Truffled Chicken Mousse

One of the by-products of raising our own meat chickens is a rather large volume of livers.  While the occasional liver dish can be quite good, I find I usually turn my eye to other items in the freezer and the livers get backlogged.  This dish is an inexpensive pleasure that will likely use up my liver supply well in advance of our next batch of chickens.

This recipe is for a rich and aromatic mousse that has a subtle rather than overpowering liver flavor. The generous portion of butter creates an experience similar to foie gras while the addition of fresh egg yolks enhances the richness and creaminess of the dish. Truffles send the spread to a new level. Caution should be applied with this dish because it is truly addictive and is far from low-fat.There are plenty of very good liver mousse recipes on the shelf and on the net, and while this is my own take on it I have to give credit to the dozens of recipes I've perused for technique and proportion.

1.5 pounds Free range chicken livers
2 cups Milk
3 Sticks unsalted butter (room temperature)
1 cup Diced shallots
1 tablespoon Dried french tarragon (or twice as much fresh)
1 teaspoon White pepper
1 teaspoon Freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup Madeira
3 teaspoons Kosher salt
1/4 cup Light cream
3 Farm fresh egg yolks
1 black truffle


Rinse livers in cold water and soak in milk over night in the fridge.

The next day, set the butter out and bring to room temperature. Pour the livers into a colander and let strain. Stir the livers with your hand to loosen any pockets of milk, but do not rinse. Discard the milk.

Melt 3 Tbs of butter in a medium pan, add the shallots and saute on low heat. Do not let them brown. Add the tarragon, white pepper & black pepper. Lightly saute until the shallots are soft and just starting to stick to the pan. Deglaze with 1/4 cup Madeira and scrape the pan of any bits. Reduce the liquid by 2/3 to 3/4, stirring occasionally. Scrape the mixture into a food processor equipped with the metal blade.

Return the pan to the flame, add 3 Tbs of butter and increase to medium heat. Saute the chicken livers in small batches, turning over after 2-3 minutes. Do not crowd the livers. The liver should be lightly browned, but still slightly pink on the interior. Transfer each batch to the food processor when cooked. After the last batch of livers is complete, deglaze the pan with the remaining 1/4 cup Madeira and reduce by 2/3. Stir frequently to incorporate any bits of liver and add to the food processor.

Add the cream and salt to the liver mix. Dice the truffle and add to the mix. Cover the food processor and begin chopping. While mixing, add one stick of butter in 2 Tbs chunks, then the egg yolks and remaining butter in 2 Tbs chunks and continue processing until the pate is smooth and uniform. It should have the texture of a semi-thick sauce. Only use fresh local eggs for this step (we used some from our chickens), otherwise simply skip them.

Pour the pate into a medium strainer and push through with a spatula. Transfer to serving dishes, cover and place in the fridge overnight. Serve with your favorite crackers, bread or crostini. This is a fairly large batch of pate and ready to serve dishes can be frozen for later use.

Shitake Pumpkin Ravioli

Here's a fun recipe using some creative home-cooking techniques.  The result is a wonderful layering of flavors that is both earthy and savory, with just a touch of sweet.  Using mushroom powder in pasta dough is a technique that's worth trying regardless of any stuffing or sauce you might add.

Shitake Pumpkin Ravioli

Shitake Powder

 The Dough
2 c unbleached all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 c shitake powder
3 large eggs
3 tsp olive oil

For the Shitake powder, place dried shitake mushrooms (or another mushroom variety) in a food processor with the metal blade and chop to a fine powder.  Mix dry ingredients together and form a well in the center.  Add the olive oil and eggs, fold into the dry ingredients and then knead until well mixed.  Add a few drops of water if the dough won't hold a ball shape, but the mix should not be wet.  Wrap in plastic and set in the fridge for at least an hour.

