Friday, October 26, 2012


Begging Rachel for Her Poor Man’s Pudding
Written by Mary Ellen
  
Shiitake Bread Pudding

Last year during fall shiitake harvest time, Rachel here at F&FP, experimented with mushroom bread puddings. There is nothing quite like great produce to inspire good cooks, and the fall shiitake have been nothing short of exceptional.

Recently, we remembered that day when she brought in last years creation, gorgeous and creamy, studded with mushrooms on a teal colored plate for Food Friday. We thought we’d make up a pan. Alas, the recipe was deleted from our blog, and like most good cooks she couldn’t remember the details of making it. She’s re-created the recipe for us and we thought we’d post it in case you missed it the first time around. Thank you Rachel!

Cold Weather Shiitake are fruiting here at F&FP, and man are they delicious. Miss Happiness is no exception.

A Note on “Bread Pudding”

Bread pudding was often called “Poor Man’s Pudding” for the obvious reason that it was made from stale bread. Nowadays a country cook still has thrift in mind, but also an eye toward delectability. Bread puddings are typically thought of as dessert, and take well to finely textured white breads, brioches and even bread crumbs. Savory bread puddings made with these are refined in character, but also can be glorious when made with sourdoughs, French breads and ryes…and Shiitake, as in this bread pudding!  

For the best bread puddings, whatever the bread, use one or two day old bread, thereby being slightly dry to soak up the liquids, but not so aged to taste stale.


Snow Cap: A beautifully ornamented Cold Weather.
 
 
Chocolov: A Cold Weather full of goodness. 

Shiitake Bread Pudding

6-7 C day old French bread or marble rye, cubed
About 1 lb. Shiitake mushrooms, sliced thin
1 small leek
3-4 cloves garlic
3 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp sage
1 tsp basil
Parsley and chives
5 eggs
2 C heavy whipping cream
1 C milk
¼ - ½ C parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a large skillet. Add garlic and leeks, sautéing until fragrant. Add the mushrooms and herbs, cook until mushrooms are tender, about 10 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, cream milk, and parmesan. Toss in the bread cubes and let sit for 5-10 minutes. Gently mix in the mushrooms and pour into a buttered baking dish. Sprinkle with parmesan and bake at 350 for 45 minutes to an hour.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

If the bread pudding is a little dry (a lot depends on the density and moisture of the bread) you can serve it up with a side of Whipped Cream Horseradish Sauce. Come to think of it, whip up a side anyway, you won't regret it.

Whipped Cream Horseradish Sauce

1 c whipping cream
1 T prepared, jarred horseradish
1/4 tsp pepper

Sugar to taste

Whip up the cream to soft peaks and whip in the horseradish and pepper.  Eat immediately :)


Bellwether: F&FP's newest Cold Weather Strain.



Thursday, September 20, 2012

Falling for Autumn Shiitake
Written by Mary Ellen
Flashback: Joe and Phoebe (and Merlin) enjoying the fall Shiitake harvest.
Joe tells us that the only time he was ever taken out of school was when the podpinki (buttons/stumpers/honey mushroom/Armellaria
mellea) were in season. He, his dad and grandfather would go cut banana boxes full of podpinki and jam them into the back of the family station wagon.  They’d arrive home as if fresh off a bank heist! His mom would be faced with hours of cleaning and canning mushrooms (isn’t it much more fun to be the forager than the kitchen drudge?).  This might be the reason that spring is her favorite time of year.
Here is an Armellaria species, just one of at least a dozen very similar species grouped together and labeled by mushroom hunters as "Honey Mushrooms," or as in Joe's example above, "podpinki." Do you have any tales about picking Armellaria? If so let us know in the comments section below.

Armellaria infrequently fruit on shiitake logs but ...even so, you should know what they are in case they make a showing! Identifiers: often clustered, growing in fall on wood, buff/brownish/yellow, often sticky caps with a bristling of short "hairs" on the top of the cap. Gills are attached, cream colored, and covered with a fibrous or webby "skirt" which becomes the ring on the stem as the mushroom grows. Spore print white.

There is no need to go foraging beyond your backyard if you are growing shiitake mushrooms. Yes, this is IT…Shiitake time! Shiitake have two general fruiting times when there is almost nothing you can do to stop the fruiting impulse…Fall, and (to a lesser degree), Spring. Planting a mix of different strains will help stretch out the season, but the combination of temperature change, rainfall and humidity after a long hot summer can mean grocery sacks full of mushrooms. 
Autumn: Flying geese, falling leaves, apple cider, wood fires...mushrooms!
 On our farm, we finished up a week or so ago with a nice natural flush of mushrooms from logs planted with Wide Range strains. Now the logs planted with Warm Weather strains, especially WW70, (a vigorous fall fruiter), are bumpy with mushrooms. We had our first fall frost two nights ago so we await with pleasure the prospect of harvesting the gorgeous Cold Weather shiitake. 

