The love of 'shrooms....

I have always loved mushrooms since I've encountered them on pizzas when I was a little kid. Of course, those were the canned, button kind that was a generic topping for Pizza Hut pizzas. Then I when I discovered the joys of drinking beer, garlic mushrooms were my favorite pulutan (food drinking companion to beer).

As I forayed deeper into the culinary world of mushrooms, I found a little bistro in Makati city (back in the days when I was slaving, er... I mean working there), that served this awesome mushroom soup. It wasn't cream of mushroom soup but instead was pure, unadulterated clear brothy soup filled with just oyster mushrooms. Each bite was a bite of earthy goodness. I still dream about that soup.

Now living here in Korea, I discovered the joys of cooking with fresh mushrooms. Look at this box of huge oyster mushrooms that we found here in the Janghowon street market. I swear, one of the largest oysters dwarfed my hand.

I decided to buy a small basket of oysters for about 2 bucks. What I thought was just a small basket of mushrooms actually filled a medium sized plastic bag! I guess I'm going to have mushroom dishes for the rest of the week.


The first thing I did with my mushrooms was to serve them as a side dish to our steak meal. I just sliced up my mushrooms, sauteed them on medium heat in a skillet with butter, then salt and pepper them and voila! Simple, earthy mushroom side dish.


My next meal was a nice mushroom spaghetti dish. I simply sauteed a handful of oyster mushrooms with butter, salt and pepper. Then when the mushrooms were golden brown, I added 1/2 cup of cream and some pasta water (water where my spaghetti was boiling in). Then I added my cooked spaghetti into the pan and mixed everything up. To serve it, just ladle the spaghetti onto a dish and sprinkle with parmesan cheese and more black pepper. Simple, easy and sooo good! (Plus it's meatless, too!).

Tomorrow, we're going to tackle making a mushroom omelet. :)