Slow-Cooked Sandpot Mushrooms

When you slow-cook cultivated white mushrooms in a closed clay pot, such as a Chinese sandpot, an extraordinary alchemy takes place. These ordinary mushrooms, which normally taste quite bland, acquire an earthy flavor, almost as deep as that of wild ones.

I never cease to be amazed at the transformation, which I attribute to the clay vessel. My theory, stated earlier in this book, is that wonderful flavor can often be developed when there is no interference between earth—that is, th