Do I need to wash and boil oyster mushrooms before frying

Mushrooms are a natural, forest product that will not leave indifferent any gourmet. The product is widely used in different areas of cooking and makes the taste of cooked dishes brighter. The fruits of the culture are added to salads, sauces, baked goods, soups and other hot dishes, and are also salted or pickled as winter supplies.

After harvesting, the forest harvest must be carefully processed, only after that you can eat the fruits. Today we will discuss how to peel oyster mushrooms, because this particular type of mushroom is very popular among fans of "quiet hunting".

How to clean fresh oyster mushrooms before cooking

If you bought mushrooms on the market, most likely, the seller took care of the presentation of the fruit and peeled them in advance. The purchased product is not processed or just brought you from the forest yourself? Pay attention to the manipulations that need to be subjected to the crop before using it in the preparation of any dishes:

Examine fresh fruit for soil, debris, and damage. Cut off wormy, dry, or wood-mixed areas. It is very important not to skip this stage, as without it, the cooked dish can be spoiled. It is better to clean carefully, without cutting off excess, so as not to transfer the precious product.
If there are few mushrooms, rinse each fruiting body under running water, paying special attention to the back of the cap (the place where the plates are located).
Is the harvest big and the flushing takes a long time? Put the oyster mushrooms in a large tank or bathtub, fill with clean, cold water. Leave to soak for about 30 minutes.
After the specified time, stir the product with your hands, manually pick up the debris that will float to the surface (leaves, twigs, bugs).
Choose from a bowl of mushrooms, rinsing each under the tap.
Put clean fruits in a container prepared in advance.

How to properly clean oyster mushrooms (video)

Bottom line: thoroughly washed, butchered, let's start cooking!

Further processing depends on the purpose for which the mushrooms were collected or purchased. If you plan to "start up" the product as an ingredient in a salad, cut it into small pieces and send it to a hot skillet.

Decided to boil and freeze indefinitely? It is enough to divide the fruiting bodies into several parts, and then only if the representative is caught painfully large. The only rule is that in no case keep boiled mushrooms outside the refrigerator, especially if it is a hot season outside the window, they can quickly deteriorate.

Important! Before use, it is imperative to process the mushroom thermally, only then can food poisoning be avoided. The fruit itself is considered completely non-toxic and cannot cause significant harm to health, however, it is not known how the gastrointestinal tract will react to an unfamiliar, raw product.

We examined how to peel oyster mushrooms, casually touching on the topic of product preparation. Have you tried frying mushroom pancakes with potatoes or baking prey with vegetables and cheese yet? Then catch super recipes from us - How to cook mushrooms: soup, julienne, stewed or in the oven.

Fried oyster mushrooms with garlic. Delicious fried oyster mushrooms with onions - a simple recipe

Oyster mushrooms are at first glance modest mushrooms, where do they care about porcini mushrooms or truffles! But experienced mushroom pickers and professional chefs can tell you that with skillful handling, no "trophy" can be compared to oyster mushrooms, taken on a quiet hunt!

And of course, fried oyster mushrooms are incredibly appetizing. You need to spend quite a bit of time on their preparation - literally 20-25 minutes, but those who try them will remember the result for a long time!

You can use fresh or frozen oyster mushrooms. And it is important to note that experts recommend buying oyster mushrooms in large stores from well-known companies or collecting it yourself.

In the second case, it is necessary to take into account that oyster mushrooms (like almost all edible mushrooms in general) have dangerous counterparts. Therefore, it is reasonable to have a well-illustrated guide to hand.

And mushrooms collected from roadsides, near industrial facilities are also unsuitable for food.

The mushrooms brought home should be sorted out and processed into preparations / sent for drying / cooked and eaten within literally 6-8 hours - because this product is very perishable.

So, you can quickly and tasty fry oyster mushrooms as follows.

Recipe for fried oyster mushrooms with onions

Ingredients:

500 g oyster mushrooms;
4 tbsp. l. vegetable oil;
salt;
ground black pepper;
dry ground paprika;
fresh dill.

