You can fry them, sauté them, stuff them, bake them, use them as a side dish, add them to a salad. So with all their talent at being in the right place at the right time, could mushrooms be considered the most versatile of all foods?
Their unique nature enables them to add a delicious, earthy element to cooking. In addition, eating mushrooms of every variety adds a good deal of nutrition to your diet.
"They've long been celebrated as a source of powerful nutrients," says Katie Preis, marketing manager for the Mushroom Council.
Published in the Journal of Food Science, a recent study from the Culinary Institute of America and the University of California-Davis found that substituting mushrooms for meat in your diet will significantly decrease your daily total of calories, fat and saturated fat intake.
Anne Braly"It's referred to as 'the blend,'" Preis says, "finely chopping mushrooms so that they are the consistency of ground meat and blending them into your favorite recipes to add vegetables, nutrients and flavor to the dish using a 50/50 or 80/20 mushroom-to-meat blending ratio."
The technique can be used for many dishes to reduce the amount of ground beef without reducing taste and texture, she says.
Food service operators across the country, from celebrity chefs to college dining halls and K-12 cafeterias, are implementing "the blend" to bring their customers and students healthier options of the foods they crave, she says. In doing so, they are providing a powerhouse of vitamins; one little mushroom has selenium, potassium, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin D, B vitamins, essential antioxidants and minerals.
The most-common mushrooms found in produce markets come as no surprise white buttons, crimini and portabella. But as Americans become more adventurous in the kitchen and more knowledgeable about nutrition, farmers are making room for more exotic species such as maitake, oyster, shiitake, beech and enoki mushrooms.
"Each of these mushroom varieties hold a different, delicious flavor profile," Preis says.
According to a 2014 report from the National Agricultural Statistics Service, while mushrooms are grown across the United States, Kennett Square, located in Chester Country, Penn., is considered the "mushroom capital" of America with 66 growers producing more than 571 million pounds -- 65 percent of all U.S. mushrooms -- during the 2013-2014 growing season.
Here's one way to enjoy mushrooms served as a side dish for a steak, as the base for a risotto, as a filling for a mushroom pie or quesadilla, or as a sauce for pasta. The recipe makes a big batch to use for many dishes throughout the week.
Sautéed Mushrooms
2-3 pounds white or crimini mushrooms, cleaned, trimmed, and quartered or sliced 1/2 inch thick
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
Salt, to taste
2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
Freshly ground pepper
2 to 4 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
Chop mushrooms. Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large, heavy skillet or a wide saucepan and add the shallots or onion. Cook, stirring often, until tender, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the garlic, stir together for about 30 seconds, until fragrant, then add the mushrooms, rosemary and thyme, and turn up the heat slightly. Cook until the mushrooms begin to sweat, then add a generous pinch of salt. Stir for about 5 minutes over medium-high heat as the mushrooms continue to soften and sweat.
Add the flour and continue to cook the mushrooms, stirring, until they have softened a little more and you can no longer see the flour, about 2 minutes. Add the wine and cook, stirring, until the liquid boils down and glazes the mushrooms, about 5 minutes. Add a little water, if needed, and salt, to taste. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring often, until the mushrooms are thoroughly tender and fragrant, and the surrounding broth is thick.
Remove from the heat, stir in some freshly ground pepper and the parsley, taste and adjust salt.
Contact Anne Braly at abraly@timesfreepress.com.