Summery mushroom inspiration?

One of my favourite restaurant starters when I visit Spain is revueltos. Basically scrambled eggs with the mushrooms, to which prawns are often added. They generally cook the eggs much firmer than I would usually do - not quite a chopped omelette but on its w ay to becoming one.

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I like enoki sprinkled in a summer salad My all time favorite mushroom recipe is ‘Mushrooms St. Thomas’, first enjoyed one summer. Does that count?

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I make marinated mushrooms quite often in the summer, pretty much like you do only no sugar and more garlic and fresh herbs. Yum.

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This is a long shot because of availability and cost: stuffed morels. They’re in season here now, but are US$24/lb. Some years, the price drops to below US$15, and I jump on them. I select large ones (golf ball size or larger), enlarge the cut end, then stuff some of them with a pre-cooked ground meat-and-rice mix (Greek kima), some with Italian sausage, some with ricotta cheese. Roasted bell peppers would work, too. In a rimmed baking sheet, I pour in a good amount of olive oil, roll the stuffed morels around in it, then into the oven at 375 until browned.

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We make these several times a summer:

I swap basil for the suggested herbs. I had some leftover filling last time, so I chopped up some zucchini and covered it with the filling and cooked it on the grill. It was a tasty experiment that I will repeat.

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Mushroom Larb?

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King Boletus. From the mountain. Mt Shasta.

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I use mushrooms all the time; but I’d like to throw in few ideas to shed on youse. I notice these days most stores won’t sell the white (agaricus bisporus) ones at full maturity (opened up). I believe this is so you won’t do my little easy trick. When I find one opened up, I’ll run water over the gills and into a pot. After I’ve done several, I’ll toss that spore water in my yard. I don’t use any chemicals on my lawn. I’ll bet I’ve harvested near 150 lbs. of those over 20 years. Most mushrooms have a preferred substrate in which to begin the mycelial process. A mushroom is really the fruit of the mycelial “hairs” under the soil. So, if I was washing morel spores, I’d find a dead elm stump to dump them near. They like to grow where there are dead elm roots. Boletes like pine litter. Chanterelles like low nitrogen/low PH substrates (easy to grow indoors.)

Now, the only issue with growing them, is that they pop up en masse. What to do with all that fungal material? I’ll blanch then freeze some, but I’ll dry and pulverise if I have a big buch. That powder is flippin’ gold. Pasta sauces, soups, stews, gumbo. I’ll replace flour in gravy with the use mushroom powder. One failure was dehydrating a bunch of puffballs I found. Huge puffballs, reduced to just a pinch of powder. Unreal.

Maitake (hen of the woods) is one you just remember where you found them, and they’ll often come back the next year. Perfect pulverizing mushroom because they are tough.

You can also eat ink caps (coprinopsis atramentaria), but avoid alcohol if you do. This is what antabuse is made of.

Avoid LBMs and ball joints. Most “deadlies” are one of those two. Amanitas (virosa and phalloides).

Look at the ball joint at the base. Danger Will Robinson!!! These amanitas have a habit of living among similar looking edibles. Muy importante you check EVERY mushroom before saving for consumption. That means getting under the base. Bad day when you find you need a liver transplant ASAP or die.

Galerina marginata/autumnalis. https://mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/field-guide/deadly-galerina

Could be a honey cap, or chicken mushroom. If you’re not sure via spore print, you don’t collect Little Brown Mushrooms, periodt.

Another that looks inviting when you find them. Cortinarius rubellus can kill.

Enjoy your fungi!!! Just not those three.

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Do morels like any other trees?

Goodness, that is a ‘steak’!

Glad you posted this. I recall every spring in the BA, some families would be tragically poisoned from foraging 'rooms. Education is key!

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Curious, what is the BA?

(San Francisco/Oakland) Bay Area?

Or wondering if it could be Boston area?

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I’ve found them in old growth forests of all sorts. They like older hardwoods, so old, they’re dead or dying. I think elm, when I think morel, just because we have so many that dies from Dutch elm disease, so they tend to grow over those roots.

If you find one, stop right where you are. Look, just look around, and you’ll often find many lbs. worth. Good advice for any mushroom hunter. You see one, there’s usually more. Stop and look. The high of mushroom hunting is that moment of quiet when you see them come out of the woodwork.

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Good to know! Thanks!

I wanted summery mushroom recipes, as opposed to heavier fall mushroom recipes, which often rely on cream and cheese.

Pfifferlinge / Chanterelle season is during the summer. Lots of seasonal menus featuring Pfifferlinge & Chanterelles in Europe this time of year.

My local mushroom farm has some really flavorful brown mushrooms at the farmers’ market right now.

The banh mi looks interesting in this article

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/oct/12/mushroom-recipes-10-best

I eat a lot of salads in the summer (well, all year round, really). I find that a good amount of nicely seared/caramelized mushrooms (button or oyster or king oyster) together with pancetta or diced onion make a fine topping for a dinner salad.

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