WW70 is a star early fall fruiter.

Good shiitake fruiting goes hand and hand with rain, so we are often faced with black brown, water logged caps. Mushrooms like this have a much shorter shelf life than properly harvested shiitake, really no more than a week. Plus, their dark shiny appearance scares customers if the mushrooms are taken to market. It is best to avoid this problem by watching for the earliest stages of fruiting, and covering the pinning (baby mushrooms) logs with fruiting blanket, frost blanket or clear plastic until the mushrooms are ready to harvest. Even if you can cover the wet but still developing mushrooms a few days before the cap starts to pull away from the stipe (stem), they should develop beautifully for a high quality product at picking time.  

Sometimes you just can’t get the logs covered in time though. Water saturated mushrooms are just fine to eat unless they have developed a dark brown cast to the gills (meaning rot). Saturated mushrooms can be dried, but be careful not to overload drying trays. Monitor heat and air flow as these easily get past their prime before they fully dry. Our favorite way to preserve is to slice and sauté until the extra water releases and evaporates. Season the slices to taste and freeze pints or puree and pack into ice cube trays for later when the fine memories of the fall harvest are equal to the taste of fresh-frozen shiitake. 

Pine squirrels are just as likely to snack on football Sundays as are local cheeseheads. Covering fruiting logs helps reduce obvious bite marks in prime specimines.
Just now, after years of hearing the tales of podpinik hunting, Joe tells me that the underlying reason for going mushroom hunting was the side trip to the White River in Waushara County, WI…for fishing. Figures!

Go to our recipes page to try Rachel's wonderful Shiitake and Cheese Tart.


Friday, August 3, 2012

Tickled Pink: Grow Oyster Mushrooms! 
A Feast for the Eye and Appetite 
Written by Mary Ellen

The Rose Oyster growing from a sleeve filled with pasteurized straw.

Pink Oyster mushrooms, (or the Rose Oyster, as we like to call them) are another warm weather loving Oyster mushroom (like the Golden Oyster see previous blog). We like to grow them on soaked straw as an indoor project, and for the more experienced cultivators…using pasteurized straw. Want to try something simple and fun? You can even grow these beauties on rolls of toilet paper! This mushroom really does like it warm, so lots of people (including us) are working with it planted on beds of straw/woodchips in the greenhouse...we’ll keep you posted of our progress! Should this work well, we’ll be renaming it something like “Pink Hotty 2012” should any of us forget this 3 month hot spell.

The beautiful color and rose-like appearance help give this oyster its name.

It's a very fast mushroom to produce, harvests occur as early as 12 days after inoculation. Rose Oyster cultures are sensitive to refrigeration, so if they are grown outdoors they will not like temperatures below 50F and certainly not below freezing. Therefore, we have never attempted growing them on logs because our logs stay outside for the winters. We live in the Great Lakes region where we get plenty of days below freezing. For those of you living in the South, we’ve been told the Rose Oyster can be grown on Palm tree sections in the totem method.

If you are growing Rose Oysters yourself, you’ll notice a range of hues as the mushrooms develop; this depending on the surrounding environmental conditions at the time of fruiting. They can range from a barely pink color to a deep rose or salmon red. You’ll also notice the mushrooms are very sturdy; resilient to breaking from bouncing around in a box while transporting them to market. To be truthful, the more finicky among you may translate this characteristic as…well…tough, but this is a great advantage when used as a skewered grilling mushroom in kabobs or in the recipe that follows.


Joe applies a brandy glaze over this months featured recipe.

Glazed Grilled Shrimp, Apricots and Rose Oyster Tacos

In this recipe the Rose Oysters will fade to pale pink with crispy browned edges. It is served up with shrimp, balanced with a glazed fruit and stuffed into a grilled corn tortilla accompanied by sour cream, cilantro and possibly your favorite fresh garden salsa. Amazing!

