Strange mushrooms

No, not the kind that grows on that green strip of something in the fridge, or the kind that have you sitting in circles and chanting while you watch your best friends turn into polkadotted piglets...

I grew up thinking there were only three kinds: Denny white, Denny brown and Sure-to-have-you-strumming-your-harp-with-the-angels-tomorrow. (The last not distributed by Denny, but some people avoided all mushrooms just in case.) Last trip to the East I was astounded to find 26 different types on sale at the Bangkok Emporium, and I wonder if only South Africa is so poor in mushroom diversity. At least I've seen some new ones emerge in the past year or so.

Shitake

up your oyster....

Nowadays shitake are not to hard to get here, at least in summer. You see oyster quite often, and chanterelle and porcini occasionally. I tasted enoki for the first time this weekend.

eringi . . . the king of mushrooms. Matsutake are also pretty farkin nice.

Maitake and shimeji are probably the most common mushrooms in japan . . . (shitake are mainly used for flavour rather than for eating.

There were tests done with shitake mushrooms on people who had tumours. Apparently they shrunk if they ate certain amounts.

Magic mushrooms?

Demelza wrote:There were tests done with shitake mushrooms on people who had tumours. Apparently they shrunk if they ate certain amounts.

The people? That explains why the Japanese are so small.

I saw eryngi in the supermarket this weekend too, but thought I'd try just one type at first, seeing that they are bloody expensive.

mynah wrote:I saw eryngi in the supermarket this weekend too, but thought I'd try just one type at first, seeing that they are bloody expensive.

Yep, eringi are bloody expensive here as well. Thickly sliced and fried they are a great meat substitute for vegetarians.

Wild mushrooms?

Well very angry ones, merlo....

Also I am now very hungry.

I think Merlo's got a little button mushroom you can have a crack at . . .

That would be hardly satisfying.

eowyn wrote:That would be hardly satisfying.

nice ... though perhaps your definition of satisfaction is misguided ... unless of course your gulibility in accepting "big boy" tac's self publicity has finally overwhelmed you !!
Avoid dismissing a button until you are satisfied... that it snugly fits the (button) hole ...

Anyway - back to wild mushrooms!
What the hell species are they?
Wild mushroom soup ... wild mushroom pie ... wild mushrooms on a menu ...

I rather know for sure my buttons were secure before I ventured out. E had a bloose malfunction, merlo?


Mushrooms picked in the wild as opposed to culitavated.....

Better to be a button shroom than a fly agaric. Try and explain away the flat, red bellend with white spots on...

eowyn wrote:I rather know for sure my buttons were secure before I ventured out. E had a bloose malfunction, merlo?
Mushrooms picked in the wild as opposed to culitavated.....

Aye ... did for me it did ... this bloose thingy.

I tried eryngii today, stir-fried. Good flavour, but a tad muscular. Any advice for getting them more tender?

I'm allergic to mushrooms.

***Fact of the day***

mynah wrote:I tried eryngii today, stir-fried. Good flavour, but a tad muscular. Any advice for getting them more tender?

Tough luck, but there is something sinister about them, being neither plants nor animals. (Actually, they're more animal than plant.) You'd have had a tough time in the Devonian, when the tallest trees around were giant mushrooms, growing up to 9 metres high.

mynah wrote:I tried eryngii today, stir-fried. Good flavour, but a tad muscular. Any advice for getting them more tender?

That's the nature of the beast . . . they are a bit meaty. Slicing them more thinly might help.

Drugs are bad, m'kay?