fermented wild mushrooms

A very old recipe for cooking fresh mushrooms

Wild Mushroom Caps Cooked in Embers, with A Mortar-Crushed Sauce 

mushroom

garlic (about 3-4 grams)

1/4-1/2 teaspoon kosher salt (to taste)

lemon wedges (to serve)

Firewood (preferably a slow burning hardwood)

Start a fire. While the fire is going, chop the herbs and garlic roughly, then make the sauce by pounding the garlic and herbs with the salt and pepper in a mortar and pestle or a food processor, when you get a thick paste, thin it with the oil to make a rough sauce and reserve.

When the embers have formed, push them into a pile and make a little cooking mound. Using long tongs to preserve your fingerprints, cook the mushroom caps quickly, but thoroughly directly on the coals, moving them around to ensure they cook as even as you can.

When the mushrooms are cooked (a minute or two) remove them from the fire, brush lightly if they're not too wilted, and toss in a bowl with the sauce to taste.

The good part here is that ashes generally aren't gritty. I ate all of mine, and some had more ash than others: they were all fine, not a crunchy one in them. Transfer the mushrooms and their sauce to a platter and serve with lemon wedges and some additional kosher or finishing salt.

Makes about 45 pierogi, you can cut the recipe in half for smaller batches. 
Mild potato and cheese fillings like pierogi and ravioli are magic here, and I was shocked that it seemed to taste even more like chanterelles after they were mixed and “diluted” with starch and fat. As they ferment, they marinate not only in salt, but in their own perfume which amplifies their flavor.

Fermented Chanterelle Mushroom Pierogi

chanterelles

oz cream cheese

oz rice potato (scant 1.5 cups)

black pepper (to taste)

dill (a teaspoon or two (optional))

all purpose flour

sour cream

salt

butter

Puree the fermented chanterelles with the cream cheese and potato in a food processor. Mix in the dill if using, then taste and adjust the seasoning as needed for pepper and dill and adjust until it tastes good to you.

Filling

For the dough, whisk all the wet ingredients together, then add flour and knead into a soft dough. Chill the dough to make it easier to work with.

To roll out the dough, use a pasta roller or a rolling pin, and roll the dough out a little thicker than you would fresh pasta, about 1/8 inch, it doesn’t have to be perfect.

Flour the work surface as needed to make the dough easier to work with. Use a drinking glass or ring mold to cut out roughly 3.5 inch rounds, then estimate two generous teaspoons of filling in each circle of dough, fold them closed, crimping the edges with a fork.

Save scrap to re-roll as needed. Cook the pierogi in boiling water until they float, then remove to an oiled pan and refrigerate until needed.

To serve, saute freshly cooked pierogi in a little oil until browned on both sides. As pierogi are rich, I like to serve them with things like freshly cooked vegetables, especially wilted greens, or something like a crisp fennel salad, as pictured.

Dough

Fermented kimchi made with wild Ischnoderma mushrooms

Wild Mushroom Kimchi, with Ischnoderma resinosum 

mushrooms

garlic

ginger

kosher salt

flour rice

yellow onion (1/4 cup chopped)

maple syrup

fish sauce (Red Boat brand is the standard)

If you are worried about digestibility of mushrooms, steam your mushrooms until wilted (5-10 minutes) before assembling the kimchi instead of seasoning them and fermenting from raw.

Process the salt, fish sauce, garlic, ginger, maple, chili flakes and onion in a food processor until a paste is formed, then taste the paste, and if adjust the heat level if needed. Mix the paste with the mushrooms, then quickly pack into a vacuum bag using the moist setting, seal, label and date.

If you don&#x27;t want to use a vacuum bag, or a sealer is unavailable, you can press everything down in a mason jar and putting a weight on top of it, making sure to keep everything underneath a layer of liquid. If you&#x27;re vacuum sealer has difficulty sealing liquids, put the mixture in a ziploc bag, then put the zip loc in a vacuum bag and seal.

Put the mixture in a cool, dark place for 1-2 weeks inside of another container that can catch liquid if the bag leaks, which is rare, but possible.

After two weeks, slice open the bag like a Christmas present and eat hot or cool with some steamed rice, eggs, or other bland foods that can welcome aggressive flavors.

The kimchi will last for at least a month and probably longer in the fridge, stored in a container with a tight fitting lid, such as a mason jar, etc.

Possibly the best thing I've tasted made with I. resinosum. Thanks Alan.

I ferment a lot in souvide bags. And yes, the bags will gas-up. It mostly depends on what you ferment, any Gassy vegetable will blow up the bags. My solution is using a tape covering a small hole in the bag ( corner ) for the first to weeks. SO the gaz can go out and filters the air coming in. After a week or two most gassing is done, and I can vacuum and seal the bags again. (same bags, seal the corner where the tape used to be). I ferment cabbage with chanterelles, explosive and delicious! with love.

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