Simple Buttery Oyster Mushroom Recipe

Looking pretty in pink and other colours, oyster mushrooms have a mild flavour that’s reminiscent of seafood. To retain the taste, we use this quick and simple buttery recipe with just a few ingredients.

Oyster mushrooms taste delicious. But if you ask me, they’re just too pretty to eat! You could spend quite some time just admiring their beauty. The stemmed caps with thick meaty flesh in shades of beautiful pink look absolutely lush. (We get more of the pink one in the store over here, so we haven’t tried the white, yellow or gray mushrooms yet; but we assume they’ll taste just as delish.) I’ve heard the yellow oyster mushrooms taste just as amazing as they are pretty!

Alas, we have to cook the oyster mushrooms to eat them. But it’s a quick recipe and hardly takes any time to prepare. But before we get to the recipe, if you’ve not tried these oyster mushrooms before, here’s a bit of info about them.

What are Oyster Mushrooms?

Oyster mushrooms or Pleurotus ostreatus are a common gilled mushroom that grow on rotting wood and are eaten across the world. They don’t cause wood to rot, so they are not a parasitic fungus. What oyster mushrooms do is grow saprophytically on dying trees to help them decompose and return essential minerals to the forest ecosystem. So helpful!

Because of their meaty flesh, the mushrooms found fame in Germany during World War I when there were shortages of food. But after the war ended, people still went into the forests to pick those mushrooms and they soon found fame the world over. They’re now a food item in most parts of the planet. Oyster mushrooms or pearl mushrooms are easy to grow too. All they need is a bit of rotting wood or straw. Mushrooms are also naturally gluten-free, which is a plus. But sometimes they’re grown using rye or barley. So it’s always good to check the labels for this.

The guys at the store also tell us to always get the fresh mushrooms because they taste better and less acrid than the older oyster mushrooms. You can make many different dishes with mushrooms. Anyways, let’s get back to how to make this simple oyster mushroom dish.

Ingredients for the Easy Buttery Oyster Mushroom dish

You just need these few ingredients for the quick and easy butter garlic oyster mushrooms!
250 grams Oyster Mushrooms
8 Cloves Garlic
3 tablespoons Butter
1 teaspoon Pepper Powder
1 teaspoon Salt

How to prepare And Cook Fresh Buttery Oyster Mushrooms

Doesn’t it look just lovely? Yep, spending some time staring at this pink oyster mushroom before we cook it!

Okay, the first thing you need to do is to clean the mushrooms thoroughly. You never know what might be lurking in there. We once found a tiny black worm in it. It contrasted nicely with the pink color. Almost felt sorry for removing it. But these things happen sometimes if you buy organic, so just clean them properly first.

Don’t use too much water. It’s better to brush off the dirt with a brush and wipe dry with a towel. Use water if you need to, but remember that mushrooms are porous and absorb water quickly, so use as little water to clean them as possible.

But if you are using water remember to wash the mushrooms before cutting them. This is because mushrooms absorb water and tend to get a bit slimy after cutting. So washing them after cutting is really a bad idea.

Then dice the mushrooms into 1-inch bits, or really any sized bits that you want. You can throw out the stems since they’re a little bit tougher than the other flesh. Now leave your pearl mushrooms aside.

Take your garlic flakes and chop them fine. Add them to a frying pan with 2 tablespoons of buttery and fry till the air smells of garlic.

Next, add the fresh oyster mushrooms in and let them cook. The oyster mushrooms lose water when they’re heated, and reduce in size quite a bit. So don’t cook them for too long.

After 2 minutes, add in the pepper powder, salt, and the rest of the butter. You can also add in more spices, but we prefer to keep it simple with just the garlic and pepper powder.

Cook for about 5 more minutes and your buttery oyster mushrooms are ready for lunch or dinner. Yummy does it!

You can cook the pearl mushrooms till they’re drier if you want to use them as appetizers.

These mushrooms will go well with some turmeric rice or gluten-free chitaps. Or even better with some plain ol’ toasted bread slathered with butter.

How To Prepare And Cook Dried Oyster Mushrooms

Soak the dried Oyster Mushrooms in a vessel filled with water for at least an hour.

Remember to use a lesser quantity of dried mushrooms as their weight will increase when they absorb water. e.g. approx 65 grams of dried oyster mushrooms will turn into 250 gms once it fully absorbs water.

While the mushrooms are soaking, you can chop the garlic cloves fine. Add butter to a frying pan and melt the butter, and then add in the garlic and cook until you can get good strong whiffs of burnt garlic.

After an hour, drain the water from the mushrooms and cut them into finer pieces.

Add the chopped mushrooms into the butter garlic and fry for 2 to 3 minutes. Then add in the pepper powder, salt, and one more tablespoon of butter. Fry this for another 5 to 6 minutes.

And your butter garlic mushrooms are ready to serve! You can always taste a little to see how yum it taste;)

Do you like the simplicity of this recipe? How do you eat your oyster mushrooms? Do comment and let us know!

Cooking Tips and Tricks

• You can add other spices if you want, but the oyster mushroom tastes best with minimal other ingredients.
• Serve with a side of toasted bread that’s slathered with butter or with plain rice.
• Or serve with some avocado paste on toast.
• These mushrooms can be used as a topping for pasta or noodles.
• If serving as an appetizer, serve with a green chutney dip.

Other Recipes You’ll Like

• Indian Potato Bhaji Recipe
• Creamy Boiled Egg Chilly Fry
• Easy Indian Green Chutney
• Chicken Tope, a special chicken dish with puffed rice
• Meaty Savory Corn Muffins