Glaze:
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
1/8-1/4 cup apple jack brandy or dark rum, your choice
3 tablespoons dark-brown sugar
1 tablespoon finely grated, peeled fresh ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch mixed with 2 tablespoons cold water

Ingredients:
6-8 fresh apricots, cut into quarters or eighths, or substitute with another firm fleshed fruit
32 medium shrimp, we like uncooked frozen shrimp, thawed, tail off
8 ounces of Rose Oyster mushrooms
1-2 package(s) of corn tortillas
Sour cream
Cilantro

Directions
•Make glaze: In a small saucepan, combine the lime juice, brandy or rum, sugar and grated ginger and heat until boiling. Stir, simmer another minute or so until the glaze is slightly thick. In a separate bowl, combine the cornstarch with the cold water stir into glaze mixture. Cook, stirring, until thickened and off the heat. Cool.

•Thread thawed shrimp onto skewers that have been presoaked 30 min in water. Season on both sides with salt. Thread fruit slivers onto separate skewers. Do the same with Rose oysters, threading through the stems. Brush shrimp, mushrooms and apricots on both sides with glaze.

•Prepare grill and oil grates. Place loaded skewers on grill; cook, turning once. Cook shrimp until evidence of blackening in spots and shrimp are opaque throughout, 3 to 4 minutes. Oyster mushrooms should be crispy to slightly blackened of edges.

•Sear the corn tortillas on grill until heated through.

•Pile the cooked shrimp, mushrooms and fruit skewers onto a big platter next to a basket of the grilled tortillas. People can load their own and sauce with sour cream, salsa, or whatever else you have in your garden. Just the three main ingredients will provide plenty or flavor and texture for a jubilant August picnic supper!


The finished product! 

Friday, July 6, 2012


This Summer….Go For the Gold
Written by Mary Ellen

A cluster of Goldens waiting for harvest.
Yes...it’s on all our minds... not what happens in London this summer at the Olympics, but which mushroom will we be harvesting in July?

The Golden Oyster is the obvious choice. Sure, we’ll be filling our baskets with shiitake that have been force fruited (soaking the logs 12-24 hrs in cold water), some Winecaps brought in with a cold summer thunderstorm, and maybe some wild foraged Chanterelles, but in the world of Oysters grown on wood logs, the Golden is the Queen of Summer, fruiting repeatedly when the temps hover in the 80’s.

One of many harvests from a Golden Oyster Totem.

Golden Oysters are different than the rest of the Oyster mushroom crowd; their texture is crisp, the smell is sharp, the flavor clean. For that rich, deep forest mushroom flavor, go for the more complex fall fruiters such as Polar White and Blue Dolphin, or the unusual Rose (or Pink) oyster (reserved for a later blog post), but plan on the sunny Golden Oyster for the summer. If you don’t want to eat it, make it into a vibrant garnish, or even more dramatic would be a centerpiece featuring a single Golden Oyster clump. Either way, it’s a winner.



Polar White Oyster mushroom.
Blue Dolphin Oyster mushroom.
Rose or Pink Oyster mushroom.

Golden Oyster cooking and handling notes:
Golden Oysters are very delicate so they must be handled carefully. Larger caps (4 inches across or more) may be more richly flavored, but the stems slightly bitter (and mostly unusably tough, anyway), so use the caps only on these specimens. Cleaning: These usually do not require cleaning, but some outdoor grown oysters are harvested at soil level so they may be slightly gritty. To clean, apply a fine, hard spray of water directly and quickly to the gills and cap, minimal moisture! Blot quickly with paper towel.

The vibrant golden color dims when cooked, but this can be minimized by adding them during the last stages of cooking. Most chefs now tear the mushroom rather than slice, and it is certainly faster.

Serving suggestions: These delicate mushrooms are best lightly sauteed and added to mild dishes such as noodles or fish with a light cream sauce. Serve your Golden Oyster creation with a Shiraz or a Pinot Noir (Natalie recommends Bogle Pinot Noir), or for brew loving Wisconsinites, Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy. Then… for this season only, bring your plates to the telly and enjoy the London Olympics!

Golden Oyster in the foreground and Maitake in the back.

A Golden salad for the season.
Summer Salad of Golden Oysters, Garden Greens and…

While Oyster mushrooms can be eaten raw as one might do with a button mushroom in a salad, the flavor is more complex if they are cooked first. This salad is a mix of greens dressed lightly with your favorite vinaigrette, then topped with roasted or sautéed oyster mushrooms and whatever else you have that provides a range of textures and accent flavors. Use the fresh oysters as visual garnish.

