New York City mushroom hunting and recipe tips.

This summer many of my friends in Sweden bragged about the number of baskets of yellow chanterelles they carried home from the woods. I came home with none. But I smiled along and remembered last year, when I couldn’t carry home all the King Boleteus I stumbled over in the woods. I still have plenty left, dried in big glass jars in my pantry.

But, I got to pick other treasures such as Black Trumpets and Funnel Chanterelles (or Yellow Foot) which are both equally delicious. These two tiny mushrooms can be tough to find as their dark hats makes them almost invisible among the leaves on the forest floor. I like them especially as they are excellent mushrooms to dry and easy for me to bring home to New York. The taste gets stronger when dried so just a few can spice up a sauce or soup for a number of Autumn and Winter treats. They are also excellent with pasta, mushroom pies or as below, a creamy topping on bread. According to my sister, Funnel Chanterelles are the best mushroom for risotto.

Unfortunately I’m not a great mushroom hunter in and around New York City ad I have no excuse as I’ve heard there are plenty of them in many parks within the city. Black Trumpets were recently spotted in the Bronx! However most of the mushrooms around the city are new species to me and regardless of the fact I’ve picked mushrooms for a long time, I never pick and eat any mushroom I don’t know.

It can take hours to clean mushrooms depending on how lucky your hunt has been. Both Black Trumpets and Funnel Chanterelles are quite easy to clean using a soft brush. Tear the mushroom apart and make sure there is no dirt in the hollow funnel (worms and other creatures can be hiding there). Spread out the mushrooms you are not planing to eat immediately on a baking sheet. Let them dry for several days. A quicker way is to dry them on low heat (max 50°C, 120°F) in a convection oven (keep the oven door open ½” so the moisture can escape). With either method you will have an insane smell of mushrooms at home. The mushrooms will have to be totally dry before storing in glass jars.

My favorite treat after a successful mushroom hunt is to make myself a buttery mushroom toast. I start by cooking most fresh mushrooms in a completely dry pan as I want all the water that’s in the mushrooms to dissolve before adding plenty of butter then I cook a little bit more and season with salt, black pepper and thyme. Simple as that.

Toast of Trumpets
(an appetizer for two)

about ½ -1 cup dried Black Trumpets (or Funnel Chanterelles)*
½ cup or more white wine (for example, a dry Riesling)
salt and pepper
about 5-7 sprigs of fresh thyme
butter
one shallot
about ½ cup cream
a small handful of walnuts, toasted and chopped
freshly grated parmesan

sliced baguette, toasted

Soak the dried mushrooms in just enough white wine to cover all the mushrooms for at least 30 minutes until soft.
In the meantime, chop the shallot into tiny pieces. Sauté on very low heat with plenty of butter until soft and golden.
Drain the mushrooms and reserve the wine for later. Heat up a dry pan, set the heat to medium and add the mushrooms. If the soaked mushrooms get stuck on the pan, add some of the soaking water, in this case the soaking wine. When the water is gone add a big lump of butter to the pan. Add thyme and sauté the mushrooms until they start to get some color (can be hard to see with black mushrooms). Raise the heat and add the shallots and the rest of the soaking wine. Let simmer and reduce to about half. Add cream and season with salt and pepper.
When the cream has thickened divide it equally over the toast. Top with toasted walnuts and freshly grated parmesan. Serve this Trumpet Toast with a simple tomato salad. Enjoy!

If using fresh mushrooms you should skip the soaking part and only add the wine at the end.

* if you are not able to pick Black Trumpets or Funnel Chanterelles yourself, you can find them dried in well-stocked food shops. There are also plenty of online shops that sell them. Other dried mushrooms such as King Bolete work mighty fine as well.

Illustration by Johanna Kindvall

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How to forage your own wild mushrooms.

Foraging for wild mushrooms is the ultimate in foodie fun, and each edible species has its own unique, earthy flavor, often making them highly sought-after delicacies prized by the world’s top chefs. The following six mushrooms are among the easiest to identify and the most delicious. Edible mushrooms can grow year-round in many regions, but the damp months of spring are particularly friendly to fungus.

Because eating a toxic mushroom can be fatal, it’s incredibly important to identify them with 100% accuracy. Make sure you take a good wild mushroom field guide – not with just photos or just text, but both – that applies to your geographical area. Second, if in doubt, throw it out (or rather, just leave it be). And finally, never eat wild mushrooms raw.

Chicken of the Woods

By far the easiest to recognize, ‘sulfur shelf’ or ‘chicken of the woods‘ is the best wild mushroom to start out with if you’re a beginner. It’s also one of the most substantial, and some say tastiest, of the edible wild mushrooms that grow in the U.S. It looks like layers of orange ruffles edged with yellow or white, and has a substantial meaty texture. Harvest the small, actively growing ‘edges’ of the mushroom and leave the large parts, which have grown too tough to eat. Avoid those growing on a conifer, eucalyptus or locust tree, as these mushrooms are a different species and can cause gastrointestinal upset.

