Mushrooms for the tapas buffet

Cultivated brown beech mushroom (Hypsizygus Marmoreus) 

Marinated mushrooms, Spanish style

Ingredients:

Olive oil

Small onion/shallots (chopped finely)

Clove of garlic (1)

Tomato purée/grape tomatoes

Sherry

Whole cloves (3)

Vegetable stock

Mushrooms (trimmed and chopped)

Salt and ground black pepper

Chopped parsley/other fresh herbs

1. Heat oil. Add onion/shallots and garlic. When soft, add tomato, sherry, stock, cloves and seasoning. Bring to boil. Cover and simmer for 45 min. You probably would have to add more stock.

2. Add the mushrooms. Simmer for 5 min. Remove from heat and allow to cool (with lid on). 

3. Chill in fridge overnight. Sprinkle with fresh herbs.

Good men...and bad

According to Paul Gavarni (1804-1866),

mushrooms are like men 

- the bad most closely counterfeit the good.

Quoted in Nicholas Money's new book, "Mushroom".

Previous blog post with radio interview with Money on his new book.

Fancy mushroom knife (and brush)

Fancy mushroom knife with brush (which felt it had the right stiffness) 
and sheath to hang on your belt.

Knife blade felt sharp enough for mushrooms 
but not so sharp that it felt like a weapon.
It also had a safety lock - which was a nice feature. 


However, it was a bit tricky to get the blade out.
So, imagine the situation: there you are, right in front of a fat porcini, 
fiddling with your knife 
while the mushroom makes faces at you.


It can be yours for 66 US dollars.

Mushroom pâté with sherry and miso

Inspired by last night's Passover mushroom pâté, we decided to make some ourselves today, with a few twists: Adding sherry and miso is not a bad idea. Neither is using wild mushrooms.

Chinese shitake mushrooms, 4.50/lb from Chinatown, 

are plumper and fleshier than their Japanese cousins.

Ingredients:

• Mushrooms - fresh Chinese shitake, dried (and rehydrated) winter chanterelles and the stems of various fresh mushrooms that we had been saving.
• Shallots and onions
• Almonds
• Sherry
• White miso
• Soaking liquid from rehydrating mushrooms

1. Toast almonds

2. Heat oil in frying pan. Saute mushrooms.

3. Add miso. Add liquid. Fry over gentle heat until liquid evaporates. Add sherry. Remove.

4. Heat oil and saute shallots and onions until translucent and soft.

5. In a food processor, pulse the mushrooms and the other ingredients together. 
6. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Sprinkle coriander leaves on top and serve with homemade crackers

...or homemade matzo rolls.

Passover Mushroom Pâté

A member of the New York Mycological Society served 

a yummy mushroom pâté 

for the Seder dinner that marks the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Passover.

My host willingly shared her recipe:

Ingredients:
Walnuts 
Onions
Mushrooms
Lemon juice
Salt and pepper 


1. Toast nuts. 
2. Heat neutral oil in pan. Add sliced mushrooms. Store bought white button mushrooms and cremini were used. Set aside. (Imagine the flavor if you had wild mushrooms! Look for some dried ones at the back of your cupboard. They can only intensify the mushroomy flavor.) 
3. Saute onions until soft. 
4. Give the mushroom and onion mixture a couple of blitzes in a blender.
5. Add touch of lemon juice. Add salt and pepper to taste.
6. Scoop pâté with ice cream scoop. Top with carrots.
7. The mushroom pâté was served with delicious homemade matzo rolls. Here is another matzo roll recipe with more eggs.

Kosher. And Halal too.

Some other variations on the theme:
Mushroom and cream cheese pâté
Mushroom pâté with beans
Exotic mushroom pâté with wild mushrooms
From Martha Stewart, with cream cheese and a touch of tabasco  


Mushroom pâté is a dish which is delicious enough to stand on its own feet; though no one at the Seder dinner last night used the awful words "Mock Chopped Liver", chopped liver with chicken fat (!) is the relevant cultural reference here. Just the name "Mock Chopped Liver" alone can put anything off food for a while.  

Why do some vegetarians/vegans have such low self esteem that the nice stuff they eat is mock something or other? Just check the Chinese vegetarian menus for examples of what I mean. Indian vegetarians, on the other hand, know their lentils and are proud of it.

Bracket fungus. Chinatown, NYC.

Bracket fungi in a Chinese pharmacy in Chinatown, New York City.

The Lingzhi mushroom has been used in Chinese medicine for over 2000 years.
Bitter in taste but supposed to promote longevity and good health.  

These were sizable, but not as huge as the gigantic find in China last year.

Morels in Manhattan....

No, we did not find any fresh fat morels in Manhattan today. 

Only some expensive dried ones in the store.

But spring was definitely in the air!

Chanterelle toffee

Next time you are invited to the mycophagists, 

you might want to wow them with this Norwegian chanterelle toffee.

 You need 50 g dried chanterelles.

(I used winter chanterelles) 

Crush them in a mortar.

Put 2 dl sugar, 2 dl cream, 2 tablesp glucose, 50 g crushed dried 

and 50 g butter in a casserolle. 

Medium heat. Stir constantly.

Use a sugar thermometer. It just makes life much easier.

When the temperature is 118 degrees (C) you are in business!

Remove the mixture from heat immediately because the temperature tends to shoot up at this stage.

Pout the toffee mixture into a lined baking tray.

Cut into squares before the toffee it is completely stiff and brittle.

If you are feeling up to it, wrap the toffee in nice packages. Voilà!

Mycophilia

Just started reading "Mycophilia" by Eugenia Bone.

Myco= fungus, philia=loving

A book about loving mushrooms!

Just at Chapter Two and I am enjoying it.

Bone writes also about the mushroom lovers she has met, 

including the fungi "rock stars" of the United States. 

Strangely, the kooky, quirky types she describes with an anthropological eye 

remind me of my new friends in the Oslo Mycological Society!

Is there such a thing as a mushroom "race"? 
Humans who live in a happy symbiosis with the inhabitants of the fifth kingdom?  

Eugenia Bone is a writer and co-president of the New York Mycological Society.

Mushroom merchandise. Mostly kitsch.

Strange how mushrooms seem to pop up everywhere, 

also where you least expect them to.

Unfortunately, it's mostly amanita kitsch.

Do people actually buy this stuff?