Maitake
Mushroom Recipes
 Maitake is an extremely versatile mushroom
in the kitchen. A friend from Thailand uses it (cooked) in literally everything from soups
to salads. An Italian chef I know uses it in breads, pressed into focaccia, on pizza and
in main dishes as a sauce flavoring and in lasagna. I've even had it ground up in a food
processor and made into mushroom pesto, served on crusty bread or spooned over pasta. It
deep fries well, breaded with Italian seasonings or in tempera. To sum it up it has worked
well in every dish I've ever seen it used in, its firm texture and woodsy flavor holding
up to any style of cooking without ever becoming an overpowering flavor. What's nice about
it is if you find enough -- like the thirty or so pound Maitake I'm holding in this
picture -- you'll have plenty to try your favorite mushroom recipe with Maitake in stead
of white button mushrooms. Here's a list of cooking ideas and a few recipes:
Italian Style:
Maitake Mushroom Pesto
Chop Maitake in a food processor, saut on medium heat (without oil) until the water in
the fresh mushrooms is released, stir in some olive oil, a little garlic and salt an
pepper to taste. Some fresh parsley is nice too.
Uses For Maitake Mushroom Pesto: Over pasta with grated cheese, on
toasted bread or garlic bread as an appetizer, sprinkled on pizza, rolled up in a pizza
dough with grated mozzarella to make a mushroom roll (cook about 25 minutes at 350*).
Also: Try adding chunks of Maitake to any Italian style soups or sauces.
Thai Style:
Add to soups, I.E. Cook sliced and seeded Bitter Melon in chicken broth
with Maitake, finish with shrimp or chicken. Add chili paste or Thai soup base to several
cups of water and cook with mushrooms. Add fine scallion rings, cilantro, soy sauce to
taste. whisk a little milk and salt with an egg and make a very thin omelet. Transfer the
omelet to a cutting board and slice it into long thin "egg noodles." Add them to
the soup and serve.
Mushroom Salad: Souphet (Thai
Mushroom Salad)
Also: Add to curry dishes or slice finely and add to Tod Mon Goon (Thai
shrimp sausages)
Here are some other ideas:
Try substituting Maitake for Morels in this recipe:
Homemade Pasta With Morel Mushroom Cream Sauce
Make a Bchamel sauce and add sauted Maitake, serve over pasta.
Here's a more American style "salad" recipe - Hen of the Woods Salad
ENJOY! - Roy Reehil
Maitake Main Page | More Maitake Pictures and Info
Cooking and Storing Hen of the Woods |
