Not many mushrooms are good edibles raw. The beef steak mushroom (Fistulina hepatica), however, is one of the few that is. Because it has a meaty texture and look, it is a perfect mushroom to turn into a steak tartar. The original steak tartare is made with finely chopped raw beef, and has its origin in late 19th-century French cuisine. We swapped the beef for a beef steak mushroom and were very happy with the result! For a further wild twist, we replaced pepper with waterpepper (Persicaria hydropiper) and instead of using Worcester sauce, we used the liquid we had
Category: Water pepper
Wild Ramen with black garlic oil
Ramen can be seen as a combination of 5 elements: broth, flavoring (tare), flavored oil, noodles, and toppings (for example egg, nori, greens). Aside from the noodles, we used wild ingredients for all elements. Starting from the stock, we used bladderwrack seaweed (Fucus vesiculosus) (introduced here) and boletus mushroom. We imitated miso based tare with koji fermented puffball (Calvatia gigantea) paste (described here). For the flavored oil, we used black wild garlic (Allium ursinum) and crow garlic (Allium vineale) oil (described here). For the toppings, we used fried ground elder (Aegopodium podagraria), which structure wise resembles nori, crow garlic, water
We used giant polypore (Meripilus giganteus) as a taco filling paired with water pepper (Persicaria hydropiper) spiced salsa. Both ingredients can be found in the summer and autumn. Giant polypore, also known as the blackening polypore, is as its names suggest a large mushroom with flesh that discolors black when bruised. It grows on trees or dead wood. Sometimes it can appear to be growing out of the soil while in fact there is a dead tree trunk hidden under ground. The mushroom has a chicken-like structure making it a good meat substitute. There are also no dangerous lookalikes making
