Pan-Fried Honey Mushrooms with Onion

Cooking method

1. Step 1:

   

   How do you fry wild honey mushrooms so they're delicious? First, gather the mushrooms in the woods. Autumn honey mushrooms have a brownish color, a scaly cap, and a ring on the stem, with a pleasant, mushroomy smell. If you can't get to the forest, buy honey mushrooms at a store or market—frozen ones work for this recipe too.

2. Step 2:

   

   For this dish I usually use medium honey mushrooms with open caps. The smaller ones I prefer to pickle for the winter.

3. Step 3:

   

   Trim the stems off the honey mushrooms, keeping just the caps. If you're using young mushrooms, leave them whole—their stems are firm, springy, and very tasty, unlike the larger ones. Clean any forest debris, pine needles, and the like off the caps. Tip them into a colander with large holes and rinse well under running water.

4. Step 4:

   

   Put the mushrooms in a pot, cover with cold water, add a little salt, and set on the stove. Once it boils, lower the heat to medium and cook for 30 minutes, until done. Foam will form as it comes to a boil and after—skim it off with a large spoon. I weighed my mushrooms only after boiling, so the ingredient list gives the cooked weight.

5. Step 5:

   

   Tip the cooked mushrooms back into the colander and rinse thoroughly again under cold running water.

6. Step 6:

   

   Peel the onion, carrot, and garlic, and rinse the vegetables. Coarsely grate the carrot, slice the onion into half-moons (or a bit smaller), and finely chop or press the garlic. Pour vegetable oil into a heavy-bottomed skillet—you can use a little less. Add the boiled mushroom caps and the chopped vegetables to the skillet.

7. Step 7:

   

   Add salt and allspice to taste. My carrot wasn't very sweet, so I added just under half a teaspoon of sugar, plus 1/2 tsp each of salt and pepper. Mix everything well. Once the oil heats up and the contents start to fry, lower the heat to medium and cook the mushrooms until done, stirring now and then. Choose how browned you like them—I cooked mine for about 15 minutes.