Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - Don't Use Too Much Salt When Trying Phideaux's Mushroom Recipe

My density and lack of understanding of what dry sautee-ing (sp?) entailed lead to a serious derailment of what could have been some quite excellent mushrooms**. My big mistake was that I put WAY TOO MUCH salt in the pan. I thought that because i didn't have kosher salt, i would just compensate by dumping in the Morton's. Big mistake. I ended up with a special EnLaCalle recipe that I like to call, "Heart Attack Mushrooms". Quite possibly the saltiest things I've ever eaten. Like blowing olives out of the water salty. I ate them anyway, and am hoping I don't keel over today. Good thing I'm sweating so much in this mid-nineties heat. Perhaps I've been able to more or less obtain some sort of homeostasis with my salty shrooms. Friends don't let friends royally screw up their gourmet cookin'. Go easy on the salt folks. When the man says a pinch, he means a pinch.


**For cross-reference, see "Eating Habits" thread, page 4 I think, for Phideaux's tasty recipe.

Here is a quicky recipe on my favorite way to prepare mushrooms. Boletes and oysters are best, but any fresh mushroom will do well cooked this way:

Heat a completely DRY skillet over medium heat.

Slice your mushrooms into reasonably thin slices.

Toss the mushrooms into the dry pan with a good pinch of kosher salt (any salt will work, but kosher salt's larger pieces pull moisture out of things easier, which is what we are doing).

Saute the mushrooms over this heat, keeping them moving around. The moisture in them will begin to evaporate, and they will shrink. If the mushrooms look wet, or there is free moisture in the pan, keep cooking till it evaporates off.

When the mushrooms are fairly small, and have taken on a firm 'meaty' texture, add a clove or three of crushed and chopped garlic, and a few good pinches of shredded fresh sage (the fresher, the better, seriously!).

Mix together, and add a squirt of olive oil, just enough to lightly coat the 'shrooms, and make the herbs all stick to them. Cook for a few seconds just to let the flavors permeate.

Then eat them! Or put them on a sandwich, or in pasta, or whatever. The dry saute cooks mushrooms WITHOUT slimyness, which is a very common mushroom complaint. The garlic and sage makes a wonderful taste combo that can't be beat, but of course you can try other herbs and spices if you want. Once they've been dry sauted, they can go into other dishes without taking on a slimy texture. I've converted several "I don't like mushrooms" people with this simple method.

Emphasis added. ;)

Seriously though, good on you for eating them anyway, but now you know how to scale things back for your next attempt. You just need a pinch or two of salt in the pan. If you don't have Kosher salt, try sea salt, and if you don't have that, then reach for the mortons, but keep control of your trigger finger. ;)

To tie it into cycling, I bet the combination of concentrated proteins and electrolytes made a super nutritional supplement for a vigorous fixed gear workout. :)

peace,
sam

Sam -

I'm going to be trying that recipe (ever since I saw it in the other thread) for the girl - she's not into mushrooms but I love them so I always feel that so many recipes are going wasted since we're both "pescatarians".

I actually like my mushrooms moist.

sam--this is my favorite way to cook mushrooms. i like using fresh thyme. sometimes i saute them in butter or olive oil--a tiny amount. I love how first they suck up the oil, then dry up, then start releasing mushroomy liquid. sometimes i toss in some vermouth right after the garlic.

they are wonderful in an omelette, if you go for that kind of thing. or, cooked with a lot of olive oil, and an EnLaCalle-sized pinch of red pepper flakes, you've got pasta sauce. i just add a little cooking water from the pasta to keep things loose. Yum! Aglia e Olio e Funghi.

My favourite way to cook portobellos is this one. It's awesome.

http://www.eatingwell.com/articles_recipes/recipes/recipes_jj05.htm/tomato_olive_mush_caps.htm

And I like riding fixed...

THAT looks tasty. When I come home from a long fixed-gear ride, sometimes I like to cook big portobellos by stuffing them with garlic, olive oil, parsley and parmesan cheese and broiling 'em until crispy. Kind of "escargot" style, sans snail.

Here's my vote for the ultimate mushroom-hunting bike

http://www.surlybikes.com/pugsley.html

you could run four fixed cogs (2 front and 2 rear) for ultimate terrain adaptability. those morels wouldn't stand a chance...

My density and lack of understanding of what dry sautee-ing (sp?) entailed lead to a serious derailment of what could have been some quite excellent mushrooms**. My big mistake was that I put WAY TOO MUCH salt in the pan. I thought that because i didn't have kosher salt, i would just compensate by dumping in the Morton's. Big mistake. I ended up with a special EnLaCalle recipe that I like to call, "Heart Attack Mushrooms". Quite possibly the saltiest things I've ever eaten. Like blowing olives out of the water salty. I ate them anyway, and am hoping I don't keel over today. Good thing I'm sweating so much in this mid-nineties heat. Perhaps I've been able to more or less obtain some sort of homeostasis with my salty shrooms. Friends don't let friends royally screw up their gourmet cookin'. Go easy on the salt folks. When the man says a pinch, he means a pinch.


