One of my lovely gal pals is a keen and successful forager, and she was nice enough to gift me part of her recent bounty.
As everyone here who’s paid attention knows, I’m a certified shroom head, but I’ve never made these before.
My initial impulse would be to simply sauté and serve with chicken or steak, but a quick google search indicated that they have to be cooked thoroughly… so — pasta? Risotto?
Any favorite ways my fellow HOs like to prepare them?
I’ve never had these before. But I’m just here to ask rhetorically why mushroom namers had to pick a name so similar to hen of the woods, for a completely different type of mushroom. It’s like they’re trying to confuse us.
They sound interesting though! My sister lives near a local mushroom store, so I will keep my eye out for these the next time I visit her.
Right??? I actually looked it up, even though hen of the woods aka maitake are a favorite of mine — and of course look completely different.
Well… unless another HO chimes in with more than semantics, it looks like I’ll be making pasta with them tonight for our pescatarian buddy.
I shall report.
Like you, I love mushrooms, but I have no experience with these. To be honest, I realize that I don’t make mushrooms alone very often, so I don’t have practical suggestions.
Found this site though that is a treasure trove of ideas!
I also saw a few recipes with just sauteeing them, and they looked great! For something freshly foraged, I would love a pure mushroom dish on its own.
Are they relatively sof. I often pass on them if they’ve hardened; but, if hardened, I would fully dehydrate them and pulverize them and add to sauces/gravies.
just to be sure, do they look like this:
These are what I call chicken shrooms. It’s often helpful to use the binomial term, as many shrooms go by different common names.
This is what they look like when they harden up.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laetiporus#:~:text=Some%20species%2C%20especially%20Laetiporus%20sulphureus%2C%20are%20commonly,a%20texture%20similar%20to%20that%20of%20chicken**strong text**
I find pasta to be a wonderfully slippery, carby foil for shrooms of any kind.
Thanks so much for that link! I’ll check it out, and also forward to my foraging gal pal 
Yup.
Looks absolutely amazing
Why, thank you! I was surprised by how dense they stayed, and how little liquor they released. Usually, most mushrooms sauce themselves — these did not.
I found them to be meaty, with a similar flavor to chanterelles: lightly citrusy with a distinct aroma.
