With homegrown mushrooms, make dreamy pasta, soup, risotto and more

So once I stumbled upon Far West Fungi’s mushroom mini farm grow kits, I needed to give them a strive. Impressed by the movie — and the considered considerable, contemporary, “fancy” mushrooms rising on my eating room desk — I ordered the range pack, deciding on shiitake, pink oyster, yellow oyster and lion’s mane.

Add vegan cashew cream to sautéed mushrooms for an opulent sauce for pasta.

(Stephanie S. Shih / For The Occasions)

A number of days later, I acquired a 20-pound field with directions to maintain the contents below temperature-controlled situations. Clearly I had not learn the fantastic print. I believed that the range pack would comprise “mini” variations of the develop kits. Now, as a substitute of a small nook, this undertaking was going to take up a great third of our eating room desk, which was already doing double obligation as a work-from-home area for my husband. (Oops!)

The mini farms have been primarily corrugated packing containers that contained what seemed like a strong block of filth wrapped in a plastic bag. The soil, known as substrate, is made up of hardwood sawdust, rice bran, oyster shells, gypsum and soy hulls in several proportions relying on the mushroom selection.

Dwelling rising kits can put quite a lot of mushrooms inside arm’s attain.

(Stephanie S. Shih / For The Occasions)

The directions guided us to chop a gap into the perforated aspect of the field, slice a big X into the plastic that housed the substrate, after which to cowl your complete field with a super-large (provided) plastic bag, into which we have been to chop extra X’s to permit for aeration. We then sprayed the within of the massive plastic “wrapper” with water to create a moist surroundings.

A number of days later we woke to discover a lone, completely shaped shiitake rising out of its substrate. It was a number of extra days earlier than the oyster mushrooms and lion’s mane started sprouting, however as soon as they did the outpouring appeared nearly fixed. The oyster mushrooms began out as teeny-weeny bits of pink and yellow that shortly shaped into brilliantly coloured layers of fan-shaped caps. The lion’s mane began out as white fuzz. Because it grew, shaggy clumps shaped that seemed form of like furry cauliflower.

I used to be keen to reap and style, however the directions stated to attend till the followers have been a great 2 inches in diameter earlier than harvesting. I felt like a child in Daniel Goleman’s marshmallow take a look at — the place you set a toddler in a room, hand them a marshmallow and clarify that, if they’ll wait 10 minutes earlier than consuming it, they’ll get an extra marshmallow; then you definately depart them alone. It took excessive effort to not harvest a few of these first mushrooms earlier than their time.

Capers, shallots and garlic are sautéed with crimson chard stems throughout preparation of Papparadelle With Mushrooms and Cashew Cream.

(Stephanie S. Shih / For The Occasions)

After I may wait now not, I yanked out a number of of the brilliant yellow oyster mushrooms and tossed them in a pan with a number of spritzes of olive oil and sauteed them till that they had launched their juices and turn into properly browned. They tasted earthy, nearly seafoody — rather more flavorful than the white button or cremini mushrooms that we usually eat with our scrambled eggs.

The lion’s mane mushrooms hinted of shrimp or lobster, each in taste and texture. I added them to a clam sauce and so they made it appear extra like a seafood medley than clams and mushrooms. Served over a plate of pasta, it was divine.

After these first little harvests, the substrate appeared to spew ripe mushrooms, and I quickly felt like I used to be in a mushroom marathon, making one thing completely different with the mushrooms nearly on daily basis. I tossed lion’s mane mushrooms into pasta aglio e olio (one in all my go-tos that simply accommodates most any further ingredient). The mottled floor of the mushrooms soaked up the sauce and added a special dimension of chew to the dish.

I dug up a recipe for a mushroom barley soup that was a mainstay on my desk once I was in school. I made a mushroom miso soup with delicata squash and greens; mushroom risotto; polenta with mushroom ragù; hen breasts filled with spinach and mushrooms; and one in all my all-time favorites from the L.A. Occasions recipe archives, Evan Kleiman’s Lasagne ai Funghi.

Lastly, a reprieve: a number of consecutive days with out mushrooms to reap. After which there have been extra. And there was creamy mushroom soup, mushrooms in stir fries, mushrooms Parmesan, savory mushroom bread pudding, extra mushroom soup and extra mushrooms with pasta. One specific pasta dish, with assorted mushrooms, numerous garlic and cashew cream, grew to become a meatless Monday favourite.

Mushrooms are excessive in glutamate, an amino acid that acts as a taste enhancer.

(Stephanie S. Shih / For The Occasions)

It was like magic (solely these have been decidedly not “magic” mushrooms). Simply once I had used up a crop, there have been extra to be harvested. Even once we uncared for to mist the farms, they continued to provide. And we didn’t even rotate the substrate block within the bag to develop from “the opposite aspect” (as Far West Fungi suggests). Nor did we submerge the substrate in water and dry it out once more to encourage further flushes as soon as the mushrooms (lastly) stopped rising.

Finally, I bored with attempting to maintain up. I began par-cooking mushrooms and freezing them for future use (and sure, there are nonetheless some lingering in my freezer). One develop equipment actually would have been sufficient for the 2 of us. 4 mini farms had me feeling like Kyle on “South Park,” who didn’t learn the phrases and situations of his Apple contract and was doomed to an terrible destiny due to it. I used to be glad for the range, although, particularly given the amount that resulted. We ate — and can eat — many scrumptious meals with copious quantities of mushrooms.

Julie Giuffrida provides pappardelle pasta to a vegan cashew cream mushroom sauce.

(Stephanie S. Shih / For The Occasions)