When I was a kid, my dad used to take me and my brother for mushroom hunting in the forests of Rodopi mountain in Bulgaria. He was most certainly good in identifying edible mushrooms, and he knew when and where to look for them. Although the same is not true for me, I enjoy trying and experimenting with different varieties of mushrooms available in the stores. The following recipe was tested both with the common white button mushrooms and with the woodsy shiitake ones. The latter offer more flavour of their own, and have a chewier texture than the button mushrooms. However, the buttons absorb the aroma of the other ingredients very well and are also very tasty.
Avoid rinsing your mushrooms when you clean them before cooking. Since they are quite porous they will soak up the water and lose some of their flavor. Peeling them leads to loss of flavour as well. The best way to clean them is to brush the mushrooms with a mushroom brush or a damp towel. If you are ready to sacrifice some of their taste for assuring yourself that you are eating clean mushrooms, you can rinse them quickly and pat them dry.
Ingredients:
250 grams (or a small pack) of white button mushrooms
a generous tablespoon of butter
8-9 cloves of garlic
a teaspoon of rosemary
1/2 teaspoon of sea salt
a pinch of paprika
a tablespoon of pomegranate sauce (nar ekşisi)
Preparation:
1. Clean your mushrooms in one of the ways described above. Cut the small ones into halves, and the bigger ones into quarters.
2. Peel and half the garlic cloves.
3. Put the butter in a skillet at a high heat. The skillet should be large enough to allow for every individual mushroom to (golden) brown evenly.
4. When the butter starts melting add the mushrooms and the garlic. Cook them for around 5-6 minutes on high heat stirring frequently so that the mushrooms don’t burn, but turn golden brownish.
5. Just before turning the heat off, turn it low, add the salt, the rosemary and the paprika, stir, add the pomegranate sauce, mix and remove from the heat. The sweetness of the pomegranate sauce slightly caramelises the mushrooms and the garlic, while at the same time adding a zingy sourness to them.
We prefer them served warm as a side dish, but you can also enjoy them as tapas :).
Mushrooms with garlic, rosemary and pomegranate sauce
Kitchen Press 
letscookathesis
February 1, 2011
really liked the idea of pomegranate sauce.. gonna try it soon ;)