**For cross-reference, see "Eating Habits" thread, page 4 I think, for Phideaux's tasty recipe.


If you're going to substitute regular salt in place of kosher/sea salt, USE HALF.
Or, you could use soy sauce.
Whatever you choose, add just a bit at a time, as it's much easier to add more than it is to take some out.
Kinda like cutting the brake cable the right length....really tough to add any back on afterwards.

My favourite way to cook portobellos is this one. It's awesome.

http://www.eatingwell.com/articles_recipes/recipes/recipes_jj05.htm/tomato_olive_mush_caps.htm

And I like riding fixed...

I tried this tonight, but I did the mushrooms in the oven instead of on the grill. Also, after topping them with the tomatoe/cheese/etc mix, I added a few bread crumbs and another bit of cheese and finished them in the broiler to make a crispy top. Very good!!

Now to try phideaux's recipe with my leftover portabellos. . .hmm I'm all out of fresh sage, maybe I'll use some of the rosemary I have kicking around.

Sam, have you ever read any of Tom Colicchio's books? He's a great lover of 'shrooms, and he advises against moving the mushrooms around too much in the pan. He's got a good description in "Think Like a Chef," on the shelves of finer Barnes & Nobles throughout the city. Just another notion, thought I'd offer.

I like to use tarragon, myself.

If you're going to substitute regular salt in place of kosher/sea salt, USE HALF.
Or, you could use soy sauce.
.

yea i was gonna say that.. you compensated in the wrong direction.. thhats why cooks use sea and kosher, i think, cause its less salty so you can use more and get more taste.. am i right? this is coming from someone who is eating a trader joes instant curry tuna package as i type this...so i might be making it up

yea i was gonna say that.. you compensated in the wrong direction.. thhats why cooks use sea and kosher, i think, cause its less salty so you can use more and get more taste.. am i right? this is coming from someone who is eating a trader joes instant curry tuna package as i type this...so i might be making it up




Cooks use kosher because it's very absorbent, or porous, so when you taste it, it's a saltiness infused with the flavor of the thing you're cooking. And it does, as you say, tend to be "less salty," so you can use more of it--it's a finer instrument than the brute force of plain, old iodized salt. And sea salt has more of its own flavor, rather than one of a processed flavor enhancer. It doesn't taste like the most primitive form of Mrs. Dash. One can use it more as an additional spice.

we need a Fixed Gear Enthusiast Recipe Corner

we need a Fixed Gear Enthusiast Recipe Corner

I agree!

Thanks for the book recommendation, peripatetic, I'll check it out! I'm always looking for cool cooking books. I'm a big fan of Good Eats, the show by Alton Brown, he's really no-nonsense, explains the science behind his choices, and advocates finding new uses for common cooking tools, great guy! He's funny too.

I like kosher salt for a few reasons, the reason kosher salt was invented was for the process of 'koshering' meat, where you apply salt to the outside of the meat, which sucks the moisture out, and preserves the meat. The porous nature of kosher salt (imagine it as big pointy pieces of broken up lava rock) means it can suck out a lot of moisture without just dissolving into the meat, and the pointyness means it can stick onto things instead of just falling off.

I also like it because it is easy to pinch, I almost never measure salt (sometimes if I'm baking), and the texture of kosher salt makes it easy to make consistent pinches.

I never cook meat, but I do use the koshering properties of kosher salt to their maximum. Its my primary salt!

For this mushroom recipe, kosher salt is perfect, because our goal is to pull moisture out of the mushrooms, which is kosher salt's domain. :) I recommend picking some up, its good stuff.

Any 'meaty' herbs go well with mushrooms too, rosemary, tarragon, sage, are all good examples. I just personally prefer sage (and its easy to grow!).

The comment about not moving the mushrooms around a lot is a good one. The fancy 'dancing' saute you see a lot of chefs doing on TV looks cool as the food leaps into the air, but its useless for cooking, because when the food is in the air, its not touching the hot pan, and isn't getting cooked! I leave the mushrooms on the pan all the time, just moving them around a tiny bit to keep them from burning in place.

Man, I love cooking about as much as I love riding. In fact, I love cooking and eating before, and after riding.

peace,
sam

the pie heaven bit is possibly the funniest piece of philosophy i've ever read. pascal, eat your heart out

I nominiate this for "Weirdest Bikeforums Subject of the Week"

I think that award would go to the thread about cars!

This is more like the Tastiest Subject of the Week.