Oyster Mushrooms grow where I hike.
I do not recommend anyone pick and eat wild mushrooms. It's way too risky - there are cases of Amanita (Death Cap) poisoning here in Northern California every single year.
I'm certain of two types - oyster mushrooms like those pictured (from my camera) and morels. Morels are also called sponge mushrooms.
As kids back in Iowa, my sisters and I gathered morels every spring, getting up early to beat the deer and the squirrels. My mother soaked the mushrooms in salt water to get rid of the bugs, dipped them in an egg batter and fried them to perfection. I think morels are something like $30 per pound, maybe more. I have to laugh - we filled bags! You just have to be careful of the false morel. Morels are hollow. False morels are not.
Regardless of where I get my mushrooms - wild mushrooms are now available at almost every single grocery store - my husband and I love to make a cooperative wild mushroom lasagna. He makes the homemade pasta, I make the sauce.
I don't have a recipe, sort of make it as I go, but I will say that wild mushrooms require butter, cream (yum), fresh thyme and marjoram, minced shallots and a cheese like aged Gruyere. Go easy on the salt, it sucks the moisture out of the mushrooms, so add it to taste at the very end.
I'm certain of two types - oyster mushrooms like those pictured (from my camera) and morels. Morels are also called sponge mushrooms.
As kids back in Iowa, my sisters and I gathered morels every spring, getting up early to beat the deer and the squirrels. My mother soaked the mushrooms in salt water to get rid of the bugs, dipped them in an egg batter and fried them to perfection. I think morels are something like $30 per pound, maybe more. I have to laugh - we filled bags! You just have to be careful of the false morel. Morels are hollow. False morels are not.
Regardless of where I get my mushrooms - wild mushrooms are now available at almost every single grocery store - my husband and I love to make a cooperative wild mushroom lasagna. He makes the homemade pasta, I make the sauce.
I don't have a recipe, sort of make it as I go, but I will say that wild mushrooms require butter, cream (yum), fresh thyme and marjoram, minced shallots and a cheese like aged Gruyere. Go easy on the salt, it sucks the moisture out of the mushrooms, so add it to taste at the very end.
4 comments:
We have both these mushrooms in Michigan. I missed your mother's salt step the first time I made them... Yeah, a step not to miss.
Everyone needs to remember to cut the mushroom at ground level, not pull it up or break it off, otherwise they might not come back the next year.
Sauteing mushrooms in butter-wine mix is good, too.
Oh, Rhobin, love some wine added. My husband just likes them sauted in butter. Yup - thanks for the reminder, you have to cut them, do not pull them up.
That is such a cool pic. My mom and her buds used to mushroom hunt too and fried them up the same way you mentioned.
Sandra - I'm still a pretty big chicken. I can identify candy caps, but I'm afraid to eat them when I pick them!
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