Chef Jerry Traunfeld of the Herbfarm serves nine-course meals with an emphasis on wild mushrooms sourced from forager Jeremy Faber, the property’s former sous chef.
On the Hunt for wild and exotic mushroomsBy Carole KotkinWild rice. Wild boar. Wild mushrooms. Inspired in part by groups like Slow Food, recent dining trends show chefs and consumers alike are increasingly seeking the most wholesome and pure ingredients with which to cook. Thus, items labeled "organic," implying that they were raised without additives, or "wild," insinuating that they were foraged or hunted (and therefore not only organic but practically embryonic), are an easy sell. Wild rice, a long-grain marsh grass, is still gathered from the surface of lakes in northern Michigan by local Indian tribes. Hunters in the Northwest still go after boar. And, yes, foragers still comb the country's woodlands - from Maine to Mendocino - for fungi that fetch tidy sums.
In light of the fact that wild rice and boar aren't nearly as common on menus and in cookbooks as is the mushroom, however, it's easy to suspect that many of the so-called wild mushrooms available in our local markets are not being scouted like truffles.
Indeed, unlike the word "organic," whose meaning and application was recently standardized by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the use of "wild" on menus, labels or in produce aisles is not governed. So just because a mushroom is dark brown and woodsy tasting, it is not necessarily wild even if it was so labeled. Rather, many mushrooms described as such may have never known the loamy dampness of a forest floor, only the gloomy confines of a cultivating bag intended to replicate that environment.
"Cultivated mushrooms aren't bad, but wild mushrooms maintain their integrity - that not-quite-tamed primal element," observes chef Jack Czarnecki. For three generations, his family ran Joe's Restaurant in the old railroad town of Reading, Pennsylvania, where the menu was built around 200 varieties of fungi. His books, such as Joe's Book of Mushroom Cookery and A Cook's Book of Mushrooms, gave the restaurant national recognition. After his father died in 1995, he closed Joe's and headed to the Northwest in search of a locale "where we could combine the round, rich flavors of Pinot Noir with mushrooms."
Czarnecki, who studied enology at UC-Davis, is a wine connoisseur as well as an avid mushroom hunter (known as a mycologist), and a lifetime member of the North American Mycological Association. He and his wife, Heidi, found "paradise" in the Willamette Valley in Dayton, Oregon, about 35 miles from Portland, and a place to cook their favorite fungi in just about everything from a three-mushroom tart made with fresh and dried porcini (cèpes) to filet mignon with Pinot Noir porcini sauce. Together they bought an 1853 revival home called The Joel Palmer House and turned it into a restaurant. In the heart of this fertile valley, they found plenty of mushrooms and top-notch regional wines from Yamhill County and Willamette Valley. Czarnecki gathers the mushrooms himself, but he also employs foragers who know just when and where the great morels, lobster mushrooms, porcini and matsutakes pop up.
"This year, near the foot of Mt. St. Helens, I harvested 500 pounds of porcini as big as moon rocks in two days by myself," he marvels. "I like to cook mushrooms with my 'holy trinity' - a mixture of salt, soy sauce and sugar." But whatever the cooking method, Czarnecki cautions that wild mushrooms should not be eaten raw. Although they are not toxic, they have an indigestible protein that has to be broken down by thorough heating.
Food lovers and mycophiles alike make reservations months in advance and plan cross-country trips around meals at both The Joel Palmer House and the renowned Herbfarm Restaurant in Woodinville, Washington, about 20 miles from Seattle. For 16 years, Herbfarm executive chef Jerry Traunfeld and owners Carrie Van Dyck and Ron Zimmerman have presented nine-course, seasonal theme dinners based entirely upon pristine local ingredients, including Northwest wines.
Traunfeld, author of The Herbfarm Cookbook, works closely with small growers and producers to purvey wild mushrooms, and many other locally grown ingredients, including those from the restaurant's own herb gardens, for his menus. "Each wild mushroom has a distinct personality in the way it looks and the way it tastes," he explains. "When cooked, they get their meaty, savory, mouth-watering taste partly from naturally occurring glutamate, which is said to be responsible for that elusive fifth taste dubbed 'umami.'"
Traunfeld buys 90 percent of his wild mushrooms from Jeremy Faber, former Herbfarm sous chef, who is now the restaurant's primary forager. "Jeremy brings in 15 to 20 pounds of as many as ten different mushrooms - porcini, matsutakes, chanterelles - to name but a few."
