The King Oyster Mushroom, Pleurotus Eryngii, is a marvellous mushroom to cook with. The King Oyster Mushroom requires a little longer to cook than some other mushrooms because of their thick meaty stems. Uncooked, the King Oyster Mushroom has very little taste but when cooked they have the typical mushroom umami flavour and a texture similar to Abalone.

These gourmet mushrooms, are known as Beech mushrooms or Clamshell mushrooms and also Bunashimeji. Hypsizygus tellatus, Beech mushrooms are available both brown and white. Native to S.E.Asia, Beech mushrooms are becoming popular in Europe and the United States. Beech mushrooms are richly flavoured when cooked with a slightly sweet and nutty taste with a crunchy texture. Uncooked, Beech mushrooms are bitter and should not be eaten raw. Cooking removes all traces of bitterness.

Enoki Gourmet Mushrooms (Flammulina Velutipes) are extremely popular in Asian cuisines. Enoki or Enokitake mushrooms are generally seen as long, thin and white but in the wild Enoki look completely different being dark brown in colour, shorter and with normal size caps. Other names for these gourmet mushrooms include Winter Mushroom, Velvet Stem Mushroom and Golden Needle Mushroom. The cultivated Enoki are grown in plastic bottles with paper cones inserted to restrict their growth producing long thin stems. Lighting is also strictly controlled.

One of the important Asian Mushrooms is the Straw Mushroom or Paddy Straw Mushroom. Widely grown throughout Asia the Straw Mushroom gets its name from its favourite habitat, the dried straw that remains after the rice harvest. Outside of Asia, the Straw Mushroom, Volvariella Volvacea, has not been widely cultivated but is available worldwide in canned or dried form.

The Chinese mushroom, Agrocybe Aegerita is one of the finest gourmet mushrooms. Agrocybe Aegerita has many common names including Chinese mushroom, Black Poplar mushroom, Pioppini mushroom and Yanagi Matsutake mushroom. Mushrooms in the genus Agrocybe are believed to be among the first mushrooms to be cultivated. These gourmet mushrooms are much prized and have a [Read More...]

Shiitake mushrooms, Lentinula edodes, (Shitake), have been cultivated for over 1000 years. Shiitake mushrooms are native to China but are grown in many Asian countries including Japan, Thailand and Korea. Today, Shiitake mushrooms are grown and eaten in many Western countries. The traditional method for the cultivation of Shiitake mushrooms is to grow them on dead tree branches.
Shiitake mushrooms, in addition to their culinary use, have been found to have several medicinal benefits.