 The Filling
2 c roasted pumpkin (see below)

2 Tbs Olive oil

1 c Parmesan
1 clove garlic
1 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp white pepper
Pinch of salt
1/4 tsp black pepper

Saute the garlic in olive oil and add the thyme until fragrant.  Add the roasted pumpkin, pepper and salt and stir over low-medium heat until well mixed and the pumpkin is no longer releasing liquid.  Turn off heat and fold in the Parmesan.  Set the mix in the fridge and cool to at least room temperature.

Roll out the pasta dough into long sheets with a pasta maker or hand roller.  Spoon a row of filling onto the sheet and fold over.  Firmly press one inch pockets in the pasta and cut with a ravioli blade or knife.

Voila... awesome Ravioli.

Fresh pasta cooks very quickly, so once it goes into the boiling water, it should be out within three minutes at the most.  For the sauce, I used a simple cream sauce and added dried tomatoes from the garden:

Sun-Dried Tomato Cream Sauce
1/4 cup Dried tomato (i.e. sun dried)
1/2 cup boiling water
4 Tbs Butter
2 Tbs Shallots
1 Cup light cream
Touch of Balsamic vinegar

Soak tomatoes in boiling water for 20-30 minutes.  Lightly heat butter in medium size frying pan and add shallots.  Saute until translucent and add tomato and water from soaking.  Saute until water has mostly evaporated.  Add cream & Balsamic vinegar and heat until sauce has lightly thickened.  Coat the pasta and serve immediately.



Roasted Pumpkin
1 baking pumpkin
Thyme
Olive oil
Salt & Pepper

The pumpkin I used for this recipe came from an 18 pound monster I cooked up in the fall.  Basically, you simply cut it into chunks, remove the seeds, slather the pieces with olive oil and lightly sprinkle with Thyme, a little salt and a touch of pepper.  You then bake at 350 until tender, remove the skins and mash up the pumpkin.  This produced enough pumpkin for several pies and several cups of filling for freezing.




As a side note, we dropped the skins & seeds into some water and simmered the mix for a couple of hours. After straining, a little brown sugar and chipotle powder were added and the liquid was reduced and carmelized to a thick pumpkin barbecue sauce.  Unique and delicious.

Homemade Mayonnaise

This is truly a revelation.  It's like ice cream that you can put on a steak.

Mayonnaise from farm fresh eggs and a touch of Limoncello, both of which were made on the farm.

Smoked and ready to cure

Landjagger and Venison Truffle Salami.

Goose Mousse with Cherry

This recipe is a fantastic meld of flavors, perfect for a fall appetizer.  The delicate flavor of the goose liver is complemented by hints of cherry and the coarsely chopped goose meat, which is a very rich poultry.  We raised our geese outside with none of the force feeding techniques required for a true fois gras. As a result the fat content on the liver is a bit lower, but they are still delicate, mild and delicious. The goose tenderloins were removed from breasts used for Goose Proscuitto and are the loose thin strips that separate easily from the main breast meat.  This is the most tender cut from a bird.

The recipe should take about 30-45 minutes to prepare and is best made a day in advance of serving so the flavors can meld and develop and the mousse can solidify.  The recipe calls for lard for sauteing, which can easily be substituted with butter.  Our lard comes from our Ossabaw Island Pigs and is a bit healthier than butter due to the higher percentage of unsaturated fats, not to mention it is more stable at high temperatures as there are no milk solids to burn.  I can't speak for lard from the supermarket as I've never tried it, but from the Ossabaw Island Pig it's delicious.

