Long Island Larder: Wild Things
On the stump sits a bird.
Shadows serve as a sign post
So that we won't lose our way. . ."
- Pasternak, "Going Mushrooming"
At this time of year the forests of France, Germany, Poland, and Russia are mysteriously alive with silent, roaming mushroom hunters. Every Sunday entire families take their baskets into the woods, fan out, and search for the precious chanterelles, inky caps, cepe, the unfortunately named trompettes-des-morts (trumpets of death), oyster mushrooms, and field mushrooms.
Most are found in the leaves under beech trees. Truffles, another wild treasure, are said to lie under beech, but I've never found a one, though our property is engulfed by beech trees.
I've never dared to cook and serve any of the many mushrooms I've picked simply to admire their exotic shapes and sometimes alarming colors. And it isn't for lack of reference and identification books - I have very good ones, in full chromatic color, illustrating exactly what gills, caps, and "legs" should look like on each species.
Still, no matter how greedily I eye them, I dare not eat them. (Once I found a trove of 20 different kinds out on Three Mile Harbor Road, but I only made a landscape of them in the dunes to photograph. Purely as a still-life study.)
No, I've always feared I'd be a "still-life" study myself if I cooked my fungi findings - my late French belle mere is the only mushroom expert whose judgment I trusted totally. Yet I buy wild mushrooms and eat them without hesitation, leaving my fate in the hands of what I hope are experts.
There are edible wild mushrooms aplenty in these environs, but you must go picking with a knowledgeable veteran hunter and even then examine and compare each one with a mushroom identification manual - not simply a book of pretty pictures.
Actually, very few are poisonous, so it's a good idea to first learn to recognize what they are. Most especially, the Death Cap or amanita phalloides, a smooth, white, innocuous-looking specimen with, as its name implies, a phallic shape. The Fiend is fatal. And worse still, the symptoms of poisoning don't show up for about 12 hours - too late to reverse. So if you should drop over dead, don't say I didn't warn you!
Mushroom And Sweet Potato Soup
This is one of the most successful kitchen experiments I've ever tried, though it may not, at first blush, sound promising. I happened to have a lot of cooked sweet potatoes left over from a photo session and a lot of wild mushrooms from same. The flavor combination is tantalizingly mysterious.
Makes about 11/2 quarts.
1/2 cup French mixed dried wild mushrooms (or domestic)
2 Tbsp. duck or chicken fat
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cups cooked, sliced sweet potatoes
3 cups water, to which 2 tsp. beef or venison demi-glace have been added, or substitute 3 cups strong, degreased beef bouillion
Water to thin, optional amount
Salt and pepper or hot paprika to taste
1/2 cup half and half
Sherry
1/4 cup heavy cream
Rinse and soak mushrooms in hot tap water (boiling water leaches out too much flavor) for half an hour. Melt fat in heavy soup pot and stir in garlic and onion. Saute over low heat until translucent. Add sweet potatoes. Drain mushrooms, reserving soaking water. Chop and add mushrooms to potato mixture. Strain the mushroom liquid through a fine sieve into the pot. Add water and demi-glace or bouillion to the soup pot. Bring to a simmer, and add salt and freshly ground pepper or paprika to the soup. Cover and simmer 30 minutes. Cool 10 minutes then puree in a food processor. Thin to a medium-thick consistency with wat er (or broth) and stir in the half and half. Add a splash of sherry, but don't overwhelm the other flavors. Reheat and serve in warm bowls. Trickle a little heavy cream over the back of a soup spoon onto each serving.
Turkey And Chanterelles Meat Loaf
Some might call this a pate - it seems like one after an overnight chill on a windowsill - but it starts out life as a meat loaf. It's meant to be served hot (at least at first) with mashed potatoes and a mushroom gravy. Baby peas or buttered spinach should squire this not-quite-all-American meal.
Fills one standard Pyrex loaf pan.
13/4 lb. ground turkey (not breast)
1/2 lb. ground pork shoulder
1/2 cup dry white wine
3 Tbsp. duck fat or butter
11/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh chanterelles
3 large cloves garlic, minced
1 medium onion, chopped fine
3/4 cup soft fresh bread crumbs
1 egg
2 or 3 leaves fresh sage, shredded
1/2 cup parsley
1 Tbsp. coarse salt
2 tsp. coarse black pepper
Overmixing creates tough, dry meat loaf (or hamburgers, for that matter). Lightly mix together the turkey and pork with either your fingers or a pair of chopsticks. Add wine, cover, and refrigerate several hours.
Melt fat, add mushrooms, garlic, and onion and saute five minutes. Sprinkle over the bread crumbs. Push mixture aside and break an egg into the bowl, beat briefly with a fork, then add remaining ingredients and mix all together lightly. Pile into a Pyrex loaf pan, regular bread size. Cover with a double layer of foil. Set in an underpan of hot water. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. and center the loaf in the oven. Bake for about 11/2 hours or until an instant-read thermometer says 165 degrees F. Uncover to brown for the last 15 minutes. Cool on a rack about 15 minutes before slicing.
Unfortunately, meat loaves yield no nice dripping for sauces or gravies, so serve this with a rich mushroom veloute made with chicken broth, your own or canned.