“Mushrooms,” the magister announced, as the smell wafted up. “Kissed with garlic and bathed in butter. I am told the taste is exquisite. Have one, my friend. Have two.” -A Dance with Dragons
Black Mushrooms, take 2
Our Thoughts:
This dish proved to be more of an adventure than we anticipated.
We looked in several markets for black mushrooms, without success. Then, brilliance. I went to our local Asian supermarket, and cast about until I found an entire aisle filled with dried mushrooms. This, surely, was the perfect place to obtain suitably sketchy mushrooms. The winning bag reads, “Superior Quality Dried Fungus”, and beat out both the “AAA Dried Fungus” and the merely “High Quality Dried Fungus”.
Having obtained my dubious black mushrooms, I returned home to experiment.
They were horrible. I tried to prepare them many different ways, only to be met with the incontrovertable fact that the texture is simply unbearable. The butter and garlic just slipped right off the rubbery mushrooms, leaving us with a wholly unappetizing dish.
The second take is what you see above, and is wholly delicious. They might not have the same dubious backstory to go with them, but the trade off for great flavor is well worth it. Plump mushrooms bursting with butter and garlic- does it get better?
Superior Quality Fungus (not really…)
Ingredients:
- one handful of dried black mushrooms
- 3 Tbs. butter
- 1 clove garlic, sliced thin
Garlic Butter Roasted Mushrooms
Ingredients:
- 1 pound mushrooms such as cremini or white, halved lengthwise if large
- 2 tablespoons capers, rinsed and chopped
- 3 large garlic cloves, minced
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
Preheat oven to 450°F with rack in middle. Toss mushrooms with capers, garlic, oil, 1/8 teaspoon salt and several grinds of pepper in a 1 1/2- to 2-qt shallow baking dish. Top with butter and roast, stirring occasionally, until mushrooms are tender and golden and bubbly garlic sauce forms below, 15 to 20 minutes. Serve immediately, with crusty bread on the side for swiping up the juices.