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All About Wild Mushrooms

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Blog post by RCFM contributor Katie Bartel

Okay, so I’m just gonna put this out there, maaaaaybe, just maybe, my second recipe in I shouldn’t have opted to wing it. Probably. But hey, my family and I are still alive, and this adventure is all about going big or going home. Right 😉

So, at the last Farmers’ Market my husband’s eyes lingered at the forager’s booth. While I love mushrooms, like really love them, let’s be honest, they don’t really speak sexy. And oddball? What’s so oddball about mushrooms aside from the poop factor?

Well folks, have you met Matt McAllister? Young guy, pretty chill, knows an insane amount about mushrooms. Which is probably a good thing seeing as how he’s selling them to you, and you really don’t want to be popping a Death Cap in your mouth – they’re poisonous.

Matt

McAllister didn’t grow up dreaming of a career in foraging; he had aspirations of being an entomologist, geologist, pretty much anything with “ologist” in the name.

“I kind of blindsided me,” he said, “but it makes sense; it’s dealing with the natural world.”

And like so many of today’s millennials, about five years ago, fresh out from his parent’s nest, McAllister was looking for ways to offset the daily costs of living. Out for a walk one night he was stopped in his tracks by a mushroom that most others wouldn’t have even noticed. Hmm, he thought. Those look quite a bit like the ones I’m buying in the grocery store. Hmm, he thought. LIGHTBULB! A quick jaunt to the bookstore, and a mushroom bible, that has barely left his side since, was acquired.

Mushroom Bible

In five years, he estimates picking 40 or 50 edible varieties – oyster, pine, Man on Horseback, porcini, morels, chanterelles, hedgehogs. He’s travelled all over B.C. and the Yukon. It’s easy, he said. Once you know the distinct features to look for, they’re everywhere.

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And you know, five minutes talking to this guy, it was clear I was wrong, so totally wrong. Mushrooms are sexy. Take the pack of Tumbler Ridge fire morels I took home with me. These guys are not your average Joe Blow creminis found at every vegetable stand, oh no, these dudes have crazy history.

In 2014, about 60 kilometres southeast of Tumbler Ridge a massive wildfire wiped out over 30 hectares of the region. These morels were of the first living things to resurface and reproduce on the land the following spring. It is a foragers goldmine.

“There’s about 1,000 people camped out from May to July picking and drying,” said McAllister, who dried his on a hand-crafted clay oven over a wood-burning fire. “Once you start [foraging] it’s like falling down the rabbit hole.”

THE RECIPE:

Okay, so for about three months now, ever since I polished off my last bite of the delectable quinoa salad from Tractor Foods on West 4th in Vancouver, I have been craving it, like drooling about it just thinking about it, dreaming of it even. There’s quinoa, there’s sundried tomatoes, golden raisins, goat cheese, parsley, cilantro, and roasted mushrooms. Try as I might I could not find a comparable recipe, so I thought, hey, I’ve got all the ingredients, I know how to make quinoa – I’m totally gonna wing it. AND, while it wasn’t Tractor style, it was still pretty darn tasty! So many flavours just bursting in my mouth. Buuuuut, the problem, there were far too many other powerful ingredients to get a full feel for the fire morels.

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Luckily, the dehydrated bag of mushrooms plump right up on hydration and there were plenty more for a round 2. This time with a recipe.

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The recipe called for hazelnuts but we didn’t have any so instead we opted for shrimp, and it was the perfect pairing. The smoky, deep, down-in-the-earth taste of the morels, along with their chewy nature fit so complementary to the salty seafood. And in fact, I’m betting they’d work beautifully with clams and mussels too.

And just look at the cuteness factor – they even look like seashells!!! A match made in belly heaven!

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To learn more about McAllister’s shrooms, visit him at the next Royal City Farmers’ Market this Saturday, or check out his website www.yourwildestfoods.com.

RECIPE: Drunken Wild Mushroom Pasta (acquired from http://www.joyfulhealthyeats.com/drunken-wild-mushroom-pasta-recipe/)

Ingredients

  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 26 oz. assortment of wild mushrooms, sliced (crimini, shitake, oyster, baby bella, whatever you want)
  • 1 red onion, diced
  • 4 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt
  • 2 tablespoons sherry cooking wine
  • 2½ teaspoons fresh thyme, diced
  • 1 lb. Dreamfields linguine pasta
  • 6 oz. goat cheese
  • ¾ cup reserved pasta cooking liquid
  • salt to taste
  • ¼ cup hazelnuts, chopped

Instructions

  1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil.
  2. Heat a large skillet to medium high heat.
  3. Add olive oil and mushrooms. Saute for 7-10 minutes until mushrooms start to brown.
  4. Next add onions, garlic, and season with salt. Saute and stir onions for 3-4 minutes.
  5. Add in sherry cooking wine and cook down until liquid is evaporated. Finish with fresh time and set aside.
  6. Add noodles to pot of boiling water. Cook until al dente (according to package instructions)
  7. Reserve ¾ cup of pasta cooking liquid and drain the rest.
  8. Add the noodles, wild mushroom mixture, goat cheese, and cooking liquid to a large bowl. Toss to mix everything together until goat cheese is completely melted.
  9. Top with chopped hazelnuts!

