What do I do with dried mushrooms?

September 8, 2014 7:09 AM

What's the best, most foolproof way to reconstitute dried mushrooms? What recipes should I use them in?

I've been given a bunch of fancy dried mushrooms: one package each of shiitake, chanterelle, yellowfoot, and black trumpet. I love mushrooms, but my experience cooking with them is limited to button mushrooms in spaghetti sauce or stir-fries. And the last time I tried to use dried mushrooms, they turned out unpalatably rubbery. I don't remember precisely what I did; I definitely soaked them, but I must have done it wrong. There are no instructions on any of the packages, and I don't want to mess them up.

I'm also looking for recipe suggestions that will maximize the mushroomy goodness. Ideally simple recipes without any obscure ingredients, since we don't have a lot of time to cook these days. Anything that refrigerates or freezes well and makes for good leftovers is a plus.

Recipe restrictions: no cheese whatsoever, nothing egg-based (eggs are fine as an ingredient if they're not detectable in the finished dish; eggy foods like quiche are not).

posted by Metroid Baby to Food & Drink (16 answers total)

I find dehydrated mushrooms really shine in soup. They need to absorb a fair bit of liquid to reconstitute, and they also need to be cooked after that.

This recipe is good, as well as the many cream of wild mushroom soup out there.

They would also shine in a risotto, for the same reasons of being able to absorb liquid and simmer. It's hard to reconstitute dried mushrooms and not find them a bit rubbery, the long cooking or braising helps with that.

Now, if you ever find yourself around fresh wild mushrooms, ask me about the goat cheese and mushroom tart (adapted from Mark Bittman). It'll make you weep.
posted by tatiana131 at 7:21 AM on September 8, 2014 [1 favorite]

Dried mushrooms do have a funny texture, so they really do their best in recipes where they're (a) boiled/simmered or cooked wet for a long time, AND (b) chopped small enough that you rarely actually chew them. They're designed to add flavor to a dish, but not to replace fresh mushrooms or to be a "main ingredient".
Risotto is great (example, with dried porcinis, which explicitly reminds the chef that cheese is optional)
I make a mushroom stuffing (bread-cube dressing like for turkey) that includes a bunch of fresh button mushrooms for texture, and a small amount of (reconstituted, chopped) dried morels and/or porcini for flavor.
posted by aimedwander at 7:23 AM on September 8, 2014

Lentil soup is totally improved with dried mushrooms! Rinse them and then put in a couple of cups of water and simmer for 20 min.

Take out the mushrooms (if you want to be fancy rinse again to get rid of sand). Chop them finely and add both steeping liquid and chopped mushrooms to the soup. (Be careful, there will also be a little sand in the bottom of the steeping liquid - so don't pour that in.)

Here is my go-to soup:
1.5-2 cups lentils
1/3 cup vermouth
4-6 strips bacon
1 medium onion
1 piece celery
Salt
Pepper
Cayenne to taste
1 tbsp balsamic
3 shakes cumin
Dried mixed mushrooms

Fry bacon, remove, brown veggies in oil. Add everything back in except bacon. Cook til lentils are tender. Serve and garnish with bacon.
posted by mercredi at 7:23 AM on September 8, 2014 [1 favorite]

Chanterelles, especially, tend to be rubbery when rehydrated. You can grind the dried mushrooms into a powder and use that to avoid the unpleasant texture. Fresh, they're really good in cream sauces, I imagine this would go for dried as well.

Black trumpets would work well in a risotto, or you could probably also put them in a cream sauce. They have a rich, lovely, earthy flavor that I find similar to porcini.

Shiitakes are awesome rehydrated (boil water, pour over mushrooms, let sit 5 minutes or so), chopped into smallish pieces as needed, and stirfried with soy sauce and sesame oil. Use as a garnish in Asian dishes, in sushi rolls, etc. You can also just add them into stir fries once rehydrated.

No advice on the yellowfoots, I haven't been lucky enough to find any. :)
posted by momus_window at 7:35 AM on September 8, 2014

My favorite use for dried shiitakes is to, once you've made a good dashi with them, to cut them up an apply the Momofuku soy sauce pickles recipe to them. Pretty goddamn tasty.

But yeah, all soups are improved greatly by the addition of dried mushrooms. Its a happy place.
posted by furnace.heart at 7:39 AM on September 8, 2014

You can grind the dried mushrooms into a powder and use that to avoid the unpleasant texture.

