The Swamp

Pros: Delicious!
Cons: Insanely Expensive!

I quickly clicked on this and thought "oh, shit. I spelled this wrong?" Moral just looks weird, and I always spell dilemma wrong at first.

So...You went to the farmer’s market over the weekend to purchase these mushrooms, so that you could cook them, and then make this post?

I mean, that’s something I’d probably do..

I wish ... somehow I can justify meat or fish at high prices but I just can't make that mushroom leap. I stole the pic from Serious Eats and only did this because it had been running through my head since Syb's first post.

I don't think I've ever had a mushroom that wasn't one of the common white ones or something similar, and those have not convinced me that there's some other form of mushroom that would be mind-blowingly delicious.

My favorite is usually in the form of tea.

But I haven’t sipped on that for what...25 years?

Johnny Carwash wrote: ↑Tue Mar 02, 2021 10:55 am I don't think I've ever had a mushroom that wasn't one of the common white ones or something similar, and those have not convinced me that there's some other form of mushroom that would be mind-blowingly delicious.

Night and day. I was brought up on crimini and buttons and hated them and that severely stunted my mushroom appreciation for decades. On a biz trip a couple years ago I got cajoled into eating a shiitake bao and my mind was blown. Unbelievable flavor & texture. Now I'm completely obsessed and eat them 4+ nights a week. (I'm also mostly vegetarian so they make a great stand-in for meat.)

That's where I am appreciation-wise, but I still have a fear I'll fuck up $28 worth of mushrooms with improper cleaning or heat.

mister d wrote: ↑Tue Mar 02, 2021 11:42 am That's where I am appreciation-wise, but I still have a fear I'll fuck up $28 worth of mushrooms with improper cleaning or heat.

Eh, the shiitakes are resilient. Can't really go wrong with sautéing them with butter/oil, salt & pepper, and finishing them off with an acid (wine, balsamic, or citrus). Once you get the seasoning dialed in they sing. Also they should only be like $1.50/oz.

My daughter and her roommates grew a bunch of shiitake mushrooms.

(At least that's the variety she told me. Knowing college students, it could have been... )

P.D.X. wrote: ↑Tue Mar 02, 2021 4:23 pm

mister d wrote: ↑Tue Mar 02, 2021 11:42 am That's where I am appreciation-wise, but I still have a fear I'll fuck up $28 worth of mushrooms with improper cleaning or heat.

Eh, the shiitakes are resilient. Can't really go wrong with sautéing them with butter/oil, salt & pepper, and finishing them off with an acid (wine, balsamic, or citrus). Once you get the seasoning dialed in they sing. Also they should only be like $1.50/oz.

Great reminder, I used to cook with shiitakes all the time. Need to get back to them. I love the chewy meatiness, and they are the easiest to cook and do great absorbing the flavors of whatever you are cooking them in. Shiitake and portabella are the most expensive I've gone.

sancarlos wrote: ↑Tue Mar 02, 2021 4:26 pm My daughter and her roommates grew a bunch of shiitake mushrooms.

(At least that's the variety she told me. Knowing college students, it could have been... )

And you were worried about her living with her boyfriend.

I do the shiitakes (shiits and grits is pretty great), but the fancier ones that cost more are where I've drawn the line so far.

I wouldn’t eat anything that had touched mushrooms growing up. Hated them. Irrationally so as it turns out, though I didn’t learn that until after college.

These days my wife doesn’t mind them for flavor (cooked down/puréed in soup) but can otherwise take them or (preferably) leave them, and the kids though not as strictly picky as young me won’t eat them. The youngest is taking an online cooking class and tonight was at least the third recipe where we had to skip the mushrooms. Probably didn’t need them in the egg rolls this evening but the lo mein last week and the pot pie a couple of weeks ago would have benefited.