Produce News for September 22, 2008

LONG PROMO:   Hey, to celebrate the first week of Autumn, I’ve got the fun guy, and I don’t mean me.  I mean mushrooms.  From the little tiny button mushroom to the huge portabella mushroom.  We’re talking mushrooms all next week.  How to pick them out.  How to store them.  How to clean them.  Everything about mushrooms…next week, with me, Michael Marks, Your Produce Man.

SHORT PROMO:  Hey, from the tiny button mushroom to the big portabella.  It’s all about mushrooms…next week with me, Michael Marks, Your Produce Man.

                                                                                                         

MUSHROOMS PART I (Monday, September 22):  This is the first day of autumn, and that means our cooking will probably start changing, and maybe that means a few more mushrooms are going to be on your menu, and you know in the autumn time we do a lot more, obviously, soups and stews and things like that…a lot more sauces for pasta so of course you’re going to need some mushrooms.  How do you pick out the best mushroom? Now right down here.  These are called button mushrooms or agaricus bisporus. Those are the little tiny white button mushrooms.  How do you pick those out?  There are three words I want you to remember.  Right down here.  I want you to remember these three words.  Ready for this?  White, tight, and bright.  That’s right.  First thing, they need to be really white.  The next thing, really tight, and when I mean tight, I’m talking about back here, the gills.  Right here, around the stump or stem what you would call, this needs to be really tight.  And the final one is bright.  They need to be really bright, because the brighter they are, the fresher they are.  When they start looking really dull, that means they’ve been around a while.  So white, tight, and bright for your agaricus bisporus.  I’m Michael Marks…Your Produce Man.   

TEASE:  Hey, in my next Produce Man report, how to find the best mushroom.

MUSHROOMS PART II (Tuesday, September 23)  Have you ever heard of the term “open mushroom”?  Open mushroom.  It’s a term we use in the produce industry to tell you what the mushroom is like, especially the gills.  Now here’s what I want you to remember.  Yesterday I was talking about white, tight, and bright on the white agaricus bisporus mushrooms.  Now that’s very good if you’re going to use the mushroom in a raw form like you’re going to slice it up into a salad.  However, I want you to remember this.  I have some creminis here.  This is not an agaricus bisporus, but certainly you’ll find them.  This is what we refer to as an open mushroom, which means the gills actually start to pull away from the cap.  Actually, I love these.   In fact, when my wife is making a sauce or is going to do anything as an ingredient using mushrooms, we buy the open mushrooms.  Why is that?  Because the ones that are tight are very mild, much sweeter.  The ones that are open, oh, my goodness!  They have such a great earthy flavor, and that’s what I want in my cooking.  I’m Michael Marks…Your Produce Man.  

TEASE: Hey, in my next Produce Man report…why I get really excited when I see mushrooms just like this.  Mmm. 

MUSHROOMS PART III (Wednesday, September 24):  So how do you buy your mushrooms?  Do you buy bulk, what we call bulk or do you buy them in a package similar to this right here.  Well, that’s going to determine how you’re going to store them.  Now when you get your mushrooms home, if you buy them in an 8 oz package like this whether it’s whole or whether it’s sliced, you’re going to put it in them right in the refrigerator in this package because they have actually specially designed this film on it to breath so it’s actually perfect.  Now once you open this mushroom and say you only use a couple of them or if you’re buying the mushrooms what we call bulk, you know, you’re picking them out.  Do not, in a million years, put them in a plastic bag.  Please, keep them out of the plastic bag.  Here’s what you’re going to do.  You open up the plastic, that plastic one, or you buy them in bulk.  When you get them home…right here.  You’re going to get out your brown paper bag.  I discovered this 20 years ago, and now the mushroom people tell everybody, store your mushrooms in a brown paper bag.  It’s perfect.  I’m Michael Marks…Your Produce Man.

TEASE:  Hey, in my next Produce Man report, how should we store our mushrooms, in plastic or bag?

MUSHROOMS PART IV (Thursday, September 25):  Okay, so you are now ready to use your mushrooms.  You bought some good mushrooms.  You got them home.  You stored them right.  Now you’re going to use them.  You’re going to get out your knife.  Oh, you’ve got to clean them first.  How in the world do you clean your mushrooms?  I know there’s been a lot said, “Please don’t put your mushrooms underneath water because it’s like a sponge.”  Well, you know, for the quick amount of being under the water just before you’re going to use that mushroom, it’s not going to make a big deal at all, but what I would do, I would get a little tiny brush out and actually underneath the water brush them a little bit.  What you can also do is get a big white terrycloth.  This is actually what they do in places like Europe.  They don’t put them underwater.  They will actually put them right in a white terrycloth towel and fold it up just like this and actually just shake them just a little bit because you know mushrooms grow in some of the cleanest compost grown on planet earth.  It’s not manure, okay?  So all you’re doing, you’re trying to get off a little bit of the compost.  So you really don’t even need to put them under water.  I’m Michael Marks…Your Produce Man.  

TEASE:  Hey, in my next Produce Man report, so we’re ready to use those mushrooms…how do we clean them?

  

MUSHROOMS PART V (Friday, September 26):  You know, all this week we’ve been talking about beautiful mushrooms, beautiful fungus!  And, oh, this is the time of year, I love autumn because we start changing our cooking habits and we use a lot more mushrooms in our cooking.  I don’t know about you, but you should.  We’ve been talking about the little button mushrooms most of the week so I thought I’d bring in the big daddy. Oh, yeah, the big portabella mushrooms.  I know some of you call them portabello mushrooms, but they’re actually marketed as portabella.  These are actually nothing more than an Italian cremini.  That’s what this is – an Italian brown topped cremini – that’s been allowed to grow into this huge thing.  No, these weren’t grown near some nuclear power plant!  They just allow them to grow larger.  Now, what do I love about these things?  Oh, my goodness!  Portabella mushrooms…I love!  Anything you do with meat, you can do with a portabella mushroom.  You want to just, you know, marinate it.  Take the little stump off and then marinate this.  Throw it on the grill.  You know what I love to do with them?  I love to slice them and instead of beef in the stroganoff, I put the portabella into the stroganoff.  Oh, they’re so good!  I’m Michael Marks…Your Produce Man. 

TEASE:  Hey, in my next Produce Man report, they are the biggest hit in the mushroom industry – the big portabella.