A couple years ago I shared a recipe I borrowed from David Arora on cooking honey mushrooms alongside their peeled stems, which is useful when you find a bunch of honeys that have grown to have large or long stems.
This past season I ended up finding a number of clusters that were really prime for eating: not too tall, and young, with a little time before their caps would be ready to open up and spore out.
I brought them home threw them in a pan whole like I do with most young mushrooms. I’ve noticed lots of people have the urge to always chop fresh mushrooms up to cook with them, but resisting that and cooking the entire mushroom, or large hunks of it it preserves unique texture and shows off individual forms.
At the restaurant when I finish mushrooms for a dish they might get a little shallot thrown in at the end or some herbs, but sometimes we just saute or pan roast them by themselves and put them on plates at the last minute, a lesson in simplicity.
Pan Roasted Honey Mushrooms
Equipment
- Heavy pan, like a cast iron skillet
Ingredients
- 2 ounces fresh honey mushrooms cleaned, with 1-2 inches of their stems remaining
- A good pinch 1/2 teaspoon of chopped tarragon, parsley, and chives
- 1 tablespoon lard like duck fat, or flavorless cooking oil
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375. Heat a pan with the lard until lightly smoking, add the mushrooms and cook for a few minutes on high heat, then season with salt and pepper and put the pan in the oven for 5 minutes or until the mushrooms are wilted cooked through and very hot throughout.
- Remove the pan from the oven and put the mushrooms back on the burner on medium-high and add the butter to the pan, along with the herbs. Taste of the mushrooms, adjust the seasoning as needed, then serve immediately.
Notes
I’ve really started paying close attention to the honey mushroom again this year and I must say I don’t know why I haven’t been more active with them. I cooked some button stage honey mushrooms a few weeks ago and they really are delicious and different. Sea salt and olive oil and a hot pan- that’s it. The inexperienced really have to make sure they know exactly what they are looking for here as their are look a likes and one of them is the deadly galerina- which is bad stuff. If you know what you are doing its a great find and there’s usually a lot of it out there.
Yes, honeys can produce massive fruits. Sometimes I have to remind myself to keep an eye out for them too, hens can tend to take precedence sometimes.