Epic Mushroom Toast from Inside The Gjelina Cookbook

There's really no place like Gjelina, one of L.A.'s coziest hotspots. From the dark, but fresh-feeling dining room to the rustic chic patio, this little Abbott Kinney restaurant is always packed - and half of the guests are there for this mushroom toast.  We can't deny Gjelina's ever-lasting cool factor. Some hotspots get so hot we tire of them quickly - or at least feign disinterest. This is not that. We're thrilled to feature Chef Travis Lett's obsession-worthy mushroom toast, a recipe that's packed in between nine other chapters full of killer recipes in the new Gjelina Cooking From Venice, California cookbook.   This recipe is no simple matter. But trust us when we say that all the fuss will be worth the trouble. Start here with these instructions for Gjelina's Garlic confit:  In a small baking dish, add eight peeled heads of garlic, 12 thyme sprigs and 3 bruised bay leaves and cover with about one inch of extra-virgin olive oil:. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour until garlic cloves are soft and lightly browned but still hold their shape. Our customers freak out over this dish, and there is a good reason why — seared mushrooms, lashed with house-made crème fraîche, a splash of wine, and a few herbs, mounded on top of grilled bread is always a crowd-pleaser. We make no claims for inventing this combination, but we proudly carry the torch. There’s a classic version that calls for brioche and wild spring morels, with an optional shower of black truffles. A similar, far less opulent version, can be made with everyday cremini mushrooms and simple ciabatta or a baguette. We opt for a variety of mushrooms supplied by our friend Matt Parker at Shiitake Happens, including nameko, clamshell, pioppini, chanterelle, and hen of the woods, in addition to porcini, matsutake, and the seasonal morels we occasionally score. Buttermilk stirred into good-quality heavy cream left out to culture for a few days yields a decadent crème fraîche with limitless possibilities. Real farmstead raw-milk crème fraîche is very difficult to come by, but if you are lucky enough to have access to it, by all means use it here. Do not substitute store-bought sour cream. It doesn’t hold up to the heat and may break and curdle the sauce. When our guests ask me for a recipe and find out that it calls for homemade crème fraîche, they’re often hesitant, imagining that making crème fraîche is a complicated process. The reality is that it’s very easy to make, but simply requires a few days of waiting to pull off. The plus side is that crème fraîche keeps well in the refrigerator and can be used to enrich pasta dishes, risotto, soups, vegetables — anything you want to bring a little richness to. Whip it gently to serve over desserts, slightly sweetened or not, in place of standard whipped cream. Unlike the other toasts in the Gjelina cookbook, this is best served piping hot, before the crème fraîche starts to set. Small portions can be served as an appetizer, but a large slab of this toast alongside a glass of earthy red is the way I prefer to take it down.

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