Category Archives: Fungi

Tempura Spot Shrimp

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tempura3Spot shrimp (Pandalus platyceros) rank among the great delicacies my region is known for. They’re excellent tempura battered and fried, and make a good addition to udon.

Make sure the batter is wet and runny, which makes for a light and crispy finish. Too thick and the batter will fry up pillowy. This is a basic recipe that can be adapted. For instance, you could add a dash of rice wine or various spices. Experiment with the oil temperature, too. It needs to be hot enough to fry the ingredients rapidly, but not so hot that they aren’t cooked through before the exterior browns. Slice ingredients such as sweet potatoes thinly so they cook quickly.

1 cup flour, sifted
1 egg, beaten
1 cup water, ice cold
oil for deep-frying
spot shrimp and vegetables (e.g., zucchini, sweet potato, onion, mushroom, etc.)

1. Heat oil in a wok or deep saucepan. It’s ready when a drop of water sizzles. Adjust heat as you go.

2. Combine flour, beaten egg, and ice water in a large bowl and use chopsticks to mix together. Don’t overmix. It’s okay to have lumps. And make sure the batter is thin, wet, and runny.

3. Batter and fry in batches, careful not to crowd.

4. Remove to rack or paper towels.

For an udon soup recipe, click here.

Morel Tomfoolery

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morel3A couple weekends ago I took my kids on our first morel hunt of the season. We rode bikes a ways up a trail before stashing our transportation and striking out on foot. At first it seemed like we might be too early—or worse, that another morel hunter had scooped us. There was some grumbling within the ranks.

And then we stepped over an old rotting log and there they were.

The first morels of the season are sun worshipers. They stray far from dark woods, popping up in warm, exposed spots where many morel hunters would never think to look.

But we were not alone. On our way back we spied a couple covering the same ground we had just been through. When they caught a glimpse of us in the distance, they scuttled into the woods. My kids found this behavior curious. It’s not like we didn’t know what they were up to—they had a huge woven basket for crying out loud.

Being the rascally imps they are, the kids decided they would try to flush out these furtive mushroom hunters. Pretending to be birdwatchers, they lingered at the spot on the trail where the couple had vanished into the woods. The mushrooms, after all, were on the edges—not in deep, dark thickets. These coy morel hunters would have to come out of hiding at some point if they wanted to find any.

“Look, a yellow warbler!”

We stood there for 15 minutes calling out birds. All the while we could see one of the couple crouched behind a tree. She hid there obstinately and wouldn’t move. I continued on the trail, but the kids weren’t done with their torments. As I walked off, I saw them skulking behind some bushes, laying in wait. A moment later they came running up excitedly with news that the couple had emerged as soon as I’d left.

Busted!

Another lesson learned on the mushroom trail…

Oyster Mushroom Udon

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udon1UDON IS AN IDEAL vehicle for wild mushrooms, especially oysters. The dashi broth, with its main ingredients of kombu (dried kelp) and katsuobushi (bonito flakes), might be the most famous example of umami in action. Now add some sautéed oyster mushrooms to the broth and you’re unlocking doors to very deep taste pleasures.

In the Pacific Northwest, look for oyster mushrooms in riparian areas on dead hardwoods, notably red alder and cottonwood (the host tree will be different elsewhere). Downed trees are a good bet, but oysters will also grow on standing trees, sometimes high enough off the ground to require a fireman’s ladder. What? You don’t have one of those? Best look on fallen logs then.

4 cups dashi *
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp mirin
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
12 oz udon noodles
1 green onion, thinly sliced
1 handful oyster mushrooms, sautéed
cooking oil
fish cake (optional)
Shichimi tōgarashi (optional)

1. In a pot combine dashi broth*, soy, mirin, sugar, and salt. Bring to boil and lower heat.

2. Cook udon noodles separately according to instructions, drain, and rinse with cold water. I use frozen udon that comes in individual serving sizes, with several servings to a package.

3. Saute oyster mushrooms in a little oil (I used a mix of canola and sesame).

4. Ladle udon and broth into bowls. Garnish with sautéed oyster mushrooms, green onion, and optional toppings, such as fish cake. Season with a sprinkling of Shichimi tōgarashi if you like.

Serves 2

* Dashi Broth: Find dashi ingredients at your local Asian grocer. You can use pre-mixed dashi packets for convenience, or the ingredients below:

4 1/2 cups water
20 grams kombu (dried kelp)
2 loose cups (about 25 grams) katsuobushi (bonito flakes)

1. Soak kombu in cold water for minimum 15 minutes.

2. After soaking, heat water until nearly boiling. Turn off heat and remove kombu. Stir in katsuobushi and steep for 10 minutes.

