Porcini heaven

In Italian, but that won't be a problem if you have mushroom madness.

Bargains in Chinatown, NYC

Enchanted mushroom

Get your sweet self down to Soho, NYC for hot chocolate and an enchanted amanita to nibble on.

Mushroom Kaleidoscope

Start them young!

Rubber mushroom for the 0+years

Chaga, threatened by rampant harvesting

The craze for more chaga (Inonotus obliquus) is now threatening this ecologically-delicate species, says Paul Stamets. He recommends growing the mycelium of the Chaga mushroom under laboratory conditions as this provides an ecologically friendly alternative supply of this unique medicinal mushroom.

ON THE OTHER HAND:
I Sweden, the Environmental Protection Agency has explained that there are no restrictions regarding the harvesting of chaga from the forest as long as one does not damage the tree. However, there are certain restrictions in particular nature reservations. 

In the meantime, I have no plans of climbing up tall ladders and hacking down a chaga before teatime.

Mushrooms on stamps

Are you interested in both stamps and mushrooms?

Then you have lots of mushroom stamps to collect from all over the world!

Old fungi

 From the Larousse Universel, 1922

Chaga

Have you chanced upon foragers in the forest in mid-winter 

carrying a long ladder 

                                                                      and a big knife?

Don't worry. 

It is not Hitchcock Hour in the woods.

The chances are that you have met some fungi friends who have been consumed by the craze over chaga. 

Photo: Helena Andersson

                                         

Apparently, chaga is good served in vanilla tea.

Amongst other virtues.

Fungi Magazine's special issue on CHAGA

The shiitake are on their way

Update from my comrade-in-mushroom's homegrown shiitake project.

Ready for the cooking pot!

Wolf's fart (frozen)

 The ground was still hard and frozen...

...the greater the pleasure, therefore, to find stone cold common puffball

 Lycoperdon perlatum which means "Wolf's Fart"!

Growing mushrooms in winter Norway

My comrade-in-mushrooms, P.K., sent me this update regarding his test patch:

It is still well below zero degrees outside, but indoors, the mushroom season has started in Norway.  

Here is a Back to the Roots "Pearl Oyster" box (left) and a Fungi Perfecti " Shiitake" patch (right).  These can't be bought locally and have been imported for the test by courier.

So if mushrooms actually pop out, they will cost close to truffle prices!

This is how the Shiitake are supposed to grow.

From a friend's garden

Photo: Koay B Hin

Morel Sightings Map 2013

Photo: g.p.macklin

Found a morel or two or more? 

Report your find to the Morel Hunters and put your find on the Morel Sightings Map.

The Kingdom Fungi. A comic overview.

Beatrix Potter....and mushrooms

Beatrix Potter was not only the 

creator of well-loved children's books 

(with characters such as Peter Rabbit and Jemima Puddle-Duck); 

she was also the author of a book on champignons.

Mushrooms in works of art

Did you know that before 1500, mushrooms were seldom found in European art? 

The Wilton Diptych, an exception from 1395

National Gallery, London

Check out the Registry of Mushrooms in Works of Art and learn more!

Four artists are singled out as "mushroom-prolific artists" in the above registry:
Karl W. Hamilton
Paolo Porpora 
Otto Marseus van Schrieck
Pseudo Fardella

Reconstitute dried mushrooms with a French Press

Tip from America's Test Kitchen:

Reconstitute dried mushrooms with a French Press

Dr Sherlock Holmes and Dead Man's Fingers

Dr Sherlock Holmes solves the mystery of the Dead Man's Fingers

Mushrooms on your mind lately?

Spring is around the corner

The ice is definitely melting and soon, soon, lots of mushrooms will be popping up to greet us!

Halal/kosher bacon

Happy Valentine's Day!

From https://www.facebook.com/mmmmushrooms

Mushrooms to be found in winter too

You just have to look harder.

 

Mushrooms by Svanhild C. Normann from Oppegård. 

Cake with caramelized porcini topping

Ingredients for the cake:
2 large eggs
150 g sugar
100 g flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
25 g ground porcini (or any other mushroom)
50 g butter
1/2 dl milk

Set the oven at 175 degrees Celcius.
Melt the butter. Let the melted butter cool.
Beat eggs and sugar till it foams.
Sift in the flour and baking powder.
Add the ground porcini.
Add melted butter and milk. 
Pour the cake batter into an greased and floured tin, 20 x 30 cm.
Bake for 15–20 minutes (bottom rack).

In the meantime, make the caramellized mushroom topping.

Ingredients for the topping:

70 g butter

150 g sugar

25 g crushed dried mushrooms

2 tablespoons flour, or prefably, cornflour

2–4 tablespoons milk

Melt the butter and mix in sugar, mushrooms, flour and milk.
Leave the mixture on low heat.
Check the consistency of the mixture: it should be liquid enough to spread on the cake.
If the mixture is too thick, add more milk and leave it on low heat.
Spread the mixture over the top of the cake and place the cake back into the oven (middle rack).
Bake it further for 15–20 minuttes, or till it is golden and the topping is crisp.

