Black Trumpets and True Chanterelles

 

Mushrooms hadn't really crossed my mind so far this year. Well, not since morel season (which we missed) anyway - we didn't go back to the place we found them last year, but G's family go there every year on Memorial Day weekend so I wanted him to check for them again (he didn't go either in the end)...

Anyway, coincidentally we went for a walk with M+G last weekend in Western Mass - similar kind of location to the morel find. Was all very unplanned - we found ourselves heading up Little Monadnock (hang on, actually that's in NH - just over the state line). And, right next to the lookout, I found a patch of black trumpets (Craterellus cornucopioides)! We'd eaten these once before with C+J, but never found them ourselves. Small and literally-named (they really are trumpet-shaped, and black); easy to pass by as they are well-camouflaged on the ground. They smell incredible - very rich, almost truffley. I picked them into S's hat, then kept plunging my face in there to inhale that heady aroma all the rest of our walk. We snacked on plentiful wild blueberries. On the way down we spotted a few chanterelles and added them to the hat - much easier to see than the trumpets owing to their large size and bright orange colour, but not growing in such a big group. After the walk we went to find a quarry to swim in, and on the way up to the quarry and the way back down we came across more chanterelles - we even found some right on the bank of the quarry! So, now we had one hatful of frilly orange mushrooms, and another hat full of delicate, velvety black ones.

When we got back we consulted our books, to be sure of identification (both these species are really distinctive so there wasn't much of a question), and for tips on cooking. We had a good amount of both kinds of mushroom, so we decided to just saute them (after a good clean - the trumpets especially can hide all sorts of bugs and leaves and dirt down inside their holes) together with a smidge of garlic, finish off with butter, salt and pepper, and see how that went. Trumpets have a stronger flavour than chanterelles - complementary though, and not overwhelming. But trumpets also tend to collapse into little floppy black blobs, while chanterelles are more robust and hold their shape and texture better. So they made a good team. The trumpets especially seemed to release a lot of liquid, and by the time it cooked off the mushrooms were quite shrunken. We tossed the saute through spätzle (the bought kind, through laziness), and it made a simple but excellent dinner.

Note: these were true chanterelles (Cantharellus cibarius): larger, more robust and more brightly orange than the related Winter Chanterelles (Craterellus tubaeformis) we found previously. Similar in taste, but the true chanterelles are firmer and hold their shape better when cooked - the Winter Chanterelles are almost like a hybrid between true chanterelles and black trumpets in texture and appearance.

Mushrooms and sesame tofu

We tried sesame tofu for the first time at Journeyman (our new favourite fancy Greater Boston restaurant). I am not sure if their sesame tofu is quite the same stuff, but I found three different types of gomadofu (Japanese sesame 'tofu') at Ebisuya. The Japanese sesame tofu turns out to be tofu in name and consistency only: it is not made by coagulation of 'milk'; rather by making sesame paste set into a tofu-like block using kudzu starch. So it is basically jellified tahini. I really like it: it has that earthy, tahini taste in a smooth, refreshing, tofu-like texture. We tried black and beige versions.

First we ate some simply: in small cubes with a smear of wasabi on top / in a puddle of good-quality soy sauce, as a side with sushi. And it was good.

Last night I was making spätzle (with the last two wonderful eggs from S's chickens in Roslindale), and decided it would go well with mushrooms and sesame tofu. It did, it went great.

(serves two, in combination with one quantity of spätzle)

1 tbsp olive oil
3 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
~12 mushrooms, cleaned and chopped into ~7mm dice
1 tbsp chanterelle powder
1 tsp mediterranean herb mix (mostly thyme+oregano)
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 tsp mushroom soy sauce
1 tbsp mirin
salt+pepper
1 small block of beige sesame tofu, coarsely grated
toasted sesame seeds (optional)

Heat the oil in a frying pan. Add garlic and fry for a few minutes until softened. Add the diced mushrooms, chanterelle powder, nutmeg and herb mix and fry until the mushrooms have released their liquid and then reabsorbed most of it. Add the soy sauce and mirin and fry for a minute or so longer until everything melds. Taste for seasoning and add salt+pepper to taste. To serve, put some spätzle into an individual bowl, add mushrooms, and then sprinkle with grated sesame tofu and sesame seeds (if using).


This would also work with fresh pasta or gnocchi (although I do like the egginess of spätzle with the mushrooms and sesame tofu).

Mushroom and walnut ravioli

S made me a nice Saturday lunch, so I decided to make him a nice dinner. His favourite food is pasta. I made a fresh, eggless pasta a few weeks ago, and wondered if the same dough would work as ravioli. Which, I just realised, is a merger of two of S's favourite food things: pasta, and little packages. I had been thinking about what would be good as a filling, and mushroom and walnut was a forerunner. So when we got home with mushrooms among our grocery shopping I decided to go for it and give ravioli a shot.

