When we invited a neighbor to join us, MT felt we needed more food on the plates. Hence the bread and grapes with sauteed chestnut mushrooms.
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
They can be the star of a plant-based supper
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Lion’s mane mushrooms, golden oyster mushrooms and blue oyster mushrooms were in a variety pack from the Green Mycofarm of Berwick, purchased Thursday at the Farmers Market in Wilkes-Barre.
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
How many mushrooms can you name?
If you’d asked me that question a few months ago, I might have listed button, portobello and shiitake before dissolving into something like “um, there’s one with a Japanese name that pops up in crossword puzzles … I think it has a ‘K’ in it …”
Yes, and maybe someday soon I will try enoki mushrooms.
After all, in recent weeks, thanks to Ben Pypiak from the Green Mycofarm of Berwick and his stand at the Wilkes-Barre Farmers Market, I’ve tried chestnut mushrooms, lion’s mane mushrooms and both blue oyster and golden oyster mushrooms.
I know some people use mushrooms in salads, omelets, soups and more, but Ben told me he likes to simply saute them. That sounded good to me.
When Mark and I bought chestnut mushrooms on the first day of the Farmers Market in June, I sauteed them in butter and garlic. For our more recent purchase of a basket filled with three other varieties, I sauteed them in olive oil and garlic, and then added a little fresh chopped basil for good measure.
All of the mushrooms tasted quite mild. We liked them and, for me, the best part was having read on a Mayo Clinic website that mushrooms “provide a variety of health benefits ranging from brain health to cancer prevention.”
Mayoclinichealthsystem.org singled out lion’s mane mushroom in particular for having the “potential to protect against neurological damage.” And while web.md said more research in humans is necessary, it said animal studies indicate the lion’s mane variety can lower blood sugar and raise insulin in rats with diabetes.
That all sounds good to me. So does a historical tidbit I recall from years ago, when I interviewed an elderly man who had enough expertise to be confident picking mushrooms in the woods. He told me mushrooms have kept a lot of people alive during famines and I thought, yes, they’re so filling you can make a meal out of them.
But one thing about mushrooms; they have a high water content which evaporates when they’re cooked. So they shrink, and your big basketful might turn into a serving smaller than you expect.
So for one of our recent forays into the world of gourmet mushrooms, when I’d run into our neighbor Roger and invited him to come over and join us in trying them, I quickly realized I needed to put more food on the plates.
So I added slices of artisan bread (also from the Farmers Market) and grapes (from the supermarket.)
We all liked the delicate flavor of the mushrooms, and we want to keep trying different kinds.
