THE MUSHROOM OF COURSE

September 30, 2011 6:12 PM

What are your favorite mushroom-intensive recipes?

I really, really love most varieties of mushrooms and would like to expand my repertoire of mushroom-based dishes. I would love to hear your favorite mushroom-intensive recipes, particularly soups, side dishes, and recipes that involve a slow cooker.

Difficulty: low. I am a reasonably competent cook and eat pretty much everything.

posted by lalex to food & drink (40 answers total)

Really, my favorite is mushroom risotto starting with a TON of them. Take an amount you think is crazy and double it. Cook them over super-high heat with lots of movement so that they don't release liquid all at once and steam, but are continuously sizzling. Add some porcini powder with the rice.
Mrs. Veggis loves roasted shrooms with balsamic and goat cheese. Big portos give you an attractive presentation, but you can do it with anything.
posted by a robot made out of meat at 6:18 PM on September 30, 2011

Madhur Jaffrey's Mushroom Curry. Fairly quick and easy, and, if that is not enough mushroom, you can add more!
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:27 PM on September 30, 2011 [1 favorite]

Also, don't salt them until they are cooked or else they will leach all of their liquid and you will end up steaming them.
posted by TheBones at 6:34 PM on September 30, 2011 [1 favorite]

I love mushroom ragouts

Mushroom risottos

Mushrooms and sausages go really well together, especially over polenta.
posted by TheBones at 6:37 PM on September 30, 2011

Cream of mushroom soup! Sautee with some butter, some thyme, season generously, and once the 'shrooms have sweated, add some stock and some cream or milk.
If you do the same thing but without the stock, you can reduce it to a sauce that can be poured over toast.
Hot and Sour soup uses two kinds of mushrooms - tree ear and black mushroom. I usually use Sambal for heat and white vinegar for the sour, and chicken stock for the soup.
Marinated mushrooms are a delicious appetizer. Lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, parsley, thyme, olive oil. Then just let them sit.
posted by Gilbert at 6:41 PM on September 30, 2011

Hungarian Mushroom Soup: It's a nice paprika/dill flavoured variant on cream of mushroom.
Mushroom Pasty: I made this once for a medieval-themed dinner party and it was tasty. I used little tart shells, though, rather than one big pie shell (made for better finger food).
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 6:53 PM on September 30, 2011 [1 favorite]

seconding Hungarian mushroom soup!

Mushroom Hazelnut Pate

one of my favorite blogs (nami nami - an Estonian food blog) has lots of mushroom recipes.
posted by vespabelle at 6:56 PM on September 30, 2011 [1 favorite]

Mushroom Duxelles is great (you should be able to find recipes all over the place). It's basically a big pile of mushrooms chopped very fine, a little onion, sauteed in butter and then cooked down and down and down to concentrate it. It's very simple to do, although if you do it by hand the fine chopping is labor intensive. It's intensely mushroomy. The point is that once you have it on hand it's very easy to just use a dollop in all sorts of other things (sauces, soups, rice, pasta, appetizers, ...). Or just spread it on crusty bread and eat it :).
posted by madmethods at 7:09 PM on September 30, 2011 [2 favorites]

Love this recipe from Austin's Soup Peddler:
Creamy Mushroom Soup with Thyme Croutons
posted by beyond_pink at 7:09 PM on September 30, 2011 [1 favorite]

Stroganoff! We used to add all kinds of extra mushroom types to beef stroganoff to make the deliciousness even more epic.
posted by blurker at 7:11 PM on September 30, 2011

I can't be bothered getting creative when all you need for actual trufax heaven is a ton of morels, about a pound of butter, and a frying pan.
posted by elizardbits at 7:11 PM on September 30, 2011 [3 favorites]

I often marinate and broil mushrooms (I call it "mushroom caviar" if they're cut up small). It's very rich. I don't really have a recipe so much as a method.

I make a marinade of probably about 1:1 balsamic vinegar/olive oil and add some lime juice, minced garlic, snipped green onion, salt, black pepper. I usually add some thyme and/or tarragon and/or rosemary. I might add a little red or white wine if I have some kicking around in the fridge.

I marinate the mushrooms in this for at least an hour or two. (Lately I cut them up small for marinating; but I used to do whole portobello caps, or thick slices of caps. It just depends how you want to eat them; small is good for topping something else - larger is good for a sandwich or a pasta meal.) I may or may not put some roasted red pepper strips or some sundried tomato bits in with the mushrooms.