"I enjoyed working as a chef and I hope to open my own restaurant in the future, but right now I enjoy the freedom of making a decent living foraging," Faber says. He harvests mushrooms and wild edibles almost every day except when it snows. "My life revolves around the weather. I'm an amateur meteorologist, always praying for rain," he remarks. A former forestry major at the University of Vermont, he has been hiking in the woods in search of mushrooms, wild berries and wild greens for twelve years, making three-day "golden triangle" loops between Mt. Ranier, Mt. Adams and Mt. St. Helens.
"Chanterelles, matsutakes and lobster mushrooms flourish in the lava beds and volcanic ashy soil," he continues. "You have to be a lunatic to work through most of the night and then have your alarm clock ring at 5 a.m. to go to the farmer's market to sell what you've picked."
Ironically, the notion of "wild" mushrooms started to seep into the American consciousness in 1985, when Phillips Mushroom Farms, a large producer from Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, began selling giant portobello caps (an expansive version of the white or brown button cremini mushroom) to commercial clients. Bart Minor of the Mushroom Council, recounts: "The portobello originated in Pennsylvania where Italian immigrant farmers cultivated the brown cremini mushroom they remembered from the old country. The cremini develop large caps when left to grow a few more days. This monster mushroom caught on with chefs and the rest is history." Pennsylvania now grows half of the "exotic" (the name designated by the USDA for all cultivated mushrooms other than the white button) mushrooms in the United States.
The most readily available cultivated or exotic mushrooms are portobello, cremini, pleurottes (also called oyster), shiitake, enoki, puff balls and hen-of-the-woods, most of which are produced on small farms harvesting only hundreds of pounds daily or weekly. The quality of these farmed mushrooms varies, but they generally possess less aroma and flavor than their wild counterparts, and once cooked are softer and moister.
For mushrooms to be considered truly wild - particularly morels, chanterelles and porcini - they must be forest harvested. The wild species most widely available grow in the lush Pacific Northwest where steady rainfall and ample forest canopy provide a conducive environment. Because their harvest is relatively brief and small in quantity, they are only marketed in their fresh form seasonally, but some are dried and sold by specialty purveyors during much of the year.
In the early 1980s, a commercial market for wild edible mushrooms began developing in the Pacific Northwest when a few enterprising harvesters began exporting chanterelles to Europe at the same time that a depressed timber industry had many rural people eager to supplement their incomes. It is estimated that Washington has from 700 to 900 commercial mushroom pickers whose earnings range from a few dollars to $5,000 in a good season. The state passed a wild mushroom harvesting act in 1988 that requires an annual license for persons who buy and process wild mushrooms for sale. The market for wild mushrooms is burgeoning throughout the world.
For some, like forager Eat Dog (an Indian name, meaning perseverance, that he adopted), mushrooms, especially the large creamy-white to bronze-colored matsutakes, are his raison d'être. "This is about the outdoors - hiking steep hills, crawling around on my hands and knees under low growing brush, muddy and wet after a rainstorm - to look for matsutakes, porcini and chanterelles." Usually on his way before daylight, he drives his truck along the back roads of Marin County and parks in out-of-the-way places. He then hops on his bike, trying to be as invisible as possible, until he reaches his secret hunting grounds.
Eat Dog has been living in Bolinas, California, for 25 years and supplying restaurant kitchens, such as Manka's Inverness Lodge on the Point Reyes Peninsula above Tomales Bay, with fungi for 15 of those years. Eat Dog says he makes a "considerable living" off mushrooms in the winter. (In summer he's a beekeeper.) "My search takes me wherever it's raining or wherever there's snow that's melting. When I started foraging I just ate them myself, I didn't know they were so valuable. There were only two of us mushroom hunters around here back then. Now there's lots of competition from mostly young people who like to harvest just for fun."
Well-known forager Connie Green, who supplies restaurants such as The French Laundry, agrees that for the general public, "mushroom hunting is on the increase. American's Anglo-Saxon fear of wild mushrooms is being overcome by a more French and Italian attitude. A more adventurous culinary world in America and a more worldly population has made mushroom hunting seem far less like madness than it used to."
