Here is a delicious recipe I made up off the top of my head after coming home from an evening walk with just a handful of Oyster Mushrooms. I wasn’t super hungry, and only had half a dozen oysters anyway, but they looked so fresh on my counter that I decided I had to use them that night. Sitting next to them on the counter was a ripe plantain I had purchased at the market a couple weeks ago. It is important that your plantain is ripe, which means that it is all yellow and black – no green. This off the cuff experiment turned into one of the most delicious oyster mushroom dessert recipes I’ve ever tasted!
Ingredients:
-
- 1 Ripe plantain
- Half a dozen oyster mushroooms
- Curry powder
- Cinnamon
- Nutmeg (optional)
- Paprika (optional)
- Vanilla extract
- Salt
Step 1: Clean up your oyster mushrooms. I do this by blowing the dirt out of the gills, and chopping off the dirty stems. No water needed!
Step 2: Prepare your plantain. Remove the peel and cut the plantain in half width-wise. Then cut 1/4 inch thick slices from each half.
Step 3: Melt some butter in a skillet over low heat and add your cut plantain. Sprinkle with cinnamon and curry powder, and add a dash of salt to each slice. Cook on low heat for about 10 minutes in the butter, until the underside is nice and browned and caramelized and crispy. Next flip over each slice and repeat the process. This time, after about 5 minutes, turn the heat on high and pour in some vanilla extract. I never measure, but maybe like 2 tablespoons. Give it a couple minutes over high heat and then remove them from the burner. They should look like this.
Step 4: While the plantains are cooking, prepare your oyster mushrooms. Preheat oven to 350. Melt enough butter (it’s ok to mix with olive oil too) to throughly cover your oysters. Sprinkle them with Paprika and Nutmeg. They should be well coated with your butter/olive oil/nutmeg/paprika mixture. Place them on a baking tray, gills up, and cook for 10-15 minutes, or until well browned and just a little crispy.
Step 5: Pile em up on a plate and enjoy. So good. An unlikely match made in heaven.
