Cooking with Fresh Mushrooms

Here are some general tips for cooking with fresh mushrooms:  

1. Always start with small portions of a mushroom you are unfamiliar with eating.  Most people tolerate mushrooms very well.  Being actually allergic to mushrooms is quite rare.  Getting gastro-intestinal distress from a certain variety of mushroom is not uncommon.  
2. Mushrooms should collapse and release their water before coming into contact with oil.  Mushrooms have a sponge-like ability to soak up oil. To prevent this always begin the cooking process with water or stock.  It is fine to add mushrooms directly to a soup or a stew, but if you wish to use oil in the cooking process, for example to Sautee mushrooms, you should start by cooking the mushrooms in water or stock first.  This will allow the mushrooms to collapse and release all of their water.  This will prevent the mushrooms from soaking up the oil and allow the oil to sear/cook the surface of the mushrooms for a far superior texture/mouth feel.
3. It is very difficult to overcook mushrooms.  Mushrooms should be the first in and last out of the frying pan.  You can be quite aggressive when frying, baking, roasting, grilling mushrooms to get that crisp surface with a juicy interior.
4. Store your fresh mushrooms in the refrigerator in a container that allows fresh air exchange.  If condensation occurs, remove excess water and allow open air exchange to occur.  Every few days, remove the mushrooms from the refrigerator and expose them to open air until they appear dry on the surface.  If you are unable to cook fresh mushrooms in a timely manner, simply begin the drying process and rehydrate them when convenient.
5. Mushrooms are one of the most versatile ingredients imaginable.  Your imagination is the only limitation in the cooking of gourmet mushrooms.  In this day and age, all that is necessary is to google how to cook with (insert mushroom variety here) and you will get fifty different recipes to cook that given variety of mushroom.  Bon Apetit!