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Seared Tenderloins with Hericiums and King Crab

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Seared Tenderloins With Hericiums And CrabIt’s been a while since I’ve seen some good fruitings of hericiums in Minnesota-a couple years. It’s not that I don’t have anywhere to go and pick them, it’s just that as is the case with hen of the woods and chickens, sometimes they skip a year or two and you won’t see them at all.

Hericium mushrooms

Hericium corralloides.

Luckily I took some of my line cooks out to hunt a couple times this year and one of those hunts produced the biggest fruiting of hericiums I’d ever seen. Big pillows of soft, white coral on a rotting log, seeing their stark white against the background of putrid wood always makes me think about life, death, and our perception of it.

Aside from that, hericiums just look cool, other-worldy, and it doesn’t hurt that they taste great fried up in a little butter with nothing more than a pinch of salt. Their texture and aroma hints faintly at crabmeat, and that’s the idea for this great surf and turf combo here. Hericiums are cooked with garlic, herbs and wine, and left to marinate, then reheated in a little butter with some king crab meat, a splash of lemon, and tossed on top of a steak. Viola.

Seared Tenderloins With Hericiums And Crab

Seared Tenderloins With Hericiums And Crab
Print Recipe
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Hericium Surf and Turf

Seared Tenderloins with Hericium Mushrooms and King Crab
Prep Time45 mins
Cook Time30 mins
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: American
Keyword: Hericium, King Crab, Surf and Turf, Tenderloins
Servings: 2

Ingredients

  • 12 oz beef tenderloin steaks
  • 4 ounces king crab
  • 1/4 cup marinated hericium mushrooms see recipe below
  • Kosher salt and pepper to taste
  • High heat oil or lard as needed for searing, about 1 tablespoon
  • Squeeze of fresh lemon juice to taste
  • Fresh chopped Italian parsley to taste
  • 2 ounces unsalted clarified butter

Instructions

  • Preheat and oven to 250. Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed pan such as cast iron. Season the steaks with salt and pepper on all sides, then brown them in the pan. When the steaks are browned, remove them to a cookie sheet with a resting rack and place in the oven for 10 minutes, or until just warmed through.
  • Meanwhile, melt the clarified butter in a pan and add the crab and mushrooms, heat them gently until just warmed through, making sure not to overcook the crab, which will toughen it. Season to taste with a little salt, pepper, and lemon juice, then finish with the parsley.
  • To serve, place a steak in the middle of two preheated dinner plates. Using a slotted spoon, top each steak with an even amount of crab and hericiums, then garnish with a drizzle of the butter. Serve immediately with a green salad on the side.

Notes

I found I really prefer king crab to most other types for this. My favorite comes from Bristol Bay in Alaska, and has a nice balance of sweet sea flavor, with a mild amount of salt. Not all king crabs are created equal though-some are way too salty for my taste, typically being the cheaper versions. As with most things, you get what you pay for.
For the recipe here, you can also de-glaze the pan you cooked the steaks in and make a simple pan sauce, there's plenty of options. 
For the mushrooms, I used my conserve recipe here. 
Previous Post: « Heirloom Squash Ravioli with Honey Mushrooms and Sage
Next Post: Dandelion Capers with Ramps and Lemon »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Dan F

    January 15, 2016 at 9:10 am

    Yum! I haven’t stumbled onto any hericium for a couple of seasons now, and the last time, they were a bit past prime. But what a perfect way to use them! I agree very much with the similarity to crab meat in taste and texture, and would add appearance to the similarity.

    I’ve learned that the raw mushroom really needs to be used in a day or two, or they begin to discolor, and go downhill quickly. Next time I find a clump, I’ll be coming back here and trying out your marinate idea!

    Reply

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    February 28, 2020 at 11:28 am

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Sam Thayer dropped 25 lbs of his highbush cranberr Sam Thayer dropped 25 lbs of his highbush cranberry cultivars (3 types!) on me before the last snowfall and I honestly don’t even know where to start after processing them. I’d already made jams and hot sauce already and I have enough for a year. 😅

Great time to practice the cold-juice which ensures the juice isn’t bitter. 

Anyone else have any ideas? 

You can still find some on the shrubs if the birds didn’t get them up by the north shore. 

#highbushcranberry #winterforaging #birdberries #sweetnectar #foragerproblems #juiceme #embarassmentofriches #wildfoodlove
100% wild candy bars. I don’t usually make raw v 100% wild candy bars. I don’t usually make raw vegan snacks, but when I read about Euell Gibbon’s wild hackberry candy bars I had to try them. The  originals were just crushed hackberries and hickory nuts, but, I’ve read that Euell grew to dislike the crunch of hackberry seeds later in life. 

Here’s the thing though, if you sift the hackberry flour, you get a fun texture, with no worries about cracking a tooth. 

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The end product is a shelf stable, nutrient-packed bite filled with protein, carbohydrates, fats and natural sugars infinitely adaptable to your local landscape.

The texture is chewy and nougat-like, and now I’m curious to see how they’d perform baked in recipes that use frangipane or almond paste. 

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#hackberry #souffle #wildfoodlove #chokecherry #blackwalnuts #brunching
Hackberry milk is a sort of rustic nut milk made f Hackberry milk is a sort of rustic nut milk made from ground hackberries and water. I grind the berries to a meal, then simmer with 3x their volume of water, strain through a chinois (without pressing) season with maple and a pinch of cinnamon. Tastes like pumpkin pie in a glass, also a decent cooking medium. 

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Are hackberries a fruit? A nut? They're a bit of b Are hackberries a fruit? A nut? They're a bit of both. They also contain protein, fat, and carbs, and the oldest evidence of humans enjoying them goes back 500,000 years. Right now is the best time to harvest them in the Midwest as the leaves have fallen. The full break down and introduction to them is in my bio. 
#hackberry #celtisoccidentalis #winterforaging #wildfoodlove #traditionalfoods #manbird
If you’re in the Twin Cities the nocino I collab If you’re in the Twin Cities the nocino I collaborated on with @ida_graves_distillery for 2020 is on the shelves @surdyksliquor along with our spruce tip liquor. I’d give it a couple weeks before they sell out. 

Brock did a good job on this one: mellow flavor that almost reminds me of a tootsie roll, with spices and mellow tannins. 

#nocino #liquor #distillery #craftspirits #blackwalnuts #mnwinter
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