Mushrooms
Our long-standing love of mushrooms became even more intense when Ben Cramer opened Low Country Mushrooms on John's Island. The ability to find fresh portabellas, shiitakes and now even oyster mushrooms daily at the local stores and restaurants has increased our consumption. Ben grows 700-900 lbs. of shiitakes and 200 lbs. of oysters weekly and has an agreement with a mushroom grower in Pennsylvania who supplies Ben with 150 cases of portabellas weekly. If your experience with mushrooms has been limited to the small white ones traditionally found in the produce section, give some of the more exotic mushrooms a try. The flavors are wonderful and in many cases, they make a good meat substitute.
The Mushroom Pie recipe is taken from Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant (Simon and Schuster/Fireside, 1990), and is an excellent example of the increased flavor you can expect when combining several varieties of mushrooms. The first time we made this recipe, we only had 5 or 6 cups of mushrooms. As far as we could determine, it had no impact on the recipe. The stroganoff recipe is one we concocted when we had an abundance of portabellas and no ideas for dinner. It has become a favorite of ours for a quick meal, as well as a permanent replacement for the more traditional recipe. We've also included an easy side dish and a mushroom butter which, as with herb butters, is excellent over grilled fish, meat or poultry. One thing to keep in mind, if you plan to store mushrooms for several days, do not leave them in a plastic bag. Mushrooms keep best refrigerated either in a paper bag, or an open container lined with paper towels.
