused EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil) bottle
Pint jars or quart jars with lids
Directions:
Using a mushroom brush (or dry paper towel) brush clean all mushrooms and stems (do not clean under water)
Put cleaned mushrooms into a medium/large stock pot
Add all of your black garlic skins and head caps on top
Fill pot with enough filtered water to cover mushrooms
Press mushrooms and skins down to submerge once, add more water if needed
Add left over black garlic pieces from your empty EVOO bottle
Use medium-medium low heat until you have a strong simmer, and cover partially with lid to help with reduction.
Let simmer for 2-4 hours and reduce by 1/3.
Remove from heat and let cool.
Strain liquid through a fine metal sieve
Remove mushrooms from sieve onto a dry cookie sheet to cool
Clean all mushrooms by hand, removing all black garlic skins and then slice
Put slices on dry cookie sheet and blast freeze (if possible) or freeze for 3-4 hours uncovered.
Using a extra fine sieve and funnel, ladle the base/consomme into pint and/or quart jars for freezing.
Let cool completely before capping.
Remove the mushroom pieces from the freezer and break loose (spatula) the frozen mushrooms slices from your cookie sheet. Place pieces in smaller plastic bags for freezing. Then put each of these bags into a larger freezer type bag. Put enough mushrooms in each of the smaller bags for future meal prep. Label and date your freezer bag.
Once cooled, cap your jars and label with the date and freeze.
Results
You will have produced an excellent mushroom base/consomme for use in gravies, French onion soup, mushroom soup, oriental food/stir fries or whatever you can create. The frozen mushrooms work well to replace canned mushrooms when in a pinch or are wonderful in homemade spaghetti sauces, or on top of pizzas.
Notes:
Peeling black garlic is tedious and messy, thus the reason to save and use the skins/heads/stems. So you will be able to get all you can from your efforts.
When using a sieve to filter the consomme use a rounded scraper to help improve flow of liquid through the funnel. Simply moving your scraper back and forth across the sieve/filter will move sediment out of the way so the base will flow quicker. I also clean the sieve after every other jar to help improve flow.
Leave room in each jar for expansion during the freezing process.
You can use both pint and quart jars so you'll have various amounts on hand depending on your needs when cooking. Plan ahead and remove jars from your freezer 1-2 days in advance and refrigerate to thaw. You can do a quick thaw of a frozen jar by placing it in a pan with cold water and let sit to thaw. Do not try and thaw in hot water or the jar could break.
Black Garlic Information Links:
Black Garlic (Black Gold) Part 2
The pictures below show the various steps taken to complete the process. The results are well worth your efforts.
Bon Appetit
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