Tiny Bubbles

I'm pretty sure that the USDA home canning website would NOT approve of the "funghi trifolati" recipe that I received a while back from another mushroom forager.  Last December, after picking a small amount of chanterelles & blewits, I decided I wanted to try my hand at it.

First - here's the recipe as I received it:

With all the chantrelles you have, I thought I would pass on my favorite way to store them.  I learned this from my Italian friend's mom. It is a variation of funghi trifolati.  This stuff goes fast!

You need basic glass jar canning supplies.

Ingredients:

• A LOT of rough-chopped chanterelles (or other mushrooms--honey mushrooms, porcini and oyster are great).  It is cool when you get little ones to leave them as whole as possible.
• thinly sliced garlic
• chopped flat-leaf parsley
• chopped thyme
• a lot of good olive oil
• pickling brine:
  Fill a very large stock pot (big enough to accommodate this brine and a good quantity of your mushrooms) about half-full of water. Add enough quality salt so it tastes about like sea water (saltier than you think). Add quality cider or white wine vinegar to equal about half the volume of the water. Add bay leaf, peppercorns and whatever else you like to taste.
  
  Method:

1. Sterilize jars.
2. Bring brine to a strong simmer.
3. Add mushrooms and let them cook for two minutes after the brine comes back to a strong simmer. Strain the mushrooms from the brine as you jar them (you want them hot). Keep the brine, it is awesome in salad dressings.
4. With a sterilized slotted spoon or tongs add a layer of mushrooms, straight from the hot brine, to the bottom of a jar.
5. Add a layer of your chopped herbs and garlic.
6. Then add a layer of olive oil. repeat this process until you are about half-inch fro the top of the jar and fill this space with olive oil.
7. Tap the jars on a hard surface to try and coax excess air to the top.
8. Put the lid on the jar and store for at least a couple of weeks in a cool, dark place.

The mushrooms take on an amazing, oily-crunchy texture after time and all the flavors blend. the stored mushrooms are beautiful, in layers of gold and green. I have kept them like this for over a year. Some people worry about the addition of raw herbs and garlic and blanch them.

After reading a bunch of recipes, looking at the Ball Blue Book for canning mushrooms, this is basically what I did:

1. Prepare brine of vinegar & salt with spices, bring to a boil.
2. Add peeled & coarsely chopped garlic to brine, return to simmer for several minutes
3. Once garlic is soft, add mushrooms and simmer til liquid seems to be released from the mushrooms (several minutes).
4. Strain mushrooms & layer mushrooms in sterilized quart jar with steam blanched chopped green herbs (parsley, oregano, rosemary) and olive oil.  Cover with olive oil.

I let the jars sit on the counter for about 6 weeks, opening them up to try them in late January - delicious!  I shared some with other friends, the mushrooms were delicious and nobody suffered any ill effects. Two nights ago, when I opened the jar the lid made a slight "pop" like there was a build up of gases when I opened the chanterelles and it made a slight pop when I opened the jar.  My friend and I ate some anyway and they tasted good, we didn't get sick.

Today when I was cleaning in the kitchen, I noticed that the gas had built up again in the chanterelles.  I also noticed some very tiny tiny bubbles coming up, continuously, through the top layer of olive oil which had turned  a darker color.

On closer inspection (and in daylight, not like two nights ago), I noticed that there was some milky white sediment in the bottom.  There also seemed to be a LOT of air bubbles, pea size and bigger.  I had carefully used a butter knife to remove air bubbles and a fork/spoon to press down the contents when I filled the jars.

I pulled out a bamboo chopstick to explore and release some bubbles and noticed some of the larger pieces of garlic felt a bit firm and when I pushed on them - they released  alot of milky goo.    I also noticed, much to my surprise, that the bottom 2-3" of the jar was not olive oil but liquid (brine? juice?). 

Not wanting to risk botulism, I chucked just over 1/2 jar each of chanterelle & blewit pickle. Very sad.

Has this ever happened to you with this process?  What did I do wrong?  Was I wrong to chuck the mushrooms?  Is this an issue with the garlic? 

I had a similar experience with some tomato sauce I made last fall -- unlike the previous 20 years, I decided to put in some herbs and garlic.  The sauce cooked at a simmer for over 12 hours - it was damned hot!  I canned it in a hot water bath for 30 minutes.  However, when I opened the jars from that batch - there were tiny rising continuous bubbles in the sauce.  I reheated the sauce and simmered it for over an hour, after it cooled - it still had these weird bubbles (so I chucked it).

What's up with the carbonation?  Any canning mavens out there got any ideas?

Golden Chanterelle Stroganoff

If you haven't yet signed up for one of Chef Eric Tucker's cooking classes at Millennium, perhaps this will tempt you - Chanterelle Stroganoff.  He said it was ok for me to reproduce this recipe, so here you go!

