How can I use up old mushrooms?
This is more a recipe request than a recycling thing but it saves them from the compost heap…
Despite our best efforts, we quite often find ourselves left with a couple of mushrooms when they’re starting to get a bit bruised and, well, a bit slimey. And yet we can’t always bring ourselves to just fling them out.
At what point, should they say hello to Captain Compost? And a few minutes before that, any particular recipes or dishes that hide the fact they’re not as fresh as they might be? Or any other suggestions with things to do with them?
(photo by Mela, c/o sxc.hu)
I find if you peel back the outer layer of skin, it helps them a lot.
I tend to use past-it mushrooms quite a lot – as long as they don’t feel too rubbery to cut, I think they’re fine. I just make sure I cook them really well in a soup or a curry or something.
SaraR
Use them in a spicy curry. The strong flavours mask any suspiciousness of the mushrooms.
Do make sure they aren’t fluffy or anything first of course.
Does anyone know if you can grow more mushrooms by collecting spores from old ones? Or is it more complicated than that?
i make this version of this soup – with my old mushrooms. if i’ve not got any other exciting fresh mushrooms in, i add dried porcini and some other dried mushrooms i get from the chinese supermarket for the mushroom variety. dried mushrooms are your friends.
I usually just slice the remaining mushrooms, fry them and add them to gravy. Beautiful!
You can put them in everything. Pasta, pizza, any kind of stir-fry, anything.
I like to pan fry them in butter (of course) and when they cool I put small to medium amounts – or whatever amount you might like – into a sandwich bag, roll or seal the bag and put the bags into a freezer bag to freeze. You have mushrooms any time you want for gravy, sauce, pizza or whatever
i always have a container of mushrooms in the fridge intended to put on our salad which typically gets shoved to the back and forgotten about. so, i made this up in a jif tonight and it was really delicious. i saute mushrooms with a splash of olive oil in the pan. let them cook about 5 minutes then added a bundle of swiss chard leaves and stems (chopped). let the greens wilt and stems soften. follow with a splash of balsamic vinegar to taste. really yummy quick snack, lunch or side dish.
If you keep your shrooms in a paper bag in the fridge, they dry out rather than get slimy. They get somewhat leathery, but are still fine minced in sauces or soup, and are already well on the way to being dried mushrooms. Finish out of the fridge in the paper bag, if your kitchen is humid do the final bit in the oven to crisp them up. My gluten-free DH is fond of using sliced and dried shrooms like crackers, nice with dips or with herbed (or plain) butter.
Leathery shrooms are also already half way to duxelles (google that, tons of good recipes out there). Then refrigerate or freeze and add to soups, stews yada, or just add to hot water for a nice mushroom broth, either for cooking (eg, shroom gravy or soup stock) or for sipping of a cool evening. when tea won’t hit the spot.
Dried shrooms can be used for same, and can also be ground (morter and pestle, spice grinder, whatever) to make a nice mushroom bouillion or flavouring for whatever needs a mushroom flavour..