I bought all these mushrooms once to make a pasta sauce but never got round to it, as –and this is typical- I already cooked far more food than my guests could consume. So I got stuck with portobellos, cap and 500 grams of oyster mushrooms. The portobellos turned into a tasty mushroom stroganoff and the caps into a creamy mushroom soup. And that left the oysters. So I decided on something really quick, flavourful and spicy. I cooked them in my griddle pan with a little bit of oil then added tons of flavor with garlic, lemon and soy sauce. I finished them with a generous sprinkling of chili flakes (don’t even think of leaving them out) and yum! Seriously good eats!

Ingredients

• 500 grams oyster mushrooms
• 2 Tbs vegetable oil (I used sunflower oil)
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 tsp fresh ginger, finely chopped or grated
• ¼ cup lemon
• 2 Tbs honey
• 2 Tbs soy sauce
• ½ -1 tsp chili flakes for sprinkling (you really need the chili here, to balance the sourness of the lemon)
• salt to taste
• 1 spring onion, to garnish (optional)

Method

In a small bowl, mix together the lemon juice, soy sauce and honey.

In a griddle pan or a large, heavy bottomed pan, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the oyster mushrooms and cook, turning 2-3 times until nicely coloured and cooked, about 1 minute. Add the garlic and ginger and cook stirring for a few seconds to release the flavor. Pour in the lemon/soy/honey mixture, shaking your pan to distribute it, and cook until sauce starts to caramelize, about 1 minute. You want to have some sauce in the pan here, so if you feel it’s evaporating too soon or burning, take it off the heat sooner.

Take pan off the heat and season with salt (not too much salt. The soy sauce will also do the job). Remove mushrooms to a platter. Pour over whatever sauce you have in the pan. Sprinkle with the chili flakes and serve.