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Award-winning chef, author and forager Alan Bergo. Food is all around you.

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Black Trumpet Potato Puree

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Black trumpet potato pureeBlack trumpet potato puree (think dried-mushrooms pureed into mashed potatoes) came from a dish I’d heard about when I was moonlighting as the stylist on Lenny Russo’s cookbook. Over the course of the eight month project, photographer Tom Thulen and I would work off a list of dishes from different sections each week, chosen by the powers that be (publisher). Mushroom potato puree (maybe because it comes in edible shades of brown and grey?) wasn’t chosen. 

Chef Lenny Russos mushroom potato puree

I’d made a few of the dishes in the manuscript for restaurant service before we starting working on the book, but I’d never made mushroom flavored taters, so I made a point to, sometime (6 years later). The original recipe called for mushroom duxelles, but I thought that making a really strong one with a thick puree of dried wild mushrooms could be really good, especially strong ones like black trumpets that love dairy, butter, and all the creamy smooth things. 

Chef Alan Bergo with a basket of black trumpet mushrooms

A nice basket of trumpets from November in Northern Minnesota. My last hunt of the year with my friend Michael Karns, author of Untamed Mushrooms.

I ended up marrying two recipes here: Chef Russo’s recipe, and the world-famous pommes de terre Robuchon, the latter of which I was taught how make to spec from a chef de partie who worked at Robuchon in Vegas. Quick aside, one secret to Chef Robuchon’s world-famous potatoes is that they’re made from…frozen French potato pearls, which ensures a consistent product year round that tastes the same, at the same time, in Vegas as it does in Paris.

Joel Robuchon's mashed potatoes

Read the ingredients here. This recipe doesn’t even get the moniker of “Pommes Robuchon” but it still calls for 1/4 lb butter for every 1lb of potatoes. The real deal can call for even more, I heard from one chef nearly equal parts butter to potatoes by weight!

To make my mushroom-lovers version here, you infuse the dried mushrooms into a bunch of cream and butter, puree it silky smooth, then use it to flavor some freshly cooked and rice potatoes.

It’s ultra rich and trumpety, good anywhere you’d have mashed potatoes, but especially meat, preferably roasted. It doesn’t include anywhere near the amount of butter real Robuchon potatoes call for, but it’s rich enough for me. 

Dried black trumpet mushrooms or Craterellus fallax

Dried black trumpets. Just a few.

Use a ricer 

This is really straightforward, but, you must use a ricer here. A foodmill will ruin a puree of potatoes with it’s circular motion, which activates the potato starch, making them feel like glue in your mouth. 

Potato ricer

Using other dried wild mushrooms 

Feel free to use your favorite dried wild mushrooms here. Dried chanterelles are a great swap out for the trumpets, and keep the light color of the potatoes. Other strongly flavored mushrooms like porcini would be good too. 

Black trumpet potato puree

Black trumpet potato puree
Print Recipe
5 from 1 vote

Black Trumpet Potato Puree

A rich dish of mashed potatoes flavored with dried wild mushrooms. I use black trumpets here, but you could use your favorite. Chanterelles are very good.
Prep Time15 mins
Cook Time45 mins
Course: Side Dish
Cuisine: French
Keyword: Black Trumpet Mushrooms, Potatoes

Ingredients

  • 40 oz russet potatoes
  • 1 oz dried black trumpets mushrooms
  • 1.5 cups water
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 1 small shallot 2 oz
  • 1 large clove garlic grated or minced
  • 1 teaspoon salt plus more to taste
  • 4 oz unsalted butter
  • Fresh slices chives or green onions to garnish

Instructions

  • Cover the black trumpets with the water and rehydrate for 15 minutes. P
  • eel the potatoes, then half and cut into 1 inch pieces. Bring the potatoes to a simmer using a pot of cold water, then turn the heat to low and cook until very tender, then drain very well and pass through a food mill into a mixing bowl while still hot. Cover the potato bowl with cling film and put in a warm place until needed.
  • Meanwhile, agitate the mushrooms in the water to remove grit, then lift the mushrooms out of the water. Strain the liquid slowly, discarding the last tablespoon or two since any grit will be concentrated there. Reserve the mushrooms and liquid separately.
  • Sweat the shallots, (grate the garlic into the pan now), in 2 tablespoons of the butter until translucent, then add the mushrooms and sweat for a few minutes more. Add the black trumpet liquid and reduce until the pan is nearly dry, then add the cream and salt, bring to a simmer, then turn down the heat and reduce for 5 minutes more on medium-low.
  • Pour the trumpet cream into a highspeed blender like a vitamix, or a food processor in a pinch, and puree until very smooth, using the accelerator attachment to the blender if necessary to get the blades moving, dropping in the remaining butter, emulsifying to a smooth paste. Pour the mushroom cream into the still hot riced potatoes, combine, double check the seasoning for salt and adjust until it tastes good to you.

