Red wine maitake mushroom steaks (Grifola frondosa)
A delicious savory recipe featuring maitake mushrooms, aka hen of the woods. Takes about 10-15 minutes from start to finish, and makes an excellent meat substitute that lets maitakes be the star of the show!
Servings 3 servings
Equipment
- 2 nested cast iron pans, one for cooking one for pressing (See alternatives in article!)
Ingredients
- 1 lb cleaned maitake mushroom, separated into 4-6 ounce chunks 2-3" thick
- 5 tbsp unsalted organic grass-fed butter, or more as needed (if you use salted butter, you probably won't need to sprinkle salt over the mushroom steaks at the end)
- 1/4 cup red wine (Use a bold, full-bodied red. We used a Petite Sirah.)
- large flake salt to taste (sprinkle generously on both sides of steaks)
- garnish options - fresh thyme, seasonal flowers, fresh-grated parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Clean and process maitake mushrooms into roughly hand-sized chunks, 3-6 ounces each and 2-3" thick, ideally with both stem and cap sections on each chunk. (See pictures in artlcle for reference.)
- Heat large cast iron skillet over medium heat. Add 2-3 tbsp butter. Once butter is sizzling, add maitake chunks, then immediately and forcefully press down on mushroom chunks with smaller cast iron pan that nests inside larger cooking pan (see picture in article). You can release pressure on pan after about a minute or so (or once the pan doesn't push back). Cook for ~5 minutes on one side of the mushroom, then add more butter to pan before flipping mushrooms, and repeating the process on the other side for another ~5 minutes. Once both sides of the mushroom steaks are nicely cooked/browned and the mushrooms are evenly flattened, add red wine to pan and flip steaks again for another 30-60 seconds on each side to allow wine flavor and color to evenly penetrate the surface. Once wine burns off and the steaks are perfectly browned and wine-stained, sprinkle exposed side with salt, then flip on to plate. Sprinkle other side with salt and add garnish. Serve warm.