Step 1: Golden Oysters are fragile and the best ones have small caps; so if you are harvesting your own, choose caps the size of half dollars or smaller. Larger caps must be torn into pieces. Either sauté until crisp around the edges in butter or gently toss the whole caps with oil (about 1-2 Tablespoons of oil per pound of mushrooms), spread out on a baking sheet, and roast at 350 degrees (F) for about 20 minutes or until edges are browned and crispy.

Step 2: Prepare a mix of fresh salad greens and toss with your favorite vinaigrette.

Step 3: Set aside assorted textural additions; a combination of several of the following: dried or fresh cherries, celery, pea pods, sliced red pepper, cherry tomatoes, tiny cubes or crumbles of cheese, crisp pear slices and walnuts for later in the summer. Don’t ignore salty crunchy things such as roasted nuts or possibly chow mein noodles.

Step 4. Spread out the salad greens onto a big serving platter, liberally sprinkle the mushrooms over the greens and have fun adding the rest. Don’t forget to garnish with fresh Golden Oysters!

Thursday, April 19, 2012


Cold Weather Shiitake and 
the Magic Tablecloth
Written by Mary Ellen

I love the tale of the Magic Tablecloth. It’s Russian. A culture renowned for its love of mushrooms and picnics in the woods. This tablecloth can produce a feast at the utter of a command.

Well, you too may have the concept of such a cloth if you have cold weather strain shiitake mushrooms in your woods. These mushrooms keep on the logs for a long period of time; over a month, magically ready at the warming of the pan. Your woodland garden becomes a grocery store in the spring, each mushroom ebbing and swelling in size with passing spring thunder storms, intermittent dry winds and snow showers.

This cold weather strain “Chocolov” could easily be mistaken for a chocolate truffle!

Cold weather shiitake are dense and meaty; well known, for such qualities by vegetarians.

Spring shiitake, as a commercial crop, are hard to manage here in the upper Midwest. This is not so in the South where they can fruit on and off through the winter months. Parts of the country that maintain long stretches of temperatures where daytime highs range from the 30’s to the 50’s can achieve abundant harvests by misting pinning logs. But we are windy and cold… wait, hot….wait! Cold weather shiitake, trying to break loose from chilly, stalwart bark, starts and stops and starts to grow. It’s amazing to me that we saw our first full-sized spring shiitake on March 7th. I just picked those very same mushrooms last night for dinner, April 18th. 

On the log since early March, we’ll be enjoying this cold weather “Bellwether” this May Day if the weather stays cool!

It’s also difficult to keep the mushrooms from drying out in the spring. You can wet a fruiting blanket and cover the pinning logs, but keeping the blanket wet is difficult with stiff spring winds. You can tarp the wet blanket with plastic... perhaps too much work to manage unless you have all your cold weather strains consolidated. Otherwise, mushrooms can dry right on the log and can be weird, contorted and vericolored. It can be difficult to tell the stage of these mushrooms by simply looking at their caps... check the gills to see if they are white, not yellowing or brown, which indicates they’re not past their prime.   
Mushrooms with gold colored gills and leathery caps may not recover from wind and heat, and may be best off on the dryer tray. (The bite marks on the smaller mushroom above are probably from a white-footed mouse, who doesn't mind a mushroom a little past its prime!)
Much like the magic tablecloth, the shiitake possess their own secret charms. Give them a rainstorm and a little heat, and the hard dry lumps transform into gorgeous, thick caps with a mosaic of brown colors and geometric shapes. Given a hot/cold spring like we’ve had, we’ll be harvesting cold weather shiitake well into May. Just in time for picnics in the woods as we look for Morels!

These lumpy mushrooms, given enough moisture, will develop into gorgeous specimens.
Quick stir fry with frozen filet beans from last year's garden, and a finish of oyster sauce sprinkled with sesame seeds, makes an utterly satisfying dish.

“And somehow or other it had covered itself with dishes and plates and wooden spoons with pictures on them, and bowls of soup and mushrooms and kasha, and meat and cakes and fish and ducks, and everything else you could think of, ready for the best dinner in the world.”  - Ransome, Arthur. Old Peter's Russian Tales. London and Edinburgh: T. C. & E. C. Jack, Ltd., 1916.


Image above - Mikhail Sukharev. Magic Tablecloth.

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Shiitake and Red Pepper Pesto

Add these delicious Shiitake mushrooms to pesto for a twist.

2 red bell peppers, halved
About 10 med-large shiitake caps
½ C fresh basil
3 Tbsp pine nuts
2 cloves garlic
¼ C extra virgin olive oil
½ C Parmesan cheese

Rub the mushrooms and peppers with canola oil and season lightly with salt and pepper. Roast for 20-30 min. at 375(F) or until soft and slightly charred. Immediately transfer to a bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let steam for 10 minutes.

