Chanterelles!
Okay, this is a bit off-topic but still FOOD related! I have been learning how to ID wild mushrooms recently. Have gone on a couple of mushroom ID walks, which are fascinating, especially when we find 60 different types of mushrooms in the matter of a couple of hours. Now, the majority of these mushrooms are not edible (well, as one of the walk leaders joked "all mushrooms are edible at least once!"). Many of the mushrooms are not poisonous, but they wouldn't taste very good.
I met a guy this past Saturday who offered to take me out chanterelle hunting, which is exactly what I had been hoping for when I started attending these walks. Yes, searching for edible wild mushrooms is called hunting, because they can be elusive and they are definitely wild. They grow near or under oak trees so we went hiking up in the hills where there are a lot of old oak trees. Not only did we find some beautiful chanterelles, we also collected a gigantic matsutake, another prized edible mushroom with a distinctive sweet and spicy smell. The matsutake must have been at least two pounds, and it was incredibly fresh and in good shape. We also found several little brown candy caps, which have a flavor reminiscent of maple syrup--especially when dried and used in desserts.
So, on to the eating part... I made risotto for dinner last night with some of the chanterelles, blue cheese and a bit of truffle oil and it was beyond delicious. There was something so satisfying about knowing that those mushrooms were in the ground just a couple hours earlier; they tasted so fresh and intensely earthy. I just finished the leftovers for breakfast. :-)
I met a guy this past Saturday who offered to take me out chanterelle hunting, which is exactly what I had been hoping for when I started attending these walks. Yes, searching for edible wild mushrooms is called hunting, because they can be elusive and they are definitely wild. They grow near or under oak trees so we went hiking up in the hills where there are a lot of old oak trees. Not only did we find some beautiful chanterelles, we also collected a gigantic matsutake, another prized edible mushroom with a distinctive sweet and spicy smell. The matsutake must have been at least two pounds, and it was incredibly fresh and in good shape. We also found several little brown candy caps, which have a flavor reminiscent of maple syrup--especially when dried and used in desserts.
So, on to the eating part... I made risotto for dinner last night with some of the chanterelles, blue cheese and a bit of truffle oil and it was beyond delicious. There was something so satisfying about knowing that those mushrooms were in the ground just a couple hours earlier; they tasted so fresh and intensely earthy. I just finished the leftovers for breakfast. :-)