Shiitake Mushrooms, Sliced

Mushroom hunters search high and low for true Morels, and a lucky few have secret spots where they know a bounty will grow every year. Try asking any hunter where their spot is and you’ll be greeted with silence. No mushroom hunter will ever give up dried morel mushrooms. It’s understandable. Dried morel mushrooms have a delicate flavor that only lingers around for a short while. It’s gone the moment you swallow. Chewing is another matter. The flavor is mighty when chewing. It’s a mushroom that’s truly worth the hunt. However, some home gardeners get lucky. It’s not unheard of to buy woodchips for a garden and then after a rain find little armies of Morels springing up. These dried morel mushrooms are great for our sautéed morel mushroom recipe. You can add a bit of salt and cracked pepper for a classic preparation or toss with pasta and serve in a cream sauce with generous shavings of Parmesan.

Growing in colonies on mushroom bags or rotting wood in the forest, Oyster mushrooms are a popular edible mushroom worldwide. They have a mellow taste that’s nothing like an oyster, but perhaps that of mellow morning air on a cold winter day with a hint of chicken.* It’s odd, but accurate. Trust us. Looking like little fairy stepping stools, these dried oyster mushrooms for sale are prolific and work in any recipe that calls for mushrooms. In addition, due to their flatness they cook up uniformly. Easiest way to cook these guys? A simple sauté in oil and herbs with a splash of sherry and cream. Yes, yes, yes. Fun Fact: This particular fungus is actually carnivorous and eats nematodes by trapping them in little glue traps. Perhaps that organic diet of little nematodes is what makes them so darn tasty?

This bitter-tasting mushroom is rumored to have numerous healing properties. It’s long been thought to fight viral infections, reduce stress, and induce sleep. One recent study even showed even demonstrated that it was able to help reverse chemical-driven liver damage. This dried reishi mushroom has a bitter taste and for this reason, is often brewed with other mushrooms so as to cover it up. Other recipes insist on adding lemon, honey, ginger, or even a small bit of bacon fat to help make it more palatable. Another, more palatable option? Simply blitz the Lingzhi mushroom into a powder and add it to smoothies as a superfood supplement.

These shredded Wood Ear mushrooms look like destroyed confidential files from a government office rather than food. Perhaps under all that black you might find some undisclosed secret kept hidden from the public. But no, these are mushrooms. Hydrated, these delicate strings of finely sliced Wood Ear mushroom become brown and crunchy with a forest-y flavor. Many chefs have begun to treat shredded Wood Ear like a pasta as instead of a mushroom. Add them to cold soba dishes, or tangle together with fettuccini and slather in an alfredo sauce for an East-meets-West dish. We like to add them into a chicken soup for their antiviral properties. Curious in texture, intriguing in flavor, and with a contemporary appearance this mushroom is perfect for the hip home cook.