As for the chefs, she takes them on mushroom forays twice yearly. "They love it," she says. "Getting out of the kitchen and into the woods has become a very important thing to them. Seeing my normally pristinely white-jacketed chefs with leaves in their hair and splattered with mud is a joy to us all. The act of being a hunter-gatherer, finding mushrooms by your own wits and careful perception, is a reward matched by few other things. There is a joy in this that a trip to the finest farmer's market cannot match."
Green certainly wouldn't find any arguments overseas. Antonio Carluccio, chef-proprietor of London's Neal Street Restaurant in Covent Garden and author of The Complete Mushroom Book - The Quiet Hunt, has been foraging since he was a small boy, introduced to this absorbing and rewarding pastime by his father in Castelnuovo Belbo, Italy. More than 60 years have passed since his first mushroom forays, but he still waits with the impatience of a boy for the season to begin. "I'm a passionate mushroom lover, so there is nothing better than going to find your own mushrooms. This has to do with ecology, season, outdoor activity, treasure hunt, with the end result of coming home with a few items of fantastic food," he says. He cooks his fungi simply, depending on the variety. "A stone-hard porcini in healthy condition is wonderful, thinly sliced with olive oil, lemon, salt and parsley."
In his book, Carluccio writes, "The most wonderful aspect of collecting and eating fungi is that people from all social strata can become hooked. Drew McPherson, a Scottish friend of mine, started selling wild mushrooms collected in Scotland. Twenty years later, he has a multi-million pound business, due to the demand for mushrooms increasing so rapidly, for there is no respectable restaurant that doesn't use wild mushrooms from time to time."
When he opened Neal Street Restaurant in 1981, Carluccio personally collected all the mushrooms to be used in the kitchen. Now employing many foragers, Neal Street Restaurant has become a mecca for mushroom lovers.
Nor is he the only city chef to take such a hands-on approach. Henry Brosi, executive chef for The Dorchester Hotel Limited, organizes a trip with his chefs once a year to go mushroom picking at Mrs. Tee's Wild Mushroom in Lymington, Hampshire (near the New Forest). Mrs. Tee receives groups weekly from May until January, sandwiching a video presentation between breakfast and lunch (a dish made from fresh, local mushrooms). Then the picking begins.
In other parts of Europe, where wild mushroom hunting is a noble pursuit, knowledge about the edible varieties is handed down from generation to generation. Pickers know from experience where a certain type grows and they go back for them year after year. "My husband and I always foraged for wild mushrooms on our trips to France to visit friends and family," says Amy Farges, who along with her husband, Thierry, owns Marché aux Delices, a New York-based mushroom purveyor. "After a huge Sunday lunch, we would go out for a long walk to look for mushrooms. We do the same thing now in the woods near our little house in upstate New York."
In the past few years, the demand for wild mushrooms, some as tiny as a thimble and others as big as a pot lid, has skyrocketed. Chefs and food enthusiasts are captivated by the rain-soaked essence of leaf, wood and earth flavors, the meaty texture, and alluring shapes and colors of these specimens, which comprise some 38,000 species, about 2,500 of which are edible. Farges is extremely careful about fielding and sorting through the species. "Our wild mushrooms go through a number of mycologists before I offer them for sale. I've never had a problem in the 17 years I have been in business," she declares.
Delectable and earthy, these trophies from the wild are utilized by creative American chefs in such sophisticated ways that they easily transcend their humble origins. "Mushrooms are one of my favorite things to cook," observes Tom Colicchio, chef/co-owner of New York's Gramercy Park restaurant and chef/owner of the Craft mini-empire (Craft, Craftbar, witchcraft and Craft Steak). "As with wine, the terroir comes through the mushrooms, imparting earthy, rich flavors and aromas. They take on the flavor nuances from the soil where they grow. Because of their infinite possibilities, I felt they deserved their own category on the menu at Craft." Diners can therefore choose from a list of roasted hedgehogs, chanterelles, shiitakes, hen-of-the-woods and honshimeji mushrooms. "I prefer the nuance of wild mushrooms, but these days there are plenty of cultivated mushrooms, such as portobello, shiitake and hen-of-the-woods, that are more consistent, less expensive and easier to get," he notes.