3. Pour broth through a fine mesh strainer lined with cheesecloth or paper towel. Save kombu and katsuobushi to make a second dashi broth, known as niban-dashi, which is especially useful for miso soup.

 

New York Area Slideshows

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sisters2For all my East Coast readers, I’m bringing The Mushroom Hunters back to the New York area in the first week of March. I’ll be giving slide presentations at three mycological societies in the Tri-state area: the New Jersey Mycological Association in Basking Ridge, New Jersey; the Connecticut-Westchester Mycological Association in Purchase, New York; and the New York Mycological Society in Manhattan.

If you’re a member of any of these organizations, I hope to see you there. If not, maybe this a good opportunity to think about joining one and delving more deeply into the kingdom of fungi. Becoming a member of a mycological society is the single best way to learn about edible mushrooms.

I’ll be showing slides and telling stories about the hidden economy of wild mushroom harvesting, from patch to plate—the pickers, buyers, chefs, and others who make up this little known wild food chain, with its echoes of the Gold Rush and free-wheeling frontier-style capitalism.

Here’s more information on my upcoming slide talks:

March 2, 1:30 p.m. New Jersey Mycological Association. Somerset County Environmental Education Center on Lord Stirling Road in Basking Ridge, NJ.

March 4, 7:30 p.m. Connecticut-Westchester Mycological Association. Friends Purchase Meeting House, Purchase, NY.

March 5, 6:30 p.m. New York Mycological Society. New York Horticultural Society, 148 West 37th, 13th floor, Manhattan.

Scallop and Wild Mushroom Marsala

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marsala1WHILE ANY MUSHROOM can be used in this dish, wild yellowfoot mushrooms in particular complement the sweetness of the Marsala wine as well as the scallops, and they add body to the sauce. The cheese adds some oomph, and helps thicken the sauce, though you can get away without it. If you have the time, make your own pasta, or buy the fresh stuff.

 

9 oz fettuccine
1/2 lb scallops (or more, to taste)*
1/2 lb wild mushroom, chopped
1/4 cup diced shallot
3 tbsp butter
1/2 cup Marsala wine
1 cup beef stock
1 cup heavy cream (or less)
1/2 cup grated parmesan (optional)
chopped parsley for garnish
salt and pepper

* I used a half-pound of small bay scallops plus a few large sea scallops.

1. Boil water for pasta.

2. Pat scallops dry and season with salt and pepper. Pan-sear in 1 tablespoon butter over medium-high heat. Remove to bowl.

3. Saute shallots in remaining 2 tablespoons butter until soft. Add mushrooms and cook together a few minutes, cooking off liquid.

4. De-glaze with 1/2 cup Marsala. Cook until Marsala is nearly evaporated. Add beef stock and reduce by half. Lower heat to medium and slowly stir in heavy cream to taste.

5. While sauce is reducing, cook pasta according to instructions.

6. Stir in optional parmesan cheese and return scallops to sauce. Adjust seasonings.

7. Spoon sauce over pasta and garnish with fresh parsley.

Serves 2

Oregon Truffle Festival #9

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truffle7

I’ve already blocked out the dates on my 2015 calendar. The last weekend in January is truffle time, which means the first few weeks of the new year are a time of belt-tightening.

I’m talking about the annual Oregon Truffle Festival, which will be celebrating its 10th anniversary next year. I hear there are big plans afoot for 2015, so in order to be ready, I might need to join my parents on January 1 when they “put on the hair shirt.” Putting on the hair shirt entails cutting out all alcoholic beverages and rich foods for three weeks. They don’t last the full month because, according to them, their social schedule begins to heat up again in the last week of January. As does mine.

I look forward to the Oregon Truffle Festival every year. I’ve made friends who I know I’ll see that weekend, and only that weekend. They come from all over the country and abroad. Those of you who have read The Mushroom Hunters know that an entire chapter takes place at the festival. My editor would have been happy to see a whole book from there; he needs to get on a plane to Oregon.

This year’s lineup was pretty amazing. Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg, authors of the James Beard award-winning books The Flavor Bible and What To Drink with What You Eat, were guest dignitaries (not to mention charming tablemates), and they helmed a tasting—along with Lee Medoff of Bull Run Distilling, beer guru Christian DeBenedetti, and wine writer Cole Danehower—that pushed the usual boundaries: three flights—wine, beer, and spirits—paired with truffled bites. I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised to see how well an Oregon Vesper Cocktail (Medoyeff vodka, Aria gin) paired with a White Truffle and Duck Liver Mousseline. Whodathunkit?