(made 12 fairly large ravioli = a good quantity for two people, with some dough left over that made a portion or two of fettucine to dry out)

For the pasta:
1 cup pasta flour
1 cup plain flour
1 tbsp gram flour
1 tsp salt
water

For the filling:
olive oil
2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
~8 medium sized mushrooms, cleaned and finely diced
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tbsp chanterelle mushroom powder
1 tsp white vermouth
1/2 tbsp chickpea and barley three-year (dark) miso
~10 walnut halves, half ground / half chopped
salt+pepper

First, make the pasta. Mix the flours and salt in a heap on a clean work surface. Make a well in the middle and add water, mixing with your fingers until it comes together into a dough. Knead for a few minutes, until the dough is pliable. Wrap in clingfilm and put it in the fridge for ~30 min.

While the dough is chilling, prepare the filling. Heat ~1 tbsp of olive oil in a medium frying pan. Add the garlic and fry until softened and starting to go light brown. Add the mushrooms, mushroom powder and thyme and cook, stirring occasionally, so the mushrooms soften, go dark and release their liquid. Continue cooking until the liquid is reabsorbed / evaporated. Add the vermouth and cook until it too is evaporated. Add the miso, walnuts and seasoning to taste.

The pasta dough should have had sufficient time in the fridge by now. Take one third and roll out on a floured surface until thin. Cut out circular pieces using a Coke glass or other circular cutter. Pair them up. Place a teaspoon full of the mushroom filling mixture in the centre of one of each pair of circles. Lightly wet the edge of the circle around the mushroom pile, then place the other circle of the pair on top and squish the two circles together all around their circumference with your fingers. Try not to let any air get sealed in the middle. You can press around the edge with a fork as well if you want to be sure of the seal.

As each one is completed, transfer it to a baking sheet lined with coarse cornmeal or semolina. Refrigerate them on the baking sheet until you are ready to cook them. Roll out the next third of dough (and then the next third) and shape more ravioli, continuing to add the completed shapes to the collection on the baking sheet until you are out of filling. If there is any remaining dough you can just roll it out and shape it into fettucine or another shape, and dry it out if you don't feel like eating it all straight away.

To cook the pasta, bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Put the ravioli in. Cook for about 5 minutes - they will float, then you will need to cook them for a minute or two longer. The exact cooking time will vary depending on the thickness of the pasta. Serve with a drizzle of olive oil (or truffle oil?) and some salt and pepper, or with whatever kind of sauce takes your fancy.


These turned out good: S loved them and said they were one of the best things I ever cooked. The pasta was a little thick - it is hard to roll it out really thin manually, and since these involve a double layer of dough all around the perimeter any slight too-thick-ness is magnified. We both quite enjoyed the thickish pasta anyway, although I don't know if it would have passed inspection on Masterchef... None of them burst while cooking - think using water to help the seal was a good tip. Not sure if the gram flour made any difference (might be an idea to try varying the quantities of the different types of flour in the dough more though?). The filling was really successful - incredibly flavourful and savoury, and a great texture. The next filling I'd like to try is butternut squash, sage and hazelnut or pecan.

Squash, chanterelle and sage flatbread / pizza

My lab hosted a pumpkin themed happy hour on Friday, and it was out of control. We ran a pumpkin carving competition, delivering pumpkins to each lab / group (17 in total) a week in advance and then fanning a wildfire of competing posters from different groups advertising why you should vote for them (in homage to the upcoming election). Then on Friday we made a feast of pumpkin based food, decorated the department in orange and black, ran the ballots for the competition and awarded the trophies (gold-painted gourds on pedestals). The food making was epic: I hacked up 11 butternut squashes with a crappy knife and I've got a blister to prove it. Everything we made contained something squash: pumpkin bruschetta (baguette slices with a smear of baked squash, plus some combination of goat cheese, cranberries, pumpkin seeds, fresh coriander and seasoning), 'squashamole' (dip made with mashed baked squash, lime juice, chopped red onion, ground cumin, chopped coriander and seasoning) with hexagonal multigrain chips (Paul's special request / invention), roasted butternut squash and tofu chunks with rosemary / sage, wild and brown rice mix with toasted pumpkin seeds and fresh coriander, roasted squash seeds with cajun spice, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin pie, and pumpkin-white chocolate muffins. We bought the baguettes and the pumpkin pies but we made pretty much everything else from scratch.

So, I couldn't imagine eating another squash after all that, what with the blister and the overexposure. But a lazy Sunday rolled around and S popped up wondering what was for lunch, and I remembered an idea I had of using baked squash instead of tomato sauce on pizza... And also that I had a tub of baked squash left over from happy hour in the fridge, plus a batch of bread mix, the last of the chanterelles and some rosemary and sage from Andrea's yard - seemed like an irresistible plan!