Cooking method:

Place the skillet on the stove top. The best choice is, of course, cast iron cookware. But in the absence of it, you can simply use the one with a thick bottom and walls.
Splash oil into a skillet and leave over high heat to warm up well. The oil can be refined or not refined. The latter is rich in vitamins, omega-3 acids, and an expressive aroma that many find charming. It is better to take sunflower oil not refined, and only refined olive oil - otherwise the mushrooms will taste bitter.
Peel and chop the onion into crumbs or cut into transparent half rings - the format in this case is a matter of taste. Drop the onions from the cutting board into the skillet and, stirring with a spatula, fry until golden brown, this will take 3-5 minutes.
Rinse the oyster mushrooms thoroughly and pat dry with paper kitchen napkins. Ideally, small and medium-sized mushrooms should be selected for frying, and only caps can be taken from large ones, because their legs are stiff after heat treatment. Slice the oyster mushrooms. Transfer to the skillet over the onion.
Fry the oyster mushrooms, stirring now and then with a spatula, until all the liquid released by the mushrooms has evaporated from the pan.
When the oyster mushrooms become noticeably drier, add salt, paprika and pepper to them to taste. Continue frying the mushrooms until you have a noticeable ruddy brown hue. Reduce the temperature a little - it is good to fry oyster mushrooms at the maximum power of the stove, but it is important not to overdo it so that they do not become like rubber.
Rinse fresh dill, shake dry and chop finely. Add a generous handful to the mushroom and onion skillet, stir quickly and remove from heat.

How to peel oyster mushrooms

Recently, oyster mushrooms are gaining more and more popularity among cooks. They can be purchased at the market or in the supermarket, but most often they go to the forest for oyster mushrooms. Oyster mushrooms are also called gliva.

Also recently it has become very fashionable to grow oyster mushrooms at home. These mushrooms grow on dry tree trunks, so there is practically no debris on them. Nevertheless, each mushroom should be peeled and rinsed before cooking.

Oyster mushrooms are salted, pickled, fried, boiled, stewed. They make an excellent filling for pies and add to soups. Therefore, it is very important to peel the oyster mushrooms well before cooking.

Description and where they meet

Oyster mushrooms are edible mushrooms, widely known for their mass production and excellent taste. In the wild, they are common in the forests of the temperate zone. They grow in large colonies on almost all deciduous tree species, stumps and dead wood. In our latitudes there are seven types of oyster mushrooms, only one of them is cultivated - oyster. In appearance, the cultivated ones do not differ from the wild ones.

These mushrooms have a fleshy, dark gray cap, sometimes with a purple or brown tint. The size of the caps is rather large, from 5 to 15 cm in diameter. The shapes of the caps can be different - round, shell-shaped, ear-shaped. Legs are short, white, grow together at the base, forming bundles or intergrowths. Oyster mushrooms bear fruit all summer, but the largest harvest is brought from September to November.

How to properly clean oyster mushrooms (with photo and video)

Even if oyster mushrooms do not accumulate forest debris, they must be cleaned and rinsed with water. If a large number of mushrooms are processed, then you can fill them with cold water for 20 minutes, stir and sort out the garbage with your hands.

If it comes to a small volume of oyster mushrooms, then they should be divided into several portions and, putting in a colander, rinsed under running cold water. Thus, it is necessary to do with all the harvested mushrooms. I must say that this option will be the most optimal for cleaning fruit bodies. Check out this pictorial photo showing how to peel oyster mushrooms.

However, the cleansing process implies something else: the removal of spoiled and dried parts of oyster mushrooms. All these places are cut with a knife, and then the whole mushroom is wiped with a dry cloth. It is especially important to dry clean when fresh oyster mushrooms are dried or frozen.

Many experienced mushroom pickers who know how to properly clean oyster mushrooms advise to rinse them only under running water. There is no sand or earth on the roots of these mushrooms, there is practically no debris on the caps either. Therefore, the option with running water improves the oyster mushroom cooking process. This is an important factor why housewives began to like these representatives of the mushroom "kingdom" - they are easy to clean and quickly cook.