The first course of Saturday night’s Grand Truffle Dinner (pictured above), by Aaron Barnett of St. Jack in Portland, also involved the apparently now hip spirit pairing. Oregon White Truffle Cured Beef Tenderloin with Celery, Oregon Black Truffle, and Oyster Emulsion was nicely matched with a Celery Gimlet devised by St. Jack’s John Salas. I’m not a big cocktail drinker, but these pairings proved fresh and tasty.

The Grand Truffle Dinner was over the top as always, with everyone donning their finest attire (ahem, Mr. Winkler at right, with his turkey-tail tie). Pictured at the top of this post is the first course, created by Justin Wills of Restaurant Beck in Depoe Bay on the Oregon Coast, receiving its finishing touches: Oregon Black Truffle Chirashi with Dungeness Crab, Kampachi, Cured Scallop, Yuzu, Takawan, and Oregon Black Truffle Tamago (it helps to have a smart phone at table just to look up such ingredients!). Another unusual hit was the Chawanmushi of Foie Gras with Oregon White Truffles, served up by Hero Sone and Lisa Doumani of Terra in Napa Valley.

Thankfully I was going into this six-course feast with an appetite. Earlier that day I saw the beginnings of a new Périgord truffle orchard at Domaine Meriwether. (Just add water and wait 10 years!) Planted by New World Truffieres, the small plot is something of an experimental orchard, with several varieties of host tree that will be grown organically (no weed killers!) and subjected to new ideas in this otherwise very old business. Later at lunch, the winery served Beef Tartare with Black Truffle Mayonnaise, Micro Greens & Crostini (pictured above left), another of my favorites of the weekend, and paired with their excellent 2001 Brut Rosé. After that we worked off lunch with a walk in the woods. For those who wanted to take home some truffles, this was a good year. Everyone got a chance to forage their own with the help of Umami Truffle Dogs.

Now it’s time to put the hair shirt on.

Seattle Book Events

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well_readTwo pieces of good news: The Mushroom Hunters was just short-listed for the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Awards (thank you local indies!), and my first TV interview will be broadcast on the PBS show Well Read. Admittedly, I didn’t sleep much before the interview (and I had a frog in my throat, the first cold of the season), but the 30-minute conversation flew by in a blink, and I thoroughly enjoyed talking with host Terry Tazioli, who is smart, curious, and an all-around good guy.

I’ll be staying close to home through the remainder of 2013, with plenty of readings and slide talks planned for the Seattle area. If you’re curious about edible fungi or the hidden subculture of mushroom pickers and buyers, stop by one of these events:

Next Stop, the Big Apple

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newyork1The West is now home, but I never pass up a chance to revisit my childhood roots and plug into the electrical current that is New York City. On November 21, at 7 p.m., Slow Food NYC is hosting me for a slide presentation in Brooklyn, at Fitzcarraldo restaurant, and I guarantee a good time for all.

The picture above was snapped a few years ago from the inside of a wild mushroom delivery van as it hustled several hundred pounds of Oregon chanterelles from Newark International Airport to the finest restaurants in Manhattan and Brooklyn. You can’t research North America’s fast-and-loose wild mushroom trade and not visit the most fabled eateries on the continent, where fungi have been elevated to a place among the top ingredients in a chef’s pantry. I write about my time in New York in a chapter titled “Ingredients as Art,” a phrase borrowed from Sam Sifton’s 4-star review of Del Posto in The New York Times. President Obama happened to be in town to light the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center, and Occupy Wall Street protesters had just been evicted from Zuccotti Park. As always, electricity was in the air.

If you’re in the New York area and you’re curious about the wild mushroom trail—and the colorful characters who make their living on this itinerant, informal circuit—then come on by, have a beer, and stay for the presentation. I’ll be showing slides and talking about the book.

Pickled Chanterelles

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chanterelle_pickle1MOST YEARS I’LL sauté and freeze enough chanterelles to get me through the off-season. This year, with an abundance of mushrooms, I’m also dehydrating and powdering the larger chanterelles to make spice rubs and pickling the smaller ones.

