Astute readers will notice that this recipe for Mediterranean Marinated Mushrooms was briefly posted a couple of weeks ago. Turns out this is not a good candidate for shelf-stable canning. Thankfully Eugenia Bone, author of Well Preserved and Mycophilia, hence an expert on the topic twice over, helps me from offering canning recipes that have potentially unpleasant (or worse) results. Sean Timberlake over at Punk Domestic also has a Spidey Sense of sketchy recipes… gracia Señor Sean.
Still a few jars of savory mushrooms are nice to have on hand in the the safe confines of your refrigerator, but don’t risk canning them with a boiling water bath as I had previously instructed.
This recipe for Mediterranean Marinated Mushrooms will arm you with an delicious enhancer for salad and toppings for grilled this and that, such as bruschetta. It’s all rather straight forward: gather a mélange of flavorful mushrooms, sauté with the “usual suspects” of Mediterranean kitchen alchemy.
I used a mix of shiitakes, cremini and oyster mushrooms but feel free to go farther afield with whatever tasty fungi is available. Even our friend the little white button mushroom can be invited to this party.
The herbs and wine and vinegar intertwine the different flavors of the mushrooms for a tasty common denominator. If you’re flush with the deluxe flavors of the rarer and more expensive matsutakes, chantertelles, porcini and the like you’re better off giving them a spotlight in another dish. Morels, while a bit dear, are nice for this Marinated Mushroom recipe becacuse the organic geomic geogeometry of their honeycombed caps will add visual excitement. Cut into thin strips, a handful of these can go a long way in sprucing up the overall mix.
“Sweetheart, I did read the recipe [my original post] the other day, and yes, it sounds iffy to me. I have yet to find a lab-tested canned marinated mushroom recipe. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist at some University extension office somewhere, but I haven’t seen one yet. There are plenty of water bath canned mushroom recipes out there, especially since the Europeans have a tradition of water-bath canning mushrooms, and they are probably safe, but there is no proof they are safe. But the problem with anecdotal–meaning European–recipes is they tend to be locked into a region. For example, Jacques Pepin’s mother used to water bath can snails she collected in their hometown. Maybe the vinegar she used was some super powerful homemade stuff, or maybe the species of snail had a really low pH? You see? That’s the problem. It would be folly to apply her technique to the snails we gather in East Hampton.
“BTW, wild mushrooms are particularly prone to botulism so must be refrigerated or press canned. You can definitely put the mushrooms up in the fridge. While technically they only hold for ten days, mine hold for a month or more if you follow this advice: To store, spoon the mushrooms into sterilized pint jars (jars that have been boiled in water for 10 minutes). Be sure the mushrooms are covered with oil (you might have to add more oil). To remove the mushrooms, remove the oil from the top of the jar, take out the amount of mushrooms you need, then re-cover with oil and return to the fridge. Do not let more of the mushrooms come to room temperature than you need at a given time or spoilers could be introduced into your jar.”
RECIPE FOR MARINATED MUSHROOMS – click here
