A Fungus Among Us

I like mushrooms. I like all sorts and in all sorts of ways. This is just a couple of the ways I use them.

Puree - finely dice mushrooms and then add to a pan where you have already sauteed a couple of diced shallots, sautee until the mushrooms dry a bit and the deglaze with a bit of beef stock and red wine vinegar, and add some whipping cream and salt, cook a minute or two and then remove from heat and puree in a processor Serve on bruschetta with some parsley or thyme on top

Duxelles - chop mushroom caps in a processor (reasonably finely), wring them out in a towel to dry them out a bit, sautee them with butter, chopped shallots and S&P until they start to dry out and add some more butter and some vermouth or other flavoured wine (I really like Amontillado with mushrooms). This can be a prelude to beef Wellington, or just to serve on crostini with a sprinkling of herbs on top (or my gave, some crumbled crisp bacon), or tossed with pasta. You can also add more butter before freezing and roll it into a log that you can cut discs from to use as a compound butter on steaks etc.

There is a plethora of mushroom recipes out there and I thought I'd post a couple I regularly use to incite some of you to respond with your favourites.

[Jenise]

Bill, I do some similar things. The Duxelle idea, sure. Haven't gone as far as a pure puree though, I should try it sometime.

Total agreement about sherry and mushrooms. I often buy a huge bucket of them and do a quick wok saute--as soon as they start to color but before they weep, in goes sherry and generous amount of Lawry's Garlic salt, which I call out by brand name as it's superior and won't leave behind a metallic taint as many garlic powders do. Transfer to a bowl and serve with two forks for you and your loved one. Have crusty bread ready to go to sop up the juices after the mushrooms are gone or sop while you go. With a glass of Lopez de Heredia? Fine, fine dining.

Sliced sauteed mushrooms (butter, herbs) over eggs on toast for breakfast.

Warm mushroom salad: sliced sauteed mushrooms finished with red wine vinegar, red wine herbs de provence, garlic and olive oil in a sautee pan, spinach, argula, tatsoi and or other any choice of similar greens added at the last second to only barely wilt. OR, mushrooms same way, spooned over butter lettuce just before serving. Top with poached egg.

Spinach salad's on queue for lunch, btw.

And then there were the giant morels we were served at the Gav back in the day, stuffed with crab, IIRC......(you may have been there).

[Jenise]

Yes, I had those, but that wasn't the first place I had crab-stuffed morels; that would have been Tomo. A PNW-ized sushi item. Really great, both times.

[Jenise]

Which reminds me how much I love stuffed mushrooms. We could do a whole thread on the brilliant ways this can happen!

Well you know that one of my favourite accompaniments to Pinot Noir (at least I'm pretty sure I've done this for you) is a large portobello, destemmed and broiled with truffle oil and grated parmesan and a bit of fresh garlic and salt. Makes a whole course on it's own.

[Jenise]

I've had variations on that but not yours. Would be excellent of course. Now let's imagine that with a crabmeat topping...

I'm starting to get hungry!

Another really good one with either big reds (Rhones) or Italian reds.

Soak 1/4 cup of dried cepes, morels or what have you, in water for 20 min., then drain them (reserve liquid) and chop them finely.

Put 1 lb. of minced beef, 1 small chopped onion, 2 egg yolks and a tbsp of chopped thyme in a bowl along with the ceps and make into small (thumb sized) meatballs.

Make a sauce with 7/8 cup milk, 2 oz. toasted walnuts buzzed in a food processor fairly finely, 3 slices of white bread without crusts, soaked in the milk and the mushroom liquid, and add 3 oz of roquefort cheese and 4 tbsp parsley all added to the food processor, and buzzed until smooth.

And yes, the crab might add something to the portobello, but it really is excellent on its own. Don't overdo the truffle oil, though!!

Fry the meatballs in olive oil, and then add the sauce to warm it and serve it all over noodles.

It is kind of an Italian mountain/hunter (cacciatore) style of dish, fairly simple and more than fairly tasty.