In a blender or food processor, pulse garlic, basil, mushrooms, and peppers until roughly chopped. Add EVOO slowly. Add cheese, salt, and pepper to taste.

Friday, March 9, 2012

Shiitake Crab Cakes with Roasted Red Pepper and Asparagus Sauce
Created by Rachel

After whipping up this mouth watering crab creation, Rachel topped it off with some sprouts and balsamic vinegar. This small portion was all the entire staff at F&FP had to fight for, and sadly not everyone made it out alive. It was THAT good! 

Crab cakes really hit the spot when craving a guilty pleasure. Adding shiitakes and using red pepper and asparagus in a sauce added a new dimension to the traditional cakes. The sauce is more of a spread than anything and is really nice when served cold with the warm cakes.

Here's what you'll need:

About ½ lb crab meat, chunked
1 bunch green onions, chopped
½ C sour cream
About 2 C Panko bread crumbs
About 1/3 C parmesan
1 tbsp lemon juice
Salt and pepper
Garlic powder
3 C Shiitakes, thinly sliced
1 small shallot
½ small white onion
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp tarragon
2 tbsp parsley
1 tbsp chives
1 tsp or so red pepper flakes
1 tbsp celery flakes
2 eggs plus 2 tbsp water, beaten
1 C flour
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
About 1 C coconut oil, or other frying oil

Heat the olive oil in a skillet, add garlic, white onion, and shallot. When soft, add shiitakes. Add thyme, tarragon, salt and pepper, chives, red pepper and celery flakes when almost done. Set aside to cool.

In a large bowl, combine crab, sour cream, 1 C Panko, green onions, parmesan, and lemon juice. Add garlic powder, salt, and pepper to taste. Mix in cooled mushroom mixture. Add bread crumbs if it is not sticky enough.

On a plate, combine the flour with salt, pepper, and a little thyme and sage. Beat the eggs and water together in a bowl and pour about 1 C bread crumbs on another plate. Form small cakes and coat first in the flour, then the egg, then breadcrumbs.

Heat the oil in an iron skillet until sizzling, add the crab cakes and cook until dark golden brown, keeping an eye on the oil so it doesn’t overheat. Pat off excess oil and serve with sauce and sprouts and drizzle with balsamic vinegar.

Roasted Red Pepper and Asparagus Sauce

1 half bunch small asparagus stalks, tough ends trimmed off
2 large red bell peppers or about 5 small, cut in half
extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper
lemon juice
about 8 oz ricotta cheese
a little grated parmesan

Toss the peppers and asparagus in oil and lemon. Sprinkle on salt and pepper. Roast at 375 degrees for about 30 minutes, or until soft and slightly charred.
Using an immersion blender or food processor, puree the peppers and asparagus with the Parmesan and ricotta. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Friday, February 3, 2012

Put Your Stock in Mushrooms...or Put Your Mushrooms in Stock

Dont let the look of mushroom stems deceive you. These things are packed with flavor.
Here at F&FP, we have a weekly toss of all the unusable mushroom bits and compostables.This includes coffee grounds (go figure), old mushrooms, and stems. Often thought of as woody and useless, the stems are usually thrown out and composted. Composting is great, but what if we could make use of these stems? Many people (myself included) become so excited when they find new and innovative mushroom recipes we forget the very foundation upon which those recipes were created. Personally, I didn’t really want to bother with it. For some time, Mary Ellen has been hinting around for a mushroom stock recipe, so I’ve finally gotten over the apprehension and experimented.

At first glance, mushroom stems appear, for lack of a better word, gross. They’re usually covered in dirt or wood particles and have a funny smell. Once you get over the thought of those in your soup, however, their prospects are quite lovely. When simmered slowly, the stems release their pungent mushroom flavor and lend a silky brown color to your stock, which can then be used for soup, gravy, casseroles, etc… For some, pure mushroom stock may be a bit too overpowering. Using a variety of other vegetables will tone down the strong flavor. In addition, including a few key ingredients early in the process will create a harmonious marriage of flavors making for a smooth, luxurious taste experience. These “secret” ingredients may include ginger, shallots, carrots, kale, thyme…the list goes on and on. You have control over the ingredients, including sodium, which makes it unparalleled by store-bought alternatives. Stock is incredibly versatile, so make it work for you!