Colicchio often sources both from Farges, whose client list also includes other top New York restaurants such as Daniel, Chanterelle, Le Cirque and Jean Georges. And while the forager's role is central (or, in the case of exotics, the grower's) it is chefs such as Colicchio who have perpetuated the growing public interest in both wild and exotic mushrooms. Farges says because the tastes and textures of wild mushrooms resemble those of a wide range of foods, they can be effortlessly featured as either a focal or complementary ingredient. "Their flavor is so amazing you just can't go wrong," Farges says.
For many morel lovers, the beginning of spring is as exciting as the arrival of the newest offering from Silver Oak. The attraction to the cone-shaped morel with a honeycomb flesh is its rich and earthy flavor. In his Craft of Cooking, Colicchio writes, "We like to braise the morels in a bit of beurre fondue (copious amounts of butter whisked into a small amount of simmering water). The butter sauce becomes infused with the liquid that the mushrooms give off, yielding a decadent and effortless sauce. I especially recommend serving morels with the other ingredients that appear for a short span in the early spring, such as ramps and peas."
Much like a blank canvas, wild as well as cultivated mushrooms lend themselves to numerous preparations - roasted, sautéed or grilled - and appear in various guises. They can stand alone in a rich paté, or be solo or subtler accents in risotto, pasta and stuffing; their essences are extracted for sauces, oils and reductions; and the dried versions can be ground into fine powder for seasoning food or dusting over the finished dish.
Robert Wiedmaier, chef/proprietor of Marcel's in Washington, D.C., a Belgian-influenced French restaurant, uses 40 to 50 pounds of wild and cultivated mushrooms per week, but he prefers the former: "They're an integral part of my cooking," he confirms. "There is nothing like perfectly fresh wild mushrooms to add another dimension to a dish with their texture and flavor," he says. Wiedmaier has depended on two foragers for the past nine years, but he never knows when he will get his delivery. "They just knock on my door and bring me black morels from Virginia or huge horse mushrooms from Pennsylvania." (In a charming barter arrangement, he cooks dinner for the hobbyist mycologists in exchange for the wild cargo.)
The quality of freshly picked bounty is so typically outstanding that Wiedmaier hastens to put the wild mushrooms on his menu that very day. A dinner at Marcel's might begin with deeply flavored duck consommé with sweetbreads and shiitakes, and progress to crisp-fried skate, enlivened with a lemon butter sauce rimmed with velvety chanterelles.
For home cooks, Wiedmaier recommends simpler preparations. "A perfectly fresh wild mushroom has unique essence. Why hide that?" he asks. For best results, "get the pan really hot," he advises, "add a little olive oil or butter and throw a small batch of mushrooms in the pan along with finely chopped shallots, some garlic and thyme sprigs. Then deglaze the pan with Madeira, and add some minced parsley at the end."
While most cultivated types are sold virtually year round, wild domestic mushrooms are most abundant in the autumn in the Northwest, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and states along the east coast. Michigan gets into the act each spring with the rush of fresh morels.
To some degree, wild mushrooms grow in practically every state in the country. Judy Roger, executive secretary of the North American Mycological Associates, says, "We have over 60 affiliated societies within North America, and there are probably as many more, often smaller ones, that aren't affiliated. The annual Nama Foray is held in a different region of the country each year, so that we can sample the fungal flora in each of the different parts, as they can be very diverse."
Due to the shrinking global market, the "season" for many of these wild types has been permanently extended. "When it starts to snow in the Pacific Northwest, we're able to coax chanterelles and hedgehogs out of our compatriots in Spain," Farges writes in The Mushrooms Lover's Cookbook and Primer. "Pacific Northwest cèpes grace our tables in June," but, she continues, "France and Italy provide the bulk of our supply in the fall. Cèpes now [also] travel safely from South Africa to New York." Further afield, Farges notes that China "produces matsutake, chanterelle, Oakwood shiitake and the Himalayan truffle. Turkey and Mexico harvest tons of morels; eastern Europe ships out porcini , chanterelles, hedgehogs and yellow-foots. Even Sweden exports its boletus and chanterelles."
