BVC Eats: Frugality with Confit Mushrooms or Tomatoes

You confit something by cooking it slowly and then preserving it under a layer of fat. The best known food of this type is confit duck legs, which are unbearably delicious and widely available in French supermarkets. Here in the US you can spend eyewatering sums on duck legs in gourmet grocery stores. Or, you could confit something yourself. This is a technique to preserve a cheap seasonal food for later eating, so keep your eye out for sales.

Mushrooms or tomatoes are easy, much cheaper than duck. And they make a great addition to beans, which we discussed a couple weeks ago. Again this is a loosey goosey recipe, with no real fixed amounts.

Ingredients

A lot of either fresh mushrooms or fresh cherry tomatoes. I used a pint of presliced cremini mushrooms from Kroger, which were on sale for $5. Pick one or the other, you cannot do mushrooms and tomatoes together, but be generous. They’ll cook down a lot.

Olive oil

Optional seasonings: a garlic clove or two. Sprig of thyme? Salt and pepper.

If the mushrooms are whole, wash them and stem them. Halve or quarter them if they are big. Mine were presliced so I didn’t bother. If you are using tomatoes, wash and stem them, and cut the bigger ones in half.

Toss with olive oil and optional seasonings, put the onto a rimmed baking sheet, and bake them at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes. The actual cooking time will depend upon how juicy your produce is, and how small the pieces are. You don’t want it to burn, but you want most of the liquid to cook off — to raisinize your tomatoes or mushrooms, not char them.

When they’re done your mushrooms will have shrunk drastically. They shouldn’t be crisp but they should be leathery and brown. If you are using tomatoes, all the liquid in the pan should have boiled away. The tomatoes, if you didn’t cut them in half, will have burst. They should feel like raisins, chewy but not crunchy. Take them out of the oven and let them cool.

Pack the cooled veg into a jar with a tight lid. My 4 cups plus of fresh mushrooms fit handily into the half-pint jar you see in the picture. Pour olive oil on top until it covers the veg, and refrigerate until needed. Confited tomatoes or mushrooms form a great backbone for a pasta sauce. They add heft and umami to salads. And they give a delicious kick to beans! You can even use the olive oil in the jar, to brown meats or the onions.