Fresh Mushrooms in Lemon Sauce

1 pound sliced or whole fresh mushrooms

3 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon chopped parsley

2 tablespoons chopped sage (optional)

1 tablespoon all purpose (plain) flour

1 egg yolk

Juice of 1 lemon

Salt and freshly ground pepper

If using whole mushrooms, wipe the mushrooms clean; do not wash.  Trim and slice them.  Sauté over high heat in 2 tablespoons butter for 5 minutes, stirring often.

Scatter the parsley and sage over the mushrooms and season with salt and pepper, white if you have it, but freshly ground is more important.  Using very, very little in this dish.

Melt the remaining butter and stir in the flour, egg yolk and lemon juice.  Pour this sauce over the mushrooms and turn off the heat.

Stir well and place over low heat for a few minutes to thicken, but do not let sauce boil!

Transfer to a serving dish and serve immediately.

Yield:  Serves 4 to 6.

When I made this, I used the two pounds of mushrooms called for in the recipe on the bag and found it overwhelmed all the other ingredients; so, I have cut back to 1 pound above.  But also think there may be a good trick to avoiding the curdling which is inevitable if the egg-yolk-based sauce comes near to a boil.  Just make the sauce (I doubled ingredients for that once I sliced the mushrooms and had a sense of the mass I was dealing with) then set it aside, keep sautéing the mushrooms, and add a bit of the mushroom liquid every three to four minutes.  That keeps the lemon sauce warm without the curdling danger.

The new  Whole Foods Market at Columbus Circle, near Central Park South/West, is fantastic!  Baggies in fresh produce department have recipes on them.  We were introduced to Whole Foods by Anson and Jenny in Seattle; fun to visit even if you are not shopping.

Could not resist adding another approach to serving mushrooms.  To see family favorite, which usually is served with Prime Ribs and Yorkshire Pudding in our home, double click here on Woods Hole Mushrooms, aka Fresh Mushrooms with Sherry.