Saturday, October 02, 2010

Mushroom Soldiers

Simona from Briciole is hosting this edition of Weekend Herb Blogging and this week I have that regal sounding "fun-guy", King Oyster Mushroom.

king oyster mushrooms© by Haalo


King Oyster Mushrooms are also sold under the names King Trumpet or French Horn Mushrooms. They are a good fleshy mushroom but don't have a huge aroma when raw.

The inspiration for this recipe comes from breakfast.

One of my all time favourites is soft boiled eggs served with toast soldiers - just having it makes me feel 5 again. There's just so many good memories associated with it. Nowadays, when I want to unwind on the weekends with a leisurely breakfast, it's usually poached eggs on toast with maybe mushrooms on the side. Then a little light bulb appeared - what if I kind of mashed these two things together? What if, I made my toast soldiers out of mushrooms?

The answer is that you end up with something like this!

King Oyster Mushroom Soldiers© by Haalo

King Oyster Mushroom Soldiers

4 King Oyster Mushrooms, cut into quarters, lengthways

breadcrumbs
grated parmesan
finely chopped parsley
1 egg, lightly beaten with a splash of milk

oil, for deep frying



Prepare the mushrooms:

Choose mushrooms that are fairly straight - this will make it easier to cut them into quarters. Trim off the end and the slice in half lengthways - then slice each half again.

Prepare the crumbing mixture:

There's no real measurements here - just add enough parsley and grated parmesan to suit your own tastes. To get a finer result - I place the breadcrumbs, grated parmesan and chopped parsley into a process and pulse to ensure it well mixed together. This will also help to get a really light coating on the mushrooms.

Crumb the mushrooms:

Have two shallow bowls sitting side by side. In the first place the lightly beaten egg and milk mixture, in the second, your seasoned crumbs.

Place the sliced mushrooms into the egg, make sure they are fully coated - pull one out and tap to remove any excess egg. Drop this into the crumb mixture and roll around to lightly coat. Place to one and side and repeat the process with the remaining mushrooms.

For a better result, I double crumb the mushrooms - however, when it comes to dipping them back into the egg, I only dip the stem and not the cap.

You can store these on kitchen paper in a sealed container in the fridge until ready to cook.

Fry the mushrooms:

I know deep frying is the part people are most wary of but it shouldn't be scary. If you limit the quanity of oil then it becomes much more approachable - I was taught to do this when I was about 7 so it shouldn't be an issue for adults.

I use a small saucepan and the oil is maybe 2 to 3 inches deep - you're probably looking at a cup of oil at the most.

Place the pot of a medium heat and bring it slowly up to temperature. You should be aiming to take about 1 minute to 1 and half minutes to cook these mushroom soldiers. If you feel it's browning too quickly, just remove the pot from the heat.

Cook a few at a time, don't crowd the pot and once golden, rest them on kitchen paper to remove any excess oil.

King Oyster Mushroom Soldiers© by Haalo


These can be eaten hot or cold - you might like to serve them as finger food with cocktails or as I've done here, as soldiers for some wonderfully soft boiled eggs.

King Oyster Mushroom Soldiers© by Haalo


I'm ready to make new memories with this dish!

10 comments

  1. American kids are not raised with toast soldiers, and so every time I hear about them, it sounds so cute and Victorian and ... a bit disturbing to me because I'm not sure I could have done it at five. Geez, back then I even had trouble eating bananas (slick) and oatmeal (too squishy). I would have been all "eeew! Raw egg!" but it's not really raw, is it?

    I'm going to try this. D. likes his eggs fairly wobbly, and I think dipping toast and breaded mushrooms into them would be the height of happiness to him. Thanks for the recipe.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great idea! Deep fried mushrooms are the best!

    ReplyDelete
  3. OMG! I love this idea. I love how you always make things so simple and easy. I'd like to try this.

    Paz xoxo

    ReplyDelete
  4. A fun dish! And gorgeously presented. The first mushroom photo is one of my favourites on this blog in a while. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Soft boiled eggs were my favorite as a child and they still are. I had a whole process figured out to eat as much as possible of the while first, then enjoy the rich, runny yolk with bread. So, I empathize completely. Your idea of mushroom soldiers is very nice. I love all the photos!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Man, this looks so incredibly good!!!
    I am doing a lot of product development with mushrooms at the moemnt...mainly oysters and shiitakes!!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Deep fried mushrooms dipped in soft boiled eggs - be still, my beating heart! That is awesome.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I never knew that Tanita - I always thought toast soldiers were universal, maybe they are worth a post! The eggs aren't raw, they are lightly boiled to just set the white leaving the yolk lovely and runny - the runnier the better :) I hope you do try it out!

    Thanks Leaf!

    Thanks Paz - I'll make you this for breakfast!

    Thanks Cindy - those mushrooms are very photogenic

    Thanks Simona - you and I both have the love of the runny yolk, it's just the best

    Thanks Nina - oysters and shiitakes are fantastic, you are very fortunate to be working with them

    Thanks Nate!

    ReplyDelete
  9. These mushrooms look spectacular - definitely a great breakfast idea to pair them with softly boiled eggs.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Thanks Marisa - gooey eggs and mushrooms, it's a win-win situation!

    ReplyDelete

© Cook (almost) Anything at Least Once | All rights reserved.
BLOG TEMPLATE HANDCRAFTED BY pipdig