Another simple but good one:

SILKY MUSHROOM PUREE
2 tablespoons shallots (or onion)
8 oz cremini mushrooms (weight is without stems)
2 tablespoons butter (or bacon fat)
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/4 cup beef or vegetable stock
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 teaspoon salt (to taste)

Finely dice shallots and set aside.
Prepare mushrooms: wipe off any dirt from the mushroom caps with a damp paper towel, remove the stem and finely dice. Weigh 8 oz of mushrooms and set aside (you should weigh the mushrooms after you remove the stems).
Over medium-high, heat the butter (or your choice of fat) in a large pan with a heavy bottom (I recommend cast iron or carbon steel).
Add the shallots to the pan and sauté for 1-2 minutes until translucent.
Add the mushrooms and sauté for about 5-7 minutes, until cooked through and mushroom juices release and evaporate. (The pan should start to dry out.)
Add the beef stock and red wine vinegar to deglaze the pan, scraping up all of the brown bits off of the bottom of the pan. Continue cooking for 1-2 minutes or until almost all the liquid has evaporated.
Stir in the heavy cream and salt. Cook for 1 more minute to combine all ingredients and then remove from heat.
Carefully pour the mixture into a blender and puree until smooth.
Taste and adjust the salt as needed.

yields
2 servings

Favourite way to serve - on crostini with crumbled crisp fried bacon on top (and maybe a sprinkling of chopped parsley as a sop to the vegans)

I had a vegetarian meal tonight with grilled, marinated portobellos topped with chimichurri sauce.

[Jenise]

I'm starting to get hungry!

Another really good one with either big reds (Rhones) or Italian reds.

Soak 1/4 cup of dried cepes, morels or what have you, in water for 20 min., then drain them (reserve liquid) and chop them finely.

Put 1 lb. of minced beef, 1 small chopped onion, 2 egg yolks and a tbsp of chopped thyme in a bowl along with the ceps and make into small (thumb sized) meatballs.

Make a sauce with 7/8 cup milk, 2 oz. toasted walnuts buzzed in a food processor fairly finely, 3 slices of white bread without crusts, soaked in the milk and the mushroom liquid, and add 3 oz of roquefort cheese and 4 tbsp parsley all added to the food processor, and buzzed until smooth.

And yes, the crab might add something to the portobello, but it really is excellent on its own. Don't overdo the truffle oil, though!!

Fry the meatballs in olive oil, and then add the sauce to warm it and serve it all over noodles.

It is kind of an Italian mountain/hunter (cacciatore) style of dish, fairly simple and more than fairly tasty.

That's a fascinating meatball recipe, Bill, I've never had anything like it. I'll do it in the near future when I can have dairy again.

Re the mushroom, I wouldn't have added the crab to the other treatment. I just suddenly thought since we'd otherwise discussed crab stuffed mushrooms that a portobello as a veseel would be an interesting marriage of crabcake and fungus.

Another huge fan. The most common mushrooms in my market here are oysters, which I most often use sauteed in pasta or roasted crispy and served as side dish. We also get cinnamon caps, which are not as amenable to roasting but great flavor sauteed.

My other standard prep is sauteed and finished with herbs and acid, sherry vinegar often, picking up on the theme mentioned earlier.

I love so many other kinds of mushrooms, but all depends on availability.

[Jenise]

Cinnamon caps! I've never even heard of those. We don't see them here, but I do love oyster mushrooms prepared all the ways you mention.

Maitake mushroom pizza is our favorite homemade pie these days.

And an exceptional Chinese mushroom dish? Shitakes and green onion (green part, not white, like 1" lengths) in oyster sauce with ginger topped with a dusting of chopped mac nuts. Kind of resembles Mongolian Beef, but who needs the beef? The color contrast, crunch and flavor is a real winner.

I'd rather eat shiitakes than shitakes, which sound rather feculent to me.

Cinnamon caps! I've never even heard of those. We don't see them here…

Great nutty flavor. Although perhaps more important is the fact that the local mushroom producer brings gorgeous specimens.

Maitake mushroom pizza is our favorite homemade pie these days.

Maitakes are so delightfully fragrant. Sometimes I buy at WF but we get lovely ones in the market during the fall. I’ll sauté them and use on pizza, which is delicious and great with wine. But my favorite way to use mushrooms on pizza is to roast the oysters and then add the crispy slices right when serving the pizza. Great flavor and texture contrast.

. But my favorite way to use mushrooms on pizza is to roast the oysters and then add the crispy slices right when serving the pizza. Great flavor and texture contrast.

Agree - if you cook mushrooms on a pizza they often end up dry and with reduced taste but if you sautee or roast them gently they retain flavour better.