Cook them with butter, eggs and cheese in an omelette, or with penne and wine in pasta primavera.

Morel

This prized springtime-fruiting fungus tastes better than it looks, with its spongy pitted cap. Its unique nutty flavor is hard to describe, and nothing brings it out better than butter and a little white wine. Look for morels in wooded areas, particularly at the base of dead or dying trees. Harvest just enough to eat by cutting them flush to the ground; choose firm fresh-looking caps. (A note on distinguishing from false morels, which can be toxic: true morels are hollow inside and range from yellow to light brown. False morels are dense, meaty, solid, and often have reddish or deep brown coloring. There is also a type of false morel with a skirt cap and a hollow stem; this, too, should be avoided.)

Cook them with a touch of garlic butter on the grill, or quickly sauteed with asparagus and herbs. Be sure to cook them thoroughly.

Giant Puffball

The giant puffball mushroom definitely lives up to its name: it can reach a foot in diameter, and when it’s fully mature, it bursts, sending a puff of spores into the air. Puffballs come in a number of other edible and nice-tasting species like the purple-spored puffball and the skull-shaped puffball, but the giant puffball is the most popular. Its texture is similar to that of the white button mushroom. Before the spores are produced, it’s solid white with a dense texture and a rich flavor. Look for specimens measuring at least four inches and cut into them to be sure they’re solid white with no gills.

Cook them like a pizza with sauce, cheese and toppings, or breaded and fried, eggplant parmesan-style.

Shaggy Mane

Often found growing in clusters in lawns or on the side of dirt roads, shaggy mane mushrooms are best when eaten at button stage, about three inches in height, when they are still mostly white or beige. As they age, these black-gilled mushrooms wither and drip black liquid that was once used as ink. The texture is oddly reminiscent of fish, but shaggy mane mushrooms have a delicate flavor.

Cook them with butter, scallions and chicken broth in soup or sauteed with onions and tossed with pasta and cream sauce.

Chanterelle

Tender yet firm, the chanterelle is prized for its bold, slightly spicy flavor and has a fruity apricot-like aroma when fresh. Found at the bases of trees and shrubs in temperate forests, chanterelles are golden and fleshy with wavy caps and shallow widely-spaced gills. These beloved mushrooms, in culinary use for centuries, are high in vitamins C and D as well as potassium.

Cook them with short-grain rice, parmesan and white wine in an earthy risotto.

Bear’s Head Tooth

It looks like something that should be growing under the sea, so it’s not too surprising that the bear’s head mushroom has a flavor that some liken to lobster. The shape is unmistakable, resembling a clump of translucent icicles hanging off a log, stump or tree trunk.

Cook them in butter over low heat to prevent them from getting too chewy.

Images: andriuxuk, vaprwere, damurphy, me’nthedogs, photogirl7.1, smlp.co.uk, shira golding

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Is the food industry’s foraging addiction fueling the destruction of forests and wetlands? That’s what the United Kingdom’s National Trust and Forestry Commission thinks.

With the support of local-centric chefs like Jamie Oliver, mushroom foraging has gone from simple pastime to foodie obsession, with many restaurants incorporating wild fungi into their menus. Despite putting an emphasis on wild and local food, The National Trust says that this trend is becoming detrimental to some of the UK’s most cherished natural spaces.

In a recent article on illegal mushroom hunting in Epping Forest, a vast stretch of ancient woodland just outside of London where mushroom hunting is not allowed, The Guardian cites celebrity chefs as one of the main ecological problems that the area faces. What was once an underground trend has slowly made its way into the mainstream, and in doing so, put the environment at risk.

Fortunately for fungi foodies, it’s not the small scale foraging that’s cause for concern. “If one or two people visit a place and pick a few, that’s probably not much of a problem. But if a couple of people go there repeatedly, visit the same place and collect as many as possible for commercial gain, that could be a problem,” said Matthew Oates of the National Trust.

The culinary community is split on the issue, but ultimately as forager Caroline Davey told the BBC, “it’s about foraging sustainably and sensibly.” That goes for both the commercial industry and individuals.

Even if you’re an individual forager that means knowing about the region your mushroom picking in and how to lower your impact when doing so. If you’re new to foraging, consider taking a class or going with a more experienced mushroom hunter. The last thing we want is a movement that, until now, been responsible for getting more people outside and in tune with what food nature has to offer to turn into an industry that is ultimately detrimental to local habitats.

Forage sensibly!

Editor’s note: This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’s column at EcoSalon, Foodie Underground. Each week, Anna will be taking a look at something new and different that’s taking place in the underground food movement, from supper clubs to mini markets to culinary avant garde.

Image: masonmasteka

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