Question
Manisha Pathuri
I recently bought oyster mushrooms. Could you suggest the best cooking methods, storage tips, and a few dishes where they work particularly well?
Answer
So the first thing I'm going to say is if you're going to keep them in your refrigerator, where they should be, you're going to store them in a brown paper bag because they need to breathe. If you put them into a plastic bag, within a day or two, they're going to get slimy, and they're going to discolor, and they will not be as appealing to you. Now, I think that every kitchen should have a brick that is covered in aluminum foil, so that when it's time to weigh food down so that it cooks better. So when I buy oyster mushrooms, and maybe you've heard me say that I live 20 minutes from the mushroom capital of the world, which is Kennett Square, so I'm able to get freshly harvested mushrooms, which are totally, totally delicious. So what I like to do with them is marinate them, and again, we'll go back to that delicious marinade for the tofu assignment. It's just quick and easy and delicious, or the barbecue sauce recipe that appears in the seitan roast recipe. That's another good recipe as well. And I will marinate them, and then I will take my Caraway pan, and then I will heat it up, and then I will put that brick on top of it, and I will baste it throughout, flip it, let it cook again, and then it makes a beautiful, shall we say, steak-like kind of a thing. I don't like them in salads. I think they do well being roasted or sauteed. I think that would be the best. I don't like them air fried, but I think that either in the oven, and I'm sure that if you Google oyster mushrooms, that you'll find out some really good recipes to use. Also, I don't know if you've ever used the Ruby recipe for the no oil saute. The oyster mushrooms would work beautifully in that assignment. So I think that if you have access to that recipe, that is a really great way to start. It's one of my favorite recipes, so there you go.
