Wild and cultivated mushroom with a spongy, honey combed cap
Earthy , nutty, meaty, smoky flavors
Heavy cream sauces, sauté
It belongs to the same fungus as the truffle.
Dried morel have a more intense smokier flavor.
Best when simply sautéed in butter. No sauce is to heavy to smoother its fantastic subtle flavor.
Shiitake
Origin, Japan or Corea. Is now being cultivated in the Unites State where it is often called “Golden Oak”
California, Vermont, Pennsylvania Washington and Virginia.
Meaty flesh has a full bodied, bosky flavor. The stems are very tough so it is better to remove but do not trough them away they add wonderful flavor to stock or sauces.
Fresh and dried are available. Any cooking method is good, sauté, broiling and baking.
Wood ear
Wild mushroom resembling ears.
Mild and nutty, slightly crunchy
Soup and stir fries.
Fresh or dried
Black Trumpet, Trompette de la mort
or “Horn of plenty”
Thin walled black Chanterelle can be used for savory cream sauces or pasta dishes.
It is delicious with venison, pheasant or other game. Dried it intensifies in aroma, many prefer the dried to the fresh ones.
Crimini and Baby Bella
Both Closely related to the white mushroom
Yellow foot or Chanterelle or Girolles
The yellow foot from the Pacific Northwest is the French Chanterelle or Girolles.
Chewy texture, tough when overcooked, mils nutty taste, sauces, chicken or veal sauté.
Snow Crab
Native from Asia, used mostly for soups it has a pungent flavor and gives the broth a wonderful taste. It has a stringy texture.It is grown now in Georgia
Beach Mushrooms or Hon - shimeji has been used to describe a suite of about 20 oyster mushrooms.
Firm almost crunchy texture and a pleasant mild nutty flavor. It is popular in Japan and has been cultivated for a number of years. It is now being grown by a number of mushroom farms in the US.
Cook whole or sliced in sauces to compliment chicken or fish dishes
It takes pounds of premium fresh wild mushrooms to make one pound of dried mushrooms. Dried mushrooms may be rehydrated and used in cooking just like fresh mushrooms, about one ounce of dried mushrooms for each 8 or 10 ounces of fresh mushrooms called for in a recipe. The rehydratation process is easy, just soak as many mushrooms as you would like to cook with in warm slightly salted water for an half hour or so and they are ready to cook. Some people prefer to rehydrate the mushrooms in a wine diluted with water.