Dried mushroom powder is one of the secret savory-boosting ingredients in Umami Burger's burger recipe.
posted by Juliet Banana at 7:50 AM on September 8, 2014 [3 favorites]

I reconstitute shiitake mushrooms by putting them in a small bowl, add some sherry, then add water to cover. It ends up being around one part sherry to two parts water, give or take. Then I microwave them at 60% (so the liquid doesn't boil over) for two to three minutes. Once they are cooled and sliced, they add yummy flavor to stir-fries.
posted by DrGail at 7:50 AM on September 8, 2014 [3 favorites]

The water you soaked the mushrooms in to rehydrate is as big a boon to your cooking as the mushrooms themselves. Mushroomy water is great for risottos, soups, lentil dishes, vegetable stock and anything for which you need an extra boost of non-boring liquid flavour. If you're not using it in the dish you're immediately making, freeze it in a Ziploc bag.
posted by Pallas Athena at 8:01 AM on September 8, 2014

I have a "quick" bolognese recipe that calls for using dried mushrooms (porcinis, in fact, but I've used other varieties). In that recipe, you cover the mushrooms with water, cover the bowl with plastic wrap, nuke for 30 seconds, then let sit for 5 minutes. That seems to soften the mushrooms up sufficiently. In my recipe, they get tossed in the food processor, but in a different presentation, I imagine they'd be just fine tossed in whole. Use a coffee filter to strain the liquid and then add the liquid to your dish as well, for added mushroomy goodness.
posted by devinemissk at 8:04 AM on September 8, 2014

I'd grind them. You can use a coffee grinder. Then clean it afterwards by running a couple slices of bread through it.
posted by fingersandtoes at 8:11 AM on September 8, 2014

I've used a couple of dried shitake in my stuffing. Also, I've used shitake in a similar dish with couscous (again, chopped up fine and soaked a long time before adding to the couscous.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 8:33 AM on September 8, 2014

There are a lot of Asian cuisines/recipes that make use of dried mushrooms--the rubbery texture is par for the course and expected in these types of dishes, because, as Ze Frank would say, "that is how the dried mushroom do." For basic stir fry, I soak for about a half hour in about a cup of water in glass measuring cup, nuke for a couple of minutes, and add the mushrooms and soaking liquid at the same time I add cornstarch/water to make the final sauce. I make the cornstarch/cold water slurry very thick and use the mushroom soaking water for the balance of the liquid.

If you don't have your own everyday Chinese-ish stir fry process, here's an actual recipe (and helpful discussion that's pretty similar, although this one doesn't nuke the 'shrooms, so maybe that step is not even necessary?

The other recipe that I will share creates a storable dried tomato/dried mushroom mix/rub that can be used to coat chicken, pork or fish before pan frying or baking, or added to the cooking liquid for pasta or rice side dishes. It calls for dry dried tomatoes of this sort rather than the jarred-in-oil kind. I've found the food processor works better than a blender for this techique. The linked recipe produces a Moroccanish spice palate, but you can also do a more Italianish version with Italian herb blend, or curryish by replacing the cinnamon with curry powder. The recipe says it will keep for a month in the refrigerator, but that's an extremely conservative number--there's nothing in it that will go "bad" or that even requires refrigeration.

http://www.recipe.com/spiced-tomato-mushroom-blend/
posted by drlith at 9:17 AM on September 8, 2014

i made this recipe for a creamy mushroom pasta sauce the other day, it was very tasty. Calls for dried mushrooms.
posted by lizbunny at 9:54 AM on September 8, 2014 [1 favorite]

I find that this recipe works great with rehydrated shiitake mushrooms (just soak them for 30 minutes to rehydrate). The recipe itself seems pretty flexible, just as long as you don't change the amount of liquid too much.
posted by that girl at 4:48 PM on September 8, 2014

Response by poster: Thanks for all these ideas, as well as the reassurance that some rubberiness is normal. I wouldn't have thought to grind them, and adding mushroom powder to burgers sounds amazing - that'll probably be my first experiment!
posted by Metroid Baby at 6:17 PM on September 8, 2014

Pour almost-boiling water over, like you're making tea. Cover with saran, allow to rest and reconstitute for ~15 minutes.

Use in pasta or soup. Include the water! If in a pasta sauce (I suggest a cream sauce) reduce to all buggery before adding. In soup, just sub 1:1 with whatever other stock/liquid you'd be using. If a cream soup, just throw the liquid in and cook down.

You may wish to strain the liquid through a coffee filter in case of dirt.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 1:49 PM on September 10, 2014