Hedgehog Mushrooms

A near perfect 'Fairy' of Hedgehog mushrooms

Hedgehog mushrooms, Hydnum repandum, Pied de mouton, or 'Juanyan chijun' in Pin-yin though don't ask me to repeat that one, I'll stick to the hedgehog tag.These are a great find as there is little to confuse them with in the woods.Though I did think my eyes were deceiving me as I spied a ring of them in the woods, as to me that's fairly uncommon, it's more normal for me to find them in little trooping patches.

They are great to eat, especially for slower cooking methods as they are fairly robust in the pan, when cooking them quickly slice them thinly.

Identifying. Hedgehog Mushrooms, Hydnum repandum.

Cap. Creamy white when young creamy yellow with age.

Stems. Short, stout

Gills/ Spines replace the gills on this one they are short creamy white when young, off white with age.
Taste/smell pleasant, slight hint of pepper and a little bitter with age.

Habitat. Beech pines, late summer to early winter.

Some quite large Hedgehogs.

Hedgehog Lasagne

Inspired by @mckennasguides  http://kitchenlifeskills.blogspot.ie/
In many ways I guess cooking's a bit like music, you can play by notes or play by ear, this one I'm playing by ear, Sally and John are lucky enough to have their patch of Hedgehogs and make a lasagne with them I haven't ate it or got their recipe,  but now that I've the luxury of having a good few 'Hedgehogs' about me that's what I'm going to do. It makes sense really; the texture of Hedgehog mushrooms allows them to be chopped in a mince like fashion and they hold their texture through cooking, the logic kicks in. Hopefully mine's as good as theirs,if you have your own family recipe just replace the meat with 'Hedgehogs'.

Typical lasagne recipe, using Mushrooms instead of meat.
 The ingredients.
227gms/1/2lb Hedgehog Mushroms, finely chopped just like mince (scrunching them up in your hand works fine too!)
1 small onion- this you'll have to dice finely
2 cloves garlic crushed
good pinch dried oregano
a good dash of Worcestershire sauce
salt and pepper
1 400gm/120z tin canned chopped tomatoes 
 400ml water (just use the can to measure)
olive oil for frying
8 0r 9 lasagne sheets
500ml or pint of your favourite white sauce/bechamel ( ratio 50gms butter/50gmsflour/500ml milk)
50gm/20z grated parmesan or mature Dubliner cheddar cheese, it's got that parmesan reggiano kick about it.

Method
Fry the onions and garlic lightly in a saucepan with a little olive oil when soft add your the contents of the tin/can of tomatoes add your Oregano, Worcestershire sauce, a teaspoon of salt and a pinch of pepper, bring to the boil then add the water to the contents of your saucepan bring it to the boil again reduce the heat and simmer to reduce the sauce to its original volume.
Fry the chopped/scrunched Hedgehog mushrooms in a large pan  for a couple of minutes with a little olive oil, seasoning  lightly with a little salt and pepper, either add to the saucepan of tomato sauce or vice versa depending on which will hold the volume, them cook for a further 8-10 mins on a low heat, checking the seasoning.
To layer up the lasagne ladle a 1/3 of the sauce on the bottom of your dish, lay some sheets of lasagne on,repeat process topping off with a layer of lasagne sheets,pour the sauce on top.
 Bake in a moderate oven approximately 45 mins add the cheese return  to the oven for a further 10 mins until you get a satisfying golden crust on top.

Flaky Pastry

With all the fruit and fungi that are going to about in the next month or so I predict a lot of tarts and pies being made, Flaky pastry offers the sensation of Puff pastry with less of the hassle, it's handy to make and can be frozen down in batches,
For the recipe I'm going to turn to Gary Rhodes,a culinary hero from the Nineties, his book 'New British Classics' is loaded with all the Basic recipes you'll need backed up with where your food comes from notes, well worth looking it up and getting a copy, another book from the nineties worth getting your hands on for great recipes, stories of rural life in France, and wonderful photography is 'Memories of Gascony' by Pierre Koffmann which is republished at the moment.

Flaky Pastry
Ingredients.
150gms 11oz Butter, chilled
227gms 1lb plain flour
1/2 tspn Salt
120ml, approximately 4 fl oz cold water.

