Winter Mushroom Appetizers

THESE TWO APPETIZER dishes work well with winter mushrooms. The first is a crostini with yellowfoot and chicken liver. The second is a very rich and savory mushroom parfait of sautéed hedgehogs and yellowfoot with wheat berries and mascarpone.

For the crostini. brown a small handful of chicken liver in vegetable oil. Remove from the pan and crumble with the help of a potato masher. In the same pan, sauté a few big handfuls of whole yellowfoot mushrooms and deglaze with a healthy splash of soy sauce. Cook the mushrooms down in the soy until they release all their water and they’re brown. They’ll look almost like weird, squid-like tentacles. No need to add salt because the soy will be plenty salty; in fact, you might want to use a low-sodium variety. Mix back in the crumbled liver and serve over sliced and toasted baguette with a sprinkling of chopped parsley. The result is a serious umami bomb.

For the parfait, first prepare the wheat berries on the stove top. No matter how long you cook them they’ll retain an al dente texture. I used three cups of chicken stock for a cup of berries and simmered in excess of an hour. This was much more than I needed. Next sauté a half-pound of chopped hedgehog and yellowfoot mushrooms in butter with a generous variety of chopped herbs (I used thyme, sage, and oregano). Season to taste. Remove to a bowl and mix in a few dollops of mascarpone. The mixture should be super creamy. Now mix in enough wheat berries so that the ratio is about 3:1 in favor of mushrooms. Serve in goblets with a sprinkling of chives on top.

7 thoughts on “Winter Mushroom Appetizers

  1. Langdon Cook

    VGCHM – Look for winter chanterelles (yellowfoot) at low elevations in the coastal ranges. I’ve found them in the Cascade foothills and mid-elevations in the old growth, too.

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  2. Anonymous

    I’m out in the Chicago area, but we get excited about winter harvest, too … found three large clusters of tan oyster mushrooms yesterday, almost 5 pounds worth! They were frozen solid, which actually worked out well – it was a long hike back to the car and being frozen they didn’t get all broken up in the sack. Had to be patient when cooking them though – once thawed they were even more wet than usual. What a treat!

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  3. Langdon Cook

    Elena – Even busy towns have wild edible mushrooms. I pick birch boletus (a type of porcini) two blocks down the street from my home in Seattle. Go get ’em.

    Anonymous – Nice score!

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  4. Boletus Joe

    Picked about 40 lbs. of Yellowfoots last week…. half of them popsicalshrooms… But Thawed out nicely. Crop is only about 1/3 of last year, But lots of little ones pinning.

    BTW…Thats on the BC coast….

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