Tuesday 31 March 2009

White Button Mushrooms. Who Knew?


"White Button Mushroom is a Cheap and Excellent Nutrition Source"

The consumers would surely welcome the news that the White Button Mushroom is equally rich in anti-oxidant properties than more expensive varieties. Some of the varieties are found to be carrying even more of these health promoting elements.

  • It was found that the White-Button Mushroom as an antioxidant for anti aging source supplied five times the additional antioxidant vitamin ergothioneine than was supplied in other sources of this vitamin.

  • It also fights against diseases like cancer, cellular destruction and other additional diseases. It was also discovered that White-Button Mushrooms (WBM) are the most frequently eaten of all mushrooms in America.

  • Button mushrooms are fairly rich in vitamins and minerals. The mushroom contains an especially high amount of vitamin B and potassium.

  • Raw mushrooms are naturally cholesterol, fat, and sodium free.

Source: Health Benefits from Button Mushrooms

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Tonight's menu: Collard Rolls, and on the side, some Pesto Stuffed Mushrooms, which I haven't made until today.

It is a gorgeous, sunny, spring day here and it was quite enJOYable to go to my favorite grocers and pick up the ingredients I needed for dinner. There are a lot of folks enjoying the sun, sitting in outdoor cafes. When I see that in the middle of the day, I think, "Does nobody WORK?" haha but there I am among them. :)

Below is a little movie I made on the fly with my camera. I call it, "De-Stemming a Button Mushroom". I had only worked with portebello stems before, twisting them easily with a good grip. These were a little trickier to get a hold of, and as it turns out, they don't like twisting. They seem to prefer wiggling. As you can see, I scraped the remaining stem out with a knife.

It won't win me an Oscar, but hopefully it'll help you in the kitchen. :)


there's always one in the bunch!


So these (left) are the pesto ingredients before getting food processed by Mr.S. Blade.

Notice the 3 garlic cloves about as large as the mushrooms themselves. Luckily we're past the dating stage around here :)





And these (right) are what they look like when they are stuffed full of pesto, and ready for the dehydrator for 5-6 hours at 105 degrees.

To quote Alissa Cohen, "Served warm out of the dehydrator, these are heavenly! These taste like a soft, breaded, cooked, stuffed mushroom."

Well now!

Here's the recipe:

Pesto Stuffed Mushrooms - Alissa Cohen

18-22 button mushrooms, washed and stemmed

Stuffing:

1 c walnuts

1/2 c pine nuts

2 c basil

1/2 c olive oil

3 cloves garlic

1/2 tsp sea salt


Directions:

Place mushroom caps top side down on a plate.

Blend all stuffing ingredients in a food processor until smooth.

Scoop a small amount of stuffing into each mushroom cap.

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So as I said, this is my first time making these, and if it turns out fabulous, I'll put the recipe in 'My Favorite Raw Recipes' below all the posts, for easy access.

Meantime, there was a little left-over pesto. What to do, what to do....


It was wonderful schmeared onto soft flax bread. Mmmmmmmm!


The collard leaves are marinating so I'll get back to making dinner later...but for now, I'm going to go enjoy that sunshine!


Enjoy your beautiful day, Rawkers!

PS Unless you want to spend a bunch of time turning your mushrooms right side up again, don't slide the tray out to have a little taste. They're wobbly little buggers. Aheh.

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UPDATE: They're very, very good! We both gave them a thumbs up and they are definitely going into 'Soups & Sides'.

(They're surprisingly filling, too!)

Here's what they look like after a few hours in the dehydrator. They're darker and much softer. They actually taste cooked!

They went pretty fast and we had to stop ourselves to take this pic!

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