12 oz. Goose Liver or Fois Gras

4 Goose Tenderloins or 2 oz Goose Meat

8 Oz. Butter (One Stick, Room Temperature)

4 Tbs Lard or Butter

2 Shallots

1/4 Cup Dried Cherries

1/2 Cup Sherry

1/2 Cup Heavy Cream

1 tsp. Salt

Pepper to taste

1. Soak the cherries in sherry for a minimum of 2 hours.  Drain the cherries and reserve the sherry in a small bowl. Squeeze the cherries to remove as much liquid as possible.
2. Dice shallots and saute in medium heat in 1 tsp lard until translucent.  Scoop out cooked shallots and transfer to food processor. 
3. Add 1 tsp lard to the pan and saute goose tenderloins until lightly browned and cooked through, but still moist – about 3 to 5 minutes.  Set the tenderloins aside to cool. 
4. Add the remaining lard and saute the goose liver for 5 minutes, turning half way through.  Remove the livers and set aside to cool to room temperature or place in fridge. 
5. Pour the reserved sherry into the pan and scrape up the drippings.   Reduce slightly, but don’t burn off all of the alcohol and pour back into the bowl.  You can also deglaze the pan in ½ the sherry and reserve the remaining amount at full strength.
6. Add the livers and butter to shallots in the food processor and pulse, adding the reserve sherry mix and cream until light and fluffy.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Make sure all of the ingredients are room temperature, otherwise the butter may melt and separate later.  
7. Coarsely chop the cherries and the tenderloin and add to the food processor.  Pulse for 1-2 seconds to work in to the mousse, but no longer.  Ideally, you should have small bits of cherry and meat that add a hint of texture to the spread.
8. Transfer the mousse to ramekins or small bowls and refrigerate.  Extra ramekins can be frozen for later use.
9. Serve chilled with crackers.

Up in Smoke - Charcutapalooza Challenge 4

The Smoke Challenge for Charcutapalooza ended up being a ton of fun and produced some fantastic flavors. In the brining challenge last month, I did a taste comparison of pork and beef using both a corning preparation and a goose fat confit technique.  My conclusion is that the confit produced a far superior experience and although the corned beef was very tasty, the confit disappeared immediately.  

Confit of Pork Shoulder and Beef Brisket

When the smoke challenge came out, that was the kick to take the experience to a new level.  The corned beef and pork went on the smoker for about 7 hours at 180 degrees, transforming them to pastrami and what turned out to be the best pulled pork of my life.

Smoking the Brined Meat (before spices)

After smoking, the meat rested for a day and was simmered in an inch of water for 4-5 hours, flipping once.

Hot Smoked Pork (left) and Beef Brisket (right)

It's pretty amazing how the color transformed during the final cooking step.  The leftover juices were used as a base for baked beans and added a great depth to the dish.

Pastrami (Brisket, Corned, Spiced & Smoked)

 The Brisket ended up being the superstar of the competition.  A thinly sliced bite was an explosion of complex flavors, unraveling the sweet, spice, salt and smoke flavors from the super tender meat.  The pork was as good as it gets in the barbecue world and the pulled pork sandwiches were contenders for any roadside or old school joint.

As a side benefit, I smoked the home cured brown sugar bacon at the same time.

Home Cured Smoked Bacon

Exploring Brining - Charcutepalooza Challenge 3

The third Charcutepalooza challenge was focused on brining.  I had never brined anything before, so this challenge was some new territory.  My perspective on brining was that it was something the meat industry did to mask inferior tasting meats and add weight to get a better price for Thanksgiving Turkeys. After getting excited about a couple recipes however, I was ready to dive in and explore the technique.

Chicken with Garlic Pepper Rub

The first dabble at it was barbecued baby back ribs and chicken.  The challenge I've had with homemade ribs is that they often end up tough, dry or charred when just grilling them.  The alternative has been to tent them in foil and slow cook them in the oven before putting them on the grill.  This steaming softens them up, but it's usually too much and the ribs don't hold together enough and can end up bland.  Brining them for an hour not only struck the perfect balance in texture, but introduced a depth of flavor that was stunning.

