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Fantastic Fungus: Cooking with Mushrooms
Written by Anneka Miller
Photos by Leah Kennedy and Anneka Miller
Anyone who’s lived in Oregon or visited in the fall and winter, knows that it’s a pretty damp and drizzly state. If you’re a student walking to class, it’s not so great, but if you’re a fungus it’s fantastic!
“In Oregon you can get fresh mushrooms most of the year,” says Chris Cossairt, owner of Oregon Mushrooms LLC in Keno, Oregon.
The chanterelle is Oregon’s state mushroom, and can be found almost year round (there are about four months out of the year when it’s too cold for mushrooms to grow). This year was especially good for mushrooms because there was so much rainfall and temperatures stayed cool, according to Anna King, a correspondent for the Northwest News Network.
The white button mushrooms found in most grocery stores used to be the only fresh mushrooms available. According to the Australian Mushroom Growers’ Association (AMGA), they were first cultivated in the 1600s in caves near Paris. Favored for their dynamic flavors, white button mushrooms are still popular with cooks worldwide despite the availability of dozens of fresh and dried mushrooms. Porcini, chanterelles, and morels are some of the best mushrooms for cooking.
Porcini have a short shelf life, but the larger ones can be sliced and frozen for use in future recipes. They’re the most commonly found mushrooms and grow in many countries around the world. Because of soil composition porcini from Oregon tend to have less flavor than those imported from Europe, Cossairt says.
Chanterelles last two to three weeks in the refrigerator, and are good mushrooms for baking or broiling because they have a lot of moisture, says Cossairt. Chanterelles grow along the Oregon coast until it starts to freeze.
Morel mushrooms last about one week in the refrigerator, but they’re very easy to cook. They’re excellent in a cream sauce. “I made a cream sauce with regular mushrooms and it tasted like cream-of-mushroom soup,” says Cossairt. “The morels made it so much better!” The fungi have spongy, honeycomb-like caps and have a rich, earthy flavor. If you buy them dried, they can be easily re-hydrated, according to the AMGA.
Some grocery stores carry a good selection of dried mushrooms, like morels and porcini, and fresh white cap or brown cremini mushrooms. But, the best place to find some unique fresh mushrooms is your local farmers’ market. When picking out your mushrooms make sure they’re fresh. If they’re slimy, overly dry and crumbly, or have a strong musty smell, they’ve been out too long, Cossairt says.
Mushrooms should be stored in brown paper in the crisper section of the refrigerator, according to AMGA. Keeping them cool, but dry will help them last longer.
Fresh or dry, there is a plethora of different mushrooms for culinary experimentation. The following recipe was prepared with grocery store cremini mushrooms, but could be even more interesting with morels or oyster mushrooms.
Fixing Up Some Fungi
Penne Pasta with Fresh Mushrooms and Prosciutto by Kathy and Anneka Miller
Yield: Makes 2 servings
Total Time: 25 minutes
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups dry penne pasta
1 tablespoon olive oil, plus more for drizzling
1 tablespoon butter
2 large cloves garlic, minced
4 oz. sliced mushrooms
1/4 pound sliced prosciutto cut into strips
1/4 cup half-n-half
Fresh ground black pepper
Parmesan cheese to garnish
Cook penne pasta, drain, drizzle with olive oil, and set aside. Add olive oil, butter, and garlic in a large fry pan. Add mushrooms and cook over medium heat until browned. Remove, leaving as much oil in the pan as possible. Add the prosciutto to the remaining oil and cook for 3-5 minutes over medium heat until its slightly crispy. Turn off heat. Warm half-n-half in the microwave. Add mushrooms, cooked penne, and warmed half-n-half to the proscuitto and toss. Add fresh ground pepper to taste. Serve garnished with Parmesan cheese.
