Always cook & learning-Mushrooms best way?
 

Hello.
I always cook for my Son and I every weekend. It is special, whereas he eats out of a bag every day with his mother.

Anyway. How do you cook Mushrooms -sliced- they way they do in restaurants or on pizza!

I LOVE mushrooms and am too dumb to figure it out!

I put them in a frying pan add butter, some water and either garlic powder or the real cloves.
I just can't get the restaurant deal.

What am I doing wrong.

Stupid question but to me it would make me a better cook.
Thanx. for your knowledge if anyone responds.

Well for my money you don't need the water, they will weep their own. Medium heat and keep them moving. Way easy to over cook them.

I've experimented and can't get close to the Chinese food we order i.e-only on rare occasion.

Is it the peanut oil?

What mushrooms?

The common white mushroom isn't the best cooked fresh IMHO. I use it canned if I add it to sauces. Usually to stretch stir fried meat.

What I really like is oyster mushrooms. Buy them fresh at the Asian store, making sure they are from the USA. These do really well stir fried with vegetables / chow mein.

HTH.

G

Butter, salt, low heat for a few minutes. Cook them separate from everything else because they taken on the flavor of anything they are near.
Found these and a bunch more in the front yard this morning. I was beginning to think we weren't going to have any this year. Butter and salt only for them..

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1334630565.jpg

Ok, I just read your second post .... Chinese food doesn't have plain old white mushrooms. They usually are oyster or at least shiitake mushrooms. As I said, fresh oyster is the way to go and it will fry up nicely / at the same time as your veggies / meat in a stir fry.

G

Chinese people use dry mushrooms. You have to rehydrate them first.

Where do you get those ?:confused:

i get them at any regular asian market. the best come from Japan, but as part of china's move towards domination..they have taken the spoor from japan strains and really flooded the market..good mushrooms. china grown, japanese product.

mine are from china. not so sure i can afford japanese mushrooms. i keep smaller portions in a dark cupboard stuffed into ziplock bags..i deep freeze the larger portion and pull from the stock as needed.

they last forever.



http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1334634634.jpg

I Thank you for that pic. and your knowledge. I've never seen mushrooms like that before. They don't look very appetizing but I'm sure that they're expensive.

The white mushrooms/sliced that I buy are about $4.95 per pound. I consider that pushing it for what it is. Maybe I'm very ignorant.

nah..i dont think they are that expensive. i got something like a small pillowcase full for $40?

you can get a small box for maybe $8. they weigh nothing, and the drying really concentrates the flavor. i say you try em. rehydrate them and use them like a regular shroom

With supermarket mushrooms I fry them in butter. Not so hot as to burn the butter. And don't over cook them. Another good trick, a cheat's trick, is to tip a can of mushroom soup over the fryed mushrooms and render that down a little. Then tip it over a steak :)

Don't slice them. Quarter them. Sautée them in a little butter with Worcestershire sauce and a splash of vermouth. Trust me.

For supermarket white or brown (cremini) mushrooms, I either slice thick or quarter, then sauté in plenty of butter and some salt and pepper. Hot enough for long enough to get the mushrooms very browned and crusty. No added liquid, dry is preferred to soggy. Those mushrooms don't have much flavor so they need the browning, butter, etc.

For Asian dried mushrooms, they have lots of flavor, the issue is that after soaking they are kind of soggy. You can then dry-cook them to browned and crusty but it takes time. I usually wet-cook (braise) them in some sort of liquid - stock, rice wine, etc.

Stuff like shiitakes, portobellos, etc - I think it is tasty enough that I don't work very hard at cooking them. Saute in olive oil and salt works for me. Or roast.

This works well.

Be sure to add salt and pepper. Use kosher salt (or similar), as iodized salt has a flinty taste.

You can experiment a little from here too with different wines instead of vermouth, and other sauces like A1 or whatever else you have around. Think savory and beefy, and think what goes with that.

Don't over cook them. They're best browned (i.e. cooked dry to start) and with a little tooth to the texture.

Good luck.

Melt butter over medium heat. As the butter melts add sea salt, not too much. Once the butter has melted, add the mushrooms, either sliced or 1/4. If sliced, cook much less. You want the shrooms firm not limp when done. A minute or so prior to removal, add minced garlic or my fav Ajo galic that has been coarse ground...not too much on the Ajo if you do not like heat. Pepper after removal. Enjoy.

I agree with Moses - that is a very good way to cook them. I roast them as well - they are good in Chinese soup.

Your front yard might as well sprout gold! I'm _so_ missing morel season in northern michigan...

Butter, olive oil, maybe some dry sherry or white vermouth. Once done add more butter. Even white buttons are tasty that way.

For a mushroom-focused dish I like a creamless "cream of" mushroom (mostly buttons) pureed with some fancier ones sauteed on top as a garnish. If the fancy ones aren't fresh you can reconstitute dried ones (chanterelle, oyster, morel) with sherry or even brandy for an even more concentrated flavor.

I guess dinner's figured out tonight!

This is how I cook them. My Hungarian grandma taught me after many days in the kitchen with her. These are not exactly healthy so I don't eat them that often.

I am not picky. In Jersey I could find Morels growing at the base of apple trees. Not here in Texas though.

Dice up some mushrooms. Have a frying pan on low heat with 1/2 stick of butter, crushed red pepper for some zing, garlic, sea salt, and fresh cracked black pepper. Add in diced mushrooms and stir frequently so as not to burn them. Do not add water, the mushrooms will weep plenty of water. I like to add a dash of sherry to give it a very rich flavor.

Now on the side you flour some boneless pork tenderloin slices and then cover with chicken broth and sherry and let reduce. Plate it with either pasta or mashed potatoes with the seared pork loin on top smothered in the mushrooms with a nice slice of bread.

Heaven.

On a pizza, they go on raw and whatever cooking happens happens in the oven.

One of my favorites is to sautee them down with onions and garlic, some butter, white wine, then use the liquid as a base for making gravy... do a nice pork tenderloin, the mushroom gravy on top... yum.


Of course, we get some mushrooms around here that you make tea out of, maybe mix some koolaide into it...