Food for thought: Cooking mushrooms and imparting flavor

There's one basic rule that applies to cooking - no matter your background, style, or cuisine type. Seize the opportunity to impart flavor whenever possible. Roasting or using braising liquids (instead of straight up oils), deglazing your pan with wine, searing on high heat - all essential in adding flavor.

But there's one enemy of flavor that goes overlooked: water. Can you guess what delicious ground nugget is mostly water and largely incorrectly cooked? The beloved earthly mushroom.

It's a simple remedy - just give them room to do their thing. When spaced in a single layer in your pan, and seared on medium (then sautéed - if youre like me and like to play); they caramelize and turn into Magic Mushrooms.

If you have a dish that calls for onions and mushrooms sautéed together, treat your mushrooms like the star they are, and give them their own dressing room. If they are crowded with other performers in your dish, they tend to pout and not remember their lines.

Set them aside, then let them "bow" in at the finishing act. They will give you a much better performance, worthy of an encore.