"Bon Appetit!" Meryl Streep's throaty voice rings through the theatre and each audience member feels as though the immortal Julia Child is speaking directly to him or her. From her exuberant first taste of Sole Meuniere upon arriving in France to the publishing of her ground-breaking book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, we are whisked along on the journey of this marvelous mistral that is Julia Child.
On the opening day of Julie & Julia, I joined a group of Utah food bloggers to watch the story of Julia Child's journey and the parallel, but very different, story of Julie Powell, the blogger who made it her mission to cook all 524 of the recipes in Mastering the Art of French Cooking in just 365 days. The beauty of watching a movie such as this with a group of people who love cooking and food is that you get a chance to re-hash every bit of the movie afterwards while enjoying a lovely potluck of goodies.
While it was great fun to pick apart the movie and revel in the cooking and love stories from which this movie was woven, I kept coming back to one thought: Thank you, Julia.
This is the recipe I chose to share with my fellow bloggers. While it is not one of Julia's recipes (in fact, it is from the pages of Bon Appetit Magazine), it does include butter and cream. That's a good start, isn't it?
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Cut one baguette into 18 to 24 ½-inch diagonal slices. Place them on a baking sheet and put them in the oven until the bread slices are barely golden, about 5 minutes.
Clean ½ pound of fresh shiitake mushrooms and 4 ounces of crimini mushrooms. Be sure to remove the stems from the shittakes. That is one big pile of mushrooms and not one of them escaped my greedy grasp.
Chop all of the mushrooms and mince two cloves of garlic.
Melt 3 tablespoons of butter in a large skillet set over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms and garlic, and cook until the mushrooms are very soft and brown, about 10 minutes.
And now - the clincher. Add ½ cup of whipping cream and cook until the mushrooms absorb all of the cream.
It's not a great picture, but I just had to let you live the dream with me.
Remove the skillet from the heat and add 2 ounces (about ½ cup) of Gorgonzola cheese to the mushroom mixture.. Stir until the cheese is melted.
Chop 2 ½ ounces (about ½ cup) of thinly sliced Prosciutto and stir it into the mushroom mixture. Season with freshly ground black pepper. It's unlikely that you'll need to add salt because the Gorgonzola cheese and prosciutto add their fair share of sodium to the mixture.
If you are finishing the crostini later in the day, spoon the mushroom mixture into a bowl, cover, and refrigerate. Reheat it in the microwave or on the stovetop just before serving.
Divide the mushroom mixture amongst the bread slices. Don't be stingy.
Sprinkle chopped fresh parsley over the crostini. Serve immediately. I know, I know. You can thank me later.
Mixed Mushroom, Gorgonzola, & Prosciutto Crostini
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Cut one baguette into 18 to 24 ½-inch diagonal slices. Place them on a baking sheet and put them in the oven until the bread slices are barely golden, about 5 minutes.
Divide the mushroom mixture amongst the bread slices. Don't be stingy.
Sprinkle chopped fresh parsley over the crostini. Serve immediately.
Anonymous
Would anyone happen to know how to make the dish Julie made in the opening conversation with her hubby about what was she going to do and they sat down to bread grilled with butter in a pan with what looked like red and yellow tomatoes piled high on the bread. Loved the movie can't stop thinking about tbis dish and drooling over the possibility of eating it.!