I'm drowning in mushrooms!

They're everywhere. My freezer is packed full of sliced wild mushrooms. I have dried around 6kg (13 lbs) of mushrooms and they're now sitting in jars, ready for the pantry. I have a tub full of fried chanterelles in the fridge, waiting to become tonight's dinner. I also have a tub of creamy birch-bolete sauce in there, a massive amount left over from an even more massive amount we had for yesterday's lunch. AND I CAN'T STOP! I just can't walk away from an edible mushroom when I see it. It's an instinct, it gives me such an adrenaline kick! I know where to look, I know how quickly they grow back and I just can't stop myself from picking them. I absolutely love mushrooms, and this must have been the most prolific season yet, and it's only just started! 

I have stared giving them away since I'm running out of storage, but my hunter-gatherer instincts are making me pick more and more basketfuls of these little wonders. I wonder if there's a way I could sell them!

Mushroom season has begun!

Mushrooms - my absolute favourite thing to forage for - have finally appeared. At least the types I pick; I know there always are some mushrooms out there, but I don't pick anything I don't recognise. 

I already have two tubs full of sliced mushrooms in the freezer, and a third one about half full. And it's just the beginning!

My latest find is the beautiful large porcini mushroom pictured below - found it yesterday 5min from my house. S pointed out to me today that a certain gourmet online store sells them for £17 a piece!! Now that's a saving, I got it completely free :-)

I also stumbled upon a big patch of lovely chanterelles in the same spot a couple of days ago. I adore them - they make such wonderful sauce! They weighed in at 250g, I wonder how much that would have cost to buy!

I can't wait to go for a proper ''hunt'' to a large forest - maybe this weekend!

Porcini

Chantarelles

Chantarelles

Birch boletes

Bay bolete

More mushroom picking and chanterelle risotto

On our way home from our fortnightly grocery shop yesterday we noticed new birch boletes growing in the same spot as before. The weather recently had been perfect for mushrooms: several days of rain followed by a couple of days of sunshine, so I wasn't surprised, but nonetheless very excited!

Naturally we stopped to pick them. They turned out to be three orange birch boletes and one brown one - only four in total, but all fairly large. They probably would have been enough for a lovely sauce, but I chose to slice and add them to the ones already sitting in the freezer. I am going to need a lot for some of my Christmas recipes!

Still on the subject of mushrooms, last night's dinner was chanterelle risotto. It was a true gourmet meal, made very cheaply since the chanterelles came free. 

I make risotto quite often, many different ways, but in my opinion nothing beats a wild mushroom one.

I used:

2 shallots 

3 garlic cloves

200g arborio rice

1/4 cup white wine (I would normally use more but that was all I had)

3-4 cups stock (see how much liquid your rice can absorb). I used beef, but chicken or vegetable stock would be just as good

A good handful of frozen peas

180g chanterelles (mine were frozen)

Oil and butter for cooking 

Herbs - I had fresh rosemary and oregano, but dried herbs are just as good

Salt and pepper to taste 

Optional: a couple of tablespoons of single cream, cream cheese or grated parmesan to make it more creamy 

I started by heating the oil and butter (about a tablespoon each) in a pan. Next, I added the chopped shallots and garlic and sautéed them, then added the mushrooms. I fried that over medium-low heat until the chanterelles were soft. I then added the rice, chopped herbs, salt and pepper and let it fry for a couple of minutes until the rice became translucent, before adding the wine.

Once the rice absorbed all the wine, I started adding the stock, about 1/2 cup at a time, stirring and letting the rice absorb the liquid before adding more. Towards the end of cooking I added the peas and cream. After a couple more minutes I turned off the heat, put the lid on and let it sit for another 10 minutes. The dish is ready when the rice is completely cooked so you need to taste it.

Serve with a sprinkling of parmesan and a simple side salad.

Foraging - boletes

Boletes are quite a large family of mushrooms whose main characteristic is the lack of gills - they have spongy pores on the underside of their caps instead. They're not all edible, but many are - and can be utterly delicious. I have my favourites, but am not fussy at all. I think that a few sliced wild mushrooms of any kind, gently frying in butter, with a little chopped onion and some salt and pepper is the most heavenly smell in the world and the base of many gorgeous dishes.

We went to Callendar Park near Falkirk on Sunday for a nice walk, and found a handful, topped up with a few larger specimens found on our way from work last night. Aside from last week's chanterelles, I now have birch boletes, bay boletes, suede boletes and slippery jacks (a.k.a. sticky buns) in my freezer. It's very satisfying!

Suede bolete

And another one, hiding under twigs. Suede boletes are quite soft mushrooms so unfortunately worms like them a lot. This little guy however was perfect. 

Bay bolete. This size is perfect for pickling - although this time I didn't have enough of them to fill a jar. 

Another bay bolete.

Birch boletes with their unmistakeable birch-like stems and flesh that turns blue within seconds of being cut. I absolutely love them. They're flavourful and very dense, which means you are very unlikely to find a worm inside! 

Slippery jacks. It's the only mushroom I would peel (just the cap), as the skin is very sticky and impossible to clean.

Foraging - chanterelles

Foraging is one of my passions, and foraging for mushrooms in particular is my ultimate delight. I am lucky enough to have been taught about mushrooms pretty much ever since I could walk, by my parents and grandparents during countless foraging trips. I most definitely don't know all the mushrooms, especially that Scotland has surprised me with many species I had never come across before, but the ones I do know, I know well. Fresh wild mushrooms are ridiculously expensive to buy (if you can find them in a shop in the first place), so knowing my mushrooms is one of my most valuable skills.

The other day I went for a walk along the field behind our house. It's a fairly large field, and it borders with a small forest. Around 20 minutes into my walk, I came across a lovely troop of mushrooms that turned out to be one of my favourite kinds - chanterelles. Many of them had been largely eaten by slugs but that doesn't bother me - I'm happy to share.

I picked them and brought them home; cleaned and weighed them - I had 180g which is a good amount for a meal. A note on cleaning mushrooms: you don't want to wash them with water as they will soak it up like sponges. Just brush off the visible dirt.

They are now sitting in the freezer, waiting  to be used - maybe in a risotto or a lovely creamy sauce. I will definitely be going back to that spot soon to see if any have grown back. I am also planning to expand my foraging area and hope to find other things, too!