Enjoy mushrooms for breakfast, lunch or dinner

Enjoy mushrooms for breakfast, lunch or dinner. The entire king oyster is edible, including the stem. Photo Courtesy/NEWS CANADA

With their rich and meaty texture they can be used in almost any dish, from breakfast to dinner. Most Canadians are familiar with Canada's most popular mushroom, the white button, but what about all the other varieties on the market?

With names like shiitake, king oyster and enoki, we tend to feel intimated, but you too can easily prepare these specialty varieties at home.

Brown/crimini

Crimini mushrooms have a rich and nutty flavour that is slightly stronger than the white button mushroom. What's great about the crimini is it can be substituted for white buttons in any recipe. This gives you the opportunity to experiment with its stronger flavour and full texture.

Portabella

The large portabella mushroom is well known by grillers. Its intense meaty flavour and robust texture make it ideal for grilling or stuffing. Portabellas make as great substitute for meat, and are perfect as a vegetarian entree or the ultimate mushroom burger

Shiitake

Shiitake mushrooms are a flavourful mushroom often found in Asian cooking. These woodsy mushrooms have a soft texture when cooked and are prefect stir-fried or sauteed with poultry, meat or pasta. Tough stems should be removed, and can be used to make stock.

Oyster

Oyster mushrooms are best eaten cooked. They have a mild flavour and velvety texture, which is complemented nicely by cream sauces, pork or seafood.

King oyster

The king oyster mushroom may take some by surprise. This entire mushroom is edible, including the thick stem, which is pleasantly chewy. King oysters have a delicate woodsy flavour with a hint of sweetness. They stand up well to being sauteed, stir-fried and grilled.

Enoki

Enoki mushrooms are the most unusual looking of the bunch. These tiny mushrooms are grassy with a slight woodsy flavour. Enoki's are best used raw, and make a great alternative to bean sprouts. They make the perfect addition to salads, soups and sandwiches, and add interest as a garnish on stir-fries.

Mushrooms facts:

* Ontario mushrooms are available year round.

* The average mushroom picker harvests 40 pounds or 1,600 mushrooms per hour.

* Mushrooms are fat-free and low in calories. They contain potassium, riboflavin, selenium, copper, pantothenic acid and niacin.

* Ontario produces more than 50 per cent of all mushrooms in Canada.

* 99 per cent of the mushrooms grown in Ontario are white button.

* Larger Ontario farms can harvest about 50,000 lbs of button mushrooms per day.

~ Information courtesy of www.mushrooms.ca, www.newscanada.com and Foodland Ontario

Steak frites with mushroom red wine jus

top sirloin steak

2 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp butter

coarse sea salt or kosher salt to taste

black pepper, coarsely ground to taste

2 cups mushrooms - any combination of button, portobello, shiitake, oyster, thinly sliced

1 red onion, thinly sliced into rings

1 tbsp fresh thyme or tarragon leaves, your choice

1/2 cup red wine (or beef stock or de-alcoholized cooking wine)

Just before cooking, rub both sides of steak with olive oil, then a generous sprinkle of coarse sea salt or kosher salt and coarsely ground pepper or your favourite rub.

Over medium-high, heat a dry cast iron pan to smoking hot.

Lay in steak, and leave it alone until you're ready to flip it, about five minutes.

When desired doneness is reached, medium rare is ideal, remove from pan and set aside to rest.

Turn heat down to medium and while pan is still hot, add olive oil, onions, mushrooms, salt and pepper and stir.

As soon as onions and mushrooms begin to soften, add wine (or stock) and bring heat up to evaporate off the liquid.

Once the wine has reduced by half, remove pan from heat, add the herbs and butter and blend to melt the butter.

Spoon mushroom sauce over steak and serve with shoestring oven fries or a simple green salad.

~ Recipe courtesy of Metro

Sauteed steak with port mushroom sauce

2 strip loin beef steaks

1 1/2 tsp coarsely cracked peppercorns

1 tbsp butter

2 tbsp minced shallots

1 pkg (227 g) pre-sliced fresh crimini mushrooms

1 tbsp olive oil

1/3 cup chicken or beef broth

3/4 cup port wine

3/4 cup whipping cream (35 per cent)

2 tbsp minced fresh parsley (optional)

Cut steaks in half; pat dry and rub both sides of steaks with peppercorns.

In a medium non-stick skillet heat butter over medium-high heat; saute shallots and mushrooms for four to five minutes or until mushroom liquid has evaporated.

Remove to a warm plate, cover with foil and set aside.

Increase heat to high and add oil to same pan; cook steaks about one to two minutes on each side for rare (they should be slightly less done than desired as they will continue to cook when off the heat). Remove steaks to the warm plate with mushrooms. Cover to keep warm.

Add broth and wine to same skillet; bring to boil and cook rapidly until reduced by about half. Add cream and cook rapidly until sauce has thickened slightly about three to five minutes or until desired consistency. Add parsley and return mushrooms to sauce and heat until hot. Serve over steaks.

Shiitake mushroom scramble

1 tbsp olive oil or a combination of butter and oil

4 oz (125 g) fresh shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and sliced

4 large eggs

1 tbsp milk

pinch salt and pepper

In a medium non-stick skillet heat oil over medium-high heat; saute mushrooms about three to four minutes or until lightly browned. Meanwhile whisk eggs, milk, salt and pepper together until well combined. Lower heat to medium-low; pour egg mixture over mushrooms.

With wooden spoon or heat-proof rubber spatula push the eggs gently around the pan as they set. Continue until they are just set, creamy and still moist, about two to four minutes. Remove from heat and serve immediately.

~ Recipes courtesy of www.mushrooms.ca and www.newscanada.com