Recipe in Norwegian: 

Toscakake med soppkrokan

Kakerøre:

2 store egg

150 g farin

100–120 g hvetemel

1½ ts bakepulver

25 g finknust steinsopp (eller annen lys sopp)

50 g smør ½ dl melk

Sett stekeovnen på 175 grader. Smelt smør. Avkjøl. Visp egg og sukker til eggedosis og sikt i mel og bakepulver, rør inn smør og melk. Fordel røren i smurt og strødd form, 20 x 30 cm, eller rund form. Stek kaken på nederste rille i 15–20 minutter. I mellomtiden lager du krokanen.

Soppkrokan:

70 g smør

150 g farin

25 g tørket knust sopp, f.eks. kantareller

2 ss hvetemel eller aller helst maismel

2–4 ss melk

Smelt smør i en kjele og rør inn farin, sopp, hvetemel og melk. La det småsurre en stund. Blandingen må være flytende nok til at den er lett å smøre på kaken. Hvis blandingen er for tykk, spe med litt melk og la det surre en stund til. Smør soppmassen jevnt over hele kakens overflate og sett den tilbake i ovnen, nå midterste rille. Stek ytterligere 15–20 minutter, eller til den er gyllen og overflaten stivnet. Skjær opp kaken i små eller større ruter, pynt med et tynt melisslør. Glasuren kan også stekes alene på silikon- matte/bakepapir i 12–15 minutter på ca. 175 grader. Når den er litt avkjølt brytes den i biter til krokansnop, eller grovknuses som krokan til iskrem og desserter.

Kilde: Fru Matsprell

The 1st Oslo Mycophagists' Table

The scene of the first gathering of 

mycophagists (one that eats fungi) in Oslo, Norway.

I had announced the initiative before Xmas that I would arrange 

a potluck dinner early this year, 

modelled after the NYMS Mycophagists Table,

on the Oslo Mycological Society's Facebook group.

Eight adventurous souls rose to the occasion.

And what an unusual and fun evening of good food, drink and company we had!

Menu

Starters: 

Mushroom pâté with sherry and miso served with mushroom bread

Smoked reindeer heart served with white truffle caviar on traditional "flat bread" from Røros

Pickled Saffron Milkcaps (Lactarius deliciosus)

Mushroom tart

Main courses:

Porcini ravioli in porcini sauce

Portobello mushrooms stuffed with goat cheese on a bed of zucchini and thyme

Reindeer in cream sauce with juniper berries and winter chanterelles, served with homemade red currrant jelly

Green salad with winter chanterelle vinaigrette

Cheese

Blue cheese with winter chanterelle marmelade, served with homemade crackers

Dessert

Cake with caramelized porcini topping

I could not wait

Can you resist the smell of fresh bread? You can? What about the smell of fresh mushroom bread?

Mushroom loaf done

Check out them mushroom bits...

One mushroom loaf coming up

Mushroom bread

Dough on the rise

From http://www.mykoweb.com/

Makes 1 loaf

A nutritious bread made with sautéed mushrooms, honey, soy sauce, and yogurt. 4 tablespoons butter 1 medium onion, minced 1 pound common store mushrooms, minced 3 tablespoons soy sauce 1 cup warm water 1 package active dry yeast 2 tablespoons honey 1-1/2 teaspoons salt 2 tablespoons plain yogurt 5 to 6 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

Melt the butter in a sauté pan or skillet and sauté the onion until translucent. Add the mushrooms and cook until all the liquid evaporates. Add the soy sauce and cook until the mushrooms become brown. Let them cool. Pour the warm water into a large mixing bowl. Sprinkle the yeast on top of the water. Add the honey and let it stand without mixing for 10 minutes, allowing the honey to react with the yeast. Add the salt, cool mushroom mixture, and yogurt to the mixing bowl and stir well. Slowly add the flour. When the dough becomes too difficult to mix with a spoon, use your hands. Continue to add the flour until the dough becomes pliable and can be made into a ball. Cover with a towel and let it rise in a warm place for 2 to 3 hours or until doubled in size. Knead the dough on a floured board, counting 50 times, adding flour whenever the dough becomes sticky. Grease a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan and neatly place the dough in the bottom. Let it rise again for about 1/2 hour. Bake in a preheated 400º oven for about 20 minutes. As soon as the crust turns slightly brown, brush the top with warm water. Lower the oven temperature to 300º and bake until the crust becomes brown all over, about 15 minutes more. Remove from the pan and cool on a baking rack. --Louise Freedman 400 degrees F = 200 degrees C 300 degrees F = 150 degrees C

For tomorrow's Mycophagists' Table

Mushroom pâté with sherry and miso

Solveig's mushroom tart

Lunch. Rustic mushroom tart with king oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus eryngii), portobello (mature Agaricus bisporus) and button mushrooms (young Agaricus bisporus).

Porcini and garlic sausage

...........serve with brebis cheese

From  La cuisine de M. Leong