Here’s a very simple way to pickle chanterelles. The key is to get as much moisture out of the mushrooms before pickling so that they can then be bathed in liquid later. This makes for flavorful mushrooms with firm texture. You can use any sort of vinegar, but cider vinegar complements the hints of stone fruit in chanterelles, while the addition of water insures that the mushroom’s delicate flavor isn’t overpowered.

2 lbs chanterelles
1 1/2 cups cider vinegar
1/2 cup water
1 tbsp kosher salt, plus a pinch
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp pickling spices *

* I used a commercial pickling blend that included black peppercorns, allspice, coriander seeds, mustard seeds, bay leaf, red chili pepper, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, mace, and cardamon. An equivalent amount of black peppercorns, allspice, and coriander seeds is fine, plus a bay leaf.

1. Use button chanterelles if possible. Clean carefully. Keep small mushrooms whole; cut larger ones in half or quarters.

2. Heat a deep sauté pan over medium without oil or butter. Add chanterelles and stir immediately, continuing to stir at an easy pace until the mushrooms begin to release their water. Increase the heat to high and continue to stir until most of the water has evaporated. Sprinkle a healthy pinch of salt over the chanterelles and reduce heat again to medium.

3. Add vinegar, water, salt, sugar, and pickling spices. Simmer 5 minutes.

4. Use a slotted spoon to pack mushrooms into sterilized jars. Pour liquid and spices over to cover, with a quarter-inch of head room. Top off with more vinegar if necessary.

5. Seal jars and process in a hot water bath for 15 minutes.

The Wild Table

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wild_table9

One of the perks of being a writer (besides the endless hours of self-doubt and boatloads of cash) is the chance to hit the road and meet up with likeminded folks—and call it work. Likeminded in my case means those who enjoy spending time both outdoors in nature and indoors in the kitchen.

This past weekend I traveled down to Eugene, Oregon, for the Mt. Pisgah Mushroom Festival. Along the way I stopped near the funky coastal hamlet of Yachats to visit with a friend who I knew only from Facebook. David is an ace cook, mushroom forager, and photographer. His food photography graces the web site Earthy Delights. His wife Anna is of Russian descent, which makes her genetically predisposed to sleuthing out fungi.

Together the three of us hunted some of their favorite spots and came away with a cooler filled with beautiful #1 matsutake buttons, plump porcini, and a variety of other edible boletes. Back at their home, we celebrated our bounty in Russian fashion—Za vashe zdorovie!—with a shot of yellowfoot-infused vodka (and then another) and got down to the business of snapping a few pics of that evening’s wild table.

Unlike me, David is an organized and well prepared food photographer. He had a light box and tripod in his office along with various deflectors and gizmos. We set up some of that evening’s goodies, starting in the upper right corner and moving clockwise: yellowfoot-infused vodka, salt-cured saffron milkcaps, matsutake, golden chanterelles, king boletes, shots of yellowfoot vodka, wild scaber-stalk bread, dried chanterelle spice rub, and smoked salmon spread.

After a first course of homemade ravioli with a pork and chestnut filling and a salad course of romaine hearts with fresh-shaved porcini and a Meyer lemon dressing, we proceeded out front into the cool evening air to grill: matsutake caps with a ponzu marinade and dipping sauce of soy and key lime; traditional olive oil and garlic marinated porcini; a fillet of wild Chinook salmon with chanterelle spice rub and rock crab butter; and a dessert of pears with spruce bud syrup. As the decanter’s waterline of yellowfoot vodka ebbed, multiple bottles of Willamette Valley Pinot Noir appeared. It was a feast to savor, capping off a fruitful day of foraging with new friends on a miraculously sunny fall day on the Oregon Coast.

The next morning, after a rise-n-shine bowl of Matsutake Wonton Soup, I drove the pretty little Alsea River through the Coast Range, spying salmon fishermen along the way, to Eugene for the mushroom festival. It was a huge success, with a big crowd of fungal fanciers, more than 400 species identified, and a bluegrass band playing outside. Volunteers whooped it up at the After Party and I made the wise decision to spend one more night. I also had the opportunity to put a few faces to names, including the elusive Chicken-of-the-woods (aka Laetiporus Sulphureus) and Dimitar Bojantchev, moderator of the Mushroom Talk listserv. As a nightcap, my hosts in Eugene, Bruce and Peg, plied me with their delicious (and powerful) homemade blackberry brandy.

The next day I bid adieu to Madame Muscaria and the rest of the characters that make Eugene and the Oregon Coast such a pleasure to visit, with plans to make it back down there again as soon as possible.