My, mushrooms are pretty.
It so happens I was chatting with my buddy Travis yesterday about an unexpected advantage of the urban greens growing project – that it pushes us both to get our act together and do stuff far more diligently than we otherwise would. Turns out that applies again today. Ryan at BTV Edmonton asked me to be on morning TV to chat about blogging and food stuff, which led to me actually having to get my act together to see if I could get something cool to blog and talk about while on the show. So I took my oldest daughter out to a city ravine park, and hooked ourselves up with a cool array of wild mushrooms: red cap [leccinum boreale], comb’s tooth [hericium coralloides], and agaricus.
The mushroom situation this year is vastly different than last. Last year was wet and cool and an epic year for fungi, this year not so much. I wouldn’t say this year’s dry, but the intense heat seems to be playing a factor, at least for the agaricus. They seem to be maturing quickly post emergence – which results in vastly smaller size and lower quality overall. The Comb’s Tooth and Red Caps were in gorgeous shape and didn’t seem to exhibit the same issue at all.
So the salad. Sauteed the mushrooms with some nodding onion and wild thyme, in butter, in the cob oven. Man they smell good. Those will go atop a mix of Lactuca greens, which in turn will be dressed with a saskatoon wine vinaigrette and aged Cheesiry pecorino. Too hot to cook, mushroom salad it is.
3 Comments on “Mushrooms For a Salad”
You fancy live blogger, you! I never watch tv in the morning, but then this morning my husband hollered just before I walked out the door, “Hey! Your friend Kevin is on tv! Come here.” :) I didn’t get to see you in the kitchen, but I thoroughly enjoyed what I did see.
I absolutely appreciate your blog, Kevin. It has been a great discovery in the last year or so. I would really like to get into wild mushrooms – sorry to use the comments, but I can’t seem to contact you any other way… Can I sign up for August 3rd?nn
Hi. We’re in Medicine Hat. Hubby and I are former expats who spent the ‘fun years’ working in Asia. Now settled with small kids back in Canada. In November we bought the only real bakery left in town and there’s so much to do to change it into the kind of business you’d be proud of. We’re on our way, bit by bit.
I’m also involved in our local ‘world food day’ where we put together a ‘local dinner’, and bring in speakers. I couldn’t find your email address on your blog, but I was wondering if October 19th might work for you? Do you do guest speaking gigs? Or could you recommend someone who enjoys that who shares many of your ideals? Please email me. Thanks. You are one of my food heroes.