Summer wild mushroom varieties have finally started to show up in my next of the woods. The first thing I made this year was a riff on one of my favorite shareable wild mushroom appetizers. It’s basically a giant pile of sauteed mushrooms with whipped cheese and a sprinkle of pickled ramps you smear over…
Russula / Lactarius
Lactifluus volemus.
Russula and lactarius mushrooms are two very different types of mushrooms, but similar enough that I categorize them together. They can be substituted for just about any mushroom recipe on this website.
Green Brittle Gills: Russula parvovirescens
Quilted green russulas, also known as green brittle gills and Russula parvovirescens are an edible wild mushroom, and the easiest Russula to bring home for the table, at least for me. Formerly known as Russula virescens, r. parvovirescens was identified in 2006 and declared a unique species of the Eastern United States. The two mushrooms…
Almond Candy Cap Mushroom Cookies (Amaretti)
Simple butter cookies are a tried and true candy cap recipe, and David Arora even shares a recipe for them in his excellent book All That the Rain Promises and More (get yourself a copy if you don’t have one, it’s a good, portable reference for when you can’t bring the larger book along). These…
Candy Cap Mushroom Flan (Creme Caramel)
Flan infused with candy cap mushrooms has been on my list to make for years now. I finally got to it, and, yes, it’s a great candy cap recipe. Flan vs Creme Caramel Real quick, for culinary nerds, flan and creme caramel are essentially the same thing (it was originally French) but the French wouldn’t…
Dried Saffron Milk Cap or Lactarius Broth
Snow is on the ground, and that means it’s time to start working through the mushroom stash. The first thing in my queue was a simple broth with shrimp dumplings based on an old recipe I used to run as a deep fried fish cake appetizer. The dumplings were just for fun since I was…
Nasturtium Salad with Milkcaps and Shrimp
The marinated milkcap mushroom preserves I talked about in this post are fine out of the jar, but even better warmed up and put on a plate with something. I love a good salad, and my nasturtiums have been in full swing, so whatever I made, I knew they’d be going in there. A great…
Marinated Wild Mushrooms with Tomato and Coriander
Here’s a great way to put up any mushroom, but especially those that have gills waiting to soak up juices, or need a little boost in the flavor department, as milkcaps and ho-hum mushrooms like Pluteus and Megacollybia rodmani do, milkcaps being vastly superior of the aforementioned three. The marinade is a little trick I…
Lactifluus Volemus with Shrimp, Garlic and Parsley
One of the most noticeable things about Lactifluus volemus is their smell, a sort of strong, cheesy, crotchy aroma. Whatever you want to compare it to, it’s strong, and it’s noticeable, as long as the mushrooms are fresh. The smell fades as it cooks though, and transforms into delicious, nutty, mushroomy-ness. Here’s one of the…
