How to Cook with Dried Mushrooms
Why Use Dried Mushrooms? Dried mushrooms are shelf stable, packed with flavor, and often a less expensive alternative to their fresh kin. But there are a few things you need to know before putting them to work in your kitchen.
Rehydrating
When they're being added to a soup or sauce...
Soak dried mushrooms in hot water until they are just soft enough to chop, knowing that they'll continue to rehydrate when stirred into a sauce or soup.
When they need to be softened fully...
The best way to rehydrate five common varieties: porcini, morel, black trumpet, chanterelle, and shiitake: Add water and dried mushrooms (1 cup of water per every ½ ounce of mushrooms) to a saucepan that can hold the mushrooms snugly and keep them submerged. Bring to a boil over high heat, cover, reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer until the mushrooms are tender, 15 to 30 minutes. Remove the mushrooms. Strain the cooking liquid through a fine-mesh strainer to remove the grit; reserve the liquid for another use. (Discard the cooking liquid from black trumpet mushrooms; it is unpleasantly bitter.) Squeeze the mushrooms to eliminate any excess moisture. For use as a topping, sauté them in oil until hot and season them with salt and pepper.
(Note: Even when fully rehydrated, the mushrooms will be slightly chewier than fresh mushrooms and won’t have exactly the same spectrum of flavors.)
