I love cauliflower mushrooms / Sparassis, but, honestly I think I like the texture more than the flavor. Don’t get me wrong, they taste excellent, but, it’s hard to find another mushroom with a similar texture. They’re just so unique. With that in mind, when I have access to some fresh cauliflower fungus, I cook…
Other Wild Mushrooms
Ramaria botrytis
Ramaria botrytis. These are the best coral mushroom for the table I’ve eaten in the Midwest, and, most importantly, by far the easiest species to identify (they’re pink!). There isn’t a lack of coral mushrooms in my area, but really good ones can be tough to pin down. With the exception of another yellow variety…
Grilled Lobster Mushroom Salsa
It was the dog days of summer, and I was craving something cold, and not about to turn on the stove. Heat saps my appetite too, so I don’t eat too much when it’s really hot. In the fridge was a pile of lobster mushrooms. The lobsters are so big and chunky, but what could…
Lobster Mushroom Breadcrumbs
I almost always have bags of dried lobster mushrooms around the apartment. Re-hydrated and mixed into things they’re ok, and just ok. Most of the time though, I’m going to grind the suckers up and do something with the powder. Dried, re-hydrated lobsters might not be that interesting, (toast them a little to bring out…
Crown-Tipped Coral Croutons
I took a few hours this week specifically to hunt some chicken of the woods, and I got skunked, hard. June can be kind of a dead zone in the Midwest for mushrooms until the chanterelles start, you’ll see a few early chickens, but nothing like the amounts that start in the mid to late…
Seared Prawns with Kale and Coral / Ramaria Mushrooms
Here’s a really simple, land and sea, or surf and turf combo with those Ramaria / Coral mushrooms we know and love. It took me a number of years to find species of coral fungus in my area I was comfortable with, but after I did some testing to make sure I didn’t suffer from…
Matsutake with Hakurei Turnips
As much as I can, I try to plant the seed of enjoying the entire plant when you cook with a part of it. A lot of times, this means cooking with stems, roots, and leaves in a dish, but depending on the season and what you’re cooking it could also be various bulbs, shoots,…
Steamed Hericium with Fried Herbs and Drawn Butter
If you hunt wild mushrooms, you probably know some of the flavor comparisons for well known species. Chicken of the woods taste like chicken, chanterelles smell like apricots, slippery jacks taste like viscous slugs (fresh at least), candy caps taste like maple syrup and hericium mushrooms cook a bit like crab (note that I said…
Lobster Mushroom Bolognese
When I was dreaming up of what to make for my dinner with the writers of Untamed Mushrooms to celebrate their book release, I knew I wanted to do a few courses of mine and a course or two inspired by the book. If you’re a mushroom hunter and you haven’t grabbed a copy order one and…
Limousin Flank Steak with Vietnamese Coriander and Lobster Mushroom Hash
After I found the local vendors at the St. Paul Farmer’s Market selling Vietnamese coriander (Persicaria odorata) and figured out what it was, I had to make a dish with it. After a day or two of playing around with the herb, the first way I served it was the simplest I could think of:…
Wilted Amaranth, Chesnok Garlic and Summer Wild Mushrooms
I’ve been eating more and more amaranth in the past few years, for some reason I forgot I could wilt it like spinach. For a year or two all I did was put it in salads, and then it needs to be blended with other greens. If you use it raw, it can be a…
Cordyceps Militaris
If you’ve read mushroom field guides, or have spent any time watching mushroom flavored media, you’re probably familiar with Cordyceps: the group of mushroom species famous for taking over the bodies and minds of insects to do their reproductive bidding. Long story short, the fungus infects insects (ants seem to be the most well known)…
Stinkhorn / Witch Eggs
Stinkhorns smell, are covered in goo that attracts flies and just looking at them will make most people cringe, laugh, or feel revulsion. A quick google will show you the formations have an impressive range too: dog phallus, phallus in a cage, or even weird alien phallus. Oh, and Phallus is actually they’re proper Latin…