Whether wild mushrooms are harvested here or abroad, their cost can be as mush as twice that of cultivated exotics. Adherents argue that they are well worth the higher price, but it is a subjective debate. Luke Palladino, chef/partner of Specchio, Ombra and Risi Bisi at the Borgata Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, buys about 85 pounds of exotic fungi per week from Gourmet Mushrooms in Sebastopol, California, the largest grower in Northern California. "My favorites are its trade-marked Cinnamon Caps, Pompon Blanc, Trumpet Royales, Alba Clam Shells and Forest Namekos," he says. "They are fresh and full of flavor and require nothing more than tossing them with olive oil, thyme, garlic and encasing them in foil en cartoccio. Then I roast them for ten minutes for a mushroom epiphany."
Gourmet Mushroom's success is rooted in part on the winemaking process. Co-founder and partner David Law collects the fine shavings from the Beringer Vineyards cooperage and grows the mushrooms in them. "The wood is red and white oak from the American northeast and France, and these hardwoods best duplicate the mushroom- growing environment in the wild," he explains. His company was the first to grow shiitakes in the United States on a commercial scale, and it now sells about 6,000 pounds of 36 types of exotics per week.
Law says they are in the midst of an expansion that will triple production, but they will not attempt to grow domestic versions of certain wild mushrooms. "Although cultivated morels, chanterelles and porcini are grown, there are so many wild ones available during the season that it's not economically feasible for us to grow them."
When it comes to porcini, Palladino buys his from Sid Wainer Produce in New Bedford, Massachussetts, or from Bel Canto Foods in the Bronx. "I love the meaty texture, and how they respond to almost any cooking technique. I love to coat them in eggs and bread crumbs, deep fry them and serve them drizzled with fonduta [cheese fondue]."
"Of course," he adds, recalling his foraging days in both Colorado and Italy, "nothing beats picking them from the ground and inhaling the aromas of leather and earth."
Food Editor Carole Kotkin is manager of the Ocean Reef Club Cooking School in Key Largo, a syndicated food columnist for The Miami Herald and co-author of Mmmmiami - Tempting Tropical Tastes for Home Cooks Everywhere.
Cèpes & Emmental Crostini
From Executive Chef Henry Brosi
of London's Dorchester Hotel
- 1 French baguette
- 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 8 ounces fresh porcini sliced
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1/2 glass dry white wine
- 2 tablespoons heavy cream
- 5 slices Emmental or Comte cheese
Heat a large sauté pan and add remaining oil. When hot, add mushrooms and garlic and sauté on high heat for 2 minutes. Add wine and reduce until nearly evaporated, leaving a syrupy consistency. Stir in the cream quickly. Take off the heat and season to taste.
Spread mushrooms on baguette slices. Top each with a slice of cheese and place under broiler until the cheese forms a golden crust. Serve immediately.
Serves 4-5
Corn and Chanterelle Chowder
Adapted from The Herbfarm Cookbook
- 12 ounces chanterelles
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 medium onion, finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 cup dry white wine
- 2 tablespoons dry sherry
- 4 cups chicken broth
- Kernels from 5 ears sweet corn
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh marjoram or oregano
- 1 cup coarsely chopped fresh basil
- Freshly ground black pepper
Using a brush with soft bristles, thoroughly but gently remove all dirt and pine needles from the chanterelles. If using very small chanterelles, tear them into pieces. Cut larger chanterelles into 1/2" dice.
Heat olive oil in a large (4-quart) saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and cook, stirring often, until they soften and begin to turn a light caramel color, about 8 minutes. Add mushrooms and salt, and cook for 5 minutes, or until the released moisture has been cooked away completely. Add wine and sherry and reduce until almost dry. Add broth and corn kernels and bring soup to a boil. Lower heat and cook at a bubbling simmer, uncovered, for 10 to 15 minutes.
Stir in cream, marjoram or oregano and basil. Bring the soup to a simmer once again. Season to taste.
Serves 6
Morels with Calvados
From The Mushroom Lover's Cookbook and Primer
by Amy Farges
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 pound morels, trimmed, cleaned and sliced in half lengthwise
- Fresh lemon juice
- Kosher or sea salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1/4 cup Calvados
- 1/2 cup heavy (or whipping) cream
- 1 teaspoon chopped fresh tarragon
- 6 slices buttered, toasted French bread
When just a few drops of liquid remain, remove pan from heat. Immediately pour in Calvados and let it bubble until mostly evaporated. Then add cream and return to the stove. Boil over medium-high heat until the sauce is of coating consistency, 2 to 3 minutes.
Stir in tarragon and spoon onto individual plates.
