A Guide to Exotic Cooking Mushrooms

Almost all of us are familiar with what the common varieties of mushroom look like and how to use them in our cooking. Many people aren’t even aware that there is an entire universe of both fresh and dried mushrooms beyond champignons! Today we have an overview of some of the more exotic varieties of mushrooms; descriptions and use in cooking, as well as their health benefits.

Oyster mushrooms

These mushrooms grow on the sides of trees rather than in the ground, and right from the start you can tell that they won't be the same as a boring old cup mushroom! They are common throughout North America, Asia, Europe and Australia. They are extremely versatile, and you can buy them as mushroom powders, dried or fresh.

Enoki mushrooms

These tiny, delicate mushrooms have a long stem and are cultivated in bunches. You can eat them raw -- they have a fruity sort of flavor! If you’re going to make shabu shabu, you'll need plenty of enoki mushrooms.

Shiitake mushrooms

Shiitake mushrooms have one of the highest antioxidant contents of any type of mushrooms -- they are being credited with helping keep the rates of cancer in China and Japan relatively low. They are also known as oak mushrooms, and you can buy them as dried mushrooms, mushroom powders or simply fresh in many speciality shops. They go well with stronger flavored meats.

Pine mushrooms

These delicious fungi commonly grow under pine trees, and exude a milky orange sap when cut. This sap adds color and flavor to dishes, matching well with pasta and egg dishes because of the nutty overtones.

Chanterelle mushrooms

You will usually only find chanterelle mushrooms as dried mushrooms or in powdered form. The name encompasses an entire family of mushrooms, but the ones you are likely to buy are golden chanterelle. They have a strong apricot smell, which can be slightly confusing! Soak them for 15-20 minutes in warm water, and if you're going to use dried mushrooms in soups or casseroles, add them at the start of the process, rather than the end as you would with fresh 'shrooms.

Dried Shiitake Mushrooms -- RECIPES!

Shiitake mushrooms have a very definite flavor -- you'll find button or cup mushrooms difficult to go back to once you've become used to the strong and exotic taste of dried shiitake mushrooms! While they are lighter in weight than the fresh variety, the flavor is also greatly intensified, so you don't need as much dried mushroom for a recipe as you would fresh. Today we are looking at how to incorporate these little flavor- and health-bombs into your everyday cooking, with some top shiitake mushroom recipes!

1. Mushroom Tart and Gravy

You can actually modify this recipe to include mushroom powder in the pastry, and put whatever meats and vegetables you like in the tart instead of just filling with mushrooms. The flavor permeates -- especially if you use the shiitake mushrooms stalks in the gravy as suggested.

2. Chow Mein

There are a hundred chow mein recipes available online, and this is a very simple one. If you really appreciate the flavor of your dried shiitake mushrooms, though, you'll love how they aren't drowned out by the other ingredients in this dish.

3. Mushroom and Bacon Curls with Creamed Eggs

This recipe is a Saturday breakfast favorite, and a great way to help you use up any excess mushrooms if you've been growing your own! The recipe says that you can use macaroni or asparagus in place of the mushrooms, but for us that simply isn’t an option!

4. Scrambled Eggs with Shiitake Mushrooms

Everybody has their own favorite scrambled egg recipe, and you can quite easily substitute the egg portion of this guide for your own, if you prefer. The real value of this dried shiitake mushrooms recipe is the guide for incorporating mushrooms into the scrambled eggs - issues regarding precooking and when to add the shrooms often catch people out. They can ruin a good shiitake!

5. Pasta with Dried Shiitake Mushrooms and Tomato Sauce

What an awesome substitute for meat Bolognese … what a healthy substitute for meat Bolognese! Dried shiitake mushrooms or dried porcini mushrooms can be used in this recipe, and they really fill out the dish. Mushrooms are one of the superstars of Italian cooking, for certain!

Fresh and Dried Shiitake Mushrooms -- Top 4 Cooking Hints

Shiitake mushrooms have gotten a lot of press lately, as the generall good health of Japanese people is increasingly studied by scientists, and more dietary hints about the origins of their good health emerge. Dried shitake mushrooms have plenty of health benefits, and are almost as potent as the fresh version. If you’re doing any cooking with dried shiitakes, we are today exploring some general hints for using them in your dishes.