It is worth saying that oyster mushrooms have become popular for another reason - they cannot be poisoned, even if they are damp. They do not contain harmful substances, and in our country they do not have poisonous counterparts. And even in spite of the fact that oyster mushroom does not have a pronounced mushroom smell, its taste remains at its best.

Following all these simple rules for cleaning oyster mushrooms, each housewife will be able to prepare wonderful delicacies for her family and friends.

We also suggest watching a video on how to peel oyster mushrooms in addition:

Tips for finishing (basic) processing of oyster mushrooms

Let's deal with several recommendations for cleaning mushrooms from experienced mushroom pickers:

Boiling - mushrooms are placed in a saucepan with cold water and brought to a boil, slightly salting the water. After boiling, it is kept in this state for 15-30 minutes. Then the vegetable products are thrown into a colander and washed with cold water.
Boiling - place the mushrooms in a container of water and bring them to a boil as soon as possible. As soon as the water boils, immediately turn off the heat and leave to cool without removing the mushrooms. After cooling, the food is placed in a cloth bag for drying.
Blanching - the mushrooms are placed in a sieve and poured over with boiling water. After - they are placed in boiling water for a few seconds or kept over steam. After such heat treatment, the mushrooms become more durable and do not break. Carrying out this manipulation is typical for salting mushrooms.

Important! When boiling and boiling, in no case should the mushrooms be squeezed out, since a mass of valuable substances is subsequently lost.

How to clean fresh oyster mushrooms before cooking

Examine fresh fruit for soil, debris, and damage. Cut off wormy, dry, or wood-mixed areas. It is very important not to skip this stage, as without it, the cooked dish can be spoiled. It is better to clean carefully, without cutting off excess, so as not to transfer the precious product.
If there are few mushrooms, rinse each fruiting body under running water, paying special attention to the back of the cap (the place where the plates are located).
Is the harvest big and the flushing takes a long time? Put the oyster mushrooms in a large tank or bathtub, fill with clean, cold water. Leave to soak for about 30 minutes.
After the specified time, stir the product with your hands, manually pick up the debris that will float to the surface (leaves, twigs, bugs).
Choose from a bowl of mushrooms, rinsing each under the tap.
Put clean fruits in a container prepared in advance.

Cleaning oyster mushrooms at home

The variety deteriorates quickly. Before peeling oyster mushrooms, perform the following actions:

they are sorted, mushrooms are separately distributed for conservation and for frying;
washed thoroughly and left in water for 30 minutes;
after the mushrooms lie soaked, worms begin to come out of them;
dust and dirt often accumulate under the caps, so they are washed with a soft brush;
if the contamination is not washed off, they are cut off with a knife;
dried on a soft towel or paper towels;
mushrooms to be dried are not washed.

Where can I get these mushrooms?

The best option is to get them yourself in the forest. Their places of deployment are dying trees. Fallen trunks. These mushrooms begin to germinate right on the bark.

Do you like experimenting and self-cultivation of mushrooms? It couldn't be easier. In the conditions of a summer cottage, they grow well on straw from cereals and in sunflower husks.

But if you cannot be classified as an avid mushroom picker, then in this case they can simply be purchased in a large supermarket. Today it is easy to find fresh and frozen oyster mushrooms on sale.

Usefulness of the product

Before purchasing and cleaning oyster mushrooms for cooking a delicious dish, let's get acquainted with their positive and negative sides. Good moments:

Mushrooms are low in calories, but can dull hunger.
The composition is replete with such mineral components as calcium, iodine, iron.
Vitamins: C, B, E, PP - are found in large quantities in mushrooms.
Remove radiation from the human body.

Cleaning rules: dry, preliminary method

Do I need to clean oyster mushrooms purchased on the market or independently collected in the forest? Sure! But before the procedure itself, it is important to remember these rules:

Don't let laziness get you down.After arriving from the forest (or from the market), from where you brought some of these mushrooms to your home, you do not need to forget about them for a long time. After a little rest, you need to immediately begin to free them from debris, sand and other inedible inclusions.
How to clean fresh oyster mushrooms from the forest? We spread it on a dry surface and first remove dry, well-disposed debris: twigs, scraps of leaves, straw or grass.

