With an excess of Giant Puffballs (Calvatia gigantea) around, we were thinking of a way to do something with them that can be stored for a longer time. Inspired by recent success in making miso paste from scratch, we decided to use the same procedure for fermenting puffballs. Initially the result was not quite like miso but after about two months the taste was getting quite similar to miso. Miso paste (like many other fermented foods) is made using a fungus called Koji (Aspergillus oryzae). You can isolate Koji from store-bought vegetables if you feel like doing everything from scratch.
Category: Mushrooms
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
In this recipe, we make a mint-flavored jelly using wild water mint (mentha aquatica) and woodear mushrooms (auricularia auricula-judae) for gelatinization. Water mint is just one of the many kinds of wild mints. As its name suggests can be found close to water. It has purple flowers, which have a ball-like shape. Watermint (mentha aquatica) left and wood ear (auricularia auricula-judae) right Wood ears are amazing mushrooms. They are commonly used in Chinese cuisine in stir-fry dishes or salads. However, they also grow in Europe for most of the year when its not too warm. As the name suggests they
Strictly speaking, gravy is a meat-based sauce. In this recipe, we make a vegetarian version based on wild ingredients. The main components are cooking liquid of dried mushrooms and roasted chicory (Cichorium intybus) root. Chicory root has been used during various periods of economic crisis as a coffee substitute. The resulting coffee substitute is also used in cajun cooking to create a gravy by deglazing a pan after frying ham. For additional flavoring, we used dried yarrow (Achillea millefolium) powder, which has a nutmeg-like taste and fresh ground elder (Aegopodium podagraria) leaves, which add a carrot / parsley-like flavor. To
Gyoza is a kind of Japanese fried-steamed dumpling. Traditionally, they are filled with meat, mushrooms, and cabbage. Here we present a wild version with two mushrooms and late-spring greens: wild garlic (Allium ursinum), narrow-leaf plantain (Plantago lanceolata), arugula (Eruca vesicaria), and rapeseed kale (Brassica napus L.). From left wild garlic (Allium ursinum), narrow-leaf plantain (Plantago lanceolata), arugula (Eruca vesicaria), and rapeseed kale (Brassica napus L.) Four spring greens perfect for mushroom gyoza
The two stars of this recipe are ground elder (Aegopodium Podagraria) and Japanese knotweed (Reynoutria japonica). Ground elder was spread around Europa by Roman soldiers. They use it as a spice. Nowadays, this plant is considered as an invasive weed. Despite being a nuisance to gardeners, ground elder has medical properties and can help treat gout and arthritis. We described Japanese knotweed here. Ground elder (Aegopodium Podagraria) leaves (left) and blooming plant (right). The inspiration for this soup was a rhubarb-carrot soup recipe. We replaced rhubarb with Japanese knotweed and carrot with ground elder. To add sweetness we used sweet potatoes and to
In this recipe, we used Chicken of the woods (Laetiporus Murill) as the star of a Vietnamese Bahn mi. Bahn mi is a French-inspired sandwich made of baguette-style bread usually with pickled carrot and daikon radish, mayonnaise, and meat, tofu, or seafood. As a wild garnish, we used dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) and garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata). For more information about Chicken of the woods check our Chicken of the woods nuggets recipe.
Chicken of the woods (Laetiporus Murill) is a mushroom resembling chicken as its name suggests. This mushroom comes out in spring and with its distinctive look is virtually impossible to mix up with any other mushroom. It grows on dying or dead trees. Nuggets made of this mushroom are very hard to distinguish from real chicken! The mushroom should be harvested when young before the bottom side developed many pores. If the mushroom is too old the taste can become acidic and the structure too hard. At that stage, the mushroom can still be used to dry out and grind
Fermenting mushrooms is a popular way to preserve mushrooms in Slavic countries. Mushrooms prepared this way can be used in a salad or on bread. The liquid, left over after fermentation, can be used as a vegan fish sauce. For this recipe, we used St. George mushroom (Calocybe gambosa). The St George mushroom is one of the first gilled mushrooms to appear in the spring. Historically it appeared around St George day on 23th April but in current days can be found weeks earlier. This mushroom is one of the few mushrooms that can be consumed raw. Its raw taste