Here’s a study in how a dish can be completely different in a short time after it’s been composed. I was thinking about how to eat a beefsteak mushroom / oxtongue fungus (Fistulina hepatica) I had the other week, those shelf fungus that give red juice when cut, have a slightly tart taste, and, that…
Beefsteak Mushroom / Fistulina hepatica
The beefsteak mushroom or Fistulina hepatica is a type of parasitic polypore related to hen of the woods, chicken of the woods and others. They have a gentle sour taste to them and are a decent stand-in for beef in some preparations. If you're new to them, check out my introductory post on beefsteak mushrooms. If you have some you'd like to cook, I recommend looking at my beefsteak salad or marinated beefsteaks with sorrel.
Beefsteak Mushroom Relish
Cutting up my first beefsteak mushroom (Fistulina hepatica) was a mess. My cutting board looked like a murder scene, my hands were tacky and red, there was sticky trim scraped off of the knife in little piles around the board. In the end though, I did get a nice pile of dice from it to…
The Beefsteak Mushroom
More and more I’ve found I have to hunt mushrooms vicariously through other people during the growing season. Thankfully I’ve built a pretty decent network around Minnesota and Wisconsin, and from there outliers stretching from China to Russia, Britain to Australia and beyond. Comparing notes on mushroom seasons around the world is an amazing by-product…