Do I need to wash oyster mushrooms

It is necessary to wash oyster mushrooms before any kind of culinary processing: frying, boiling, salting. In addition, this procedure is recommended to be carried out 2 times: before and after cleaning the gifts of the forest. It should be noted that when drying or freezing mushrooms, the processing algorithm is identical. It is also important to thoroughly dry each specimen after washing the oyster mushrooms.

Important! Frozen fruits are not advisable to be frozen again, therefore they are recommended to be packaged in small portions.

Cleaning water

After dry cleaning, you can proceed to more radical measures:

Fill with water (cold and clean) for twenty minutes so that the remaining debris goes away. We remove what does not leave the mushroom with our hands. It is allowed to use sponges made of fine foam rubber, they will help to delicately remove dirt from the hats.
Cut off the tip of the mushroom leg. After all, there, as a rule, there is an area that is difficult to completely clean from inclusions of dust and bark.
Now we rinse all the mushrooms under the tap. Pour clean cold water again. Add salt and, dissolving it, put peeled oyster mushrooms in water. The procedure is aimed at preventing the darkening of the pulp of the peeled mushrooms.
Now we take them out of the water and cook as you like, based on the recipe.

An important condition when cleaning oyster mushrooms is to act gently and slowly. The fact is that any careless movement can destroy the integrity of the mushroom cap. Oyster mushrooms are a very fragile gift of nature.

How to deliciously fry oyster mushrooms with sour cream: a recipe

Mushrooms fried with sour cream have a special, creamy taste. They can be a great addition to vegetable garnish, pasta, and they are also suitable for making volovanov and sandwiches.

Ingredients:

oyster mushrooms - 500 g
onions - 100 g
sour cream - 150-200 g
salt to taste
ground black pepper - a pinch
vegetable oil - optional
any greenery for decoration

Preparation:

Clean the mushrooms from dirt, cut into large cubes.
Peel the onion and cut into thin strips.
Heat vegetable oil in a frying pan.
When the oil starts to crackle, add the onion.
Fry the onion for a couple of minutes until a pleasantly golden crust appears.
Pour in mushrooms, fry for literally 3 minutes.
Add all the sour cream, salt and spices.
Simmer over low heat until tender. This usually takes 15 minutes.
While our mushrooms are stewing, chop the greens.
Put the mushrooms on a plate, decorate with herbs to your taste.

Option for serving oyster mushrooms with sour cream

Sour cream can be added even more than indicated in the recipe

Mushroom semi-finished product

Do I need to peel oyster mushrooms before cooking or can I do it in reserve?

A rich mushroom harvest can be prepared and deep-frozen. So, we clean the mushrooms step by step so that at any convenient moment we have an almost finished product:

We sort the mushrooms before cleaning.
We diligently, but at the same time, carefully wash the forest gifts. We pre-soak all the oyster mushrooms in a bulky dish, generously filled with cold water. Soaking time is not more than thirty minutes. This is enough to soak especially contaminated areas of the fungi.
Now you need a very sharp and clean knife. Use the tool to cut off the stems of the mushrooms. Cut off the dried edges of some specimens. Make sure the oyster mushrooms are not prone to wormholes. In addition, there should be no insects in their pulp.Naturally, we discard hopelessly spoiled specimens immediately. There may be dirt and dust on the back of the caps. It is removed with a soft brush.
Once again, we carefully examine the washed mushrooms for spoilage or wormy bites. We take out (very carefully) into a colander. We place it under a stream of cold water. The remnants of sand and dust from the bark, if they are clogged somewhere, will already be washed out by the pressure of water.
We fill a basin with clean salt water and keep pure mushrooms in it for 10 minutes.
We take out. We wipe them gently. For this delicate procedure, we use multi-layered paper towels. We blot well the upper and lower parts of the mushrooms.
We spread wet mushrooms on a flat surface and wait 30-60 minutes. During this time, the remaining moisture will evaporate. We pack ready-made, clean mushrooms in plastic bags and send them to freeze.

Before using oyster mushrooms, it is enough to boil and fry.