Order and Mushrooms

Mushrooms are my thing. My favorite thing to cook. In my Big Ideas section there is a more comprehensive Mushroom essay. The following is a quick and specific case. Tuesday night I made some Trumpet Royale mushrooms, and last night I made Oyster mushrooms in a similar way for a similar purpose.

I wanted the mushrooms to be a stand alone perfectly cooked ingredient. Just oil, salt and pepper. I wanted them to be balanced, medium cooked, and versatile to be eaten with meat, fish, or a pasta. A big condiment-like component. When I’m cooking family style at work I have a framework in my head of the dishes and how they should be arranged on a plate, but I leave it open for interpretation by the diner. I leave the door open for combining the dishes I make into one big thing, or eaten as all separate courses.

Oyster Mushrooms, in formation

Oyster mushrooms are water filled sponges. You have to cook them in a specific way to unlock their flavor and nutrition. High heat toasting, then season and roast. If you add salt too early, the water starts to escape and you never develop the bready, nutty toasted flavor they contain. And you have to give them space to get rid of their water without steaming and ruining their neighbors. There are a few ways to approach this, but this is what I did last night.

Wipe a heavy pan with oil. Arrange mushrooms like so. Quick trip under the broiler to start the drying and toasting and then a spraying with oil of your choice. More broiler until color. Salt, pepper, (optional thyme) and another spray of oil. MORE color! Onto the stove top for 30 seconds on high heat. Drizzle with oil, and a little more salt. REST. (When I say “spray” with oil, I mean put a good oil into a kitchen pump spray bottle)

Perfectly cooked mushrooms that you can do anything with. I put them on top of a buckwheat pasta that needed an umami and textural lift. It worked.