White wine glazed mushroom and cheese dip

I may do a post on making a Béchamel sauce eventually but for today I'll just give you a recipe for it, no pics to share yet. For those of you that don't know I think Béchamel is French for "fattening white sauce". I never said this blog was dedicated to healthy meals. We all get enough of the "eat healthy and exercise" business and you won't find any of that crap here. Take a walk every once in a while and your food won't kill you. Maybe eat a vegetable here and there.

Béchamel sauce
3 C whole milk
1/3 C unsalted butter
1/3 C flour
cayenne
salt

One 8 oz package white button mushrooms-quartered
One 8 oz package portabella mushrooms-sliced
1/2 C shredded Jack Cheese
1/2 C shredded Parmesan Cheese
1/4 white wine
4 tbsp unsalted butter-divided
parmigiano reggiano

In a sauté pan on medium heat melt the butter. Whisk the flour in gradually to make a roux. Be sure to keep the mixture moving so it doesn't burn. Basically what you are doing here is cooking the flour you added so it doesn't have a raw flour taste. It should take about minutes but when it starts to smell kind of nutty it's ready. Next slowly add the milk while whisking to keep lumps from forming. Keeping the milk cold will also help but don't worry if you have a few small lumps. Keep stirring until it comes to a boil and then take the pan off the heat. Congratulations! You just made a Béchamel sauce. Season with salt and a pinch of cayenne pepper and stir in both cheeses. We'll get back to this in a bit.

Sautee the button mushrooms in two tbsps butter until softened. After they're cooked you'll want to chop them as fine as you can get them. A food processor works well here but if you don't have one just use a knife. Stir them to the pan with the Béchamel sauce.

Next you'll want to brown the remaining butter in a sauté pan over medium high heat. Browning the butter adds a more intense, nutty flavor and will help caramelize the mushrooms. Just give the melted butter some time in the pan to darken a little. Add the portabellas and sauté until they are caramelized.  Once they start to caramelize add the wine and cook for a minute or until the wine has evaporated. Cooked mushrooms have a hard time absorbing liquid so they won't soak the wine up at all. The outside will be lightly glazed and the wine flavor will be somewhat subtle. You can skip this step if you want but sometimes I get fancy.

Put the Béchamel into an oven proof baking dish and top with the portabella mushrooms. Cook under the broiler until the top gets brown and bubbly.



It should look something like this

  Top it off with a little parmigiano reggiano and serve with bread or vegetables for dipping.

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