Buckwheat kasha with wild mushrooms and onions is a classic piece of Eastern European comfort food you need to try. I was ignorant of it for a long time, and I can’t believe it took me so long to get around to it. For me, it’s a dish that’ll always be tied to a particular…
Wild Mushroom Tacos
If you’re a mushroom hunter, the thought of making wild mushrooms tacos has probably crossed your mind, as it has mine. The thing is, wild mushroom tacos aren’t some gringo adaptation, or heretical thing, they’re actually a traditional way of preparing mushrooms in certain parts of Mexico, specifically (to my knowledge, chime in if you…
Oven Fried Shrimp of the Woods
Fall is here, and one thing I know I can always count on are aborted entoloma / Entoloma abortivum / shrimp of the woods, no matter how bad the maitake are teasing me. If you have some, oven frying the arboreal crustaceans is a recipe you’re going to want to bookmark. As long as you…
Shrimp of the Woods Scampi
It’s that time of year again, time for a nice mushroom with a generally horrible name to start oozing and popping it’s way out of the Earth. I like to use the name shrimp of the woods as their texture is slightly similar, but, the majority of people are still going to know them by…
Blackened Shrimp of The Woods
When I’m hunting Hen of the Woods, aborted entolomas can get passed up as I scan the trees for a white oak with a giant mushroom at it’s base. It’s a shame to pass them up since aborted entolomas are so easy to hunt and cook, but if every mushroom tasted as good as every…
Aborted Entolomas Fra Diavolo
Here’s a great way to use up those aborted entolomas. Fra-diavolo is a classic Italian preparation, it means “devil style”, and I definitely like it spicy. You could really make anything you want, add some chili and tomato, and call it fra-diavolo. There is something special about pasta though. I’d made plenty of spicy pastas…
Suspect Sub-Species: Giant Aborted Entolomas
Wandering around the woods in Minnesota I see plenty of funky mushrooms. For the past couple years though, I have seen, very rarely, an interesting phenomena. Aborted entoloma mushrooms are usually thought to be a product of an interaction of honey mushrooms and entolomas. When they grow in close proximity, the entolomas react somehow…
Shellfish Ragu, Aborted Entolomas, Heirloom Tomatoes, Mint
I knew a couple people had spoken about these things called aborted entolomas when I started picking mushrooms, but it took me about a year to be confident in recognizing them. Information about their edibility is out there, but there is not tons of it. Guides from the Pacific Northwest did not discuss it, but…
Shrimp of the Woods: Aborted Entoloma Mushrooms
I had heard of these through another chef friend of mine, but it took me a while to find them on my own. They look like strange white popcorn balls that crawl out of the earth. During their season in the middle to late fall, they’ll seem to be everywhere in my region, looking almost…