The Veggie
It’s been a while since our last Mushroom Week. Let’s correct that today with this maitake au poivre.
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Living any portion of your life online increases the likelihood of the digital jump scare: spotting an ex on a dating app, say, or receiving a LinkedIn invitation from a childhood nemesis. But neither compares to the minefield that is Facebook and Instagram’s “On This Day” feature, which highlights old posts. Remember the heartbreak? The vacation that ended in food poisoning? The time you bleached your own bangs?
This week, “On This Day” transported me to 2020 — the day after the pandemic was declared, specifically. That feels like a different lifetime. That feels like yesterday.
It can be jarring to clock time’s hurried march when we are less than prepared for it. So when a nice memory pops up, I savor it. Like the one of an old apartment I adored, or the one served to me Monday, of some mushroom tacos I posted two years ago. Then came a different kind of jump scare: I haven’t written a Mushroom Week Veggie in two years.
On this day, we remedy that, with many different mushrooms.
Frilly maitake (or hen-of-the-woods) may be my favorite mushrooms to cook with, their edges becoming crisp and lacy when pressed against a hot skillet. Now imagine those browned bits beneath a blanket of piquant au poivre sauce, à la the maitake au poivre from Cafe Chelsea in Manhattan. Actually, you don’t have to just imagine, since Florence Fabricant’s procured the recipe.
“Made this for an intimate dinner party of four,” a reader wrote. “Rave reviews and clean plates all the way around.”
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