Stir: All About Mushrooms

It’s been a while since I last visited Stir, the South End’s small 10 seater demonstration kitchen. If it sounds familiar to you, it’s because Stir has been a talent mill for chefs like Kristen Kish and Stephanie Cmar, Top Chef winner and current Top Cheftestant. As a lovely birthday surprise, Mr. E nabbed us two spots for the All About Mushrooms dinner.

From the very beginning of our relationship, Mr. E has come to know that I love mushrooms. It was our happy medium when Mr. E was toying with the idea of becoming a full fledged vegan, which thankfully for this carnivorous girl was short lived (but not short enough, cough).

Eric LeBlanc, the Chef de Cusine, said his mushroom broth had 4 beautiful hours to simmer down. Man, oh man, could you tell. The taste was so pure. The soup was so luscious and velvety finished with my favorite and yours, sherry vinegar. Sherry vinegar is a superhero ingredient in my kitchen. You cannot make rich soups without it. Next time you make a chowder, throw a splash in towards the end. Such a game changer. On top was a truffle creme fraiche and some homemade croutons. There were some grumblings among my fellow diners that there was not enough truffle flavor, but I’m going to be honest, that soup stood on its own two feet.

The risotto dish was earthy both in flavor and in appearance. It looks like mother earth planted these little morsels in my dinner! This was preconceived many days in advance and the planning really paid off. Mushroom risotto is a very classic dish, but the addition of squid ink took this unctuous beauty from Awesome to Star World level. It added just a touch of ocean brine, which paired so well with the Terre Nere wine pairing. It was as if wine pairings suddenly all made sense to me. The wine was crisp and light, with a mineral essence likely from the vineyard’s rich volcanic soil. It’s also a Sicilian wine, so hey, I have no problem with that. Before you judge that last comment, I’m no wine expert. In fact, I put my wine knowledge in the same bucket as my college football knowledge. I pick brackets based on jersey color and mascot. So needless to say, I pick my wine based on label appeal and cost.

The chicken of the woods mushroom was our first really beefy mushroom of the night. It is the light orange mushroom in the picture of the uncooked mushrooms above. The underbelly is a neon yellow, which is pretty daunting as a diner. Is neon even a natural color?

I loved this dish. It was definitely a playful move by the chef. He deconstructed a chicken, turning the insides of a chicken into a galantine encased in its own skin. Still didn’t top the risotto, which was such a stand out for me. Maybe it’s a surprise, maybe not, but chicken of the woods is one of those foods that actually does kind of taste like chicken. As if the neon didn’t puzzle me enough. My mind was a bit blown by that particular mushroom.

The egg, a very slow, low temperature poached egg was like a thick comforter on top of the galantine. The method for cooking the onsen egg leaves the egg in its shell, like a boiled egg at a much gentler temperature, resulting in a very thick pudding like yolk. Texturally, this dish could have used some snap, crackle, or pop, but it was still a yummy dish nonetheless.

At this part of the meal, I started feeling extremely full. Watching Eric prepare the pasta and seeing the handfuls of butter he kept adding to the rich sauce made me want to take a timeout and come back to tackle the pasta an hour later. The pasta itself incorporated dehydrated porcini, which was turned into a powder. Amazing. Then to revisit the sauce, he used his mushroom broth, an obscene amount of butter (not complaining), and not one but TWO truffles. I would have liked my pasta to have a bit more bite, but the truffles and the healthy dose of parmigiana drove me bonkers. So so good.

The finale of the meal was the scariest mushroom of them all, the lobster mushroom which seriously smells like fish. Whoa baby. It was prepared in very thin slices, so really not that intimidating at all. It also lent itself as a side to the pork, which was accompanied by a very smooth, tart apple sauce. Now, I’m not one to turn down bacon, but I’m definitely beginning to feel the effects of the bacon bandwagon. That being said, the dish was delicious and tasted like fall on a plate. Beyond it tasting good, nothing was too memorable about the dish.

Stir
102 Waltham Street
Boston, MA 02118
(617) 423-7847