The mushrooms can be fried ahead of time and then reheated for about 10 minutes in a very hot oven, but the crusts will lose just a bit of their crispy pizzazz that way.
Serves 6
• 1½ lbs. fresh, firm mushrooms
• 1 cup dry bread or cracker crumbs
• ⅓ cup minced fresh parsley
• 2 eggs
• 1 clove garlic, minced or crushed
• salt to taste
• fresh-ground pepper to taste
• ½ cup flour
• vegetable oil for deep frying
• garnish
• tartar sauce or
• Hot Paprika Sauce or
• Simple Tomato Sauce
• grated Parmesan cheese
1. Choose the mushrooms carefully for uniformity of size, picking medium-small mushrooms rather than very large ones. Wash them quickly, trim off the stems even with the bottoms of the mushrooms, and pat them dry in tea towels.
2. Combine the bread crumbs and minced parsley in a shallow bowl. Beat the eggs and add to them the minced garlic, a generous amount of salt, and some pepper. Put the beaten eggs in another small, shallow bowl.
3. Add some salt and pepper to the flour as well and put it in a third shallow bowl.
4. Roll all the mushrooms in the flour first, tapping them lightly after you do to be sure there aren’t pockets of flour around the stems. Then dip each mushroom into the beaten egg and immediately afterward roll it in the crumbs and parsley.
5. Fry the mushrooms in deep, hot vegetable oil until they are golden brown, drain them on paper towels, and serve them hot with tartar sauce, Hot Paprika Sauce, or Simple Tomato Sauce, and grated Parmesan cheese.
