Summer

We made an adventure to Roslindale today - first to the farmers' market, reputed to be the best in town. Where I found this awesome local soy and quinoa tempeh. Then we stopped by our friend S's place, where he showed us the tiny house and the tiny library of German books he built. Onwards through the woods of Stony Brook Reservation to Turtle Pond. Seb spotted this little Chicken of the Woods by the path. We lazed on the dock awhile, then rode down the big hill and along the corridor park back to JP, where ice tea was to be found at Ula. From there, we collected our CSA on the way home, including the first (much anticipated, and suitably sweet) corn of the year.

Apart from the above-described chicken of the woods (which was pale in colour when we found it, but took on a much more distinct chicken of the woods vibrant orange when cooked), corn and tempeh, the above also incorporates spring onions, chilli and garlic from previous CSAs, coriander grown on my roof, South River (Western Mass) chickpea tamari, and a squeeze of lime juice. Such delicious ingredients - this is one of my favourites (pretty much this recipe).

Drying and rehydrating maitake

I got my hands on some Maitake back in October, thanks to D. S was out of town at the time, so I wanted to save some for him. I decided the solution was to dry some in the dehydrator. It dried quite quickly - probably a couple of hours at ~130F. I then transferred it to a resealable plastic bag and kept it in the cupboard. Yesterday I was making pizza and fancied some mushroom on it, remembered the maitake and that we hadn't tried rehydrating any of it yet, so brought it out. I just put it in a small bowl, poured enough boiling water over it to cover generously, and after about 10 min it was rehydrated and honestly almost the same as before dehydrating. When it was tender, I drained the mushroom (saving the liquid to use as mushroom stock in future recipes), then it was ready for whatever. If using the dried maitake for something wet (stew, risotto, whatever), you wouldn't even need to do the rehydration step: just throw it straight in. I put it on my pizza along with walnuts, olives, broccoli, capers, rich tomato sauce (with secret ingredient pomegranate molasses), a couple of fresh tomatoes, and some blue cheese on S's bits - always a bit of a random fridge clear-out when we make pizza. The pizza was a great success (good crust, from this recipe) and so was the mushroom!

I had tried drying chanterelles and hedgehog mushrooms previously, which also worked well, but had then powdered them as I'd read that they do not rehydrate well, so I had not tried the rehydration step before.

For preservation of chicken of the woods (from the wonderful, huge haul of it I found with D+A in the woods, post-swim, after our day at Drumlin) I have frozen some in a resealable bag, yet to see how it comes out.

Wild mushroom and lettuce 'risotto'

Chicken of the woods (above) has a tendency to be a little dry, especially when it has been sitting in the fridge for a week like the stuff I needed to use up last night. I also had some maitake that had dried out a bit. I'd been wanting to try some form of chicken of the woods risotto as I thought it might be a good way of counteracting the dryness. Both mushrooms have a substantial enough texture (and taste) to hold up to cooking in liquid without losing their shape or going slimy. The problem with real risotto is that it is not good as leftovers (unless it becomes arancini), so I decided to make a kind of pseudo risotto with a different kind of rice. Lettuce also needed eating. I enjoy cooked lettuce and thought its sweetness would go well with the earthy mushrooms and rice.

2 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
~1/2 cup chopped chicken of the woods
~1/2 cup chopped maitake
1 cup rice mix (brown rice, black barley, daikon seeds - TJs)
2 cups hot veg stock
2 tbsp barley+chickpea aged miso
3/4 cup frozen sweetcorn
1 small lettuce, chopped
2-3 tbsp chopped parsley
soy sauce
salt+pepper
toasted sunflower seeds

Heat the oil in a medium, lidded saucepan. Add the garlic and cook for a minute or so til starting to soften. Add the chicken of the woods and maitake and cook for a few more minutes, cover and cook some more until lightly browned. If it started to dry out add a little of the stock. Add the rice mix and stir until the brown rice looks transparent. Add the stock, cover and cook for ~20 min, until all the liquid is absorbed. Add the miso halfway through and mix it through the liquid. Finally, add in the lettuce, parsley and sweetcorn and mix until the lettuce is wilted. Taste for seasoning and add black pepper and salt (and/or soy sauce) if needed. Sprinkle with toasted sunflower seeds to serve.


This is good. I like it.

Sweetcorn, chicken of the woods, lime

Rolling home, around 8pm. A frilly, orange mushroom I hadn't noticed before catches my eye. On a tree, a little above eye level, right by my way. I ride on a little, approaching the next green light, my brain processing what my eyes had seen. Could it have been a chicken of the woods? I pull over and turn around. I'm sure it is. It is beautiful, with a soft-but-firm texture and a mushroomy, slightly fruity (and very tempting) smell. It's about the diameter of my spread-out hand, and very clean and fresh-looking. I debate picking: it looks so perfect and tasty; but is right beside the road; and is so pretty as well - it seems a shame to take it so others can't see it. Then again, I am amazed that no-one else seems to have seen it / nabbed it - so many people tramp this way, towards the T, all the time. I decide to take just a bit - that way I can taste it while leaving the rest to be beautiful. I break off a couple of lobes and secrete them in my backpack.

I excitedly doublecheck my ID when I get home; the mushroom book only confirms what I am sure of already. I can't wait to eat it! It hardly needs washing but I do anyway. It's just a little bit, but I decide it would go well with freshly-cut sweetcorn, a little bit of chilli, salt and lime, chives for colour, and garlic because I seem incapable of cooking a mushroom without garlic.

