Easy Cooking with Adam’s Mushrooms

Okay, so you went to the farmers market and came home with all sorts of cool stuff from the local producers, processors, and artisans. Amongst your loot, you discover that at some point in your journey through the marketplace you bought some fresh local gourmet mushrooms. So beautiful that there is some doubt whether to chop them up or just let them be.

This is a quick invitation to get into it, chop them up and enjoy their earthy scents and delicious flavors. Learn a bit about how to prep mushrooms and it rapidly becomes a great joy to cook with them.

First choose how many mushroom you would like to cook with, as mushroom do cook down quite a bit, be generous with your approximation.

Take notice of the stems.

Shiitake are a mixed bunch, some stems are too woody and are better used for stock / pureed into a sauce, others are quite tender and can be sliced and integrated with the rest of the mushrooms.

Oysters often have long elegant stems that can be sliced up and tossed into the pan along with the caps.

I like to leave small caps intact for visual appeal.

My favorite mushroom pan is a cast iron skillet. Melt some butter and let the pan heat up a bit on medium/high setting.

Add prepared mushrooms to pan and let sizzle for a couple of minutes. I stir the pan approximately every two minutes for a total of eight to ten minutes, to get the mushrooms browned.

Once happy with the color / texture of the mushrooms I crush a clove or two of garlic into the pan, stir around a bit and turn the heat down to low for an extra minute or two.

Enjoyed as is or added to any dish / soup / salad.