Mushroom Stir Fry Recipe

I love mushrooms! I have such fond memories of going mushroom picking with my parents and my sister when I was a little girl. Of course, we had to leave our Moscow apartment and head to the outskirts of the city to find a forest first. We would make a day trip out of it: pick mushrooms, make shashliki {kabobs} on the fire, and head home exhausted, but happy. My parents would then saute, marinate, or dry the mushrooms.

Years later, after my family left Russia and moved to the US, my parents still pick mushrooms--these days in their suburban Seattle neighborhood. I get phone calls from them occasionally telling me how they have a sink full of mushrooms that need to be dealt with.

It's been a while since I've picked mushrooms. What a shame. I just stick to the ones I buy at the grocery store or farmer's market.

A few weeks ago, my friend Cindy surprised me with three packages of mushrooms from a local Asian store!

Look at these beautiful Maitake, Bunapi Champignones and Oyster mushrooms!

Of course I could have used these mushrooms to make some fancy dish, but that's just not my style. Plus, to be honest with you, I did not feel like going grocery shopping: I decided to use whatever I had on hand and came up with this Mushroom Stir Fry recipe.

Mushroom Stir Fry

Ingredients
1 tablespoon chili oil
2 carrots, peeled and thinly sliced on a diagonal
1 cup snow peas, trimmed, halved
1 green pepper, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, chopped
3.5 ounces Maitake mushrooms
3.5 ounces Bunapi Champingnon mushrooms
3.5 ounces Oyster mushrooms
1-2 tablespoons tamari

Suggested additions {if I actually went to the grocery store}: minced fresh ginger to add at the same time as garlic, fresh cilantro and toasted cashews or peanuts to add at the end of the dish.

Directions

1. Heat the chili oil in a skillet or wok.

2. Add carrots and stir fry for two minutes.

3. Add snow peas and peppers and stir fry for two minutes.

4. Add garlic and mushrooms and stir fry for five minutes. {If you are using ginger, you would add it in this step.}

5. Add tamari.















How simple is this dish? You can obviously add different colors of peppers, green beans, and/or zucchini. Serve this over rice or noodles, or eat on its own.

How do you like to cook mushrooms?