Method.
Cut the butter into small cubes (about the size of a sugar cube).
Sieve the flour and salt into a bowl add the water, and cut it in with a stiff blade, you'll still see pieces of butter showing.
Turn the pastry out on to a floured work surface and press or roll out into a rectangle shape approximately 45x15cm/ 18x6“.
Fold in the right hand one third and then fold in the left hand side over that, wrap pastry leave to rest for 20minutes.
Repeat this rolling and folding
process three more times in the same fashion, resting it for 20mins between each turn.

That's your pastry ready, there's enough to make one traditional sized pie or tart, or three open tarts, or folded pies.

To make a mushroom tart, Take 2/3 of your pastry, divide in two and rolled to fit your plate-keep it chilled and resting in the fridge until needed, 25gms/10z diced onion, 1 clove garlic crushed,250gms wild or cultivated mushrooms-thinly sliced, 25gms butter, 25gms grated parmesan, 25ml/1floz cream, salt and pepper to season.To a warm pan add the butter then fry the onions and garlic without colour until soft, add the mushrooms season lightly and cook until softened add the cream and bring to the boil, finally add the cheese, taste and adjust the seasoning and leave to cool before placing on the tart base then dampen the edges place the 2nd piece of pastry on top, bake in an oven at 180c/350f until golden brown.

Open Mushroom Tart

Folded Hedgehog Mushroom pie

To make a Fig tart, 4-5 Black figs and a third of the pastry rolled into a rectangle approximately 12''X4'',place the pastry onto a small baking sheet lined with parchment paper, make a incision 1/2'' for each of the length edges without cutting all the way through. Slice your figs into neat rounds dust with icing/powdered sugar then lay them onto the centre of your tart overlapping them neatly, bake in a hot oven at 180c/350f until golden brown.

Fig Tart

Ceps,Porcini, bragging rights.

Boletus edulis, aka; Ceps, Porcini,Borowik, Steinpilz or in plain English 'pennybuns' are top of the list on forays and a good find always earns bragging rights amongst foragers much in the the way a fish does amongst fishermen and in fungi land there's also 'the one that got away!' deemed as too old or over munched by slugs and others in the woods, recounted with dismay.

A Cep in it's prime is a worthy prize or reward for the eager hunter, when you find one that is perfect in condition, no bites, no slugs lurking under the cap,it feels good, dense with a powerful mushroom aroma. this is the mushroom that is sought after most for commercial picking, dried it's flavour is intense yet refined yielding up extra 'umami' lifting the taste taste of soups,stews and sauces throughout winter. Check the ingredient listing on a packet of mushroom soup in the supermarket it usually gets a percentage mention.

Some years are better than others for mushrooms and mushrooms appear in different areas at different times, it means patrolling your spots and getting to know when they produce best, because 'it rained yesterday after a few warm days' doesn't necessarily mean your going to get a mushroom, they're a bit too moody for convention.

What to observe.

the cap. Brown

the tubes/gills. White, creamy, yellow turning olive green with age.

the stem/stipe. Thick,rotund, Light brown white with a reticulate{mesh like ridges} surface on the lower half.

the flesh. Firm and white.

the smell. Mushroom.

the habitat. Spruce ,pine, larch forest, Beech woods and with Oak.

after they've been growing in a dry spell and get a good soaking they explode!

Add caption

always nice to weigh them in  '44gms and perfect shape' 

'hung out to dry'

  

Bay bolete, Xerocomus badius

A personnel favourite, and would put it up there with the cep, the taste is great but the main reason I favour it is that it suffers much much less from larvae infestation and slug attacks, the squirrels have a taste for it though so there will be a few bite marks about.

What to observe.

the cap.chestnut brown and smooth,suede like when young, grows up to 10-12cm

the tubes. off white,yellow to green with age.

the stem. pale brown-reddish,thin often curved at the base and can be quite long.

the flesh. whitish flesh turning slightly blue when cut.

the taste/smell. mushroomy,nutty.

the habitat.coniferous spruce and pine forest.

A young Baybolete,with soft cap.

Note; the cap has actually exploded of this one, after a spell of

dry weather, followed by heavy rain the soakage of water

causes the stems of some bolete (which are quite tough) to split where they meet the cap, popping it off.

One with an elongated stem

having grown through moss.

Phallus impudicus, Stinkhorn

Most often you'll smell these before you see them, they grow in all types of woodland settings and where you have them they'll be in abundance. They are edible ( tasted mossy) but only in the first stage of growth once they start to mature stay clear.They start out like an egg covered in a mucus and membrane before developing to their phallic state, there are a couple of varieties,including the Dictyophora duplicata ( Netted Stinkhorn) though restricted to the Southern Hemisphere with a net like veil below the cap and the Mutinus caninus (Dog Stinkhorn) pinkcapped.

