PHOTOGRAPHS INDIA WHILEY-MORTON
Fungi are enjoying a zeitgeisty moment. They’ve been touted as a carbon-capture saviour (look up ‘mycorrhizal network ’ to have your mind blown) and they’ve turned supervillain in the hit TV show The Last Of Us, cementing their status as a true force of nature. But we all know where mushrooms really shine is in the kitchen, offering flavour, texture and umami by the bucketload.
Do you have a favourite, though, that you’d stand by through thick and thin? Mushroom lovers on the delicious. team certainly do – and here, four of them make a case for their favoured ’shroom being the greatest of all. Even if their heartfelt words don’t convince you, surely their exciting new recipes will
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ILLUSTRATIONS POLLYANNA COUPLAND
TEAM KING OYSTER
“The only mushroom to be granted a royal title, king oysters are clearly the best. They’re becoming more readily available: Ocado and Waitrose stock them, and other supermarkets (who clearly don’t understand how special a mushroom the king oyster is) throw them in with the hoi polloi in packs of ‘mixed exotic’ mushrooms. Despite the mushroom’s association with Asian cuisines, it’s actually native to the Mediterranean, Middle East and North Africa.
King oysters are thick, firm and – crucially – don’t release lots of water when heated. Instead, they retain their texture and shape, with minimal shrinkage. This keeps them in high demand in vegan cookery, as they can become the meaty, chewy, textural centrepiece of all sorts of dishes. Because they brown and caramelise well too, they’re suited to the barbecue, offering up a hefty amount of savoury umami flavour. This isn’t a mushroom you want to finely chop or hide away in a dish – it’s destined to be the main event on the plate.”
TOM SHINGLER, food editor
Pulled king oyster, peanut and chilli noodles
Serves 2
Hands-on time 30 min
King oysters are prized for their meaty texture, which makes them an obvious choice in plant-based dishes. Here they’re boiled and pulled into strands, to be strewn through a nutty, fragrant sauce inspired by Sichuan’s famous – and traditionally porky – dan dan noodles.
MAKE AHEAD
Boil the mushrooms and make the sauce up to 24 hours in advance, then keep both in the fridge.
BE A BETTER COOK
Boiling mushrooms sounds odd, but it’s actually a fantastic way to cook them. Their cell structure means you can boil them for hours and hours without them breaking down, so it’s an easy way to fully cook them without worrying about timings or drying them out.
KNOW-HOW