CharlieD
Chef Extraordinaire
For sure
The thing was I don't like the lack of edible parts of the shiitake, I mean, the stem is more than half of it. They taste fine to me, I'm just lazy and don't want to buy a pound of mushrooms and end up only get 4 ounces of edible parts.
Thanks for the ideas.
Nice recipes BT. Gonna have to try that one with the shitakes. I'll probably use cabbage, since it won't be cooked long and I find bok choy bitter.if you think portabellas, creminis, or white button shrooms are a bit boring, try this:
the next time you are going to fire up your grill, prepare some portabella caps beforehand by removing the stem and any dirt, rub the cap with evoo and turn them gill side up, drizzling a balsamic vinegar dressing into them. let marinade for an hour or two, then pour out any excess marinade and put them onto the grill over medium low heat still with the gills up.
after they've grilled for a little while and are getting soft (when you can see some liquid forming in the cap), crumble some gorgonzola, fontina, locatelli, or cheese of your choice into the gills and cover with a deep pot lid or something to help melt the cheese.
once the cheese has melted in, remove from the grill and slice into quarters and serve with crusty italian bread slices for and appy.
for the creminis:
slice the mushrooms and saute for a few minutes in evoo. a lot of liquid will come out of the mushrooms. using a slotted spoon, carefully remove the mushroom slices and set aside. reduce the liquid left in the pan a little, then add butter and some fresh herbs like thyme, marjoram, or sage. return the sliced mushrooms to the pan, toss to coat, add some salt and pepper to taste.
this goes really well over steak, or as a side dish with roast chicken.
for white buttons:
this is similar to the creminis, but i like to halve the mushrooms instead and saute in grapeseed oil for a few minutes, then just add a good splash or three of whatever red wine you are drinking with (or before ) dinner. simmer on high heat until the mushroom liquid and red wine reduces enough to almost be a sauce, and add butter to round it out. again, salt and pepper to taste, and serve as a side.
i know you said that you don't like shiitakes, but i love them as well as my family, so we put them in everything from stir fries, to soups, to wherever we can add them, lol. and yes, you have to remove the stems.
one of my favourite ways of making shiitakes is sort of a stir fry/steaming technique that also includes baby bok choy.
start by heating up a wok and stir frying some ginger and garlic in peanut oil, then add a bunch of cleaned/rinsed whole baby bok choy and small shiitake caps. stir fry for just a minute or two, add a good couple of splashes of soy sauce, and a tbsp or so of fish sauce. stir fry for another minute, then add a half cup of chicken stock and allow the mushrooms and bok choy to simmer for another minute. when the bok choy are softened enough, add a little cornstarch slurry to thicken the liquid into a sauce, then ladle everything into a serving bowl.
i like to serve this with thinly sliced london broil and a side of white rice.
hope this helps.
I'm English so we call chips crisps and fries chips. I know its different on Jupiter.
I like the sound of the microwave crisps. I think I saw a tray thing for sale for cooking them on. Do you have to add lots of seasoning and are they good and crispy?
The tray things just melt down (according to most reviews), and are just about useless. I actually put them on a skewer like a quarter of an inch apart and set the skewer on any old ceramic plate. Once they get the less-shiny kind of bubbly look, I take them off of the skewer and set them on the plate (I've skipped the skewer before, they still work fine). Then I put them in on high again until about a third of the crisp turns brown. If you cut them by hand they will all finish at different times. They don't feel crispy until they sit for a minute outside of the 'wave though.
I don't know if it makes a difference but I put salt on them before the cooking, hoping it will suck some of the moisture out.
They need very little salt and no oil. I've gotten the best result by spraying them with just a tiny bit of PAM spray on each one. Don't know what it does but they taste great either way. They taste good with just about anything, too, because they don't have that greasiness or crumbiness of store-bought crisps.