This is one of my favorite recipes - I have experimented with a few variations which I will mention below. 

Chanterelle "Stroganoff" by Chef Eric Tucker

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 yellow onion, sliced into thin crescents
• 2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
• 2 Tb olive oil
• 1# cleaned chanterelles, sliced thin
• 1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
• 2 tsp paprika
• 1 Tb tomato paste
• 2 c vegetable or mushroom stock
• 1 Tb nutritional yeast (or more, to taste)
• 1 c cashew cream (make yourself with pre-soaked cashews, drain, blend with cold water, dash of salt and squeeze of lemon til you get a cream)
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• salt & pepper, to taste
• minced fresh dill
• lemon zest
• cooked papardelle (super easy to make yourself!)

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a large skillet, sautee the onion in the olive oil over medium, stirring often until onion is medium caramelized.
2. Add garlic & mushrooms, continue to sautee, stirring often until the mushrooms are dry.
3. Add thyme & paprika, sautee 30 seconds, then deglaze with red wine.
4. Add tomato paste, stock & nutritional yeast and simmer 5 minutes.
5. Add cashew cream, simmer until thick.
6. Taste & adjust seasoning.  
7. Toss the cooked papardelle with some olive oil.  
8. Place a portion of sauce over noodles, sprinkle with dill & lemon zest.

Variations:  I have made this with morels and other mushrooms - it comes out pretty delicious.  I have also substituted dry sherry for red wine for deglazing.  

Make your own pasta  - it's really not hard, and papardelle are wide strips that you want to cut by hand anyway.  Rustic homemade noodles are divine!

Chanterelles & Israeli Couscous

Recipes often result from "what do I have in the house" - in my case, I am fortunate that I have a giant pile of chanterelles, plus kale growing in the yard and a well stocked pantry of dry ingredients.  This is a quick and easy dish that you can make up using one pot and one skillet, substituting any mushrooms you like!  This recipe can also be done fat-free since chanterelles throw off a lot of water.


INGREDIENTS:

• 1-1.5 pounds golden chanterelles (or other mushrooms) 1/2" dice or coarsely chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 yellow onion, diced
• 1/2 c chopped parsley
• 1/2 c  Tuscan or Dino kale, chiffonade into thin strips
• 1 c dry Israeli couscous
• 2 packets Road's End Organics herb gravy
• Veggie stock or almond milk, as needed
• 1 tsp dried thyme 
• 1 tsp dried lemon zest or 1 Tb fresh lemon zest (or more, to taste!)
• Salt, black pepper, paprika - to taste
• Olive oil  or sesame oil (optional)
• splash of dry sherry or cheap sake for deglazing

DIRECTIONS

1. Prepare the couscous in a separate pot with salted water or veggie stock, adding the lemon zest after liquid is about half reduced.
2. Mix gravy packets in a measuring cup with 1 c almond milk, stock or water and put to the side.
3. Sautee onion til soft, add garlic.  When they are transluscent - and before garlic starts to burn - add chanterelles.
4. Reduce heat and let chanterelles release liquid.  If it gets a bit low, deglaze with sake, sherry (or stock/water/white wine).
5. After chanterelles have gotten softer, add kale and parsley and spices. 
6. Allow chanterelles to cook down a bit more and as the liquid reduces, mix in the couscous and gravy mix.  Thoroughly but gently toss and allow to cook down til thick.  Add more stock/almond milk/water if needed.

Serve warm - also works great at room temperature and as leftovers.  The couscous will swallow up any remaining liquid so your leftovers will have more of a sopa seca or pasta salad appearance. The lemon also gets more lemony if you used dried lemon zest.  Delicious, quick and easy!

Jenn & the Giant Chanterelles

The fallen oak branches protected these beauties on the periphery of the woods. I often find nice little flushes by this tree - very large mushrooms that are firm and integral. The one in my right is a mere 18 oz to the 22 oz in my left. I am standing up straight - it's the location that is crooked!

Abandoned Chanterelles!

I came across this pile of chanterelles - abandoned in the woods - too late for me to salvage.  I also found a knife - and I cannot for the life of me figure out why someone would dump a whole pile of chanterelles like that.

Mushrooming - January 24 - Ladies Field Day!

Kathryn & Alexis joined me for a productive day of mushrooming in the Oakland Hills!  Kathryn is an avid forager but Alexis had never gone out before!



Kathryn was VERY happy!

Gorgeous view of Mt Diablo!

Happy mushrooming ladies!

More cow plop cultivated mushrooms!

Oyster mushroom tree!

Chanterelle & Roasted Sweet Pepper Bruschetta (or confit)

So, you start with 3 or 4 pounds of golden chanterelles... hey! Wait! Where are you going?  OK, I admit these kind of recipes are a challenge to folks who don't live in a place where forage for chanterelles, so please substitute other mushrooms.  Note that the cooking time will vary for button or cremini/portobello mushrooms since they don't hold as much water.

