Ingredients
- 1 1/4 pound shiitake mushrooms
- 3 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon garlic
- 1 1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt
- 1 1/2 sprig herb
Preparation
Baking Directions:
If you make one hors d’oeuvre out of this cookbook, let it be this one.
Six years of making and serving these nearly every night in the restaurant did not dim my enthusiasm for them.
One co-chef, Sam “Catfish” Routh, and I used to jive around the kitchen barking like seals when there were a few extra, begging each other for more (I hope the sound did not reach the dining room), while another, Fred Maese, proudly served enormous platters of them, platter after platter, straight from the oven at his fiftieth birthday party.
So straightforward that they are the height of sophistication, these are pure simplicity to make: four ingredients, five if you count the garnish.
Using less oil yields mushrooms that are drier, chewier, a little crisp around the edges; the larger amount yields more succulent, moister mushrooms.
Both are good beyond good.
You’ll be making this a bunch, so try it both ways.
Preheat the oven to 400F.
Spray a jelly roll pan or a baking sheet with sides with cooking spray, or use a non-stick pan.
Toss the mushrooms with the oil, garlic, and salt.
Place the shiitakes in a single layer on the prepared pan, caps up or down, it makes no difference.
Just make sure that they have room to breathe.
Bake, uncovered, for 10 to 12 minutes.
Remove the pan from the oven and shake a few times.
Some of the mushrooms should be starting to get a little golden on the lighter, underneath-side of the caps.
You will probably need to put them back in for a little longer — say, 3 to 5 minutes, maybe more if your oven wasn’t really hot when you put them in.
You want at least a third of the mushrooms starting to turn a nice golden color on the gill side and getting a little crunchy.
If you have used the lesser amount of oil, this will happen more quickly.
Serve, warm or at room temperature, garnished, if you wish, with an herb sprig on each one.
Make a double recipe of the shiitakes.
Serve half and hide the other half away until they are cool, then refrigerate.
A night or two or three later, whip them out and slice them.
Try a Shiitake Mushroom Sandwich, much like the one we periodically indulge in at the New Moon Spa, in Eureka’s castlelike, landmark Crescent Hotel.
It features a big helping of the sautéed (hence moister) version of these mushrooms, lettuce, tomato, wedges of sliced smoked tofu, sprouts, sometimes avocado, sometimes cheese, sometimes a kind of Russian dressing-y spread.
