Spread them in a single layer and leave them alone. And salt at the very end — salt early and they weep instead of browning.
2 servings15 min
Rinse the mushrooms briefly and press them dry with kitchen paper. Wet mushrooms will not brown.
Halve the white mushrooms, quartering the large ones. Stem the shiitake and slice them thick.
Heat the pan until it is smoking and add 1 tbsp of the olive oil.
Lay the mushrooms out in a single layer and do not touch them for 2–3 minutes. They should be browned when you turn them.
Turn once and give them 2 minutes more. No salt yet.
Add the rest of the oil and the sliced garlic and cook 30 seconds.
Turn off the heat, then stir in the salt, pepper, lemon juice and chopped parsley.
Salting last is the whole point of this dish. Mushrooms are over 90% water. Salt early and osmosis pulls that water into the pan, so instead of browning they boil in their own liquid. Browning is what builds the savoury flavour through the Maillard reaction, and with water present the pan cannot pass 100°C, so that reaction never starts.
Spreading them in a single layer and leaving them works for the same reason. Crowded or turned often, the steam is trapped and the temperature stays down.
Shiitake goes in for the synergy. White mushrooms are high in glutamate and shiitake in guanylate. Together they are perceived as far more savoury than the sum of the two, which is why less salt still tastes like enough.
The garlic gets 30 seconds because of allicin — heat-sensitive, and bitter once it scorches.
The lemon juice goes in off the heat. The acid flashes off in a hot pan.
If you are eating them for vitamin D, check the pack for "UV treated". Ordinary white mushrooms hold 0.2 µg per 100 g; treated ones hold 26.2 µg.
Washing is fine. A brief rinse takes up only around 2% of their weight. Just do not leave them soaking.
Vegetables
Early researchUSDA lists ordinary white mushrooms at 0.2 µg of vitamin D and UV-exposed ones at 26.2 µg. Yet pooling six randomised trials, blood levels did not rise significantly (p = 0.12). They rose only in the three European trials, where people started out low.
Vegetables
Moderate evidenceThe evidence for garlic points to a modest drop in blood pressure and cholesterol. The trick is to crush it and wait ten minutes before it hits the heat.
Oils & fats
Strong evidenceCardiovascular events were 31 % lower in a randomised trial of 7,447 people. Against other vegetable oils, though, there was no difference.
Vegetables
Early researchUltraviolet light converts the ergosterol in shiitake into vitamin D2. Very few non-animal foods can do this.