Anyone found that they like the flavour of enoki mushrooms (what there is of it)? Very subtle and often used more as a visual garnish than for flavour. They look great on a bowl of broth but not on a pizza!

[Jenise]

Rahsaan, since I moved here a mushroom grower has come to town and is doing great things. I especially love to get his fresh lions manes, blue oysters and trumpets. I'll have to ask him about cinnamon caps; I don't remember them by name.

Bill, yes, raw mushrooms don't work very well on pizza, but it doesn't take much cooking to make them pizza ready. Just a flash in the pan, really. That said, one of the better pizzas in life included raw mushrooms, cooked in one of those 900 degree ovens in a parking lot in Alberville France with roquefort and good French ham added when it came out. Nothing open so we drank a brand new Vieux Telegraphe we'd purchased earlier in the day and ate this in our room. The raw mushroom was perfection--but they were sliced paper thin, and that was key.

I adore enokis, often make them as a side salad or cold spicy garnish. OH, and in some restaurant somewhere I got some deep fried. Now THERE'S a plan, if you deep fry that is (I don't). They were golden brown and thin like angel hair. Amazing frazzle on top of a steak.

And don't forget about risotto in which any dried mushroom rehydrating liquid is used to deglaze the pan that the fresh mushrooms have been sauteed in and then concentrated for adding to the stock. A splash of vermouth, marsala or wine depending on the rest of the meal or accompanying wines added here and then to the cooking rice. Lots of possibilities if any leftovers from arancini to patties coated in seasoned panko and shallow fried to a crisp. Great served warm on a bitter greens salad with fresh mushrooms, shaved fennel and Parm dressed with lemon juice and a few drops of good olive oil.
At the WI farmers market a vendor has blue, pink and white oysters, lions mane, shitaake, enoki and occasionally morels if you get there early enough. Always on the Saturday menu in some form during FM season

And an exceptional Chinese mushroom dish? Shitakes and green onion (green part, not white, like 1" lengths) in oyster sauce with ginger topped with a dusting of chopped mac nuts. Kind of resembles Mongolian Beef, but who needs the beef? The color contrast, crunch and flavor is a real winner.

There's a whole genre of Chinese cooking developed in Chinese Buddhist temples. The monks are vegetarians for religious regions. Some Buddhist temples raise funds by putting on lavish banquets for visitors. Over the centuries they have developed an elaborate set of dishes that look, feel, and taste like famous meat-containing Chinese banquet dishes but are vegan. Mushrooms often take the place of meat in these dishes. Your "Mongolian Beef" sounds like one of these dishes.

Dried shiitake and wood ear mushrooms are IMO essential components of Chinese hot-and-sour soup.

There used to be a small but excellent fine dining restaurant in Portsmouth, NH called the Blue Strawbery. One of the dishes that I had there was a heavenly sherry/mushroom chowder (mushrooms and potatoes, no clams or fish). Sherry does marry well with mushrooms.

-Paul W.

We like soups a lot, and we are always carrying on a mental debate about mushroom soups, and in particular those with cream and a fortified wine involved.

Traditional use is heavy (whipping) cream and sherry (I like Amontillado for this) but the other half of my brain keeps shouting 'No - use Madeira and creme fraiche instead!" The subtle differences are a matter for reflection.

An ancillary question is when you make a soup with wine, what wine should you serve with it - the one you added, or something completely different? Opinions..?

[Jenise]

My opinion? Something different. Put sherry in the soup, drink sherry: no longer taste sherry in the soup. Unless you want an immersive experience (and sometimes we do), generally speaking sameness disappears but contrast highlights. It really depends.

Unless you want an immersive experience .

Tried that once, perhaps an excess of sherry, but my wife pulled my face out of the bowl before I drowned.

I agree with you that the wine in the soup should be different enough from what you are drinking that neither will be unduly affected by the other.

[Jenise]

Yeah, it can be a hard line to find--resonance vs. contrast, when both are in fact desirable. It's just a question of how far you take it.

Btw, another mushroom dish we love: Quickly sauteed maitake mushrooms finished with soy sauce and then scooped onto a noodle-scallion pancake.

Btw, another mushroom dish we love: Quickly sauteed maitake mushrooms finished with soy sauce and then scooped onto a noodle-scallion pancake.

Yum!