Cauliflower Mushrooms

Cauliflower mushrooms.

Cauliflower mushrooms are a group of polypore mushrooms (Sparassis spp) that are delicious, and more rare than their cousins like hen or chicken of the woods. If you find some, you're lucky. If you're new to them, check out my introductory post on cauliflower mushrooms. If you have some you'd like to cook, try out my cauliflower steaks and baked cauliflower mushroom gratin first.

Cauliflower Mushroom Steaks

This is now my all-time favorite cauliflower mushroom recipe: cut into big chunks, and cooked as a mushroom substitute for meat. Cauliflower mushrooms are like hen of the woods in that they’re often large–much larger than many other mushrooms, but unlike hens, cauliflower mushrooms have a much looser structure, and wilt after cooking, where hen…

Steamed Cauliflower Mushrooms with Ponzu

Oh how I love cauliflower mushrooms. Sparassis radicata, Sparassis crispa–I don’t care if they come from the East Coast, West Coast, or Timbuktu, all I know is that they don’t grow in the Midwest, for all intents and purposes. Once in a while, when our fall mushroom season winds down in Minnesota, I might order…

White Risotto with Cauliflower Mushroom Ragu

I love cauliflower mushrooms / Sparassis, but, honestly I think I like the texture more than the flavor. Don’t get me wrong, they taste excellent, but, it’s hard to find another mushroom with a similar texture. They’re just so unique. With that in mind, when I have access to some fresh cauliflower fungus, I cook…

Cauliflower Mushroom-Cabbage Gratin

Cauliflower mushrooms have an interesting shape, kind of like a big floppy hen of the woods as opposed to a literal head of cauliflower (Ramaria, on the other hand, do resemble cauliflower in shape). The first few times I cooked them, I kept it pretty simple and just fried them up in butter, but eventually,…