Then I spread the mushroom mix out on a baking pan (along with some of the marinade) and stick that under the broiler for 5 minutes or so, watching the mushrooms because they can get blackened and crispy really quickly and you want them more kind of grilled and juicy than burnt.

After it all cools a little, I often mix in some crumbled feta or goat cheese. I like to let it sit for a while; the flavors continue to meld and it's even better the next day (but it doesn't last that long).

I use this as a topping on little slices of bread, or on pasta, or I put it in a sandwich, but to be frank I also just eat it by the spoonful from the bowl. So delicious.
posted by flex at 7:37 PM on September 30, 2011 [3 favorites]

Utter fungus heaven: Take 2 cartons of storebought mushrooms, just the regular kind that look like this.. They come in a sort of square carton, I think it's usually about 8 oz. per package.

Slice them less than 1/4" thin. Heat up your favorite large frying pan on medium-ish heat. Melt a whole stick of butter in it. Yes... a whole stick. Then toss all your shrooms in and give a good stir. Next, and this is the secret: add about 3 tablespoons of soy sauce. Cook the shrooms, stirring occasionally, about 15-20 minutes. You want them to shrink and get nice and dark, and their texture will get more firm. They will turn a deep brown coffee color. Taste as you go, add more soy sauce if you want more umami. (I like lots.) Fresh ground black pepper. You'll be amazed how much the shrooms shrink; this recipe will feed one hungry person or two for a nice side dish.

When they're cooked down enough and you just can't stand it (aah, the scent!), take 'em off the heat and eat them with a spoon (while moaning in pleasure), or heap them on good fresh bread, or put them on a steak, or over noodles, or whatever. Some of the best food you'll ever have. F'reals.
posted by cuddles.mcsnuggy at 7:42 PM on September 30, 2011 [4 favorites]

If you want to spend a lot of time on this there is veal Prince Orloff, which I have made vegetarian versions of, which have been wonderful

The Cook's Illustrated green bean casserole, a canned-soup free version of the canned soup thing, is quite nice; I use a lot more mushrooms than it calls for for maximum mushroom goodness

Slice of white toast + baked beans + loads of sauteed mushrooms + cheddar cheese sauce is a perfect breakfast

Mushroom wellington

Stuffed with just butter-rich sauteed onions, parmesan, bread crumbs, parsley is nice; marinating the mushroom caps in a bit of balsamic vinegar first is interesting (though possibly objectionable for mushroom purists)

Mushroom-heavy panade is great

Years ago Marks and Spencer sold a prepared Welsh rarebit in a 'mushroom and garlic' variety which was very tasty and easily duplicated; chuck your mushrooms and garlic in the food processor, sweat out the liquid, proceed with rarebit manufacture

Egg drop soup -- so simple

Gilbert's "sauce that can be poured over toast" -- yes -- also pasta, gnocchi, vegetables, etc

But don't always overthink this. A story I have enjoyed over the years involves a family member being taken to a very fancy restaurant for her 16th birthday and encouraged to order absolutely anything she wanted; she ordered plate after plate after plate of sauteed mushrooms.
posted by kmennie at 7:51 PM on September 30, 2011

Mushrooms Berkeley is enough to turn a determined carnivore into a vegetarian! The picture accompanying the linked recipe shows it over a piece of meat; I always use it as a pasta sauce. Heavenly.
posted by DrGail at 7:55 PM on September 30, 2011

Mushroom pastries. I don't have a recipe for these, which is great: you can improvise based on what you have on hand and what you want to serve them with.

Basically, you take a big batch of duxelles, season them highly (my favorite flavor for this: I add plenty of rosemary, then deglaze the duxelles pan with sherry). Now cool the mushrooms, mix with a splash of cream or half-and-half and a well-beaten egg, and lay the mixture into the pastry of your choice: puff pastry, traditional pastry, or a yeasted dough like Deborah Madison's olive oil galette dough. Bake at whatever temp is recommended for the pastry of your choice.

When I want to use up a lot of mushrooms, I make a batch of bite-sized mushroom pastries, flash-freeze them on a cookie sheet, then store tightly wrapped in the freezer. They're so handy to keep around: as an impromptu dinner with a green vegetable, as a cocktail snack when guests drop by, or as a party dish when I don't feel like cooking much.

