Hello all. Being new to the site I had no idea how the challenge worked. I see now it's up to me to choose a new one so here it is...
Mushrooms!
I've been focusing on them for a couple of weeks as a personal challenge and I developed a great cream of mushroom soup that kicks it. So, it's a great time of year to play with our fungal friends!
Nice - so many options between fresh and dried. Something with Duxelles comes to mind. Interestingly enough I made a soup with porcini tortellini tonight, but I didn't make them from scratch.
I like mushrooms. I've no doubt related this story before, but I won't let that stop me. When I was young, maybe 6 - 7 years old or so I had my first memory of mushrooms. My father did some land surveying now and again on weekends as a side bit to his job as Dowagiac City Engineer, a small, somewhat rural town in southwest Michigan. One weekend he and a friend who worked with him had no side jobs lined up, but this friend was an avid mushroom hunter. They gathered, and they gathered well.
I remember coming into the house after playing outside and immediately being disgusted by the terrible stench of my mother frying up a big skillet of those mushrooms in butter. If only I could have her back today, frying up that same batch of shrooms now that I know what culinary treasures they are. Sigh.
Think my first step in this challenge will be a batch of beef broth, I have some ideas.
It is pretty much THE mushroom to add to ground pork mixtures for vietnamese cooking (chinese too). I chopped it up and added it to spring rolls. Also pork, shallot, scallion, garlic, glass noodles, fish sauce, sesame oil. It looks small in the picture but that's like a 7 lb ball of meat there. We fried over a hundred spring rolls
That's a good dish. I usually have some dried wood ear on hand--most often use it in some form or Mu Shu. There was a blog a few years back that was doing a charcuterie challenge. The author did a chicken ballotine with wood ear mushrooms in place of the traditional truffle. It looked quite good.
Now you have to tell me what to do with the snow fungus I bought on a whim. I've seen it done in soup, but am looking for something with more punch to it. But maybe snow fungus is too delicate for that?
@phatch I find that sauteeing in butter makes the butter burn. Is it just me? I usually sautee in just a little olive oil and then add a pat of butter in the last minute or 2 of cooking.
I don't have that problem, but we might have different technique. I find that the mushrooms quickly soak up the fat and don't release it again until they're just about done. At that point, I've reduced the heat usually as well. So there isn't really opportunity for the butter to burn. I was also only on medium heat for this because there wasn't that much mushroom in the pan. I only had maybe a teaspoon of butter in this pan so it wasn't heavy with butter. Just enough for some flavor really.
Certainly there's nothing wrong with what you're doing either. And what you're trying to achieve in the dish has impact. My goal was butter flavor and minimal fat as the bacon adds enough extra to the omelette. If I were going to top a steak, some extra fat would have been nice.
@phatch snow fungus looks best in a clear soup, the clearest you can make. The texture is kind of between jellyfish and birdsnest if that makes sense. I think if you stir fry it or cook it some other way it will break apart
I've heard of Wood Ear Mushrooms, though I've never used them. I love how we can work in so many different directions with this one simple ingredient. I was walking in a forest in New Hampshire last year and came across an old Asian couple collecting mushrooms. Off hand now I forget the name of the mushrooms but I do remember reading that they were very much like Chanterelle mushrooms. I have found Morel Mushrooms under the Apple Tree in my childhood home and did a quick sauté' with butter and bacon that was great. Such a broad flavor profile you can find.
As a reply to the conversation between Koukouvagia and Phatch, I will often sauté mushrooms dry on a non stick skillet and at the end add the fat whether it's bacon fat, butter, olive oil and so on.
Fresh italian bread chopped fine,fresh shaved parm,balsamic vinegar, spring onions chopped fine,parsley chopped fine, and EVOO. S&P To taste. combine and stuff baby ports and cook 350 until golden. simple!
It is pretty much THE mushroom to add to ground pork mixtures for vietnamese cooking (chinese too). I chopped it up and added it to spring rolls. Also pork, shallot, scallion, garlic, glass noodles, fish sauce, sesame oil. It looks small in the picture but that's like a 7 lb ball of meat there. We fried over a hundred spring rolls
Wow! I would love to eat some of those. And thanks for the info on the wood ear mushroom. Did not know that, and I will seek them out for future dishes, Thanks
My second entry is hen of the woods mushroom roasted in some chicken fat. Pan roasted chicken with extra crispy skin, beet puree, and beet top. Cooking local and seasonal food in new england in the middle of winter is difficult to say the least
A minor note on Cheffross's recipe nutmeg and mushrooms play well together, if you don't overdo it.
mjb.
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