Yesterday I went foraging for mushrooms for the first time this Fall and sadly I didn’t find many edible ones (I still enjoyed it a lot and took a lot of pictures).
However, on my way home, I decided to stop by a Japanese supermarket and treat myself with some store-bought mushrooms. Luckily, they had Maitakes (aka Hen of the Woods or Grifola frondosa, if you prefer Latin names like me).
I will write another post with some of the characteristics and properties of this mushroom, but for this one I just wanted to share how I cooked it and how beautiful it looked.
I bought two packages because I wasn’t sure how to cook it and I wanted to try a couple of different ways.
The first thing I noticed is how beautiful this mushroom is. Check it out. Isn't if gorgeous?
I decided to cut one in pieces and fry it in butter and bake the other one in the oven with a little bit of olive oil.
The trick to frying mushrooms is to use enough oil/butter to cover the entire surface of the pan with a thin film but not too much (mushrooms are like sponges and will absorb all the oil from the pan) and not to add salt until the mushrooms are brown and crispy. If you add salt while they’re cooking they will release water (mushrooms are around 90% water) and they won’t caramelize.
This is a picture of the Maitake just after I put them on the pan...
And after 5 minutes of cooking at medium-high heat...
The other Maitake was baked at 350 F for half an hour.
I tried both of them by themselves and with a bit of lemon, and the lemon definitely made them taste much better. This mushroom is one of my favorites, it has a really earthy taste with some nutty notes (very umami).
The fried Maitakes tasted better, but the baked one looked beautiful.
And that was it, a delicious and beautiful mushroom meal. Next time I will try to get more creative and look for an actual recipe. I bet there are many ways to prepare Maitakes since it is one of the major culinary mushrooms used in Japan, alongside Shiitakes, Shimejis, and Enokis.
If you know of any recipes, please let me know.
I hope you enjoyed this post and bon apetit!
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