Chanterelle & Roasted Sweet Pepper Bruschetta
This is more of a process than a recipe - you may have some different ingredients preserved and seasonal availability differs.

3-4 pounds golden chanterelles, small dice
1 pint fire roasted sweet pepper (I like yellow)
1-2 cups dried yellow cherry tomatoes (or chopped up larger tomatoes)
2 c hazelnuts - toasted, peeled & coarsely chopped
8 cloves of garlic - peeled and minced
1 bunch of fresh thyme or 3-4 Tb dried
Other fresh herbs - rosemary & parsley, Meyer lemon zest
1/4 c dry sherry
Salt, pepper & chili flakes
Olive oil, as needed

1. Heat a very large skillet (I love my cast iron) and warm the garlic til it starts to soften.
2. Add the chanterelles - stir well so that the garlic doesn't all stay on the bottom of the pan and cook until the mushrooms start to release their liquid.
3. Add the dried tomatoes and any dry herbs - we want the tomatoes to soften up in the mushroom liquid a bit.
4. Add the roasted peppers and any fresh herbs - since they are soft when they come out of the mason jar - I usually tear them into strips with my fingers or use scissors - they will break down in the pan and I don't want the peppers to entirely disappear into the background here.
5. Mix in the nuts, add olive oil as needed.  As the liquid reduces down a bit - add the sherry and allow it to reduce until you have just a little liquid in the pan.

Chanterelle & Roasted Sweet Pepper Confit

Add 1/2 c of white wine vinegar or champagne vinegar. Flavored light vinegar like a "blood orange champagne" vinegar added to the plain vinegar would give a nice flavor.  Put some of the bruschetta into a quart or pint mason jar, doctor it up with a little vinegar, seal and refrigerate for a couple hours or a week.  Yum!

Mushrooming - cleaning up!

The next morning - I still had a tub FULL of chanterelles

Some more biggies - they taste just the same!

A 14 oz chanterelle in a stainless steel bowl (sorry for the flash!)

Mushrooming - January 10

A few tiny blewets!

Some of the chanterelles have their own zip codes!

Some are in the bag -

But here are the biggies I found:

One with my hand for scale:

Red & pretty - but not edible!

Another monster chanterelle:

They just don't stop!

Round 2, same day, with Eric & Veronika.  When I told them about the flush I found - and that we could each pick as much as we could carry - Eric was skeptical.  "I don't like to pick an area clean - it's not good for the ecosystem!"  But when we got there -  he was surprised and even said "They don't let up!  It's  just like pulling weeds!"  I'm pretty sure this is his happy face here!

Fancy deformities - all ripply and flesh like...

Something we found on the way out:

Examining & recording:

Mushrooming - January 9

Hardly finding any blewets - this beat up old looking thing was all alone:

Loads of candy caps - they just seem to be everywhere! I picked 3# of candy cap!

 

Beautiful but not edible amanitas....

 

Gold!

 

The haul - well - what I kept, anyway:

Thirty pounds for a local chef:

Mushrooming - December 19

Another December mushrooming trip with Scott!

 

Using my new gloves for the first time - I feel so prepared! No more blackberry thorns in my fingers! No more mud under my nails!

 

 Traversing a very steep hillside!

  

Mushrooming - December 2

Corcorra!

 

A few oysters and a pile of chanterelles!

Mushrooming - November 30

More chanterelles - the weather is warm and mushroom hunting on motorcycle in easy to access spots is a great way to trip link... :)

 

You can hide! But we'll find you, little chanterelle!

 

  

  

  

Our harvest!

 

Mushrooming - November 21

After some showers on Friday, I was excited to head out to some newly discovered moist spots for more chanterelles with my trusty mushroom hunting protegee, Scott.  We skipped "the usual" spot and went to the spot we discovered a couple weeks ago and explored more adjacent areas.  We even went in for a walk on some trails closed to mountain bikes because we were on foot - and Scott had never been on these trails because he was always in this area on a mountain bike.  Scott noticed that "there are a ot of cobwebs across this trail!"

Of course, that's a GOOD sign - and I kept scanning the ground. After the second or third time he said that, I stopped him and said "Well, we could go back or - we could pick those mushrooms."  Wouldn't you know it - after picking several pounds of chanterelles, we nearly stepped on some growing ON the trail.  We crawled into the underbrush and picked more mushrooms, returning home victorious with 5# of beautiful golden chanterelles.

 

 Giant banana slug

 

Corcorra!

 

Little white funguses that look like mung bean sprouts everywhere:

 

Pretty - large - shrooms growing under bay trees:

 

Yup! It's a chanterelle!

Growing right on the trail!

 

More beautiful fungi -