For the same flavors much more simply presented, one of my favorite cold-weather dinners is creamed mushrooms on toast. Quarter or halve mushrooms, saute in butter or olive oil with plenty of pepper until they get nice and brown and a bit soft. Add just a touch of garlic and some herbs (I'm partial to oregano or rosemary, but sage or thyme would be delicious) and a big splash of brandy. When the brandy cooks down, pour in some cream or half-and-half and cook just until thick. Serve over thick slices of toasted bread; I like the lean simplicity of French or Italian bread with all that cream, but challah or country-style bread works fine. With a simple salad or a side of green beans, this makes a fantastic quick dinner.
posted by Elsa at 8:08 PM on September 30, 2011 [1 favorite]

This wild rice mushroom soup, made with brandy instead of white wine.

Mushroom pâté -- that's a rough approximation of the way I make it. I like it best with toasted walnuts, the fanciest mixture of mushrooms I can lay hands on, shallots instead of/in addition to onion, and the whole mess cooked in butter. Good for parties.

Last Thanksgiving I had this shepherd's pie with this sauce, incorporating a bottled shiitake broth we found at the co-op, and it was mind-fryingly delicious.
posted by clavicle at 8:33 PM on September 30, 2011 [2 favorites]

I can't be bothered getting creative when all you need for actual trufax heaven is a ton of morels, about a pound of butter, and a frying pan.
posted by elizardbits


I am embarrassed to admit that I have never had a morel. After reading this, I may need to remedy this situation as soon as possible.
posted by blurker at 8:59 PM on September 30, 2011

OH MY GOD. HERE TAKE IT*

First of all: when sauteing mushrooms, do not add liquid to the pan. Not even a little. The mushrooms will sweat their natural juices. When they've softened considerably, that's when you stir in a pat of butter. Also, a splash of balsamic vinegar at the end...oh man.

Secondofly: you need to make these garlic butter-roasted mushrooms. Have you ever had snails? Remember that sweet, sweet garlic nectar pooled in the crevice of each morsel? This Gourmet recipe that Deb uses recreates that garlic butter and roasts it with a pound of mushrooms until they all meld into this fantastic savory garlicky mess that requires lots of bread to soak up. So simple and palate-pleasing.

I love this mushroom-herb mac and cheese, which also requires a pound of mushrooms and bakes into a creamy, cheesy plate of gah. I like to stir in uncooked noodles before baking and increase the time by about 5-10 minutes. If they're all covered by the Mornay sauce, they will be fully cooked by the time the dish comes out, and if not, the curls of noodles poking out of the sides will be nicely crunchy. It may be an acquired taste but saves a few dishes and a lot of time.

*thank you mods for dealing with my ineptitude
posted by therewolf at 11:36 PM on September 30, 2011 [4 favorites]

I came in here to say mushroom risotto, but also to say try and find some nameko mushrooms for it. They're covered with a glutinous slime which thickens the risotto further and makes it totally awesome.
posted by aubilenon at 12:39 AM on October 1, 2011

wow, I am drooling over all these great suggestions. I have literally POUNDS of mushrooms in my fridge due to a self-control free trip to the farmers market, so I am definitely going to try some of these recipes this weekend.

* confidential to blurker: morels are AMAZING
posted by lalex at 1:06 AM on October 1, 2011

I have a recipe that I saved in my recipes folder as 'awesome mushroom pasta'. I make it pretty often. (Had it last night, in fact!) It's delicious and you can make it in under 20 minutes.

I'll dig out the actual recipe if you like, but the basis is as follows:

- Put a few dried mushrooms in a small bowl and cover with boiling water. Leave for 10-15 mins, then drain (keeping the liquid) and chop.
- Start cooking your pasta. (I tend to use farfalle or penne for this. I would use a shape rather than a spaghetti-type of pasta.)
- Cook up some chopped onion with a big pile of fresh (sliced) mushrooms and your dried mushrooms. Use a variety of interesting mushrooms if you have them, but bog-standard boring mushrooms work too. Cook for maybe 3-5 minutes, until mushrooms wilt and release liquid but not until they're totally sad and floppy and dead.
- Add a little cornflour in cold water to the mushroom pan, with some of the mushroom soaking liquid.
- Simmer for a minute or two, until the sauce thickens.
- Grate a little parmesan while you're waiting.
- When the pasta is done, drain and throw it in the mushroom pan. Add some pine nuts and a big pile of fresh raw spinach, then stir it all together until the spinach wilts slightly.
- Serve up and sprinkle with parmesan and plenty of pepper. (And salt, if you like.)
- Enjoy!

The word mushroom now looks really, really odd after typing it so many times. mushroom. mu...shroom. mush...room. Huh.
posted by badmoonrising at 1:39 AM on October 1, 2011 [1 favorite]

Shiitake mushroom as large as your face, butter, soy sauce. frying pan. go.
A more eloquently written version of the recipe.
posted by whatzit at 2:18 AM on October 1, 2011

Shooter's sandwich. Oh god, yes.

