Cooking with Mushrooms
Cooking with mushrooms can be a daunting task if you're not used to it, but it can be one of the most rewarding experiences you've had in the kitchen. There are two sections to this page; Fresh Mushroom Prep & Dried Mushroom Prep.
Fresh Mushroom Prep
Each species has a different texture & flavor and there are different ways to prepare them. Lion's Mane, Chicken of the Woods, Hen of the Woods, porcini, white coral fungus, chanterelles, matsutake, morels and a wide variety of oyster species (Pleurotus sp.) are the most common in Oregon. By and large, they can be seasoned and pan fried just like meat.
Most mushrooms can be fried in butter and garlic and enjoyed simply as they are. I recommend trying this method (as well as performing an allergy test) before adding them to an entire meal. After all, we each have our own individual palates and we all respond differently to different foods.
Porcini, chanterelles, and chicken of the woods can be very robust and powerful. As such, I feel they're best dried and ground to a powder, and used in soups, sauces or gravy.
King Oysters and Black Pearl King Oysters are best sliced into medallions due to their very thick stems. Golden oysters don't have much body and will fry or shrink into small pieces, and have little need to be cut. The main stem that hosts the bouquet of smaller mushrooms will be tougher and can be turned to medallions; the individual fruits are much more delicate and can be largely left alone or ripped into pieces with your hands.
Oysters can be sliced the long way with the gills, so that some stem and some gills make it into every slice. Otherwise, the gill pieces can end up very small and feathery, and I like leaving my mushrooms slightly bigger as a personal preference.
White coral fungus is great battered and fried due to their numerous branches and crown-tips which hold a great deal of flour and seasoning. The Western North America cauliflower fungus (Sparassis radicata) also tends to hold a lot of batter, but can also be cut and fried like noodles due to its thicker texture. Both species tend to hang onto some pine needles as they burst through the forest floor. You can leave them for the Vitamin C and flavor that they add, or, break the fungus apart into smaller bundles of branches and remove them.
You should boil any wild harvested mushroom for 10 minutes before ingesting. This kills any remaining bugs, eggs, larvae and bacteria. Members of the Pleurotus genus ingest nematodes (yes: carnivorus shrooms) and other small organisms, so you will eventually encounter some. Typically, mushrooms with a bad bacterial infection will smell funny or feel slimy, but it's always better to play it safe and/or assess your own risk tolerance.
Basic Dried Mushroom Prep
- Add enough water to a shallow pan to cover your dried mushrooms.
- Add enough oil so that when the water is sucked into the mushrooms and/or evaporates, the rehydrated mushrooms won't burn.
- You can add diced onion, garlic, or a little butter at this stage. It will look like soup. That's fine. You're trying to blend the flavors and force the flavored water into the mushrooms, speeding up the process with heat.
- You can also add canned table mushrooms to stretch your gourmet mushrooms a little further (but be aware of the salt content).
- Turn up the heat on the stove and bring it slowly to a boil. You'll see your mushrooms start to get larger and more spongey. This is also called "reconstituting" your dried mushrooms. Some may expand greatly, others may expand very little.
- Once they become meaty again, fry off the remaining water, leaving the oil behind. You can add more olive oil or butter if they start to stick.
- At this stage, you can add raw meat and cook all of the ingredients together. Or, fry off the water and add the garlic, onions, and reconstituted mushrooms to pasta sauce. Sometimes, I'll reconstitute my mushrooms then add sliced ham and make scrambled eggs.
Some mushrooms like Chicken of the Woods have a lot of chitin and can be tough to chew. Mushrooms like oysters and lion's mane tend to be a little chewy or "fishy" and make a great meat replacement for vegan dishes. Slices of king oysters have a taste and texture like scallops. Lion's mane can taste nutty or like sweet shrimp or crab.
I like to add water, oil, garlic, and onions as a base. From there, add thyme, powdered rosemary, mustard powder, onion salt, marjoram, paprika, celery salt, and garlic powder. Dashes of white pepper and ginger are good for dishes that will end up having chicken in them.
Worcester sauce is really good to add for red meat dishes. Black pepper tends to be better (for me) when using porcini or chanterelles with sausage or meat sauces.
Or: add water, sesame oil, teriyaki sauce, Worcester sauce, and soy sauce to chives, onion, and dried mushrooms and make ramen in the same pan.
Or: Throw a bunch of carrots, celery, onion, lentils/beans/noodles in a stew pot with a whole chicken, some water and a few handfuls of your favorite dried mushrooms and boil away.