Mushrooms

Mushrooms aren’t vegetables. They are their own kingdom. They can taste meaty, but they aren’t animals either. They build their cell walls out of Chitin. The same substance that crabs and insects make their shells and exoskeletons out of. To unlock the nutrition of mushrooms you need to cook them. Interestingly the techniques that make mushrooms edible and nutritional, are the same that enhance flavor. This really is not the case for vegetables and meats.

I think mushrooms in all forms are the most interesting things to cook. They take techniques. They require knowledge, attention, and experience. You can’t depend on a recipe to get them right. They are the flowering bodies of a living organism. My favorite flavors that emerge from mushrooms come from out of nowhere. For example, spongy, boring, and scentless Royal Trumpet mushrooms can smell exactly like freshly baked, yeasty bread when cooled properly. Then they turn into bacon. If you like, you can pickle them and have pickled bacon bread!

I’m fortunate that I only have a small amount of people to cook for compared to most restaurant chefs. I can make tiny batches and give a lot of attention to the cooking of mushrooms. Even the best restaurants in the world have systems and techniques that have to be developed for a bigger scale. I have the luxury of being able to focus on a single sauté pan of mushrooms, and adjust my technique as I cook.

I learned my favorite technique for pulling flavors out of these types mushrooms at my first job out of culinary school. The name of the restaurant was RM and we had a lot of great cooks there, including a talented young executive chef Matt Accarino. The technique was used for Black Trumpet mushrooms, but it works for most exotic mushrooms.

Video of this technique coming soon, but the recipe is in Daily Cooking (Black Trumpets…) The recipe that follows applies to most exotic mushrooms.

The first thing you need to do is to start exposing more of the mushroom’s surface area. The more torn, sliced, and exposed surface, the better. It shouldn’t be too small or thin because it needs some time and a lot of heat to make happen what I want to happen. If it is too small or thin, it will burn before it gets there.

The trick here is the high heat needed to toast and brown. Have your pan HOT and DRY. Oil won’t be able to handle the initial heat necessary to toast the mushrooms. Medium/High heat for about 2 minutes. Dry and flat mushroom surfaces in a pan like this will SQUEAK. Just like basketball shoes on a court. Press them lightly with the back of a flat wooden spoon or spatula and you will hear it. When the mushrooms start to brown, toast, and smell nice, add a little oil. I like to use grapeseed because it is neutral and has a high smoke point. Give it a little toss and move around. Drop in some fresh thyme sprigs and some grinds of black pepper. Don’t add salt yet because it will pull out a bunch of water that will stop the browning process. Add a little more oil, another toss/move, and now add salt. When I add salt I actually think about eating these mushrooms, look at them, and then add the correct amount. The water will come out of the mushrooms and violently “boil”. After about 10 seconds I pull the pan off of the heat and splash it with good Jerez sherry vinegar. Let all of that evaporate (do NOT flame) and add a nice amount of extra virgin olive oil. Spread the mushrooms on a tray or plate and let them rest to room temp. Adjust salt.

Matsutake getting a little color