Enough said the pictures will do.

the edible stage, to eat clean off the membrane and the gel like mucus, slice and pan fry

starting to mature, no smell yet

mature, at this stage they start to stink and attract the flies

past it's personnel best,

though a good time to observe it's honeycomb structure

Spuds for National Potato Day

Urban garden. Our spuds grew quite happily and blight free in containers in the yard this year, we have Charlotte and Roosters, planted for educational purposes, true we won't yield a tonne of them, but we will have created a food memory and will be able to say in kid-like talk 'Remember the one time', which is about holistic as it can get really.Once is enough to spark that moment of experience of sowing, growing and harvesting your own produce, and potatoes deliver the goods especially when grown in the yard as they can be 'hoked' up washed and in the pot cooking within minutes.

Country living, I've lot's of previous convictions on the charge of spud liking. At an early age they, apart from being staple diet, were an important source of income through long summer days to icey cold starts in late october. Gathering spuds was always good craic, it was our 'Vendange' and allsorts met on the field and your tally of bags or boxes a competitive count off at all stages of the day. Cash at the end of the day or week was the reward,and usually spent on new clothes.

I was lucky in my later teenage years to get a mix of the work involved with potato production through my uncle Bernie and cousins the Henry family. From planting and gathering to the final bagging for sale to the merchant: a four person job; one graping the stored potatoes onto the riddle for sorting {the riddle had different sized grade settings for market preferences} two at the riddle removing any bad spuds {this was the most important bit as the merchant would pre-order a couple of tonnes and, at any point of loading the lorry, untie a bag to check the spuds. If he was unhappy with the grade then that was it,all would be rejected, off loaded and the riddling process would have to be redone. That would have been Soul destroying!} and one person removing tying, stacking and replacing the bags as they filled. As the day went on and you tired, the target set for the day became a killer. By evening I was glad when the end arrived.

Hard work but satisfying and rewarding, with the warmth of the aunt Sarah's kitchen, a pot of stew and a steaming plate of spuds with fresh baked soda bread, a weekend bake of tart, cake and buns by the range. I'd just started a catering course at that point and for my benefit aunt Sarah would offer comment on the latest bakes, noting a particular batch of pastry being short on texture or crust on a bread having got caught out on the vagaries of the 'Aga'. That was an education in baking for me and a bonus to the happiness of a job well done round the table, cash on the nose for me and disco time later.

Blueberries with Indian Meal Slim cakes.

My mother used to make
yellowmeal or Indianmeal soda farls, they were drier and grainy unlike the regular soft farl she'd make and to be honest I was a picky eater then and didn't bother with them or the trend of marrow jam at the time either. I'd have one now though, hot from the griddle with a spoon of blueberry jam on the melting butter.

People are familiar with ground corn as a starch in the form of Polenta, still it's not always a favourite on the menu,making it palatable is the task. A small amount either set and grilled with parmesan is alright or 'wet' as a mop up to a ragu of strong flavours help it.

Indian meal,much maligned as a Famine food here in Ireland when it was brought in as a relief food and on it's own it would have been hard to eat, the fact that it isn't very nutritious didn't help either, and that there was good flour being shipped out of the country was part of the crime earning it the low esteem that it has held.
Back from the Dublin/Wicklow mountains picking fraughans/blaeberries/bilberries/myrtilles/blueberries I have a blueberry polenta cake in mind,but for a simple quick reward now, I retreat to a great Irish staple 'a bit of soda'
As opposed to the tradtional soda farl recipe from an earlier blog post, this one will be based on a 'Slims cake' recipe sweet and rich with butter and sugar in the mix.

Indian Meal 'Slims' Cakes
Ingredients, makes 3 scones
5 oz 142gms self raising flour
5 oz 142gms fine polenta, maize/cornmeal.
2oz 56gms butter
1 oz 28gms sugar
Pinch salt
120gms Buttermilk

Method
Sieve the flour into a bowl add the polenta/cornmeal and sugar cut the buter into small cubes add to thOoe dry ingredient and rub it in, add the butermilk use a flat blade,and mix to a paste. Knead lightly on a floured board press or roll out thinly.
Bake on a hot griddle or heavy based pan.
serve warm with butter and some fraughan/blueberry jam.

nb. If you have an Indian foodstore near you buy their coarse ground cornmeal, it's cheaper than the 'chic' polenta.