Much like with hunting other things, I got a phonecall. “Hey, there’s Shaggy Manes on my lawn, come by if you want them”. A quick drive into the countryside later, we were picking the season’s first mushrooms – always a happy moment.
The patch had quite a variety from already past [as in the photo, already open and black with ink], to just breaking the surface. The hunt was not quite the event last year’s was, more of a ‘slam-bam’ kind of affair, but it is certainly nice to see them back in my kitchen. I took only an amount I could eat fresh, peeled them clean, and cooked them down.
What is really notable this year, is the cooking method change, and the resulting enjoyment level going through the roof. Rather than the usual gentle heat, which yields a mild flavor profile highlighting the woody bitter unique flavor, I used relatively high heat. I used butter, and got it to a point where it was ‘just’ browning, before frying the mushrooms hard in it. They just got some color on them, but the result was extremely exciting.
Tasting notes: cooked this way, they smelled sweet like cooked apple or peach, with some clear thyme, notes, a fragrant sweet woodsy smell, and a background of mushroom. The texture is luxurious – supple, velvety, and rich. The flavor is rich in depth but light in intensity, woodsy, mushroomy, and has a long finish, with some allium notes in it. If there was a perfect white fish in my mind, it would approach this in texture and delicacy – weird, I know. Clearly, in my mind, the best way to prepare this mushroom that I’ve come accross, and I’m super stoked about it.
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