Fried Mushrooms with Onion

At home, when we need a light dinner fast, we usually boil some mashed potatoes and fry mushrooms with onion. In mushroom season these might be porcini or bay boletes, and in winter and spring we fry button mushrooms, which are sold in any shop.

Button mushrooms are the most common mushrooms on sale, and they are grown in huge quantities around the world. You can buy them in any size to your taste, from the smallest to large ones, and they can be white, cream or even black. As a rule, we buy small mushrooms that are not overripe. They work well in a button mushroom salad or for appetizers.

It is worth noting that cultivated mushrooms do not need much cooking. What is more, there are plenty of interesting dishes that use sliced raw button mushrooms. Sometimes, when we are short on time, we marinate mushrooms by a simple recipe: we just pour hot marinade over them. Once they cool, you get an excellent appetizer.

Fried button mushrooms are extremely simple to make. The tastiest version is when small whole mushrooms are fried in vegetable oil with coarsely cut onion. A special touch is to use small onions the same size as the mushrooms. Use plenty of spices when cooking and, if you like, make the dish spicy.

Buy small mushrooms with an almost round cap and a stem that barely stands out. They are guaranteed not to be overripe. Besides, you won’t have to cut them up.

When frying mushrooms, keep in mind that they contain a lot of water. As soon as they heat up, they begin to release moisture. Until the liquid evaporates, the mushrooms will stew rather than fry. It is important to evaporate the excess liquid as quickly as possible. Also remember that onion fries quickly too, so you need to find a balance between the frying times of the mushrooms and the onion.