I have to admit, the thought of making a stock from scratch was a bit intimidating. What if it didn’t turn out and all that time was wasted? I couldn’t help but picture Gordon Ramsay yelling choice expletives. However, the process really is quite simple, effortless and honestly, hard to mess up. The end result is well worth the time and will fill your house with the tantalizing aroma of homemade goodness. During the simmering process, you may notice a few specks of the substrate used to grow the mushrooms floating around. This is ok, as they will be strained out at the end and are completely harmless. The stock will keep in the refrigerator for a few days or may be canned or frozen for future use.

Surprise your taste buds with some Mushroom and Tofu Soup.
Mushroom Stock

3 to 4 C mushroom stems-dirt trimmed away
2 large carrots, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
About 1 inch fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
About ¼ C soy sauce
A pinch of sage and thyme
About 10 C water, more if you prefer
Drizzle a little olive oil in a large pot and add the garlic and onions. Saute for a few minutes then add the rest of the ingredients. Cover and simmer for about 2 hours, or until the stock is dark and flavorful. Let it cool a little, and strain through a cheese cloth to remove any undesired particles. Twist and press to squeeze out the excess liquid.


Mushroom and Tofu Soup

The vegetables in this soup can be omitted or substituted. If seaweed isn’t for you, simply leave it out. Miso would go a long way in this soup if you like its flavor, I just didn’t have any on hand at the time. Adding a dash of your favorite stir-fry sauce would create a little variation.

8 C homemade mushroom stock
About 2 C Shiitake mushrooms, sliced thin
1 clove garlic, minced
A small piece ginger, minced
1 small shallot
1 small can bamboo shoots
1 small can sliced water chestnuts
½ block extra firm tofu, cut into bite size squares
Fresh or frozen snow peas, a handful or two
2 Tbsp parsley
1 Tbsp chives
About 1 tsp red pepper flakes, more or less as desired
1 sheet nori or wakame (or any seaweed product. It is typically located near the specialty/natural foods section in grocery stores), soaked then torn into small pieces
A squeeze of fresh lemon juice
Lightly sauté the shallot, garlic, and ginger in olive oil. Add the stock and mushrooms, cover and simmer for about 20 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients. Cover and continue to simmer about 10 more minutes.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

What's for Lunch? 
Written by Joe

What is this delicious looking creation that Joe is about to devour? Looks like a shiitake sandwich!

One of my favorite things to eat for lunch is a shiitake sandwich. Though one could really play with the last two of the previous sentence, I find a shiitake sandwich makes me happy, healthier and really gives me that “full” feeling after I’m finished eating.

Lunch has always been my downfall when it comes time to lose that extra baggage I put on between the holidays and/or during a snowless winter when I can’t get out to ski. The shiitake sandwich, I find, is a great way to eat well, feel satisfied and get me on the path to consuming fewer calories at lunch.

Last week I had promised our employees I would make shiitake sandwiches for lunch and I didn’t get around to it until this week when they started to look really hungry. The sandwich requires a few ingredients and you can make it as simple or as gastronomically complicated as you wish.

I start by finding shiitake mushrooms that are a bit too open for our retail accounts. Some growers would call these “grillers” as they are generally large and wide open with the gills fully exposed. After trimming the stem off, I put equal amounts of olive oil and butter (we’re cheeseheads remember, so it is always butter) into an iron frying pan over medium high heat. I allow it to melt until it’s hot and the mushrooms sizzle when they are put into the pan. I fry gill side down first until the gills turn a golden brown color. I then flip the mushrooms and add whatever seasoning I am in the mood for. I am partial to sea salt. I like the salt burst when eating, as does my blood pressure. At this time, one can also add a thin layer of cheese if desired. Some of my favorites are any of the white cheeses: Monterey Jack, Swiss, Mozzarella, or Muenster. Feta cheese is also wonderful as it gives an added dimension of flavor.

Shiitake caps sizzle in a butter and olive oil mix.

While the cheese is melting, take two slices of bread and lightly cover one with a thin film of mayonnaise. I find white bread to be the best, particularly Lake Superior Sourdough or even better, a fresh loaf of French bread made by Mary Ellen. Whole wheat breads tend to overwhelm the shiitake and other flavors, but I will use them if nothing else is available...

All this sandwich needs is a few more mushrooms and another piece of bread.

When the cheese is melted, place the mushrooms on the bread, top with the other slice of bread, and enjoy while it is still warm. I’m still looking for a good locally brewed beer to couple with this sandwich, but alas that will have to be another blog.