Serves 6
Pan-Roasted Hen-of-the-Woods Mushrooms
From Craft of Cooking by Tom Colicchio
- 6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 3 pounds hen-of-the-woods mushrooms, trimmed and thickly sliced
- Kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 2 shallots, peeled and finely diced
- 2 large cloves garlic, peeled and minced
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 3 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves
Wipe out skillet one last time and heat over medium flame. Add a skim of oil. Add all mushrooms, some salt, pepper, butter and thyme and toss mushrooms until they are heated through.
Serves 6
Crespelle Mushroom Mix
From Chef Luke Palladino of The Borgata
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 tablespoon minced shallot
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 8 ounces mushrooms, cleaned
- 1 teaspoon chopped parsley
- 1 sprig thyme
- Salt and freshly ground pepper
- 1/4 cup white wine
- 1/4 cup beef or chicken broth
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 2 egg yolks
- 4 ounces Taleggio or soft-rind cheese, cut into small cubes
- 8 homemade or frozen crèpes
- 6 ounces butter
- 4 ounces Parmigiano-Reggiano or Grana Padano, grated
- 2 cups arugula, washed
After the mushrooms are well colored, add wine and reduce until almost dry, then add broth and reduce again until almost dry. Add 1 cup heavy cream and reduce until thick and rich. Cool mixture.
Place mushroom mixture in a bowl, add egg yolks, season mixture and then fold in cubed cheese. Cool and store until crèpes are ready to be filled.
To make the crèpes: Melt butter and place in a bowl. Heap grated cheese onto a plate. Lay crèpes on work surface until they are room temperature.
Place 2 heaping tablespoons of filling into center of crèpes. Roll crèpes away from you in a cylindrical shape, folding in the ends (like an egg roll). Roll the crèpes into the melted butter and then into the grated cheese. Place finished cylinders onto a plate or sheet pan until ready to bake. (This step can be done several hours or a day ahead.)
Preheat oven to 375°. Place crèpes into a non-stick sauté pan or on a baking sheet with a tablespoon of butter and cover with remaining cup of heavy cream. Place pan in oven until golden brown and bubbly. Remove from oven and place crèpes on a platter or on individual plates. Pour cream from pan over crèpes. Top with arugula leaves. Serve immediately.
Serves 4
Three-Mushroom Tart
with Clitopilus Prunulis
& Honey Mushrooms
From A Cook's Book of Mushrooms by Jack Czarnecki
For the tart crust:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 10 tablespoons lard or margarine
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 1 medium onion, finely chopped
- 2 cups chopped clitopilus prunulis
- 1 cup reconstituted porcini, finely chopped
- 1 cup sliced fresh honey mushrooms
- 1/4 cup chopped red bell pepper
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1/2 teaspoon curry powder
- 1/2 teaspoon dried savory
- Pinch of cayenne pepper
- 4 eggs
- 2 cups heavy cream
Preheat the oven to 375°.
Roll out the dough and lay into a 10" springform pan along the bottom and up the sides. Press foil onto the dough and weight with some uncooked beans or rice. Place into oven and bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven, remove weights and let cool.
Add butter to a large sauté pan over medium heat and sauté onion for 1 minute. Add mushrooms and red pepper and continue to sauté for another 2 minutes. Add garlic, curry powder, savory and cayenne; stir well. Remove from heat and let cool.
Beat eggs with a whisk in a bowl and add cream, whisking well. Add mushroom mixture to custard and mix again.
Pour custard mixture into pastry shell and bake for 15 minutes, then lower heat to 300° and bake until custard sets, about another 15 minutes or until a fork inserted in the center comes out clean. Let stand for 15 minutes, then slice and serve.
Serves 8 to 10
Big Fat Sirloin Steak with
Red Wine, Marrow
& Wine Cap Mushrooms
From The Mushroom Lover's Cookbook
and Primer by Amy Farges
- 2 beef marrow bones, poached and chilled
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- Kosher or sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 center cut sirloin shell steak (about 11/4 pounds) 1 1/2" thick, trimmed
- 3/4 cup very good quality red wine
- 8 ounces wine caps or morels, cleaned and cut in half or quarters
- 1/3 cup demi-glace or 2 cups rich meat stock
- 1/4 cup chopped flat leaf parsley
- 4 large shallots, sliced 1/4" thick (about 11/4 cups)
Preheat oven to 425° degrees. Cut marrow into 1/4" dice and set aside. Rub olive oil, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper into both sides of steak.