1. Storage

Creating dishes with maximum flavor and health actually begins as soon as you bring your ingredients home from the store. Shiitake mushrooms should be stored slightly differently to other fresh produce:

• Always store in the fridge
• A paper bag will stop them sweating and going slimy, but will allow them to dry out more quickly
• Plastic bags should only be used for a very short time -- everywhere the bag touches the mushroom it will develop a layer of slime on top
• Plastic punnets with the mushrooms loosely packed inside, and a cling film covering that doesn’t touch the mushrooms, seems to be ideal for keeping mushrooms fresh longer.

2. To wash, or not to wash?

Most shiitake mushrooms do not need to be washed. Even commercially grown ones rarely need to be sprayed with pesticides or have any herbicide drift -- they grow so quickly and are almost never grown alongside other crops. You might just want to brush any dirt off with a pastry brush.

Washing dried shiitake mushrooms will cause them to absorb the liquid, creating a less potent taste. It would be rare that this was necessary.

3. Prepping your dried shiitake mushrooms

The basic rule for mushrooms is to trim, but not peel. You'll find peeling your dried shiitake mushrooms inordinately difficult, and it will do nothing to improve the flavour while stripping the fungi or valuable healthy compounds! Shiitakes often have a long dry stem portion which needs to be trimmed, but if you buy dried this may have been done for you.

4. Precooking in the microwave

Did you know you can precook your dried shiitake mushrooms in the microwave? Mushrooms tolerate microwave cooking extremely well, and contrary to popular belief scientific studies have shown that substantially more vitamins are preserved using this method.

Mushrooms and the World's Problems

There has been so much exciting research into the health benefits of mushrooms -- both for humans and for the planet Earth. The research explored has been in no particular order, and the benefits of mushroom kits, mushroom powders and seasonings explored here are just as valuable as those in the previous two posts. Be inspired by mushrooms.

Mushrooms helping fight obesity

Mushrooms are a low energy density food, yet have the same filling action and long-lasting effect on appetite that intake of high energy density foods like beef do. A small study involving the substitution of beef entrees for mushroom entrees showed that while there is no difference (generally) between the palatability of the meal, how full people feel afterwards, and full they feel for the rest of the day, there si a big difference in total calories and fat consumed.

Portabella and crimini mushrooms have same antioxidant action as colourful veges

If you grow your own portabella and crimini mushrooms in a mushroom growing kit (and eat them!), you are enjoying the same antioxidant benefits as those who eat fresh carrots, green beans, red peppers and broccoli daily. Color has long been thought to be an indicator of antioxidant effect -- a new study at Penn State disproved this with mushroom powders.

Shiitake mushrooms improve immune functions and crop health

Researches have found that the high molecular weight polysaccharides (HMWPs) in shiitake mushrooms could improve immune function in general, making them a possible preventive and reactive cure for a host of diseases. The logs that shiitake mushrooms are grown on can also improve the health of other crops (spinach, in the study), when chipped and added to the soil.

Organic insulation from mushroom spores

Student inventor Eban Bayer has created an organic insulation material from mushroom spores, as well as water, flour and minerals. This could help reduce energy consumption in households drastically, with a cheap medium. Perhaps someday you could grow your own insulation!

Mushrooms and the World's Problems

Mushrooms don’t generally get enough credit. In some countries, to be a fungus is one of the deepest insults possible! In reality, mushrooms are an essential part of our ecosystem, have enormous medicinal benefits, and help the environment in a myriad of ways. Let's look at the most interesting research on mushrooms, mushroom seasonings and mushroom spices in recent times, looking at them from a perspective for the health of the body, and the planet.

Button mushrooms pack same antioxidant benefit as exotics

Exotic mushrooms include dried porcini mushrooms, dried shiitake mushrooms and their close cousin the maitake, and other exotics like oyster mushrooms and matsutake mushrooms. A French team from the Institut National de la Recherche Agrinomique found that button mushrooms had the same (and in some cases better) free radical scavenging abilities as other more expensive and exotic mushrooms. The body was found to be higher in antioxidants than the stalk, also. However, compounds that are specific to exotic mushrooms may make an impact on their ability to fight certain diseases.

Maitakes help in protein identification

Maitake mushrooms are not only healthful in and of themselves, but are helping researchers discover all sorts of things about other organisms. Utrecht University's Prof Albert Heck found a way to identify protein types without knowing an organism's genetic makeup - previously a requirement for protein study. This will be used for exotic animal species, as well a for research into disease that change genetic makeup, like cancer and diabetes.

Mushrooms used as medicine delivery platform

You might be eating mushrooms instead of popping pills to help cure your ailments before long -- and not just because they are naturally rich in antioxidants. The prevalence of new treatments for diseases means that a platform which is reliable, cheap and fast for mass-producing protein based drugs is needed. Dr Romaine from Penn State University thinks that may be mushrooms.

