Sheet Pan Roasted Mushrooms

I love getting my Williams Sonoma catalog. I love their photography....the gadgets....the electronics. It's the one catalog I keep on my desk for several weeks...something I can just grab and peruse during idle moments.

The big deal in the latest catalogs is the Instant Pot. In fact, the Instant Pot is everywhere. It was Amazon's #1 selling kitchen appliance last Christmas. I've studied it quite closely and decided it's not for me. The only advantage it seems to offer is that does a very good job of cutting down cooking time.

Being retired, I have nothing but time on my hands. I'm home all day and can cook whenever I feel like it. I don't need to make soup stock in 15 minutes. I don't want an Instant Pot baked potato in 10 minutes.

I'm old fashioned, having learned a lot of my cooking skills from my grandmother. To make soup stock, you need a stock pot and water at a low, rolling boil for at least two hours. To make a fabulous roasted, baked potato, you smother it in olive oil, kosher salt and fresh black pepper and you roast it for 2 hours at 450º.

 I came across a recipe this week called "Instant Pot Mushrooms". Imagine, perfectly cooked mushrooms in just 4 minutes! I can't imagine. I want my mushrooms tossed with garlic butter and lemon juice and roasted in a hot oven so that the moisture content is reduced and the flavor of the mushroom is greatly intensified.

So I'm going to stick with my old fashioned methods. But I would not dismiss anyone who used an Instant Pot. If you work and are short on time, it's a great tool to get healthy, made-from-scratch food on the table. Anytime you can cook with fresh ingredients and bypass processed food is a win-win. But I still choose to hang with my dinosaur buddies...watching that big meteor get closer and closer.


Ingredients
4 ounces butter, melted (1/2 stick)
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon fresh squeezed lemon juice
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper
3 pounds cremini mushrooms


Directions

1. For easy clean-up, line a sheet pan with non-stick foil (or regular foil with a light coating of nonstick spray).
2. Preheat oven to 375º.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together butter, garlic, lemon juice, thyme and rosemary; season with salt and pepper to taste.
4. Place mushrooms in a single layer on the sheet pan. Stir in butter mixture and gently toss to combine.
5. Slide sheet pan into oven and cook for 15 minutes. Then serve.

Wine pairing: Roasted mushrooms are a side dish. So I would let the entree dictate the pairing. But I would be inclined to serve these with a small steak. So a Cabernet Sauvignon or Syrah would certainly be tops on my list.

Grogs and Goldie doin' it gramma style in 1956.