Foraging a Fungus Among Us Which is Now In my Corpus

And what a delicious fungus it was. I don't normally cook dangerously; but having transplanted a patch of lily-of-the-valley at the base of a grand old sugar maple in my backyard the day before, I came out to inspect my flowers the next morning. Right above them was this beautiful shelf of white mushroom that had definitely not been in residence before.

It was a truly lovely 'shroom.

It was a pearly white with a cascading shape and sweet aroma.

And most importantly, it looked delicious.

Now, I'm no foraging expert. I am more in tune with the idea of foraging than successful in its application. I've failed at harvesting stinging nettles (gathered them too late in their development) and at figuring out fiddlehead ferns (gathered them too early in their development). The potential for disaster with harvesting wild mushrooms always steered me clear but this specimen was so tantalizing.  And my husband Dan was so cute when I pointed out this gorgeous fungus and its potential for our dinner. He exclaimed that he had just fallen in love with me all over again.

Out came my field guides, my mushroom books, my Euell Gibbons library, and research on the Internet. After much study, it appears that I had an Oyster Mushroom, a wild edible delight that blooms on decayed and dying maples during the spring and summer in the Northeast. It has no toxic lookalike mushroom cousins on this continent and so it was with only a small amount of trepidation that I cleaned it up, dipped cut up sections in brown rice flour and then dipped them back in some beaten egg. After a final dredging in some gluten-free bread crumbs, I sauteed them briefly in butter and garnished my 'shrooms with some chopped lemon thyme and parsley.

Heeding well-worn foraging advice of the ages to only sample a small amount of this new wild edible, we adults munched on our CRISPY fried oyster mushrooms with moderation on the first night. They were earthy and delicate and had a nice chewy texture. The next day, having noticed that we were still alive and were suffering no ill effects of my foraging adventure, we heated them up and feasted once more on these delicious wild treats.

I noticed one more shelf of oyster mushroom blooming at the base of my tree and decided to come back a few days later to cook it up, but alas, the passage of just a couple of days had made this mushroom dry up quite a bit and turn brown. There were also lots of insects in residence, so it was not the evanescent thing of beauty that its had been.

I am sending this successful mushrooming adventure post over to Healthy Green Kitchen, who is hosting this week's episode of Weekend Herb Blogging. WHB is the popular food blog event centering on edible plants, herbs, flowers and fruits, and is headquartered at Cook Almost Anything. Healthy Green Kitchen will post a roundup of delicious posts from great cooks from all corners of the globe, so tune in after tomorrow's deadline to see what was cooking.

Mushrooms Baked in Vine Leaves

Though it is far from summer here in upstate New York, I was leafing through the redoubtable Elizabeth David's "Summer Cooking" (NY: Penguin, 1987) for some recipe inspiration and was attracted by her recipe for Mushrooms Cooked in Vine Leaves. I had mushrooms and I have several jars of brined vine leaves made from our enormous grapevines, so I was intrigued to make this dish.

I usually used my vine leaves to make dolmades, those seductive and silky stuffed grape vine leaf appetizers that are also perfect as a light meal paired with a salad. However, David's recipe lured me with her siren line "the great point about this dish is that the vine leaves make cultivated mushrooms taste like field mushrooms". Now that kind of kitchen alchemy was attention getting.

The dish was very easy to prepare. Basically, you line a casserole dish with fresh grape leaves blanched in salted water or brined grape leaves. David recommended rinsing the brined grape leaves and then adding salt later in the dish, so I thought I would not rinse my leaves and wash that tasty brine off and then skip the salting later on. This worked.

Then you wash and trim some mushrooms, place them stem side up in the casserole, slice up a couple cloves of garlic and add them and a drizzle of olive oil. Season with black pepper or any herb you might like to throw in. (I think rosemary would be great for next time). Another covering of vine leaves goes on top, then you cover the casserole and bake in a slow oven for 35 minutes to an hour. I baked my shrooms at 350 for 45 minutes.

The baked mushrooms did taste a little more complex, though I'm not sure they tasted like wild mushrooms. The vine leaves get nice and CRISPY on top and the garlic is meltingly soft from having been steamed inside the vine leaf packet.

Altogether an easy and satisfying dish.

I am sending this over to my blogger friend Girlichef's Hearth and Soul Hop, Vol. 33, a blog event that focuses on home cooked, home grown, real food. Food from my hearth that feeds the soul. That would describe this earthy, simple dish. Hop on over to Girlichef's blog to see the other inspiring posts.