2 tbsp olive oil
1 small clove garlic, peeled and chopped
1/2 tsp chilli flakes
2-3 cobs of sweetcorn (make sure it is good, sweet corn)
about 50g of chicken of the woods
little pinch of salt
good pinch of paprika
2 tsp chopped chives
good squeeze of lime

Prepare the corn by removing the husk then carefully cutting off the kernels by working a sharp knife down the sides of the cob. Set aside in a bowl. Heat the oil in a frying pan, add the garlic and cook for a minute until starting to soften. Add the chilli flakes and cook for 30 sec. Add the chicken of the woods, torn into small (1 inch long / 1/2 inch across) pieces, and saute until it starts to look lightly browned: 2-3 minutes. Add the corn, and continue cooking for 4-5 min. It will get deeper yellow and start to brown a little. If it sticks a little bit that's ok: the burny bits are weirdly good. When the corn is done, add salt and paprika and taste for seasoning. Finally, turn off the heat and stir through chives and lime juice. Yum!


Chicken of the woods has to be one of my all time favourite mushrooms - it has great taste and texture (really substantial and not at all wet; quite unique) and beautiful colour. The reddish-orange mushroom in combination with the yellow corn and the flecks of green chives and red-brown chilli and paprika is super pretty. And tastes awesome: the sweetness of the corn offsets the vibrant, rich mushroom taste really well, and the lime and chilli cut through nicely. We ate it with wheatberries, and that was good too. I was planning to observe the rest of the mushroom in situ and see how it changed over time, but the following evening on the way home from work someone had taken the whole thing!


Note: I've found out a few things about CotW since I wrote this - first that specimens can be variable in taste (I haven't had a bad one yet but apparently they exist) and texture (older ones can be dry); second that it has a tendency to soak up a lot of oil and dry out in the pan - have been dealing with this by keeping covered and adding liquid. Looking forward to trying out a CotW risotto. I froze some of my last one (just as was, in cleaned pieces), so there's potential risotto right there in my freezer.

Chicken of the Woods (+spätzle)

We went mushroom hunting a month or so ago at Breakheart Reservation, with our friends Carly and Jason.  We found lots of mushrooms on that trip - including black spiky boletes and one large frilly mushroom we got particularly excited about, thinking it might be Hen of the Woods (Maitake). When we got home and looked more carefully at the identification guides we decided that it was actually probably a Berkeley's Polypore and supposed to be way less tasty, so we didn't end up eating it. Even so, we were all very enthused about more mushroom hunts soon...

Black spiky bolete aka Old Man of the Woods
aka Strobilomyces floccopus (photos by Carly)

Berkeley's Polypore (Bondarzewia berkeleyi)

S+I were thinking of going to a party in a cabin in the woods with C+J on Friday night, but Seb's mum is in town right now and we ended up doing some more Boston-y tourist-suitable stuff.  But while we were down in Rhode Island on Saturday I got a text from Carly saying they'd found masses of Chicken of the Woods (Laetiporus: this is different from Hen of the Woods, and is supposed to have the taste and texture of chicken) on a night hike near the cabin and did we want to come help them eat it?  Ohhhhhh yes!

The mushroom was indeed huge, and beautiful: red-orange on top and creamy coloured underneath, and quite thick and substantial. They cleaned it and chopped it into chunky pieces, then fried it in olive oil / butter, with onions and salt and pepper. We ate it with spätzle: Seb was able to show off his authentic Swabian spätzle-making skills (while teasing his mother about her never having made it before despite being a 'Schwäbische Hausfrau', sort of).

The spätzle came out really well, so I thought I'd make a note of the dough recipe we used - since I have some eggs at the moment perhaps a repeat effort could be a good idea?!

(quantities below make enough for two people)

1 cup plain flour
1/4 cup milk
2 eggs
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 pinch freshly ground white pepper
1/2 tsp salt

Mix together flour, salt, white pepper and nutmeg. Beat eggs well, and add alternately with the milk to the dry ingredients. Mix until smooth. Rest in the fridge for an hour or so (not essential).

When ready to cook, bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Spread about a ladleful of spätzle dough thinly on a smooth chopping board, then hold it over the water and use a large knife with a flat, smooth blade to scrape off the dough, making small, slim worms of spätzle fall into the water. Watch each batch rise to the water's surface then cook for a minute or two while floating, then fish them out with a slotted spoon and put them in a colander. Keep the cooked spätzle warm and repeat with the remaining dough until it is all done.

Finally, either toss or saute the spätzle in olive oil or butter, and optionally garnish with parsley.

                                  (Video of spätzle forming technique: Seb on spätzle in front, Jason on chicken of the woods behind)

Spätzle is really simple, but these worked very well so I thought it was worth hanging onto the recipe. I think the egg is relatively important, but it would be easy to make them without dairy (and likely possible to make them without egg, probably using a little raising agent for lightness and some gram flour for eggy taste and colour).

The mushroom was wonderful - really substantial, with a dense, almost dry texture, and a mild taste. It really was a bit like chicken, taste and texture wise - funny for S to try it as he has never knowingly eaten chicken.

Now I am just wishing I knew where to find more equally awesome, edible mushrooms...

Note: Alvin says that Chicken of the Woods is really best eaten raw.  Not entirely convinced, but now we know that we don't have any adverse reactions to it perhaps next time we can try it (if there is a next time)...