Serves: 6-8

Cooking Up Kalettes

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Post written by contributor Katie Bartel

Okay, so let’s be honest here for a second shall we. I am not a master of the kitchen, not even close. Before my husband, I lived on omelettes and grilled cheese sandwiches. But that’s not to say the kitchen doesn’t fascinate me. I grew up with parents who both are fantastic in the cooking realm, I have always been drawn to recipe magazines, and when on maternity leave a few years ago, after being gifted a subscription to Cook’s Country by my pops, I embarked on a 12-month challenge that had me trying my hand in the savoury world once a month. And you know what, I totally I didn’t poison us! Quite the feat. Still, though, unless it’s a birthday, or some other special sort of event, it is rare that I am the one with chef’s apron on in our house.

Well folks, that is about to change.

A new challenge has been steeping in my brain for about a month now – and it’s all about the fresh, local, awesomeness of the Royal City Farmers Market. Every market day, I have committed to seeking out the strangest, unique, most oddball ingredient I can find, and working a recipe from it.

First up: kalettes.

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Have you heard of kalettes? I hadn’t, not until I showed up at Ossome Acres’ booth on the morning of Feb. 6 and saw these little puffs of purple-greens. Hey, what are those, I asked. Why, kalettes of course – the love child of kale and Brussels sprouts. W’oh! Who knew?

Although the brainchild of this hybrid was developed 15 years ago in Europe, it wasn’t debuted until 2010 and only hit North American soil two years ago. And still, you’d be hard pressed to find it in grocery stores, said Noella Oss of Ossome Acres, a Chilliwack farm that prides itself on standing out with its crops. “I’m pretty sure we’re the only ones growing it out here.”

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A mix of nutty and sweet, chewy and crunchy, these guys are good raw, roasted, blanched and steamed, said Oss. They’re huge in fibre; it doesn’t take much to fill a belly. In fact, one $4 bag got us five meals worth.

And the flavour, “is so nice and sweet right now because of the snow and frost,” said Oss. “They’re full of concentrated sugars.”

So, how did I use them?

I threw a few rosettes into a kitchen sink soup, lightly roasted a bunch on the barbecue with sea salt oil and balsamic vinegar, (I think they may even be better than kale chips!) and put together this sweet and salty salad from www.kalettes.com – they EVEN have their own website!

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Happy kalettes eating my friends.

Recipe: Kalettes Salad with Apples and Bacon

Ingredients:
5 oz Kalettes
1/8 c. apple cider vinegar
1/4 tsp. salt, divided
1/8 c. extra virgin olive oil
pepper
1 apple, cored and sliced
2 slices bacon
1 onion, sliced

Directions:
1. Slice stem end from Kalettes, allowing some leaves to fall loose and leaving centre leaves intact. In salad bowl, add Kalettes and drizzle with vinegar. Sprinkle with 1/8 tsp. salt and toss to coat. Set aside for 10 minutes.

2. In a skillet over medium, add 2 slices of bacon. Cook until brown and slightly crunchy. Remove bacon from pan, leaving grease, and drain on paper towel. Add sliced onion to pan and sauté over medium high until carmelized, about 10-15 minutes. When bacon is cool, crumble into small pieces.

3. In a measuring cup, add extra virgin olive oil, 1/8 tsp. salt, and pepper to taste. Shake or stir to combine dressing. Add the sliced apple, bacon and onions to bowl with Kalettes. Pour the dressing over the salad and toss to coat.

Kitchen Sink Spinach Salad

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I often make the kind of standalone salads that are meals in themselves – I like to add stuff like eggs, nuts, seeds, and sometimes grilled meat for a heartier chew. I’ve recently started adding yummy treats like dried fruit and cheese. Spinach is coming up in season now and so here’s an idea you can run with: Kitchen Sink Spinach Salad. You don’t need to follow a recipe – just experiment with different combinations and throw in whatever you have that tickles your fancy. Spinach is more nutritious than lettuce and has a great flavour that really lends itself well to a lot of things. If you can’t stand that squeaky texture raw spinach has, consider serving your salad warm and wilt the spinach first. Almost all of these ingredients are available at the market. For a truly decadent salad, try making your own bacon bits. MMMMmmmmm. (Note: homemade bacon bits seem to taste best if you make them the night before).

Start with fresh spinach, washed and trimmed and torn into bite sized pieces if necessary. If you have a salad spinner, use it – the drier your spinach is, the better. Add your choice of: sliced hard boiled eggs, sliced white mushrooms, a handful of raw pumpkin seeds, a handful of sunflower seeds, a healthy handful of dried cranberries or blueberries, a few tomatoes chopped small, and feta or brie cheese crumbled.

As a dressing, you can whisk together: about a 1/2 cup -ish yogurt (we use plain) with a few tablespoons of lemon juice and high quality oil. Some people like to use mayonnaise instead of oil, but I find it is too thick. You can also add parsley, chives or dill or other fresh herbs and then add pepper and salt to taste.

YUM!

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    Land Acknowledgement

    Our market is grateful to operate on the unceded land of the Qayqayt, Kwikwetlem, and other Halkomelem speaking Peoples. We acknowledge that colonialism has made invisible their histories and connections to the land. We acknowledge the incredible gift this land is to our market and BC Agriculture. We commit to the ongoing work of decolonization and allyship.