The brine was very basic:

• 1 Gallon Water
• 1/2 cup Kosher Salt
• 2/3 cup Brown Sugar

The ribs and chicken cold soaked for an hour and were set out for another hour before grilling.  I made a rub out of several spices, which I have a feel for rather than a specific recipe.  Generally, I add

• Healthy handful of Garlic Powder
• Kosher Salt
• White Pepper
• Black Pepper
• Dried Onion Flakes
• Paprika
• Chipotle Powder
• Other stuff to suit the mood




Brined Chicken & Ribs

The barbecue sauce is homemade from the garden.  I discovered a neat trick with making barbecue sauce last year by drying some tomatoes before adding them to the sauce, which gives it a deep tomato taste and makes it nice and thick without overcooking.

Second Experiment 

The next brining exploration was an herb brined & roasted chicken.  

Store Bought "Chicken"

Honestly, the jury is still out on this one.  We raise our own chickens and they are delectable and moist right out of the oven.  The brining ended up imparting a pleasant herb flavor into the meat, but it was also very salty. I may play around with the concentration and time, but it's really hard to compete with our fresh chickens.  Here's the recipe for the herb brined chicken:

The Brine:

Brine mixture

• 1 Quart Water
• 1 Cup Kosher Salt
• 1/3 Cup Sugar
• 1 Tbs Tarragon
• 2 Tbs Oregano
• 3 Bay Leaves
• 2 tsp Lemon Rind
• 6 Juniper Berries
• 1 Onion
• 1 Head of Garlic, Cloves Split
• 3 Quarts Water & Ice

Simmer the Brine ingredients in 1 Quart Water for 15 minutes.  There's no need to peel the garlic or onion.  Fill one quart measuring cup with ice, fill with water and repeat 2 more times to bring liquid to one gallon.  If cool to touch, place chicken in the brine and refrigerate overnight, otherwise chill the brine first.  Remove chicken 3-4 hours in advance of cooking, rinse, pat dry and refrigerate until cooking time.  Place in 375 degree oven until done.

The real test for me with a roasted bird is the quality of the gravy.  Again, the gravy was better than I've had in any restaurant, but a bit too salty.

Herb Brined Chicken with Candied Carrots

Final Brining Experiment

The final experiment is a taste off between Beef and Pork, cooked two different ways, for a four dish meal - foodies salivate.  Since the Charcutepalooza challenge is to make a corned beef, why not also try the technique on a hunk of pork along with a beef brisket?  I've also become a big fan of confit and happen to have a significant amount of goose fat waiting for a job, so why not try out a beef confit along the pork confit I've been planning and see how the techniques differ?

Pork shoulder for Salt Pork, Pork Prosciutto, and "Corned Pork"

Once the pork shoulder and the beef brisket were split up, both went into respective cures together.  The Brine and Pickling spice recipe for the Corned Beef (and Pork) came right out of Charcuterie, except I added juniper berries to the pickling spice.

Pork Shoulder and Beef Brisket curing for confit

The dry cure for the confit came straight out of the Pork Confit recipe in Charcuterie.  I need to schedule a tasting event for the final products, but can't wait to see how the techniques and character of the different meats play out.  Almost forgot, the extra hunk of pork shoulder is curing in the fridge to make a sweet salt pork.

Cured Salmon - Charcutepalooza Challenge 2

The second challenge in the Charcutepalooza competition was a further exploration of the salt cure.  I had my heart set on a pancetta and guanciale from the Ossabaw Island Hog that I have ready to go.  Fortunately for Sauage (the Pig) and unfortunately for Mrs. Wheelbarrow, the hog was given a stay of execution due to extensive business travel on my part.

Freddy & Daphne (That's right - Scooby Doo)

Of course this isn't a picture of Sausage, rather Daphne, who is one of our breeders for the Ossabaws.  (Sausage didn't care for a photo in January).  So after a long day at work I stopped and purchased a package of Steelhead Salmon for dinner and reserved a fillet for curing (OMG - Farmer John actually bought animal protein- no no no).  This leads us to the Salmon masterpiece for the Charcutepalooza challenge.  

