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    Home » Wild Mushroom Recipes

    Steamed Hericium with Butter and Herbs

    Published: Sep 19, 2018 Modified: Sep 5, 2024 Author: Alan Bergo

    Jump to Recipe

    Steamed mushrooms with butter and fresh herbs is a fun play on the texture of lions mane mushrooms. It's a simple appetizer to make as part of a larger meal.

    Steamed hericium corralloides mushrooms with drawn butter and fried herbs

    If you hunt wild mushrooms, you probably know some of the flavor comparisons for well known species. Chicken of the woods taste like chicken, chanterelles smell like apricots, slippery jacks taste like viscous slugs (fresh at least), candy caps taste like maple syrup and hericium mushrooms cook a bit like crab (note that I said cooks, not distinctly tastes).

    As far as the different species of hericium, from my experience: coralloides (coral shaped) americanum (multiple small tufts of teeth) and erinaceaus (one large furry clump) are all good, and I've picked them all in Minnesota, but I do like the asymetrical coral and americanum a little bit better than erinaceaus, just because. It should go without saying I also prefer wild hericium to cultivated, hands-down.

    Edible Hericium americanum mushrooms
    A very young Hericium coralloides, the most typical species of this mushroom I see in Minneosta, and the one I used to steam, tighter clusters, or Hericium americanum will be the best for this.

    The little recipe here (almost silly to call it that since it's so easy) is just a play on the hericium/crab flavor comparison, and, just like real crab, a dip in butter with herbs and a little lemon never made anything suck.

    Less is more. Fried herbs are a sexy garnish to any fatty, buttery thing too, and come to think of it, a little pile of fried parsley would be just as good as the sage and oregano I have pictured here, it would add height and a crispy element too.

    The jist: instead of browning the mushrooms like usual, which would add fat, you cook them with steam, and add the fat to the dish afterwords. The fat here, is drawn butter, which, technically is just clarified butter.

    To be honest, I never understood why clarified butter served with shellfish was called drawn: maybe it refers to the butter being "drawn" with a ladle from a pot, or more likely in my opinion, the pure butter fat being drawn out and removed from the milk solids, which would give a cloudy appearance. I've worked at places where it could be either thing, but for me drawn butter refers to clarified/ghee.

    Steamed hericium corralloides mushrooms with drawn butter and fried herbs

    Clarified butter has a bigh smoke point too, and for this recipe you need that, since the herbs are basically deep fried a bit, but not so much that they overcook, just enough to crisp them and perfume the butter.

    Cooking whole butter with the milk solids will not give crispy herbs until after the milk solids have browned, which would then mean you have browned butter-not necessarily a bad thing either.

    After the mushrooms are steamed and the butter-infused, you put the mushrooms in a bowl and spoon some of the butter on top, then finish with a shot of lemon and some crunchy salt and the table: easy money.

    Steamed hericium corralloides mushrooms with drawn butter and fried herbs

    Steamed hericium corralloides mushrooms with drawn butter and fried herbs
    Print Recipe Pin Recipe
    4.60 from 5 votes

    Steamed Hericiums with Butter and Herbs

    Simple steamed mushrooms with butter and herbs. The butter might seem like a lot-save any leftover butter for another purpose, Feel free to cut the recipe in half to sample it.
    Prep Time15 minutes mins
    Cook Time15 minutes mins
    Total Time30 minutes mins
    Course: Appetizer, Snack
    Cuisine: American
    Keyword: Drawn butter, Hericium, Steamed
    Servings: 4 Servings
    Calories: 216kcal
    Author: Alan Bergo

    Equipment

    • 1 pot with steamer basket

    Ingredients

    • 8 oz hericium mushrooms
    • 4 oz unsalted butter
    • Fresh squeezed lemon juice to taste
    • Small handful of low-moisture herbs that will crisp when frying sage oregano, or parsley are great here, (especially sage and parsley)
    • Finishing salt like Maldon or Falksalt  for serving (optional)
    • 1 clove of garlic

    Instructions

    • Anytime in advance clarify the butter (In restaurants I heat a pot of butter, generally a 50lb block just until it melts, then I let it sit overnight to separate). Heat the butter in a small pan like a butter warmer or even just melt it in a measuring cup like a pyrex very gently in the microwave.
    • Let the butter sit until you can see the separation of the solids and fat, then carefully ladle or pour out the fat. The solids can be added to brown butter, discarded, mixed with coffee in the blender, or whatever-they're a byproduct. See alternate option for clarified brown butter below.
    • Whack the clove of garlic with the back of a knife, a rock, (I use a flat, round piece of olive wood) or the meaty part of your palm. Warm the butter with the garlic just until it sizzles a bit, then cool. Discard the garlic.
    • To serve, clean the mushrooms and break into morsel sizes pieces about the size of a walnut half. Steam the mushrooms until cooked and hot throughout, about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, just before serving, heat the butter with the herbs until the herbs start to fry, monitor the heat so that they frizzle and crisp, but do not burn.
    • To plate, divide the steamed mushrooms into small piles between 4 shallow, warmed soup saucers or bowls, spooning some of the butter and fried herbs over each serving. Serve immediatley with seed-less lemon wedges and flaky salt on the side.

    Notes

    With Browned butter 

    If the thought of discarding butter solids seems wasteful, you can always do this with browned butter. Warm the butter gently, until the solids start to brown and the butter smells like nuts.
    Scrape the bottom of the pan gently with a spoon to loosen the browned bits, you'll want those in the finished product to add flavor and perfume the butter. If you want to use the brown butter method, whole fried sage leaves are a great garnish.

    with Whole Fried Leaves of Herbs 

    Like I mentioned above, whole fried herbs would be a great garnish too, and they can be prepared in advance, as much as up to a few hours (some cooks will leave them out for days).
    Whole leaves of Italian parsley and sage are the best for this, just cook them gently in the butter until crisp, then remove and drain on paper towels and store in a container until needed. The herbs can also be shallow-fried in a pan.

    Nutrition

    Serving: 3oz | Calories: 216kcal | Carbohydrates: 2g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 23g | Saturated Fat: 15g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 6g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 61mg | Sodium: 6mg | Potassium: 187mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 708IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 9mg | Iron: 0.3mg

     

    « Green Butternut Squash
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    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Tammie

      September 04, 2024 at 6:49 pm

      Hi,
      I just found my first Hericium! So thrilled. How do i know when it is steamed the right amount?

      Reply
      • Alan Bergo

        September 05, 2024 at 3:10 pm

        About 5 minutes should be fine.

        Reply
        • Tammie

          September 05, 2024 at 8:03 pm

          Thank you!

          Reply
    2. Julie Hella

      August 24, 2023 at 7:44 pm

      3 stars
      I still haven't had a recipe for these that reminded me much of crab. It's okay, but that's all. I am not sure if it is how I do it. Yes, I have tried other recipes too.

      Reply
      • Alan Bergo

        August 27, 2023 at 4:23 pm

        It's not supposed to taste like crab. It's supposed to taste like mushrooms. If you made the crabcakes and didn't like them I can't help you--the reviews on that speak for itself.

        Reply
    3. Hunter Le Duc

      October 07, 2021 at 12:07 pm

      5 stars
      This was good! My Hericium really lost its whiteness. Guess I oversteamed it. Tasted real good.

      Reply
    4.60 from 5 votes (3 ratings without comment)

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