Danny's Mushroom Toast

I have a pretty painful injury at the moment, so Danny is taking over with most of the kitchen prep-work. He's been watching me do these things his entire life (his playpen was even in the kitchen) and it seems to come easily for him. I'm glad, because I'm in so much pain I want to crawl into bed and scream. I'm making my kid learn to cook instead. I didn't photograph it because...come on, mushrooms on toast? I think we all know that isn't going to be photogenic.

You Will Need:

4-6 thick slices white bread (we used a stale sourdough baguette), lightly grilled in a bit of clarified butter.
1/4 cup grated swiss cheese

2 tablespoons butter
1/2 lb. mushrooms
1 tablespoons dried sage
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
Salt/Pepper
1/4 cup dry white wine (we used vermouth because my shoulder hurt too much to uncork a fresh bottle of white wine...whine...oh god, I'm miserable)


For the sauce:
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
Salt/pepper
1 cup milk


Wash the mushrooms, remove stems. Mince stems finely as possible, then squeeze dry in a kitchen towel to extract most of the liquid. Set these aside as you will cook them first. Now, finely mince the remaining caps, squeezing them dry in batches.

Heat a small, heavy saucepan and melt the 2 tablespoons of butter. Add spices, salt/pepper, and mushroom stems. Cook over medium heat about five minutes until they soften. Add remaining mushroom caps and cook another five minutes. Turn up the heat to high, add the wine, and then cook rapidly, stirring with a wooden spoon (or a spatula, or whatever won't get too hot to hold) until all liquid has burned off. Reduce heat to medium and cook a few minutes longer. Set aside while you make the sauce.

Sauce:

melt the butter in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. With a wooden spoon, add the flour and cook until it foams up. Slowly with a metal whisk, add the milk until it is incorporated. Whisk fairly regularly until sauce thickens. Stir in mushrooms.

Heat the broiler. Place bread crusts in a heat-proof pan (I used a cake pan) and pour sauce over. Sprinkle with cheese, place under broiler and cook until golden. Serve hot. I helped Danny with the broiler because I'm not stupid, and didn't feel like a trip to the hospital. Otherwise, this is an easy enough dish for my six year old to manage.