Salmon & cure mixture

One of the tips I picked up from Charcuterie was adjusting the proportion of salt and sugar.  I've made Gravalox several times in the past where I've used a 50/50 mix of salt and sugar, but Michael & Brian have a much higher sugar content in their salmon cure.  The result is that more of the salmon flavor comes out in the final product.  I'm also terribly allergic to brandy, which is traditionally used and a light whiskey is a reasonable substitute.  Here's the final recipe that I used:

6 oz Kosher Salt

7 oz Table Sugar (Sucrose)

6 oz Brown Sugar

2 TBS Coarsely Ground Black Pepper

1 TBS Fennel Seed

1 TBS Dill Weed 

1/2 cup Canadian Club Whiskey

2 to 4 pound Salmon Filet

Salmon with Curing Mix

Rinse the Salmon with water and pat dry.  Mix the other ingredients in bowl with fork until pasty.  Slather all surfaces of Salmon with cure mix & cover with Saran Wrap.  Add weight on top of salmon and refrigerate for five to seven days, turning salmon every one to two days.  After curing, rinse with water, pat dry and slice thin for serving.  Can be stored in refrigerator for several weeks.

Weight on Salmon

After weighting, the salmon will release liquid into the cure mix, which is part of the osmosis process involved in curing and the compression from the added weight.  The net result is that liquid is added to the pan, which can spill over.  That's why the whole contraption is placed on a cookie sheet.

After curing, the salmon can be cut into thin slices and served with crackers, bagels, and of course displayed in mouth watering shots like the one below.

Mouth watering display of cured salmon and goose prosciutto

Did I mention that the salmon is mouth watering - and yummy to boot?

Goose Prosciutto: Charcutepalooza - Challenge 1

I was very excited to stumble across the Charcutepalooza challenge a couple weeks ago and somehow manage to slide in my blog at the last minute.  Since we started raising heritage pigs two years ago in an effort to rediscover the lost taste of pork, I have been seeking out resources on artisanal and traditional uses of the animal.  One of the best is the book "Charcuterie", by Michael Ruhlman & Brian Polcyn. When I saw the cooking / blogging competition at Mrs Wheelbarrow's Kitchen based on this book I couldn't resist testing out the blend of my farming and culinary interests.  As much as possible I will be using meats that we raise on our property for the project.  We'll see how practical that is, but if I can pull it off with a few of our own animals it would be fantastic.

Goose in Center for Proscuitto

The fist of twelve challenges is duck prosciutto, which is a straightforward salt cured dish that is very good as  a start to curing at home.  Luck has it that I didn't have duck on hand (we will be raising Muscovies in 2011), but we did happen to have some geese that we raised for the holiday season.  Geese have proven to be easy and inexpensive to raise, as they graze on grass and weeds and pretty much take care of themselves.  But don't let their photogenic pastoral beauty fool you - they are monsters when they chase the kids around the property and leave a horrifying mess in the most inconvenient of places.

Cleaned & Ready for Creativity

The elegant depth of a well prepared goose is hard to pass up, however.  The stuffed holiday goose was fantastic and we also just finished a goose confit that was mind blowing.  Plucking and cleaning a goose is a rather steep commitment, so I like to make sure the final dish is one to be memorable. So off we go to the recipe.

Ready to Go

First the breasts are carefully removed, which will be used for the main dish.  The thighs and legs are cut away for confit and the rest of the parts will be used for stock.  Goose makes a wonderful silky stock that adds a delicate richness to certain soups that is hard to achieve with chicken.  There's a fair amount of fat left on the carcass, which I will render from the stock pot and use for confit and pan frying.

Basic Salt Curing

Next, the breasts are covered in Kosher salt and refrigerated for 24 hours.

Salted Goose Breast

After 24 hours, the goose breasts are rinsed with water, patted dry, seasoned and wrapped in cheesecloth for drying.  One of the breasts was covered with white pepper, which is straight from the duck prosciutto recipe in "Charcuterie".  The second was covered with a mix of white pepper, juniper berries, thyme and cracked black peppercorns.

