Emma Alter
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I missed my normal Thursday afternoon trip to the farmers' market because I had the beginning of a terrible cold. My daughter went in my stead and blithely announced that unless I had a specific request, she was only going to buy what she liked. It was fine, but I wanted to be sure to be at the Saturday market right when it opened to pick up anything I might have missed on Thursday.
At this time of the year I always go straight to Forbes Wild Foods to see what foraged goodies they have on offer. This week they had Pheasant back mushrooms which was an entirely new mushroom to me. They grow on dead logs and stumps, which is how they get the fan shape. They have beautiful flecked markings on them that that resembles pheasant feathers, hence the name.
Russell, who mans the booth on Saturdays, suggested baking them in a 375F oven for up to 45 minutes with just some olive oil drizzled over them and a bit of salt and pepper. He said he liked them to be a bit crunchy. I took them out sooner than that and they were still quite moist from the liquid they had thrown off in the pan. I thought they were fantastic, and I'm still thinking about the taste of them. Unlike most mushrooms they retain their shape and size when you cook them because they are very dense and meaty. Most mushrooms release their liquid and then collapse.
I thought these would be really good served over wilted spinach as part of a warm salad. Choose smaller mushrooms as they will be more tender than the larger pieces. Apparently some people find them too dense and chewy, but they have a wonderful flavour. Not only that, they were significantly less expensive than many foraged mushrooms like yellow boletus, morels or chanterelles. I'm definitely going to buy these again and I'll try cooking them a bit longer and let them get crunchy the way Russell likes them and see how that works out.
Difficulty Level: Easy
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