I got these “King Oyster” sliced mushrooms, a newly added item at my local grocer. What are some good ways to prepare them as a side dish? (I’m making an orange-harissa-honey spiced baked chicken thighs, butter lettuce salad, and butter-miso slathered noodles as sides).
Many thanks!
Saute them in butter and serve them on your butter-miso noodles! This mushroom loves butter!
Agree with @Amandarama. If the slices are on the thicker side, you could also score them on one side in a diamond pattern as you would a duck breast (careful not to cut through - that happens very easily with a sharp knife). It looks pretty and adds more surface to brown. You can brush with soy sauce before sautéing in butter or ghee, and they are also great grilled.
Our local Wegmans sells the sliced ones, but at a much higher price than our local Asian grocer sells them whole, and I can choose the mushrooms myself 
They don’t shrink as much as other mushrooms and make a wonderful addition to stir-frys, rice or pasta dishes.
Thanks both @Amandarama and @linguafood! They are about a scant 1 cm thick.
Also thanks to @Saregama for the hat tip about butter-miso noodles (in another thread).
If it hasn’t been mentioned: miso lasts forever. Like, foreverever. I’ve had red miso in the fridge opened (and not particularly well closed, and it goes on like the energizer bunny 
Two suggestions.
Neat fact. Did you know oyster mushrooms are carnivores? They grow in environments that are not nitrogen-rich, and hence they eat little critters to get their nitrogen fill. Usually worms (i.e. nematodes), which in humans can cause severe gastrointestinal discomfort, including diarrhea.
This is my absolute favorite way to prepare them and though I doubt any of us Hungry Onions would be fooled (or would want to be!), unsuspecting friends indeed thought the mushrooms were scallops. If you can find oyster sauce without oyster extract or other oyster-based ingredients, this recipe could be turned into a vegan dish, too. However, I don’t think this particular recipe fits as a side dish to your entrée. Maybe you could make it another time for a different meal.
KING OYSTER MUSHROOM SCALLOPS RECIPE (copied/pasted from the video itself…comments below in parentheses are mine)
INGREDIENTS:
King Oyster Mushrooms 3
Minced Garlic 1 tbsp
Red chili 1 (I personally don’t add this, but I can see how it could be a good addition)
Light soy sauce 1 tbsp
Oyster sauce1 tbsp
Shaoxing Wine 1 tbsp (I think sake or another similar unseasoned cooking wine would be fine)
Spring/green Onions
You’d be surprised.
King Oysters are so meaty they oftentimes taste beefier (or in your case mollusk-y) than the real article.
Fresh or even frozen scallops can be expensive here in Tokushima, so when I’m on a budget, I have no qualms about substituting king oyster or regular oyster mushrooms for scallops. And I do agree with you about the “beefiness”, etc of them.
That sounds super-delish! Thank you for sharing 
You’re most welcome and I hope you’ll try it & find it to be delish!
My favorite mushroom! Have never seen them already sliced, though.
Did you see this earlier thread?
The miso butter would work really nicely on them – saute them first, then finish with the compound butter.
The way I most often make them, though, is yakitori-style (but on a fry pan). Tare sauce here but you can use commercial teriyaki or oyster / stir-fry sauce. Pictured here and here.
Oy. Did not know this… may have to share with my vegetarian fam whose favorite this also is 
Thanks, I had not seen that thread. I did a search of threads before posting, but did not know that these “oyster” mushrooms were the same as the “trumpet” mushrooms in that thread.
Thanks also for the additional ideas!
They are known as king oysters or king trumpet mushrooms.
You’re very welcome.
You mentioned access to a Korean market elsewhere – they have inexpensive packages of the smaller ones as well as the big ones, and just yesterday I saw bags of baby-sized ones (smaller than my little finger). Similar selection at Chinese supermarkets near me, where they’re also sold loose.
“King” oysters / Eryngi used to be more commonly called trumpets or horns a while back, when they were mostly seen in French dishes (kind of like maitake used to be known mostly as hen-of-the-woods).
(Oyster mushrooms are a different variety of course, as I’m sure you’ve encountered before.)
I was surprised to see king oyster mushrooms (labeled “King Trumpet Mushrooms”) at my local Raley’s supermarket yesterday. I think they were something like $12-13/lb. I do like them, but at that price, I’ll just buy a steak and call it a day.
As I mentioned further upthread, they are usually dirt cheap at most Asian grocers. Wegmans sells the sliced ones for triple the price. I prefer to buy mine whole for less, and slice them myself in the thickness required for whichever dish I plan on making.
Don’t get me started on just how expensive those mofos are in my homeland, as growing them is allegedly more difficult than others 
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I never buy them there, since they’re so much cheaper stateside. I prefer to spend my money on the abundant chanterelles, which are in season in June, and sometimes luck out on porcini as well.
Yeah, when I need them, I buy them at a local Asian supermarket (I have at least four from which to choose, plus a mostly Asian farmers market that is so good it’s been featured in Sunset Magazine). I don’t honestly know what kind of prices I pay at those, because (a) it’s been a long time and (b) when I need them, I need them. Raley’s is not the kind of store I buy Asian goods because I expect them to charge a premium for them.
Well, you don’t need a pound.
And specialty mushrooms are going to be more expensive in general.
Let’s not get sidetracked by why beef (or pork or chicken) is so cheap in the US, because that’s not a good benchmark for anything.
And because I just shopped for various mushrooms, here’s some price comparisons between Korean and Chinese stores near me vs. Whole Foods (the most reliable “regular” store source of exotic mushroom varieties near me).
King oysters: $6 / package of 10 oz for the big ones or $2-3 / package of 3-4 oz of the smaller ones, so $9-12 / lb
—- vs $10 - 20 / lb regular loose vs organic packaged
Maitakes: $5 / 3.5 oz package ie $23 / lb
—- vs $6 / 4 oz package ie $24 / lb
Oysters: $10- $15 / lb
— vs $10 / lb organic
