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will be tender and tasty and as low fat as if you had eaten them raw.

Try serving mushrooms cooked this way on toast with a little scrambled egg on the side, or fold them into a freshly made omelet. This is food fit for the most discerning Hobbit.

Once of the most delicious ways to use mushrooms is to make Cream of Mushroom soup. Use low fat cream so the dish stays healthy. Cook two cups of chopped mushrooms as outlined above, using chicken stock, and add a small chopped onion - still no oil though. The onions will `sweat' d0wn in the stock with the mushrooms.

When the vegetables are soft, add a cup of chicken stock and half a cup of low fat cream. Simmer for five minutes, then take off the heat and serve. If you like a less lumpy soup whizz it up in a blender. Serve sprinkled with grated black pepper and parsley for a dish that is sure to warm you up on a cold day!

Big steak mushrooms offer thir own special taste treats. Remove the stalks and stuff the cup with a mixture of cooked brown rice, cheese and herbs. Top with grated cheese and put under the griller for a few minutes until the cheese is bubbly and brown. This is a great tasty snack.

You can do great things with the cultivated variety, but why stop there? You will find many less familiar varieties on your supermarket shelves these days, including Orientals types like shitake and oyster. These are wonderful in stir fries, and you can keep packets of dried shitake mushrooms in your pantry to add to soups.

Remember to pack your fresh mushrooms in the paper bags provided, and store them in the bags in the fridge. Plastic bags or containers will make them sweat and go rotten, but brown paper shades them from light and allows them to breathe, so they will keep longer. If you are handy, make your own calico bags (similar to ham bags but smaller) to keep your mushrooms fresh.

The Hobbits were right - mushrooms are wonderful, and even worth almost getting caught by the Nazgul.

Learn more about this author, Gail Kavanagh.
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