I grew up playing Mario games so I thought it would be funny to eat mushrooms so I would be just like Mario. Turns out I didn’t really enjoy the method my parents prepared mushrooms — barely cooking them. In this process, the mushrooms still have a bit of a chew to them, and there’s really no taste to them. My parents circumvented this by frying them with some oyster sauce or anything similar.

It wasn’t until I started cooking them myself where I really understood the flavors they could bring. Going from just the taste of normal white button mushrooms, you have to cook the fucking shit out of it. By that I mean you have to let all of the water stored in them sweat out then evaporate so that all the concentrated flavor remains. This process takes even longer if you wash your mushrooms first to get rid of any unwanted debris on them.

Once all the water is gone (look for the steam to stop forming and the pan to fry instead of boiling,) slap some seasonings and you’re good to go. I went the cream of mushroom route and after frying them in some butter, I threw in heavy cream. Normally you thicken up the whole thing by using a roux (flour mixed with fat, in this case the butter,) but I’m on a low carb diet so I just took an immersion blender and mashed up some of the mushrooms already in the pan. Thicken something using itself. Isn’t that crazy?

The end result is something that is very meaty tasting (the concentrated savory flavors,) and I can see myself eating this frequently. Maybe I’ll make this for my sister who has mentioned that she doesn’t like mushrooms. In fact, I should invest in one of those mushroom self grow kits. Mushrooms for days.