Place wine and mushrooms in a large skillet and bring to a boil over medium heat. Cover and cook 10 minutes. Add demi-glace and boil, uncovered, until liquid is reduced by half, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in parsley.
Heat a medium-size, heavy, ovenproof skillet, preferably cast iron, over medium-high heat, until very hot. Add steak and shallots and cook, stirring the shallots once or twice, until the underside of the steak is seared and dark brown, about 4 minutes. Turn steak, stir shallots once and place skillet in oven. Cook to desired doneness.
Remove skillet from oven to the stove top. Transfer steak to a cutting board to rest. Heat skillet over medium heat. Add marrow and toss just until the marrow changes color. Add mushrooms and their liquid. Boil, scraping the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon, until liquid is reduced enough to lightly coat mushrooms, 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste and remove skillet from heat.
With a thick carving knife, slice the steak about 1/2" thick on an angle. Arrange the slices overlapping on 2 plates and spoon mushroom sauce over and around the sliced steak.
Serves 2
Fricassee of Snails &
Wild Forest Mushrooms
From Chef Robert Wiedmaier of Marcel's
- 2 ounces lardons applewood-smoked bacon
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 3 cloves garlic, chopped very fine
- 2 tablespoons diced Vidalia onion
- 2 shallots, chopped very fine
- 1 teaspoon picked thyme leaves
- 8 ounces of assorted mushrooms (cremini, chanterelle, shiitake, morel)
- 12 large Helix snails, cleaned and rinsed
- Maldon salt
- Fresh cracked black pepper
- 4 ounces Madeira
- 2 tablespoons chicken stock
- 2 tablespoons veal stock
- 1 tablespoon diced, skinned tomato
- 1 tablespoon chopped Italian parsley
- Toasted brioche
In a sauté pan add bacon, let cook for a while and then add one tablespoon butter. On low heat add garlic, onions, shallots and thyme, cook slowly until translucent. Then add sliced mushrooms and another tablespoon butter, and stir until mushrooms are cooked halfway.
Add snails, stir and season with salt and pepper. Add Madeira and slowly reduce by half. Add chicken stock and reduce by half again. Add veal stock and simmer for two three minutes. Add tablespoon butter and stir, then add tomatoes and parsley.
Place toasted brioche in a soup bowl and ladle over with snail fricassee and garnish with chopped parsley.
Serves 2
Spaghetti with Honey Fungus
From The Complete Mushroom Book
by Antonio Carluccio
- 1 pound medium spaghetti
- 1/2 cup coarsely grated Parmesan cheese
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1 3/4 pound fresh and tight honey fungus mushrooms
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 2 garlic cloves, sliced
- 1 fresh, hot, red chili pepper, sliced
- 2 tablespoons coarsely chopped parsley
Cook the pasta in boiling salted water for 6 to 7 minutes until al dente.
Heat oil in a large pan and add garlic and chili. Before the garlic browns, add mushrooms and parsley. Cook for a few minutes only. Drain pasta well, then mix it with mushroom sauce and top with cheese.
Serves 4
Porcini Risotto
From Craft of Cooking by Tom Colicchio
- 8 cups strong chicken stock
- 1 cup dried porcini
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 yellow onion, peeled and diced
- 3 cups Arborio rice
- 1 cup dry white wine
- Kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese to taste
Bring remaining chicken stock to a simmer in a saucepan and keep warm over low heat.
Combine oil and 1 tablespoon of butter in a large, high-sided skillet. Heat over medium heat until the butter foams. Add the onion and cook until translucent, about 15 minutes. Stir in rice, thoroughly coating it with the onion, butter and oil. Cook rice until it is no longer chalky looking and begins to pop, about 5 minutes. Add wine and simmer, stirring constantly until it has evaporated.
Add 1 cup warm chicken stock. Simmer, stirring until rice is almost dry. Repeat twice more. Stir mushroom stock into the rice. Cook, stirring until rice is dry again.
Finish cooking rice by stirring in enough additional warm chicken stock, a cup at a time, so the rice is just barely tender. Stir in remaining butter. Season and add cheese to taste.
Serves 6
- JLK
