Oven-Roasted Hen of the Woods

[lb_lee]

It's shroom-hunting season! And thanks to a local forager, we found ourself in possession of half a soccer ball's worth of Hen of the Woods, AKA Maitake. Biff decided to oven roast it, using a simplification of this recipe, and it was SO GOOD and so easy that we're sharing it here. (We had so much shroom that Biff ended up oven roasting a pan's worth of them, then stir-frying the rest with collards and bell pepper, and the oven roasting came out notably more delicious.) All you need is:

• Shrooms
• Salt
• Pepper
• Oil (we used canola)
• Thyme, fresh or dried

What you do is:

1. Before you start, shred the hen of the woods into leaves. Give them a swish in water or a brushing to get dirt off if needed. Leave them to dry. (We did this after lunch and came to roast them for dinner)
2. When it's time for shroomroast, turn your oven to 425 degrees F.
3. While it preheats, toss your shroom leaves with olive oil, salt, a few cracks of black pepper, and thyme. (We used dried and it worked fine.) Lay them on a baking pan, making sure not to crowd them. No piling; your goal is for each one to roast and get nice and crispy. (One roomie described the texture as "mushroom french fries.")
4. When oven and shrooms are ready, roast them for 25-35 minutes, depending how soggy they are. (We did it for 30 and they came out PERFECT.) If your oven is uneven in its heating, rotate the pan 180 degrees halfway through the cook time. (We did, because it just seemed a safe presumption with our old apartment.)
5. OM NOM NOM!

These mushrooms are DELICIOUS. We fully intended on there being lots of leftovers to share with our roommates, but we ended up eating pretty much the whole thing for dinner, they were that irresistible.

Comments

[minoanmiss]

• cheers delightely*

Have you and my roommate discussed mushroom hunting?

[lb_lee]

We have not! We didn't know she did!

[minoanmiss]

She does and has recently joined a local mushrooming group! You two should absolutely discuss.

[lb_lee]

You are correct, we absolutely should. Shrooming is one of those things we want to know more about, since free local food is always in our interest.

Yay mushrooms

[rachelkg]

if you happen to have stomping around the woods time this coming weekend that'd be rad (i'll be out of town for a while after). and i'd be happy to babble about mushrooms w/ you.

Re: Yay mushrooms

[lb_lee]

I'm getting vaxxed Sunday noon and will most assuredly fall over afterward, but my Saturday is free! *excitement"