Yes, sometimes even BA staffers make basic cooking mistakes. Like, say, something as simple as cooking mushrooms. Below, assistant web editor Christina Chaey confesses her mushroom disasters to digital food editor Dawn Perry. Here's Perry's advice for making sure it never happens again.
Dear Dawn, savior of home cooks everywhere,
I am ashamed about my lack of knowledge in the mushroom department. From button and cremini to shiitake and chanterelle, I always manage to either burn my 'shrooms or else turn them into a watery mess.
I made not one, but two mushroom mishaps recently: In the first, I sautéed mushrooms and leeks in some butter and oil until tender before adding them to a pot of barley that was bubbling away in some chicken stock on the stove. Little did I know the barley would take an hour-plus to cook, leaving me with unrecognizable chunks of mushroom blob throughout my "pilaf."
In the second incident, I was making a one-pot chicken thigh, mushroom, and kale stew and forgot to cook the mushrooms before I let everything simmer in a coconut milk sauce. I frantically threw handfuls of chopped raw mushrooms into the pot with the chicken, thinking they would be fine by the time the meat cooked through. But I opened up the pot to find a gray and watery mess of objects (presumably chicken and mushroom) in a super-runny coconut sauce.
What did I do wrong? How can I save my mushrooms from a gray and blobby future?
Thanks, Dawn!
Christina, Who Makes Miserable Mushrooms
Dear CWMMM,
Ah, the humble mushroom.
I have the most vivid sense memory of my mom cooking onions and mushrooms in butter. I can smell them. For me, they are truly one of life's simple pleasures. Even an unassuming raw button mushroom can be sublime when thinly sliced in salads. But the important thing to consider when dealing with mushrooms is that they are made up of 80–90% water like little sponges (says Harold McGee, in On Food and Cooking). The good news is they'll never get mushy after a long period of cooking in a wet situation—both cases for you—but they can get weird and rubbery.
For perfectly browned mushrooms, cook them separately then use to top this Soba and Maitake Mushrooms in Soy Broth dish. Photo: Hirsheimer & Hamilton
In the Pilaf Problem, you started with a nicely cooked bunch of mushrooms, browned and buttery, golden in spots. Let's say perfect. Cooking with dry heat—and yes, cooking directly in fat is actually a "dry" cooking method—allows them to release their natural moisture. It caramelizes their sugars, making them tender, not spongey. When you added them to the simmering pilaf liquid, you stripped them of any color and texture you gained while you sautéed. Next time just fold the buttery mushrooms and leeks into the pilaf just before serving. Just be sure to scrape up any delicious mushroom-butter remnants from your skillet: That's the good stuff.
Now, in the Second Incident, you didn't give the mushrooms a chance to let go of their liquid before adding them to the pot. Ideally, you'd cook the mushrooms in the same chicken pot (preferably in the chicken fat) and concentrate their flavors before building the rest of the stew right on top. Adding the raw mushrooms straight to the liquid in the pot diluted their flavor and didn’t do anything to help their texture. When this kind of thing happens, don't panic! Panic is the enemy. Instead of tossing the mushrooms straight in the pot, cook them in a little skillet alongside before you add them. This will help release their moisture, concentrate their natural sugars right in the pot, and lend big flavor to the whole dish.
The mushrooms in this Chard and Chard Stems with Sautéed Shiitakes recipe are cooked first, then transferred to a plate. Photo: Danny Kim
So, when in doubt, cook your mushrooms first or separately and fold them back in the dish just before serving. They'll retain their color, texture, and flavor.
Give the mushrooms the love and attention they—and you!—deserve.
Love,
DP
Ready to cook some 'shrooms? Here are 20 of our favorite mushroom recipes.
