The world is your oyster mushroom! The expert guide to cooking delicious mushrooms
Most of us know where we stand with button mushrooms: they're harmless, bland, and quite hardy. You can stick them in a stew or tomato sauce, or toss them on top of a pizza without worrying about how long it takes to cook or how long it takes to dry in the fridge. But no one gets excited about them.
"I haven't cooked button mushrooms in a very long time," says Jeremy Lee, Quo Vadis chef-owner and author of Cooking: Simply and Well, For One or Many. "But they're perfectly adorable - they'll make you a decent omelette and they seem to be inextricably linked to British deep frying."
Increasingly, however, we don't We are spoiled for choice when it comes to mushrooms. Supermarkets have long offered a panoply of “exotic” or “forest” mushrooms, often in mixed packs: shiitake, of course, but also maitake, enoki, oyster mushroom and king oyster. In season, specialty shops offer a range of fresh wild mushrooms including chanterelle and chanterelle, while cultivated versions can be purchased year-round.
This is great news for cooks, especially vegans or vegetarians looking to expand their range, or omnivores trying to reduce their meat addiction. But all this variety can be overwhelming. Even the names seem almost deliberately misleading, especially when you find out that chicken of the woods and hen of the woods are two different mushrooms, but hen of the woods and maitake are the same thing.
So how do you select, store and cook such a wide and seasonal range?
When choosing mushrooms, freshness should be your main concern. “Freshness is vital,” says Lee. “As soon as they are cut, they start to rot or dry out. So a firm rod."
A mushroom in good condition will keep for a few days in a paper bag in the vegetable drawer of your refrigerator, but when it comes to store fresh mushrooms, maybe the best advice is: don't.
"If you buy really good mushrooms, I would tell you to eat them right away. more,” says Adele Nozedar, food writer and author of The Hedgerow Handbook and Foraging with Kids.
Generally, you shouldn't rinse a mushroom, or even wet it. "Most chefs won't wash a mushroom because it will absorb moisture," says Gary Bebbington,...
Most of us know where we stand with button mushrooms: they're harmless, bland, and quite hardy. You can stick them in a stew or tomato sauce, or toss them on top of a pizza without worrying about how long it takes to cook or how long it takes to dry in the fridge. But no one gets excited about them.
"I haven't cooked button mushrooms in a very long time," says Jeremy Lee, Quo Vadis chef-owner and author of Cooking: Simply and Well, For One or Many. "But they're perfectly adorable - they'll make you a decent omelette and they seem to be inextricably linked to British deep frying."
Increasingly, however, we don't We are spoiled for choice when it comes to mushrooms. Supermarkets have long offered a panoply of “exotic” or “forest” mushrooms, often in mixed packs: shiitake, of course, but also maitake, enoki, oyster mushroom and king oyster. In season, specialty shops offer a range of fresh wild mushrooms including chanterelle and chanterelle, while cultivated versions can be purchased year-round.
This is great news for cooks, especially vegans or vegetarians looking to expand their range, or omnivores trying to reduce their meat addiction. But all this variety can be overwhelming. Even the names seem almost deliberately misleading, especially when you find out that chicken of the woods and hen of the woods are two different mushrooms, but hen of the woods and maitake are the same thing.
So how do you select, store and cook such a wide and seasonal range?
When choosing mushrooms, freshness should be your main concern. “Freshness is vital,” says Lee. “As soon as they are cut, they start to rot or dry out. So a firm rod."
A mushroom in good condition will keep for a few days in a paper bag in the vegetable drawer of your refrigerator, but when it comes to store fresh mushrooms, maybe the best advice is: don't.
"If you buy really good mushrooms, I would tell you to eat them right away. more,” says Adele Nozedar, food writer and author of The Hedgerow Handbook and Foraging with Kids.
Generally, you shouldn't rinse a mushroom, or even wet it. "Most chefs won't wash a mushroom because it will absorb moisture," says Gary Bebbington,...
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