A Cook's Book of Mushrooms: With 100 Recipes for Common and Uncommon Varieties - Hardcover

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Portobello, cremini, shiitake, and enoki mushrooms—and even morels and chanterelles—are showing up in supermarkets and specialty stores these days. Advances in mushroom cultivation have made varieties that were once available only to experienced mushroom hunters now easy for everyone to find, and a number of mail-order sources provide more exotic kinds.

But what should a cook do with all these mushroom varieties? How do you bring out their most distinctive characteristics in the kitchen? In A Cook's Book of Mushrooms, Jack Czarnecki, chef/proprietor of Joe's Restaurant in Reading, Pennsylvania, provides the answers. Czarnecki gives an account of his life-long fascination with mushrooms—hunting them, cooking them, and eating them. He describes the characteristics of the principal edible mushrooms and provides a collection of tasty recipes for using these "wild" mushrooms that are now available commercially, as well as for more exotic mushrooms.

Seven chapters cover the major mushroom families—Buttons and Saucers: The Genus Agaricus; Aristocrats of the Forest: Morels and Truffles; The King and Lesser Nobility: Cepes and Their Cousins; Flower of Fungus?: Chanterelles; Mushrooms from Wood: The Ultimate Recyclers; From the East: Asian Mushrooms; and The Best of the Rest. The 100 recipes include appetizers, main courses, salads, and even breakfast dishes that use mushrooms in starring and supporting roles, such as Morels with Ruffled Pasta, Wild Mushroom and Onion Soup, Barbecued Oysters and Shiitake Mushrooms, and Salmon with Chanterelles and Red Pepper Puree. The author—whose knowledge of wine rivals his knowledge of mushrooms—includes wine or beer suggestions for most dishes.

Aus dem Klappentext

Portobello, cremini, shiitake, and enoki mushrooms and even morels and chanterelles are showing up in supermarkets and specialty stores these days. Advances in mushroom cultivation have made varieties that were once available only to experienced mushroom hunters now easy for everyone to find, and a number of mail-order sources provide more exotic kinds.

But what should a cook do with all these mushroom varieties? How do you bring out their most distinctive characteristics in the kitchen? In A Cook's Book of Mushrooms, Jack Czarnecki, chef/proprietor of Joe's Restaurant in Reading, Pennsylvania, provides the answers. Czarnecki gives an account of his life-long fascination with mushrooms hunting them, cooking them, and eating them. He describes the characteristics of the principal edible mushrooms and provides a collection of tasty recipes for using these "wild" mushrooms that are now available commercially, as well as for more exotic mushrooms.

Seven chapters cover the major mushroom families Buttons and Saucers: The Genus Agaricus; Aristocrats of the Forest: Morels and Truffles; The King and Lesser Nobility: Cepes and Their Cousins; Flower of Fungus?: Chanterelles; Mushrooms from Wood: The Ultimate Recyclers; From the East: Asian Mushrooms; and The Best of the Rest. The 100 recipes include appetizers, main courses, salads, and even breakfast dishes that use mushrooms in starring and supporting roles, such as Morels with Ruffled Pasta, Wild Mushroom and Onion Soup, Barbecued Oysters and Shiitake Mushrooms, and Salmon with Chanterelles and Red Pepper Puree. The author whose knowledge of wine rivals his knowledge of mushrooms includes wine or beer suggestions for most dishes.

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MOREL SAUCE

As much as I love to pick and eat fresh morels, when I use them to make a sauce it always comes out somewhat cloudy. Morels should really be dried for making a clean, clear sauce. What's more, you can make this sauce at any time of the year because you can hunt for dried morels at your favorite specialty food store when they are out of season. This sauce is ideal for veal, chicken, or game birds.

1 teaspoon caraway seed

3 tablespoons chopped onion

3 tablespoons chopped green bell pepper

2 tablespoons clarified butter

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 ounce dried morels

1 tablespoon arrowroot mixed with 1 tablespoon cold water

Place the caraway seed, onion, green pepper, butter, sugar, salt, and soy sauce in a small saucepan. Add 3 cups of water and bring to a boil, then simmer over medium heat for 30 minutes. Strain through a fine sieve or cheesecloth and return liquid to saucepan. Add the morels and simmer for another 30 minutes.

Stir in the arrowroot mixture if sauce is to be used immediately, and stir over low heat until thickened.

Note: If you want to store this sauce for future use, freeze without thickening with arrowroot. Reheat and thicken before serving.

Makes 2 cups

WILD MUSHROOM AND ONION SOUP

Traditional French onion soup needs no embellishments—except maybe this one. The dried cepes add body and earthiness while maintaining a vegetarian simplicity. Dried shiitake make a different but intriguing variation. If you use dried shiitake, slice them after reconstitution.

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons butter

4 medium onions, sliced

1 ounce dried cepes, preferably sliced

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon sugar

8 slices Gruyere cheese

4 slices French bread, brushed with oil and toasted

Place the olive oil and butter in a large saute pan over medium heat. Add the onions and slowly saute, stirring occasionally. You want the onions to cook slowly without browning—as long as 30 minutes.

While the onions are cooking, combine the mushrooms with 4 cups of water and the salt, soy sauce, and sugar in a 2-quart saucepan. Bring to a boil and then simmer until the onions are done.

Add the onions to the mushroom liquid and simmer for another 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Place 2 slices of the cheese on top of each slice of toasted bread. Ladle about a cup of soup into each of 4 narrow-mouthed bowls. Float the bread on top of the soup and place in the oven for 6 to 10 minutes, until the cheese is melted.

Serve immediately.

Serves 4

Suggested wine: Madeira

PENNSYLVANIA POLENTA WITH SLICED SHIITAKE

Polenta is made with cornmeal, but farina (cream of wheat) is just as versatile. Cooled, sliced, and baked with shiitake, it makes an interesting side dish for any meat.

The polenta can be studded with an endless array of fresh herbs, chopped vegetables, or even meat or fish, and served as a dish by itself with its own sauce. It can be kept for up to a week in the refrigerator.

3 ounces fresh shiitake, thinly sliced with stems removed

1/2 cup farina (cream of wheat)

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

2 eggs

2 egg yolks

2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

1 tablespoon finely diced red bell pepper

Tabasco sauce

Salt

Place the mushrooms in 2 cups lightly salted water in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Simmer for 1 minute, then slowly add the cream of wheat, stirring. Continue to stir gently while the cereal thickens, about 10 minutes. Cereal should become very thick. Remove from the heat and add the garlic, eggs, egg yolks, cheese, red pepper, and Tabasco, and salt to taste, blending thoroughly.

Pour the warm mixture onto a well-oiled baking sheet and spread it out, making the surface as even as possible. Let cool, uncovered, in the refrigerator until cool to the touch.

Remove from the refrigerator and cut into decorative patterns with a cookie cutter. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate. When ready to use, place the pieces of polenta on a pan lined with aluminum foil and heat in a 400 F oven for 5 minutes.

Serve immediately.

Serves 6.