This is one of the simplest, and most popular ways I know to prepare any mushroom. Wild mushrooms with slippery caps, especially slippery jacks or other boletes are my favorite for this though, since the crunch of the breadcrumbs is a great foil for the tenderness of the mushroom. It’s my go to recipe if I have mushrooms that aren’t as prized as some of the others, under-appreciated lactarius and boletes being great examples.
Wild Mushrooms With Breadcrumbs, Garlic, And Chili
Ingredients
- 8 ounces fresh wild mushrooms like slippery jacks, sliced ½ in thick
- Kosher salt and pepper
- 3 tbsp unsalted butter
- 2 tbsp cooking oil like lard, grapeseed or canola
- 1/4 cup panko breadcrumbs
- 1 tsp crushed red pepper
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 1 tsp fresh chopped thyme
Instructions
- Lightly crush the garlic cloves with the back of a knife. Heat the oil and garlic in a saute pan over medium heat until lightly sizzling. Allow the garlic to brown lightly, but not burn. At this point you can discard the garlic.
- Add the mushrooms and butter, and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms are lightly browned and caramelized, season the mushrooms with salt and pepper to taste.
- Reduce the heat and add the breadcrumbs, thyme and cook, stirring regularly until the breadcrumbs are golden brown. Remove the pan from the heat, add the dried chili and stir to combine, then serve immediately.
Alan-
Makes me want to check that spot again! The dog needs a walk, so I might just go. The trail was thick with slippery jacks last time I was there. And we saw the most beautiful spiny puffball. Dan and I also spotted a bunch of what we think were blewits last week in Mendota.
Hi Alan:
If I may display a counter point?:
Some people won’t eat a single gilled mushroom, due to such types containing most of the world’s most deadly mushrooms.
Others won’t eat any Amanita, but look at how doable it is to discover an Amanita muscaria’s unique characteristics & not mistake it for a destroying angel or death cap. It is very safe for someone who’s paying attn. to identifying characteristics (though w/A. muscaria, one must prepare it right, or suffer the consequences).
And there are others who won’t eat corts of any type. Like both of the above categories, there are deadly species, true, but when one learns how to ID a particular species w/o any close dangerous lookalikes, I’m sure it is far safer than driving to a location to go mushroom hunting.
Consider purple corts, and then look at deadly corts, see the obvious differences, then consider how you could mistake a purple for a deadly. I’m not sure how you’d do it, and I’m using the “you” of anyone who’s learned to follow identification characteristics. But in your case, the “you” that would be directly about Alan Bergo, well I would trust you would differentiate the species w/relative ease.
Still, this could be a good discussion to bring up in MushroomTalk if you’d like to learn more but aren’t ready to make use of your own identification abilities.
Sam Schaperow, M.S.
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/PlantForagers/
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/MushroomTalk