Friday, October 03, 2008

Mushrooms from Monterey Bay.

I like mushrooms a whole lot.  

Roasties

I don't want to marry them, but they are one of my favorite vegetables.  However, growing up I hardly ever ate mushrooms.  My mom was incredibly allergic to them, so she rarely cooked them.  One of my earliest fond food memories is her stuffed mushrooms and using the food processor to make them, so clearly there was hope for the future.  

I didn't open up to them until I was studying abroad in the Netherlands.  Somehow trying mushrooms (I'm talking about the vegetable here..) joined all my other new experiences that semester.  I decided that I didn't hate them!  I remember eating them with pasta and thinking, well what do you know?  These don't suck.

When I returned to school in Boston and started trying to figure out cooking for myself while living on my own, cremini mushrooms made reoccurring appearances.  I became a fan of mushrooms + balsamic, mushrooms on pizza and in crusty sandwiches.

Every couple months I'd get sick of them and thinking about the texture being similar to eyeballs and take a break, but that hasn't happened in some time.

Last night I roasted some of the portabella and cremini mushrooms I bought at the Monterey Farmer's Market, as shown at the top of the post.  They were tossed with olive oil, red wine, sea salt, freshly ground pepper and chopped garlic.
Thanks to the commenter who told me about it, I wish I hadn't gotten lost on the way and made it before the technical close.  Regardless, I got mushrooms and little Japanese eggplants and looked longingly at the Lebanese food vendors that had already closed.  

Here are some of my favorite mushrooms meals from the past year or so:

Smokey Mushrooms with Tomato Rosemary Scone, Tofurkey breakfast sausage and spinach.  The mushrooms and the scone are from Isa's upcoming Brunch book!

These are a favorite that I make from time to time - they're my recipe for Hazelnut and Red Wine Mushrooms that was published in the online edition of Herbivore Magazine.

I've only ordered these once or twice but they're addictive - Salt, Pepper & Basil Mushrooms from Bay Leaf Vegetarian Restaurant in SE Portland.

And arguably my all time favorite way to enjoy shrooms - on pizza!

Happy MoFo Day 3!  Now I want pizza for lunch......

22 comments:

Kati said...

Eyeballs, ewww...

VeganView said...

I heart mushrooms, those stuffed ones look soo tasty. And yea, pizza sounds pretty pretty pretty good right now...

River (Wing-It Vegan) said...

Oh man, that picture of the pizza looks good!

Ria said...

I heart mushrooms oh so very much.

Bethany said...

mmmm... stuffed mushrooms.

I know what you mean about getting sort of grossed out once in a while. I used to go to this dim sum restaurant once in a while w/ friends. While they enjoyed non vegan dim sum, i would get this very authentic chinese vegan mushroom dish. It only came in 1 size - super huge (size of a 9" pie plate). It had lots of different kinds of mushrooms -- even one that tasted good but looked like hair. I would only eat about 2/3 of it before I would get a bit freaked out. you're probably thinking 2/3 of a 9" pie plate is a lot, but not really since mushrooms aren't very dense.

The non vegan part of the dim sum still annoys me. I mean, some of the items were just steamed tofu, but the tofu was riddled with pork. They made tofu with pork bits in it grrr...

aimee said...

Oh, that pizza looks fabulous. I heart mushrooms! Although, I am off them right now because I ate too many portobellas a few weeks back and got grossed out a little (yes, eyeballs!) Sigh. I'm sure a perfect pizza is all I need to get back the love!

Bianca said...

You know, I used to HATE mushrooms....until I started doing drugs in college. When I tried "magic" mushrooms, I hated the taste. But just the fact that I was willing to put a mushroom in my mouth and swallow it made me curious about the non-hallucinogenic kind. Turns out, I really liked them! Now that's the only kind I'll eat....no magic 'shrooms for me.

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

I LOOOOOVE mushrooms a whole lot ;0)

Monique a.k.a. Mo said...

This is one of the best posts ever! Mushroom lovers unite!

aTxVegn said...

I'm the only one in my family that loves mushrooms, so I don't get to eat them nearly enough. I have extreme cravings now!

Anonymous said...

That pizza looks delicious.

Debbie said...

Holy, nice shrooms! I can't wait for Isa's brunch book.

Paula said...

I need those smokey shrooms with tomato rosemary scones. YUMSERS!

Desdemona said...

Whoa. That all looks so good; I love mushrooms, too, but I DO want to marry them!

Anonymous said...

I love mushrooms. They are so good. Your stuffed mushrooms are jaw dropping!

Unknown said...

It's so cool that you went to a farmer's market on your business trip! I love mushrooms, except if they're raw...then ewwww.

allularpunk said...

i've hated mushrooms for most of my life..but recently i've started to really enjoy oyster mushrooms. maybe there is hope for me yet! i'm still having problems with the meatier mushrooms though..texture...*shudder*

Jacqueline Meldrum said...

I too, love mushrooms! You have me drooling here :P

DJ said...

I don't know about eyeballs, but I offered my son a bite of a mushroom roll the other day and he recoiled with the words; "Uuuurgh, snails!"

rednikki said...

I'm glad you posted these recipes. We go to the Monterey farmer's market every week, and we always get mushrooms. We're looking for new recipes, and you've given us some yummy ones.

Did you get any tomatoes while you were here? The Early Girl tomatoes are the best I've ever eaten. They're amazing.

Anonymous said...

I too adore mushrooms. I can't get enough of them. I've only gotten sick of morels once, where I was eating them every day for a week. It was a little intense.

Melisser; the Urban Housewife said...

Hazelnut and Red Wine Mushrooms sound SO good!