By Victoria Cosford
For a food that’s nearly all water, it’s surprising how much flavour there is in a mushroom. Buttons, fields, browns, exotics – each variety has its distinctive nature, its own special texture and taste.
The flavour ascribed to fungi is umami, one of the five basic tastes along with bitterness, sweetness, sourness and saltiness: faintly feral, meaty, earthy. White mushrooms are the mildest, although once the button is left to grow into what’s commonly known as a field mushroom, acquiring gills, the flavour heightens. Same with the browns, the small ones known as Swiss transforming into meaty luscious Portabellos when fully grown, calling out to be studded with garlic slivers and roasted or grilled just as you would a steak. Indeed, mushrooms are known as the ‘meat’ of the vegetarian world.
At the local farmers market the Witches Broomstick stall has been dispensing mushrooms since they began. Up at Nunderi – a pretty little hamlet amidst rolling hills just back of Murwillumbah – Carol and Donna Harper are the mother-and-daughter team responsible for their supply, grown in purpose-built sheds on the property.
It’s mostly whites and browns but at certain times of the year there are also the ‘exotics’, shitakes in particular. Possibly owing to the medicinal properties commonly associated with shitakes, native to east Asia, these are always highly sought after, with customers booking their orders at least a week ahead. Their popularity may also be owing to their flavour and texture, the large fleshy spongy cap tasting faintly woodsy – and they are great in stirfries or Asian broths.
Other exotics, less frequently available, are the enoki with their long skinny white stems and tiny caps, the oysters whose tan caps grow oddly alongside their fat stems, shimejis like a tight-knit bunch of little flowers, chestnuts and wood-ears.
To my mind the best mushrooms are the king oysters, with their thick stem, their faintly nutty sweet taste, their firm texture after cooking, their surprising resemblance, once cooked, to sea scallops or abalone (although not oysters). In foaming garlicky butter splashed with a touch of olive oil to prevent it burning I like to swiftly toss the stem slices around until golden all over, pile them on toasted sourdough with a handful of freshly chopped parsley, sea salt and black pepper, and dine like a king.
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