I have 4 oz of Forest Nameko mushrooms. The plan was to cast them into pot roast juice with 45 min to go, to make a sort of mushroom gravy. Well I forgot, the pot roast went in the fridge and the juice is congealed. Too late.
So, I need a plan B for these namekos. Any ideas?
The mushrooms sat in my fridge because I did not know what to do with them. After about a week, the inside of the plastic wrap packaging started to fog- I took these exhalations as an indication that these Namekos might not last much longer.
Just in case they really were a little bad already, I decided to boil them. 4 oz Nameko Forest mushrooms, about a cup or so of water, and too much Old Bay seasoning. I shook a bit of seasoning into the pot, then realized that Old Bay comes in a kind of oval-shaped tin, such that if you upend it and squeeze, Old Bay powder comes blowing out. Let go, and the container regains its original shape. It is like a little bellows!
Anyway, the end product was hot because it boiled for some time, hot because the Namekos are slimy and tend to retain heat, and hot because there was enough Old Bay to give it a cayenne sort of edge. They were brown mushrooms in dark brown liquid. Pretty tasty, spicy and chewy.
If I did it again, I would add 2 or 3 large shrimp sauteed in butter and garlic, then chopped hot. Some cheese, not sure what kind. Maybe some wilted chard or bok choy. I would chop the Namekos into individual mushrooms with a knife before boiling- this time, I toyed with the adventure of trying to cut the nodes with my spoon, eventually sucking whole clusters of spiced Namekos into my mouth, when finally they cooled enough. You might think this is fun too, but you will also see what I mean. I was just spooning broth and mushroom bits up till then- some cheese and greens would have totally smoothed this out, along with replacing most of the too-hot broth with… ___
I don’t understand why anyone would boil mushrooms when you could fry them. That mushroom tart recipe on **ThisSpaceForRent’**s link sounds yum…
I like to try new mushrooms in a simple 'shroom omelet.
The miso soup idea got me looking at the mushrooms as ramen noodles. That’s my big takeaway from this- mushrooms as noodles. The tart recipe does look good too though.