The Pharaohs called them food from heaven, and in Britain they're the most valuable horticultural crop sold. So why all the fuss about mushrooms? Victoria Lloyd-Davies goes hunting for an answer - in her local supermarket

At a time when we're all being encouraged to eat more vegetables, the healthy mushroom comes into its own. They're easy to prepare and wonderful in a wide variety of dishes ranging from cool summer salads to hot winter casseroles.

There are many thousands of mushrooms, although the edible varieties are available in two forms: wild or cultivated. As the name suggests, wild mushrooms are those picked in season from forest floors, damp fields and leaf-littered woodlands. Cultivated varieties, on the other hand, are grown in carefully controlled environments and are available all year round. Most importantly, they can be bought at even the humblest of supermarkets, without getting your hands and knees dirty.

Cultivated mushrooms are grown on pasteurised compost in conditions that replicate damp autumn mornings. Each crop takes six weeks to grow before they're picked by hand. And because they tend to be on the supermarket shelf a mere 24 hours after being picked, cultivated mushrooms are among the freshest of vegetables available in our shops.

• Buying mushrooms
  Handle them with care as they bruise easily. Once purchased, put them in their paper bag in the salad drawer of the refrigerator and eat them within three days. If you buy them in a pre-pack, take off the cling film and put the mushrooms into a paper bag or wrap them in absorbent kitchen paper.
  
  
• Preparation
  Rinse mushrooms quickly under cold running water just before you use them. Dry them on absorbent kitchen paper. Never peel cultivated mushrooms and only trim off their stalks if they are tough. The whole mushroom is edible and the skin contains nutrition and flavour. Mushrooms are a no-waste vegetable.
  
  
• Cooking
  Mushrooms are natural carriers of flavour and should be cooked quickly. If you're adding them to a dish that cooks slowly, such as a casserole, stir them in only for the last quarter of an hour. The average portion per person of cooked mushrooms is 175g.

Go straight to inspirational mushroom recipes

Over the page: Nature's health food

Natural health food
Mushrooms are an ideal food: they contain negligible amounts of fat, sugar and salt but are a valuable source of dietary fibre. They have more vegetable protein than most other vegetables.

They're also a good source of the B vitamins: niacin, riboflavin, thiamin, folic acid and pantothenic acid. These vitamins are often lost as so many vegetables are cooked in boiling water. Mushrooms are also one of the few dietary sources of vitamin D.

Finally, they also contain the minerals potassium, copper, phosphorus and selenium, which boost your immune system and energy levels and help lower blood pressure.

The supermarket spotter's guide to mushrooms
The increasing popularity of vegetarianism and healthy eating has led to an explosion of mushroom varieties available in supermarkets. And with mushroom recipes increasingly specifying the best variety for the dish, consumers are demanding more and more exotic fungi.

White mushrooms
White mushrooms account for the majority of mushroom sales. They're picked at four stages (grades) of the growing cycle and can be bought as:

• Button
• Closed Cup
• Open Cup
• Large Flat

A Button mushroom, not picked, will double in size every 24 hours. In five days it will grow into a Large Flat mushroom. As a mushroom increases in size and maturity, so its flavour develops.

By far the most popular mushroom is the Closed Cup mushroom. This can be used whole, sliced or quartered on pizzas, chopped into pasta sauces, added to casseroles or tossed into stir-fries.

Open Cup mushrooms are the best variety to use for garlic mushrooms and are delicious sautied with bacon. Large Flat mushrooms are ideal for stuffing.

Brown mushrooms
These have a firmer texture and stronger, nuttier flavour than white mushrooms. They are sold in two sizes; the smaller ones are called Chestnut, Crimini or Portabellini mushrooms. The larger ones, with the gills showing underneath, are called Flat Chestnut or Portabello mushrooms. Use them in the same way as white mushrooms.

Over the page: Exotic varieties

Oyster mushrooms
Available as brown, grey, pink and yellow, these mushrooms have a delicate flavour and texture. Cook them lightly and quickly with fish and in stir-fries.

Shiitake mushrooms
With their unique chewy texture and meaty flavour, these mushrooms are excellent in sauces to serve with game and red meats or in oriental dishes. Trim off the stalks as they can be tough.

Horse mushrooms
These have long stems and either white or pale yellow caps. They have a distinctive aniseed fragrance with a texture similar to the white mushroom.

Blewit mushrooms
Look for blue-tinted stalks and white caps and cook them thoroughly to bring out their fragrant taste. Delicious fried with bacon or cooked in creamy sauces, casseroles and risottos.

Enoki mushrooms
These mushrooms, originally only available in Japan, are crisp and white with long thin stems and tiny white caps. They are best eaten in salads or tossed into stir-fries at the last minute.

Mushroom recipes

Speedy Mushroom Soup
Roasted Garlic Mushrooms
Mushroom Lasagne
Chicken and Mushroom Stir-fry
Mushroom and Chestnut Stuffing for Roast Chicken
Salmon with Mushroom Salsa

Recipes taken from Mmm...Mushrooms by Victoria Lloyd-Davies (Simon & Schuster #6.99). Available from the Mushroom Bureau for #5 including postage and packing. Please send postal orders or cheques payable to Mushroom Bureau, 27 King Edward Walk, London SE1 7PR.

Also available on Amazon.

Visit the Mushroom Bureau website.