MARASH GIRL'S RECIPE FOR PIER 4 MARINATED MUSHROOMS

Mushrooms were on sale last week at Russo's, our local greengrocer. The white mushrooms, so fresh and clean, medium in size. . . I knew I wanted to buy them (who wouldn't?) but I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with them. At the very least, I knew I could make a delicious dish by sauteing sliced onions in butter or olive oil or a combination, (butter alone burns too easily), then adding the washed sliced mushrooms, sauteing the lot, and adding the juice of one lemon. Delicious! Or perhaps . . .

Okay, Marash Girl. . . so buy the mushrooms and worry later about how you're going to prepare them.

As I drove home with 6 pounds of mushrooms in the boot of the car (a little over zealous I was, I admit), I remembered the last time I bought that many mushrooms at one time. Levon and I were recently married, living on Beacon Hill, and walking to the North End on Saturdays to do our fruit and vegetable shopping. There we could buy a pound of mushrooms for (25 cents?). But of course we never bought only one pound because in those days, Pier 4 Marinated Mushrooms were in vogue, big time. Pier 4 Restaurant was the restaurant of choice for many of us because when we ate there, we would be served freshly baked popovers and marinated mushrooms before we even ordered!

Everyone wanted that mushroom recipe, and one day, the word got out that the Pier 4 Marinated Mushroom recipe was printed in the food section of that day's Boston Globe. My husband, the historian, reminds me that many of us ran to get the Globe for that recipe, but we were disappointed to find that it did not appear in the largest morning circulation of the Globe, as the word on the street had suggested it might. It turns out that Anthony, owner of Pier 4 Restaurant, and others at Pier 4, saw the recipe in the earliest and lowest circulated edition of the Globe, and were able to (probably through lawyers) have it removed from the succeeding morning editions. By the time the main morning edition of the Globe was published, the marinated mushroom recipe was missing. All of us newly weds on Beacon Hill were frantic, looking for that earliest morning edition, and if we were lucky enough to find it, or know of someone who had it, we clipped out the recipe for Pier 4 Marinated Mushrooms and, before filing the recipe away in a safe place, prepared the most delicious marinated mushrooms, a replica of the very mushrooms we ate at Pier 4, mushrooms that we served throughout the late 1960's and early 1970's every time we had guests (which was often in those days on Beacon Hill).

Years have passed since I've thought about marinating mushrooms. It was on that ride home from Russo's that I remembered my love affair with Pier 4's Marinated Mushrooms. But where was that recipe? Couldn't find it anywhere. . . so I went to the internet, God bless it, and typed in Pier 4 Marinated Mushrooms. Not a solution. None of the recipes that I found matched my memory of the ingredients or the method I had used years ago. Okay . . . time to put on my creative wings and fly. And here's what I recreated.

Marash Girl's Recipe for Pier 4 Marinated Mushrooms

Marinade for 1 pound fresh small white mushrooms

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar (in which a garlic clove has been sitting for a week or more, or wine vinegar in which a garlic clove has been sitting for a week or more, BUT if you use red wine vinegar, BEWARE: your mushrooms may turn pink)
2/3 cup olive oil
2 tsps. combination thyme, oregano, marjoram, basil, rosemary and sage (which may be purchased in one bottle labeled 'Italian Seasoning')
1 tsp. Aintab red pepper (my adaptation, available from Armenian or Middle Eastern Stores)
1/2 tsp. each kosher salt, sugar and black pepper
Juice of one lemon, squeezed and added after marinade is boiled.

Method:
Wash and trim l pound small white mushrooms (if not small then cut into quarters). Place mushrooms in a heavy iron pot (I use le Creuset), barely cover with cool fresh water and bring to a boil. Simmer a minute or two. Drain off the liquid [and keep that liquid in the freezer for a delicious addition to your next foray into the world of soup making].

Combine all ingredients of the marinade, bring to a boil, turn off heat, add freshly squeezed lemon juice and stir.

Pour the marinade while hot over the hot drained mushrooms, store in a glass container, and let sit for a day before eating.

Hey, wait a minute -- mentira! You don't have to wait. My husband could smell the marinade cooking from his third floor office -- I could hear him heading down the stairs -- and sure enough, there he was, eating them right out of the pot. 'Delicious!', he said. 'Taste just like the Pier 4 mushrooms!' What better recommendation can I give you?

P.S. These mushrooms will last for months in the refrigerator IF you can resist finishing them off in the first week!

N.B. If you cheat and use canned mushrooms, don't blame me when you are disappointed with the results!