I also frequent honest-food.net, the author has some great recipes for mushrooms that he forages himself (including substitutions, if you're less inclined to hunt for the fungal buggers.)
posted by The GoBotSodomizer at 3:00 AM on October 1, 2011 [1 favorite]

Saute lots of mushrooms, with some onions and chopped swiss chard. Serve over polenta and top with parmesan cheese.
posted by belau at 3:30 AM on October 1, 2011

Wild rice and mushroom stuffing! You MUST MAKE THIS.

We made this last year for Thanksgiving, to rave reviews. We also have made it twice so far this fall. So good! I love the leftovers for breakfast with eggs over easy in the morning. And beans. Oh god. So good.
posted by teragram at 7:27 AM on October 1, 2011

Mushroom Julienne
posted by pyro979 at 7:51 AM on October 1, 2011

i LOVE mushrooms.

Super simple side dish:

- Most of a bag of fresh spinach
- Several portobello tops (i used three)
- Olive Oil
- 2-3 cloves minced garlic
- salt and pepper


Cube the mushrooms (chop into strips and then chop strips into squares. doesn't have to be exact at all)

In large skillet, heat olive oil, throw in garlic and let it get golden but not brown, then add mushrooms, salt and pepper.

When mushrooms begin to turn color, put spinach on top (it's going to look like a lot, but it cooks down so so much) and cover.

Come back in 3-5 minutes and be amazed as the spinach cooks down to not-very-much-at all.

Stir until the mushrooms are an lovely brown colr and the spinach is soft.

This is a great recipe to mess around with and add flavors to. Try some soy and ginger and sriracha for an asian theme!
posted by softlord at 8:21 AM on October 1, 2011

If you've got more than you can eat, try pickling some. Pickled mushrooms are good.
posted by nebulawindphone at 9:37 AM on October 1, 2011

Mushroom Lasagna!

http://smittenkitchen.com/2010/10/mushroom-lasagna/
posted by mjcon at 10:08 AM on October 1, 2011

First of all: when sauteing mushrooms, do not add liquid to the pan. Not even a little. The mushrooms will sweat their natural juices.

Yeah, this is how I deal with all wild mushrooms I pick- add salt to get them to sweat a little more. Then deglaze the pan at some point with liquid of your choice. I usually use white wine. No oil at the beginning because the mushrooms absorb it like a sponge (I have issues with slimy mushrooms).

A few days ago I made pearl oyster mushrooms with (our own) oven dried tomatoes, garlic and spinach. Dry-saute sliced mushrooms until turning golden, add a handful of chopped dried tomatoes, two or three cloves of garlic, and a good glug of wine to deglaze the pan. Just before serving toss in several handfuls of spinach to wilt, and grind some fresh nutmeg over the top. You can eat on buttered pasta if you like, or you can do what I did and just eat a bowl of it. I think next time I will add some toasted pine nuts or grated pecorino romano.
posted by oneirodynia at 10:24 AM on October 1, 2011 [1 favorite]

This Warm Mushroom Spread or similar. We can eat this all day. We routinely double it for parties, and use multiple varieties. Baby Bellas mixed with whatever the grocery store has that looks interesting. With just regular white mushrooms it's fine too.

I took a cooking class in my friend's home a few years ago and the best piece of advice I learned was when sautéing fresh mushrooms to start them in a dry pan to get the moisture out, before adding salt or butter or oil or wine. It makes a huge difference! (yes, I see this advice above too)
posted by kostia at 10:44 AM on October 1, 2011

The thing that converted me from a mushroom hater to a mushroom tolerator was a Vegetarian Bolognese pasta sauce that was in the fresh pasta section of my cheese department when I was a Whole Foodie. I reverse-engineered it from the ingredient list and then improved it - it's made with roasted mushrooms, tomatoes (Muir Glen fire-roasted ones make it even better), piles of garlic, onions, parsley, rosemary, tamari to kick up the umami even further, and red wine. Here's the recipe.
posted by jocelmeow at 11:42 AM on October 1, 2011

I love mushrooms too.

Cook's Illustrated had a terrific and quick mushroom ragu recipe earlier this year. I made a ton for the freezer.

This recipe for lemon-butter-garlic mushrooms on toast will make you weep.

