Lion’s Mane is kind of a strange looking mushroom, but they grow pretty large and we often use them in our vegetarian meals because they are so hearty. These are one of the types of mushrooms that we’ve been growing in our garage, so they’ve been relatively easy to get a hold of, but we usually get them at the farmer’s market.
Similar to most mushrooms, they absorb flavor well and have a chewy firm texture that is easy to work with. We have cooked them in a pan with oil or butter and some seasonings, sometimes mixing into a stir fry afterwards. When cooked in butter, garlic, and seasoning, they’ve had a chewy-briny quality that reminded me of scallops.
Already looking forward to our next harvest!
UPDATE: We harvested our lion’s mane again, I think the 3rd time now. And we decided to make lion’s mane “crab” cakes!
To make them: Tear the lion’s mane into chunks and heat with a couple tablespoons of oil or butter and salt on low heat in a large pot, covered, to prevent browning, then squeeze out the liquid as you put the mushrooms into another bowl to cool a little. From there, cut the lion’s mane into little pieces, similar to crab you would put in crab cake, and you can follow any regular crab cake recipe, just substituting the lion’s mane for crab. We made it low carb and substituted hemp seed for bread crumbs – it makes it a little more liquid-y than normal, so we poured the crab cake batter in a mold to set while it cooked, and once the eggs were cooked through, it held together nicely.
The Lion’s mane texture is actually pretty similar to crab, and this was a fun way to freshen up our cooking routine.
😋
Looks delicious!