vegoftheweek

 

Inside The Oven: Take me out to the ballgame, take me out with the crowd. Buy me some peanuts and…FRIED OCTOPUS BALLS??!! in Week Links. Porcini mushrooms, brushcetta recipe.

B sides haven’t always maintained a good reputation over time.  Adjectives used to describe them were not necessarily flattering: non-album friendly, non radio-friendly, the side the DJ played only when most people had  enough liquor not to care what they were hearing…

Mushrooms have an A and B side, with what most of us eat being the A side, white button mushroom found on your average take out pizza.  I don’t mind this A side hit, but I think it’s unfortunate that so many B side mushrooms aren’t getting their fair play. Some are certainly more exotic sounding (shiitake, maitake,), more colorful (Chanterelles), more elegant (oyster, enoki). But much like the music industry, it’s not always true talent that makes the hit list. 

 

I consider myself a mushroom lover and even took a class in college whose curriculum included mushroom “hunts”, identifying species and spores in the laboratory, and experiencing the pleasure of holding and examining bowling ball size puffballs. I’d been looking for a way to try a different or “B-side” mushroom and I discovered dried Porcinis at a natural foods store where I frequently shop. I’d heard through the “underground” industry they were good: unsigned, raw talent, that made their success through grass roots hard work of recipe to recipe, friend to friend, food blog to food blog, and word of mouth (or shall I say from mouth to mouth?). I snatched up a package, along with a baguette, and went home to try a mushroom bruschetta recipe…  Porcinis have a chewy texture and sweet taste. Unlike other mushrooms I’ve cooked with, they don’t easily shrivel or tear after being tossed and scraped in a heated skillet. I modified this recipe from a regular button mushroom one and found the results to be delicious. The baguette I purchased was longer than necessary, so I  toasted the rest of it and made garlic and olive oil bread. Is there a B-side mushroom you enjoy? How do you like to eat it?

Porcini Mushroom Bruschetta

Ingredient List

• 3 Tbs. Olive Oil

• 2 Tbs. Shallots, chopped (2 Shallots)

• 1 tsp. garlic granules

• 2 tsps. dried parsley

• 1 cup white button mushrooms, sliced

• 2 1 oz. packages of dried porcini mushrooms, reconstituted

• 1 medium baguette, sliced into 1 inch rounds

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 F

2. To reconstitute porcini mushrooms, soak them in hot water for 15-20 minutes, drain, and rinse

3. Heat olive oil in skillet over medium heat and sauté shallots until golden brown

4. Add mushrooms, and cook until soft, about 5-7 minutes. Stir in garlic granules

5. Reduce heat to low and stir in dried parsley and cook for 1-2 minutes then remove from heat

6. Brush both sides of baguette slices with olive oil and bake until crisp, approximately 5 minutes

7. Top baguette slices with mushroom mixture

WEEK LINKS:

• Take me out to the ball game, take me out with the crowd. Buy me some peanuts and fried Octopus balls (If Japan had a similar baseball song, perhaps it would sound a bit like that, as officials are urged to change the menu to improve the environment.)

• Is D.C. the 6th best place in the U.S. for vegetarian friendly eating? A recent survey says so.

• So maybe good old agaricus bisporus really is nutritionally equal as its more exotic counterparts…Porcini is still way hotter.