Plating as pictured

  • To get the pattern on the potatoes as pictured in this post, which is how the potatoes are served at Robuchon (or at least how I was taught) take a knife with a length equal to the radius of the dish you will serve the potatoes in, put the potatoes in the dish, and smooth out the top with the blade of the knife. It takes some practice, and will frustrate most people, but you can always smooth out the top and start over if the pattern isn’t to your liking. Clean the rim of the dish with a damp towel after you're pleased with the patter.

More 

The Forager’s Guide to Black Trumpet Mushrooms

 

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Comments

  1. Lenny Russo

    December 27, 2021 at 8:20 am

    Nice riff on mushroom potato purée, and thanks for giving my cookbook a plug as well for mrntioning me in the same sentence as Robuchon. Also, my book is quite beautiful with no small thanks to you and Tom Thulen as well as the stunning artwork of George Morrison.

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      December 28, 2021 at 7:31 am

      No prob boss!

      Reply

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Alan Bergo
I made vegan fish sauce from ramp juice. You tak I made vegan fish sauce from ramp juice. 

You take the pure juice of the leaves, mix it with salt, Koji rice, and more chopped fresh ramp leaves, then ferment it for a bit. 

After the fermentation you put it into a dehydrator and cook it at 145-150 F for 30 days. 

The slow heat causes a Maillard/browning reaction over time. 

After 30 days you strain the liquid and bottle it. It’s the closest thing to plant-based fish sauce I’ve had yet. 

The potency of ramps is a pretty darn good approximation of the glutamates in meat. But you could prob make something similar with combinations of other alliums. 

The taste is crazy. I get toasted ramp, followed by mellow notes from the fermentation. Potent and delicate at the same time. 

I’ve been using it to make simple Japanese-style dipping sauces for tempura etc. 

Pics: 
2: Ramp juice 
3: Juicy leaf pulp 
4: Squeezing excess juice from the pulp
5: After 5 days at 145F 
6: After 30 days 
7: Straining through Muslin to finish

#ramps #veganfishsauce #experimentalfood #kojibuildscommunity #fermentation #foraging
Oeufs de Gaulle is a classic morel recipe Jacques Oeufs de Gaulle is a classic morel recipe Jacques Pepin used to make for French president Charles de Gaulle. 

You bake eggs in a ramekin with shrimp topped with creamy morel sauce and eat with toast points. 

Makes for a really special brunch or breakfast. Recipe’s on my site, but it’s even better to watch Jacques make it on you tube. 

#jacquespepin #morels #shrimp #morilles #brunchtime
Morels: the only wild mushroom I count by the each Morels: the only wild mushroom I count by the each instead of the pound. 

Good day today, although my Twin Cities spots seem a full two weeks behind from the late spring. 2 hours south they were almost all mature. 

76 for me and 152 for the group. Check your spots, and good luck! 

#morels #murkels #mollymoochers #drylandfish #spongemushroom #theprecious
The first time I’ve seen fungal guttation-a natu The first time I’ve seen fungal guttation-a natural secretion of water I typically see with plants. 

I understand it as an indicator that the mushrooms are growing rapidly, and a byproduct of their metabolism speeding up. If you have some clarifications, chime in. 

Most people know it from Hydnellum 
peckii-another polypore. I’ve never seen it on pheasant backs before.

Morels are coming soon too. Mine were 1 inch tall yesterday in the Twin Cities. 

#guttation #mushroomhunting #cerioporussquamosus #pheasantback #naturesbeauty
Rain and heat turned the flood plain forest into a Rain and heat turned the flood plain forest into a grocery store. 

#groceryshopping #sochan #rudbeckialaciniata #foraging
Italian wild food traditions are some of my favori Italian wild food traditions are some of my favorite. 

Case in point: preboggion, a mixture of wild plants, that, depending on the reference, should be made with 5-23 individual plants. 

Here’s a few mixtures I’ve made this spring, along with a reference from the Oxford companion to Italian food. 

The mixture should include some bitter greens (typically assorted asters) but the most important plant is probably borage. 

Making your own version is a good excercise. Here they’re wilted with garlic and oil, but there’s a bunch of traditional recipes the mixture is used in. 

Can you believe this got cut from my book?!

#preboggion #preboggiun #foraging #traditionalfoods
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