Mushrooms

[Guest guest]

For those who asked about washing mushrooms, here's some tips I found off a

site called the Global Gourmet. I've heard that you should wipe mushrooms

off or brush them off because they soak up water like a sponge--but hey

sometimes that's good.

 

 

 

How to Select Mushrooms & More Mushroom Tips

 

First, look at the caps. Then look at the stems and gills.

 

The caps:

Avoid mushrooms with " bruises " or ones that are shriveling. Avoid any

mushroom that feels slimy.

When mushrooms are really fresh and haven't been handled much, you may see a

papery sort of fuzz on them. That's good.

The brown dust on portobellos that looks like cocoa powder is the spores

from a portobello that was sitting above. The spores are fine, don't try to

wash them off.

 

The stems and gills:

You want stems that are firm and have a uniform color. When mushrooms start

getting old, their stems start looking like rotted wood. If the mushroom is

open and you can see the gills, you want dry, beautiful, tissue-like gills.

 

Two personal tips:

If you are grilling portobellos, pick ones with the smallest stems. The

stems are good, but a lot of people throw them out anyway.

Pick mushrooms that feel light. This is especially true with portobellos.

Pick a few up; some will feel heavier than others. Since you are paying for

them by weight, pick the lightest ones.

 

Storing mushrooms:

A paper bag in the refrigerator. Period.

Plastic traps moisture and encourages sliminess. (I know, supermarkets wrap

mushrooms in plastic. But look closely, you'll find that the plastic has

holes in it.)

 

How do you wash them?

One of my favorite mushroom-washing anecdotes comes from a story by Alan

Richman. In GQ magazine a couple years ago he wrote about taking classes at

the a cooking school in France run by the legendary Paul Bocuse. One of the

things he learned was that " Washing mushrooms is perfectly all right. I

can't tell you how happy I am about this. I never serve mushrooms when

friends come over, because one of them invariably launches into a diatribe

when I wash my mushrooms instead of brushing each one clean with a dry

cloth. Chef Antoine says wiping mushrooms is ridiculous. 'You have time in

the United States for things like that,' he says. "

In light of that, what can I say? But everybody agrees on two things: Don't

wash them until you are ready to cook or eat them, and don't let them sit in

water.

As for washing, if you can get away with it, just brush off dirt. But if

your mushrooms are dirty, rub the dirt off under running water.