Salt & Sugar Cured Salmon

As a side note, being a bit of an efficiency freak when it comes to food, I dropped a salmon fillet I had on hand into the remaining salt cure and topped it off with some additional salt, dill, table sugar and brown sugar.  These are the basic ingredients I use for Gravlax minus the brandy (which I'm terribly allergic to).  I also took a tip from Michael on this recipe as well and doubled the amount of sugar I typically use.

Hanging to Dry

Back to the goose. After the goose breast was seasoned and wrapped in cheesecloth, they were hung in our pantry, which is semi unheated.  It is attached to our kitchen, but doesn't have a heat source and sits on stilts, so it get's cold when closed off.  The conditions there aren't ideal, but are the best in the house.  My estimate is the temperature fluctuated between the low 40s and high 50s during the drying process.  It was also drier than ideal, but the goose didn't seem to mind and it came out very well.

Goose Prosciutto

The goose had a huge layer of fat and was quite a bit thicker than duck, so I let it dry a few extra days.  At day 12 it was ready to pull down and use.  The extra time added a crust to the meat side of the breast, but wrapping it in plastic softened it up quite a bit and it sliced beautifully.  I can't wait for book club tonight where I'll be serving a platter of homemade charcuterie including the goose prosciutto, cured salmon, venison chorizo and goose rillettes.

Brew Day

All-grain brewing can be an intense experience, both for the amount of time dedicated to do it well and the equipment required to handle large amounts of wet sticky malt.  Having a proper setup for brewing has been a goal of mine for many years and over the holidays I got the workshop (which has been a storage area for the last four years) setup for brewing.  That included running a bunch of plumbing, installing a cheap sink in the workshop bench and cleaning up the equipment I've been pulling together for years.  This setup will also be really handy with seed starting for the garden.  Brewing is a really good male bonding experience and I had my friends Jim and Brian over to do the hard work.

When doing all-grain mash, I usually do a Parti-Gyle technique, where the initial runnings from the malt make a strong beer (in this case a Belgian style Dubbel) and the secondary runnings make a weaker table beer (a Black English style Ale).  Start time was around 10:00am, but we had a bit of organizing and prep work before dough-in at about 12:00.

Brian Grinding Grain

For the mash we used 55 lbs of Maris Otter malt, 7.5 lbs White Wheat, 5 lbs Special B, and 7 lbs CaraMunich - a total of about 75 lbs of grain!  Mashing is a pretty sensitive process, which involves mixing the grain with water and progressing the temperature through several stages in order to break down the sugar chains for yeast digestion (I won't bore you with the technical details).

Jim stirring the first Decoction

We did a Decoction Mash, which entails removing a portion of the mash, boiling it and returning it to the main mash kettle to heat it up.  Surprisingly we nailed the temperature steps for every stage.  After the steps are done, you rinse the grain and collect the syrup for Wort (the makings of beer).

The Sparge

While Jim was delicately cooking the mash, Brian was off to the kitchen to make 5 lbs of Belgian Candy sugar.  This is a very common ingredient in certain Belgian beer recipes and is very expensive to buy off the shelf, but pretty easy to make.  It's essentially inverted sugar, which is made by heating up table sugar and a little acid (like citric acid or lemon juice) along with a little water until a hard crack.  This process caramelizes the sugar and breaks down the Sucrose (table sugar) into Glucose and Fructose, which make a much better product in brewing.

