I followed the recipe instructions for many years, then I took a short cooking class (just one visit for a couple of hours) with my oldest son. The chef who taught the class showed us how to get the most from your mushroom. She told us that the type of mushroom you use is not as important as how you cook it. “Sure” I thought to myself. She gave me the opportunity to “eat my words” and it was the most delicious moment!

Mushrooms are mostly water. Adding them to the pan/pot “raw” to cook with the other ingredients amounts to “boiling” your mushrooms. In class, we learned to cook the mushrooms first. Yep, I know. But it works so well that’s what I do now. (I know I need to go back to many of my recipes and update the ones with mushrooms in it to include this pathway.)

Slice the mushroom with a medium thickness (they’re going to shrink a bit). To get the most flavor, you should cook your mushrooms over high heat with a high heat fat like ghee, grapeseed or peanut oil. EVOO is not for high temp cooking. You could add some spice or herbs to your fat just before you add the mushrooms to give the dish even more flavor. My favorite is pepper flakes. I mostly use Pasilla or Guajillo pepper flakes. I buy the dried ones whole and grind them to give me the flakes. You can find a better variety in whole dried peppers. I use a small rotary coffee grinder as my spice grinder. You can pick them up cheap at most second hand stores.

Heat your pan/pot over high heat. Wait to add the oil/ghee until a droplet of water added to the pan sizzles. Now add your oil. No need to wait for it to heat. Sprinkle in your pepper flakes or herb of choice and then add your mushrooms and spread them out into a single layer as best you can. Now leave them be. DON’T STIR! The high heat will drive off the water in the mushrooms and you can hear the sizzle. That is the sound of flavor my friends. Wait at least a couple of minutes. (If water is building up, you may have too many mushrooms in the pan, or you need to turn up the heat.) Turn over one of the mushrooms and check for browning.

If you have nice browning, give the whole batch a good stir and repeat the above process as needed. The pan will eventually have most of the moisture gone (sizzle sound is mostly gone). Now there’s a lovely batch of beautifully browned mushrooms.

Some dishes, I will pull the mushrooms out after cooking and add back later on. Sometimes I leave them in and add the other ingredients as needed. Either way will work and you will find which way you like best.

I hope you try this method soon. You may never go back. Enjoy!