2 orange-sized chunks of dough
1-2 cups of baked squash (peel removed)
1-2 tbsp olive oil
salt+pepper
1 small onion, finely sliced
2-3 cloves garlic, chopped
8 black salty olives, pits removed, torn into quarters
3/4 cup chanterelles, checked for imperfections and torn into large pieces (sliced chestnut mushrooms would be a decent out-of-season substitute)
1 tsp chopped sage leaves
1 tsp chopped rosemary leaves
semolina / corn meal for lining the baking trays
(optional cheese - S is still eating his way through the cheese mountain his mum left behind, so he put some brie and parmesan on his bits)

Heat the oven to 450F. Roll or stretch out the dough as thin as you can - try to get down to ~2 mm thick.  Move the pizza base to a baking tray pre-sprinkled with semolina or coarse corn meal (this quantity is for 2 pizzas).

Mash the baked squash with olive oil, salt and pepper. Smear the bases with the squash mixture, making an uneven covering 2-3 mm thick. Scatter the onion, garlic, olives, chanterelles and herbs over the top, and season / drizzle a wee drop more olive oil over the top.

Put the baking trays in the oven and bake for about 20 minutes / until the crust is crisp and starting to brown around the edges and the toppings are cooked. Remove, let cool for a minute and then eat.


This was a very successful experiment all round. It was a lovely, rich, colourful pizza topping combination that tasted great, and the base came out really crisp. The high speed bread mix worked great as pizza base (which is brilliant news - that stuff is super useful); lining the trays with semolina / cornmeal was much better than using flour; and the squash made a wonderful, very seasonal sauce (less wet than tomato although still moist, perhaps this contributed to the crispness).

Chanterelles and hedgehog mushrooms

We went to the woods at the weekend, and found so so many mushrooms. Starting with some slimy boletes as soon as we left the car park, and moving on to add chanterelle after chanterelle as soon as we left the path, followed by what we think were two varieties of hedgehog mushroom (wish I had a better picture of these).

By the time we got back to the car we had a weighty bag of hedgehogs, plus two bulging bags of delicate chanterelles. D had collected and eaten both from the same spot before, so we had little doubt about their identification and awesomeness. This haul outstrips any other mushroom hunting trip I ever made, many times over.

We mainly consulted this book, which is wonderful. The author is incredibly knowledgeable and it's bursting with personality and tips about every aspect of mushroom hunting, preparation, growing and eating. All the recommended mushroom varieties are given scores at the back for how good they are when prepared to eat in different ways. Hedgehogs scored highly for tempura, so we decided to burden K with the responsibility of her heritage and put her in charge of hedgehog tempura, while D+S concentrated on cleaning mushrooms with a paintbrush and I sauteed some chanterelles (they scored high in the saute category). We also set up the dehydrator to dry out some of both kinds of mushrooms for future use.


Sauteed chanterelles

1 tbsp olive oil
4 large handfuls fresh chanterelles, larger ones torn in two
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1/2 tbsp thyme leaves
1 tbsp finely chopped curly parsley
knob of butter
slug of (German) white wine
salt+pepper

Heat the oil in a large frying pan and add the garlic. Cook until starting to brown then add in the cleaned chanterelles. Saute over a medium heat until they release their liquid, then continue to saute until they absorb it again. Add the herbs and cook for a few more minutes. Finally, add the butter and white wine and cook until melted / evaporated, and taste for seasoning.

We ate them with gnocchi, they were yummy - quite delicate and fragrant (almost fruity?).  These chanterelles are beautiful mushrooms, and really held their shape and texture despite looking so frail.

For second batch (yes, we had that many), I sauteed an onion and a couple of cloves of garlic in olive oil until well softened and golden brown, then added a mixture of hedgehogs and chanterelles, cooked until the liquid reabsorbed, then added some chopped chives and seasoning, and a knob of butter to deglaze the pan. And ate it with spaetzle (which go wonderfully well with sauteed mushrooms).  I think I liked this latter version better.


Powdered dried chanterelles / hedgehog mushrooms

The book recommended powdering both kinds of mushroom when dry as they apparently do not reconstitute well (I'd imagine they just go a bit floppy and slimy).

Fill the dehydrator with cleaned mushrooms and set to 110-125C. Leave overnight or for approx 4 hours, until the mushrooms are completely dried. The chanterelles dried out quite easily and evenly as they are quite thin and delicate all over; the hedgehogs are thicker and did not dry quite as quickly / evenly. For powdering, I think it is important that the mushrooms are very thoroughly dried. When completely dry, transfer the mushrooms to a clean spice/coffee grinder and whizz to a powder. Try not to inhale it when you take the lid off. The full dehydrator (5 trays) of chanterelles made 250ml of powder.

The smell of the powder is incredible - intense essence of mushroom - and both chanterelle and hedgehog powder smelled quite similar.  But I haven't figured out the best way to store or cook with it yet... Edit: see here for recipes so far.


Note: I think the chanterelles were mostly Craterellus tubaeformis, the winter chanterelle (fits with being late in the season), although I think we also found some Cantharellus ignicolor (flame-coloured chanterelle; think the ones in the photo above are these) and Cantharellus cinnabarinus (bright red ones). The hedgehog mushrooms were Hydnum repandum and/or Hydnum umbilicatum.