Jim Stirring Wort

Check out the size of this Pot!  I got this 25 gallon stock pot at Bass Pro for a $129 (amazing price) and is the first time I've had something that can handle a volume recipe.  The biggest challenge of the day was the amount of time it took to heat up 25 gallons of liquid to a boil, even with the jet engine coming out of the turkey fryer.  Once the wort got going it was just over an hour boiling with the hops and then the wort chiller went in.  That worked surprisingly well given the volume it had to cool (I wish I had a picture of that process).  There are a number of things that happen during the boil. Most importantly, the oils from the hop leaves are released into the wort, providing the bitterness that balances out the sweet flavor of the malt.  The finish hops are added at the last minute so the more volatile aroma oils don't boil off.  The second major process is that the proteins that were extracted from the grains begin to solidify and clump up.  When you cool the mash down quickly and let it sit, these solids drop to the bottom of the pot, where they are left behind, ensuring a cleaner looking and tasting beer.

Trub - this stuff is yuck

After this it was off to the fermenter for the first batch at around 11:00.  The final reading on the hygrometer was 1.065 (after I watered it down a bit), which is a 9% potential alcohol.  At kegging another reading will be made to get the actual alcohol content, but I expect about 7% in the final product.

When the second batch finally approached a boil I happened to look at the clock and realized I'd be up til 4am.  That one sat until the next day and my daughter and I did all the cleanup work while that was going.  Next time around I think I'll split the process into two days - the first day for the mash and the second for the boil process.  I also need to consider another stockpot given the amount of waiting time on heating up the liquids.

The pigs feasted on the spent mash over the next couple days and my goodness what a reaction they had.  For days after, every time I would walk by the pens they would squeal like a three year old on Christmas morning.  What a great way to use waste.

Slippery Jacks

The Short Stemmed Slippery Jacks (Suillus brevipes) started popping up over the last couple days.  These edible Bolete mushrooms grow at the edge of the root line of our Eastern White Pine grove, with which they have a mycorrhizal relationship.  They grow right at the edge of the roots and help the trees by providing easy access to minerals while the mushrooms get access to sugars, which is a form of symbiosis.  Note the Spongy underside on the large mushroom on the left.  The porous structure indicates a member of the Bolete family, which is generally a safe group of mushrooms.  Even a horrendous misidentification will only cause stomach upset, but there are some simple rules to avoid this as well.

Slippery Jack

Slippery Jacks are similar to the Porcini mushroom used in fine Italian cooking, but they have a more mild flavor.  The skins on the cap are bitter and should be removed before using the mushrooms.

Skin & Cleaned Mushroom on Right

Once the caps are removed they can be cooked or dried.  I prefer to dry them first because it concentrates the earthy flavor that makes these mushrooms worth harvesting.  Reconstituted, they are great in gravies, soups and pasta sauces.

Autumn Mushrooms

The drought this year has been a real challenge for me as a mushroom enthusiast. Luckily, recent rains have kicked off the Fall mushroom season which is one of the best times for mushroom foraging.

Here are some giant puffballs I scored outside the house. These are very common in our area in September and October and this is a group of small and very fresh specimens. The mushroom on the right is, with a high degree of certainty, a Meadow Mushroom. It's a choice edible, but I won't be eating it.

After over 20 years of mushroom foraging I've refined a set of simple rules to keep me out of trouble with the fungi. First off, with only a couple exceptions I don't bother with gilled mushrooms. There are some great ones out there and I'm good about identification, but the last thing I need is a Black Swan event at this point in my life. This first rule greatly reduces the amount of information to remember, the amount of work involved, and omits the majority of deadly mushroom varieties -- which makes it much more practical to go from field to table. From there I focus on just a handful of varieties like Morels, Boletes, Chantarelles and Polypores like the Hen of the Woods. Aside from the False Morel, which is readily identified, this is a safe group that offers some great dining.

Each mushroom variety has a unique culinary profile. The puffball has a texture like tofu and a mild nutty taste. Once cleaned up they can be sliced with a sharp knife. They are brittle and tear easily, however. Only firm white insides should be used for eating.

I find that the best way to prepare them is to dip them in egg and cover them with bread crumbs and herbs. We've also tried a variety of spices like garam masala and barbecue rubs before which are also very yummy.

My son loves the puffballs and I had a hard time cooking them fast enough for him. I did manage to grab a couple slices for myself.