[shroomgirl]

Tis the season for wild shroomage......
Chanterelles are in full bloom right now.....it's been hot and wet around the midwest, conditions are ripe for fungus.

Chanterelles have a symbiotic relationship with oak trees.....you'll not find chanterelles around any other tree. The only look alike is a Jack-o-lantern, which is poisonous but coolly glows in the dark. Chanterelles grow in groups, you will not find one chanterelle you will find many.....they grow in lines, so if you find one turn in a circle and continue looking for more. Cut the stem at the base so that dirt doesn't contaminate the other mushrooms in your basket/bag. Standard shroom hunting gear includes a brimmed hat....it seems that spiders/webs are prolific when chanterelles are out. A serious hunt generally takes you off trails into the woods. Make sure you have a cell phone handy, as well as a compass....I put a bright ribbon around the handle of my basket, so if it gets heavy and I wander away picking it is easy to see in the underbrush.

Chicken of the Woods is an orange polypore....which means there are "fronds" (for lack of a better word) coming out of a base, no gills....Chickens like tree stumps. I've got a super pix of a stump with loads of chicken.

Black Trumpets, or as the French say, "trumpe de morte" or trumpet of death.
Very difficult to see, when you look down on them they look like a hole. Again they grow in groups on rocky terrain.

[KYHeirloomer]

How about a couple of recipes using those foraged 'shrooms?

[shroomgirl]

Chanterelles & Fingerlings
Julie Ridlon copyright 6/15/00


The chanterelle and fingerling quantities are variable. With any wild mushroom you never know how many you'll come home with after a foray into the woods.


Chanterelles and Fingerlings with Tarragon


1/2 pound of chanterelles, (cleaned of dirt) and cut if large

4Tbl unsalted butter

1/4 cup of light olive oil or vegetable oil

2 pounds fingerlings sliced in 1/2" slices (yukon gold potatoes are a good alternative)

2 Tbl fresh tarragon stemmed and minced

salt and pepper

Saute the fingerling potatoes in olive oil on medium high for 10-15 minutes until tender. Stir occasionally to keep from sticking/burning. Boiled potatoes may be used, cooking time will decrease. Reduce the heat to medium and add the chanterelles and butter, cook for approximately 10 minutes. Stir the mushrooms/potatoes to keep from burning. Add the tarragon in the last minutes, season with salt and pepper.



I served this as a hash last week with aged gouda added in at the end of cooking with a little water, served a soft poached egg on top....would do it again in a heart beat. You can substituted almost any mushroom for chanterelles in this recipe, though I'd alter the herb to fit the mushrooms....ie porcini with thyme/rosemary and garlic, black trumpet with thyme, chicken of the woods....either tarragon, thyme/rosemary/garlic or any herb you'd add to real chicken. If I were making this in the woods, I'd boil the potatoes to just tender.

This recipe is in Bryant Family Vineyard's Cookbook! It just came off the press.

[shroomgirl]

Wild mushroom risotto is a super camp dish.....

Use water instead of stock. I've made shiitake risotto for 200 in the middle of the woods!

Most arborio rice recipes of risotto are fairly standardized....you saute onions/garlic in olive oil (most oils work) add rice and coat in oil cook for a couple of minutes. Start adding liquid....it can be stock, it can be wine/stock, it can be water, it can be dried mushroom rehydrating liquid (though I've gotten away from rehydrating and gone back to mixing dried mushrooms in near the beginning of cooking risotto).

If you cook with wild mushrooms, saute them thoroughly.....or use dried. Do not eat them raw or barely cooked!

Saute the mushrooms in a skillet and add to the risotto with the final liquid addition. If you use fresh and dried, add dried with the first liquid and fresh sauted with the last liquid.

Enriching.....usually butter, cream, mascarpone, parmesan or other cheeses are used at the end of cooking to enrich risotto. There is an Italian cryovaced reduced cream that does not need refrigeration. It can be left off.

[Nicko]

I have foraged for morels but that is about as far as I go. To really learn them I would need someone who knows mushrooms all their life I have just heard too many horror stories of people picking the wrong mushrooms. I have even heard of experienced people picking the right mushroom in the wrong season and getting sick and dying.

I leave the mushroom picking to the pros I am too much of a wimp.

[phatch]

Originally Posted by Nicko

I leave the mushroom picking to the pros I am too much of a wimp.

That's me too.

[shroomgirl]

On my way to the woods right now.....
THIS my friends is THE week to pick huge gorgeous chanterelles in MO, probably the mid-west. Plenty of rain, lots of heat. I went out yesterday after a mushroom friend said she's got 200# in her fridge. Picked 1# in 10 minutes at a park that has an area 25 yards from the road that I check to see if the shrooms are up.
Now back for the mother lode.

[The Tourist]

Originally Posted by shroomgirl

Cut the stem at the base so that dirt doesn't contaminate the other mushrooms in your basket/bag.

Do a computer search for a knife company called "Opinel," which is a French company. They make a dedicated mushroom knife that has a brush on the handle, which is designed to be both effective and yet soft enough not to hurt the shroom.

You can get it anywhere for about 25 dollars.

Opinel knife Superstore:

[ED BUCHANAN]

'Chanterelles and Fingerlings with Tarragon'

Mushroom Girl I really like your hash idea and I am going to try it on our menu when season starts. I am going to put 2 slices of Iberian ham across top. I'll get 19.95 for this.