One recipe I don't see here is for Champignons a la Grecque, a simple and common (and yummilicious) French dish that bizarrely you never see in the States:


this is a rough estimate - play around with it

1 lb button mushrooms, the smaller the caps the better
1 cup dry white wine
2 tablespoons olive oil
1-2 tablespoons lemon juice and maybe some zest if you are feeling energetic
1 teaspoon whole coriander seeds
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme or a few sprigs of fresh thyme
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon - or more, to taste - of tomato paste
salt and pepper to taste

Put everything except the mushrooms in a pot and bring to a boil. Clean the mushrooms while the liquids are heating. (If they are large, you might want to quarter them, but it's nicer to have whole caps.) Taste the liquid and make whatever adjustments you want. Sometimes I add some crushed garlic.
Then put the mushrooms in and simmer for about 10 minutes. Drain the mushrooms, save the liquid, return it to the pot and reduce by about half. Put the mushrooms back into the pot, let it cool and put the pot in the fridge overnight.
(You could serve it warm from the pot but they are better marinated overnight.) Serve at room temp as a salad. So very delicious.
posted by CunningLinguist at 1:22 PM on October 1, 2011 [2 favorites]

It's pretty simple but my favourite way to eat mushrooms is to slice them finely. Melt a big blob of real butter in a pan and some finely diced fresh garlic and to fry the mushrooms until they are all garlicy and buttery and delicious and then serve them on freshly made hot buttered toast. This makes a great quick supper though its not super fancy or anything.
posted by wwax at 4:50 PM on October 1, 2011

When I grill, I usually get a big tub of button mushrooms and marinate them in a mix of balsamic vinegar, olive oil, black pepper, and a ton of minced fresh rosemary. There are never leftovers.

I mentioned it here before in a vegetarian thread, but portobello mushrooms are great as a fake ramekin for individual serving shepherds pies. Oil the top of the mushroom, flip it upside down, ladle the cooked innards (bite-sized pieces of green beans, garlic shoots, onions, bell peppers, mixed with a binder, in a pinch, Campbells cream o mushroom) and cover with mashed potatoes. Bake at 350-375 until the potatoes get a little browned on the top. One could also add cheese to the top for a cheesy cripsy crust.

My standard ten minute pasta sauce recipe is either lardons of homemade bacon or sliced sticks of hard salami sauted untl they release their fat, then add sliced onion and saute till soft and a little browned, then add in garlic and stir frequently, avoiding browning the garlic. Then add a bunch of olive oil, get it nice and warm, and dump in several handfulls of sliced mushrooms. Add in a bunch of black pepper and some salt, and just at the end, add finely chopped basil. Sometimes I throw in a quarter to half cup of parmesan cheese, sometimes a little cream for more of a saucey feel.

The other night, I made a simple pilaf with Matsutake mushrooms (hugely popular in Japan, very seasonal, them showing up in the supermarket means it's fall, stupidly expensive). I grilled them over the stove for a little bit, chopped them, then added them to the rice and olive oil in the pan before adding the chicken stock. It was pretty nice, but definitely needed more salt.
posted by Ghidorah at 5:18 PM on October 1, 2011 [1 favorite]

Anthony Bourdain's mushroom soup. Yummmmm.
posted by n'muakolo at 5:02 PM on October 2, 2011

1 or 2 lbs mushrooms, any kind
4-8 strips thick cut bacon
2-3 cloves garlic
Some generous amount of red pepper
1 box whole wheat pasta (I like rotini)
1 large or 2 medium bunches of kale
1 tbsp or thereabouts apple cider vinegar

Boil a big pot of whole wheat pasta. When that's done, drain it and set it aside.

Meanwhile, fry the chopped bacon until crispy, then remove with a slotted spoon. Into the bacon fat, dump a bunch of thicky-sliced mushrooms and sauté until they release their liquids (mmmm, liquids). Now throw in a healthy portion of chopped garlic and some red pepper flakes, add the bacon back in, and let everyone get to know each other in the pan.

Now throw copious amounts of kale (torn or chopped into large pieces) in with the mushrooms and let it wilt down, stirring and turning constantly. Add a tablespoon or so of apple cider vinegar and then add that cooked pasta in. I like to grate parmesan over it in my bowl. Revel.
posted by pajamazon at 9:10 PM on October 3, 2011 [1 favorite]

I can now confirm, via several tastings, that soy sauce + sautéed mushrooms = awesome.
posted by lalex at 8:19 PM on October 4, 2011 [1 favorite]

I came a cross a trove of morels in my backyard a few years ago and posted an askme about what to do with them. Thought it might be relevant.
posted by Toekneesan at 11:16 AM on October 5, 2011