Pink oyster

Pleurote rose

What it is

An oyster of the warm half of the world, it fruits faster than any other cultivated mushroom - days from pinning to harvest - and keeps for barely two more. The pink is a pigment, not a flavour: it drains out in the pan and leaves the strips grey-brown.

In the kitchen

Tear it into strips and fry hard in a thin film of oil until the edges brown and chew, then salt - salted early it steams instead. Buy it the day you cook it; by the third day it smells of ammonia.

Goes with

Garlic Chili pepper Soy sauce Lime Spring onion Peanut oil Black pepper Cilantro / Coriander

Same species

Golden oyster King oyster Oyster mushroom

In season alongside

Chicken of the woods Salt marsh lamb Allis shad Japanese abalone Bay bolete Bonito (katsuo)

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