Stay tuned for more research news on how mushroom kits and mushroom powders are improving our lives!

Four Favorite Asian Recipes with Mushrooms

Asian cooking traditionally uses very inexpensive and freely available ingredients, and in many dishes, mushrooms not only substitute for the taste and texture of meat, but are the star in their own right! It is the heavy utilization of mushrooms in Asian cooking that is thought to be part of the reason for the amazing disease resistance seen in Asian populations, including the Japanese, Mongolian and Tibetan people. Today we are looking at four different Asian-inspired ways to make mushrooms delicious. Fresh is best, so grab a mushroom growing kit and then pop on your chef's hat!

For all of the following recipes, use peanut oil rather than your standard vegetable oil for a more authentic flavor. Soy sauce and sweet chili will be staples, also.

Sweet Chili Mushroom and Pork Wontons

Wontons are a traditional starter item in so many Asian cuisines. These wontons use the amazing texture and freshness of mushrooms straight out of a mushroom growing kit in your pantry. Mix equal amounts of pork and cup mushrooms with 4 green onions. Chuck them all together with a couple of tablespoons of sweet chili sauce and soy sauce in a food processor, and then wrap them up with wonton wrappers according to the directions on the wrapper packet.

Wok Fried Mushrooms with Honey/Soy Seasoning

The honey-soy combination from Asian cooking has permeated so many favorite dishes in the Western diet! Here's another to add to the list. The keys to this recipe are the generous number of mushroom seasonings, including soy sauce, oyster sauce, honey and sesame seeds. Green onions and fresh chili help create a flavor explosion on white rice.

Mushroom, beef and bok choy stir fry

Made with all your favorite meal bases, and recognizable Asian seasonings, this makes it into standard rotation in many homes. The mushrooms in this recipe are marinated with oil, kecap manis, ginger and Chinese cooking wine to permeate them with amazing flavors.

Mushroom and fish laksa

With more South East Asian than northern Asian flavors, this laksa is rich and creamy. The recipe calls for Swiss brown mushrooms, but dried shiitake mushrooms or dried porcini mushrooms would be equally delicious. Using laksa paste rather than a host of herbs and spices makes the recipe easy to manage and delicious.

Mushroom's Nutritional Benefits: The Basics

Mushrooms are known as meat for vegetarians - they are high in many different compounds, vitamins and minerals, as well as high in flavor! They are a rich source of many food components that are essential to our daily processes. Today we are looking at how the vitamins and minerals in mushroom seasonings help you get through your day.

Potassium

Potassium cations (positively charged ions) are required for normal brain and nerve function. Dilute solutions of the potassium ion taste sweet, however higher concentrations taste bitter or salty. The potassium in your mushroom seasonings helps maintain proper fluid balance in the body, preventing both dehydration and water retention. Potassium helps lower high blood pressure, and reduces the risk of stroke.

Copper

Copper in the body helps facilitate iron uptake, another of the reasons that mushrooms are called meat for vegetarians - they are high in copper. People who consistently eat diets deficient in copper don’t metabolize fats as effectively, and don’t synthesize serotonin and dopamine as well, leading to insomnia and depression. Mushroom seasonings are a tasty mood remedy!

Selenium

Selenium was recently taken off the FDA's list of recommendations for prostate cancer -- but don’t let that lead you to believe it isn't useful in our bodies. Selenium is a powerful antioxidant, and works in conjunction with vitamin E in the body as a free radical scavenger.

Iron

Mushroom seasonings are high in iron, an element which is required for carrying oxygen to all the cells around the body. A large proportion of females are naturally iron deficient, and mushroom seasonings for your everyday food are a safe and natural way to correct that.

Riboflavin

Riboflavin is often supplemented into breakfast cereals … unfortunately, it is the sugary, generally unhealthy ones which get this treatment! Get your daily dose of riboflavin (Vitamin B2) from mushroom seasonings instead - it is required for proper energy metabolism, metabolising fats, reducing pathogens in blood. There is current research underway investigating the use of riboflavin along with beta-blockers for the treatment of migraine headaches.

Niacin

Another of the B vitamins, niacin is vitamin B3. It is recognized to be important in normal metabolic processes and in DNA repair - DNA deformities have been shown in some studies to lead to cancer and other conditions. Niacin is also used in mood regulation, and the metabolism of fats. So your mushroom seasonings effectively keep you feeling happy and looking healthy!