• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Forager | Chef
  • Home
  • About
  • Recipes
  • Interviews
  • Partnerships
  • Contact
menu icon
go to homepage
  • Home
  • About
  • Recipes
  • Interviews
  • Partnerships
  • Contact
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • YouTube
  • subscribe
    search icon
    Homepage link
    • Home
    • About
    • Recipes
    • Interviews
    • Partnerships
    • Contact
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • YouTube
  • ×
    Home » Wild Mushroom Recipes

    Rice Bowl with Coral Mushrooms and Lotus Root

    Published: Oct 13, 2018 Modified: Jan 19, 2025 Author: Alan Bergo

    Jump to Recipe

    I didn't get to attend classes at the Midwest Wild Harvest Festival this year, but I did have a great time with some good takeaways. If you're not familiar, it's a bit like Hogwarts School of Magic for adults, and is run by Forager's Harvest.

    Wild Lotus Root

    You can take classes with wild food experts from around the country ranging from processing acorns to making mustard from wild seeds, mushroom and plant ID walks, etc.

    One of the things I brought back, besides the dregs of a growler filled with hickory nut oil was a lotus tuber, my first real live wild one qnd a gift from Sam after he was diving for them in the river for one of the classes.

    Sam's first book The Forager's Harvest, really changes my  appreciation for lotus tubers. I had seen them being sold in Asian markets, and I knew that they were common in stir fry and other things, but I never really thought about them as a local vegetable.

    My guess is, if you live in the Midwest, you may not have thought about adding lotus root to your list of seasonal ingredients either, but they are. And they’ve been here for a long time.

    The first thing I noticed about the wild lotus tuber I had was that the size was much longer, and thinner. Cultivated tubers have been conditioned to have more "meat" on them, and are more stout/short.

    They're a really fun vegetable to work with, the texture is a little like water chestnut, but on the sweeter side. Cooking them, from my experience usually ends up going one of two ways for me: hot and fast, or low and slow. Cooked quick they retain some of their crunch and add texture, braised or confit'd slow they get soft-crunchy, if that makes any sense.

    a ramaria mushroom
    Ramaria, or a true coral. Note that it's growing on the ground, and has a bright yellow color, compared to Clavicorona pyxidatus. Which often gets confused with them. This should be Ramaria rasilispora: a good edible, but not as good as Ramaria botrytis IMO.

    After I got back from the Festival (read as 620 meals in 24 hours with two cooks) I was beat, and took a day to poke around in the wood. I brought back a few nice Ramaria botrytis and some yellows that fit Ramaria rasilispora. Before I got to work the next day I put together a little fried rice with all of them, quick and dirty style. The ramaria pictured above was good, but the botrytis is even better. While we're on the subject too, I put up a great post on Ramaria drawing from David Arora a few years ago, if you haven;t read it, check it out.

    The Milwaukee Rice

    Krasnodarskij 3352 rice
    Krasnodarskij 3352 rice, an heirloom being grown near Milwaukee.

    With fried rice, you're obviously going to need a little rice, and this stuff is a story in itself. The word Milwaukee in the title of this post is a real thing, as my friend Mushroom Mike in Wisconsin is in contact with farmers growing a type of heirloom Russian rice. The end product looks like speckeled jade jewels, and after drying, it cooks up just like good brown rice. Mixing that rice with a little parched wild rice, coral shrooms and pond veggies made a great lunch, and a snapshot of my week.

    Milwaukee rice with lotus root and ramaria mushrooms_
    Milwaukee rice with lotus root and ramaria mushrooms_
    Print Recipe Pin Recipe
    No ratings yet

    Rice Bowl with Coral Mushrooms, and Lotus Root 

    Heirloom rice bowl with coral mushrooms, bacon, and lotus root
    Prep Time30 minutes mins
    Cook Time5 minutes mins
    Course: Main Course
    Cuisine: Chinese
    Keyword: coral mushrooms, Heirloom rice, Lamb bacon, Lotus root
    Servings: 2
    Author: Alan Bergo

    Equipment

    • Cast iron pan

    Ingredients

    • 1 duck egg
    • 2 oz lamb bacon finely chopped (sausage can be substituted)
    • 3-4 ounces fresh Ramaria/coral mushrooms cleaned and broken into clusters the size of a walnut shell
    • 2 green onions sliced thin
    • A good handful of watercress picked, cleaned and any woody stems removed
    • 1 Lotus root optional
    • Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper
    • Pinch of red pepper flakes sriracha, or whatever spicy condiment you like
    • 1 cup cooked brown rice
    • ½ cup cooked parched wild rice
    • 2 tablespoons lard or cooking oil
    • Soy sauce and sesame oil optional, for garnishing

    Instructions

    • Bring 3 cups of lightly water to a simmer and blanch the coral mushrooms until wilted, about 2 minutes, remove, drain and reserve. In a large saute pan or cast iron skillet, cook the duck egg in 1 tablespoon of the oil, whacking the yolk so the egg will cook flat and be easy to chop, do not over cook the egg or brown it.
    • When the egg is cooked, remove and reserve.
    • Add the remaining tablespoon of oil to the pan and render the bacon on medium heat for 3-4 minutes, until some of the fat has come out.
    • Add the Ramaria and cook for two minutes more, add the lotus root and heat through, finally (and working quickly to avoid overcooking the lotus) toss in the rice, chili flakes and heat through.
    • Meanwhile, dice the egg and add to the mix. Turn the pan off.
    • Right before plating, fold in the water cress and the green onion.
    • Double check the seasoning and adjust as needed, then serve immediatley, garnishing with a few nice cress sprigs on top. Pass some soy at the table.

    Notes

    Serves 2 as an entree or filling side dish or entree
    « Lactarius thyinos: A Delicious Orange Milkcap
    How to Eat Matsutake Raw »

    Reader Interactions

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    Recipe Rating




    Primary Sidebar

    Chef Alan Bergo

    HI, I'm Alan: James Beard Award-winning Chef, Author, Show Host and Forager. I've been writing about cooking wild food here for over a decade. Let me show you why foraging is the most delicious thing you'll ever do.

    More about me →

    Get The Book

    the forager chef's book of flora
    The Forager Chefs Book of Flora

    As Seen On

    An image showing many different brands and media companies forager chef alan bergo has worked with.

    Footer

    Privacy

    Subscribe

    Be the first to hear what I'm doing

    Contact

    As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

    Copyright © 2025 Forager | Chef LLC® Accessibility Statement

    Rate This Recipe

    Your vote:




    A rating is required
    A name is required
    An email is required