Making mushroom patties from oyster mushrooms-delicious!

Came across a tree full of wonderful oyster mushrooms and took home some of them.  

I gave them a quick boil and boiled some red lentils (about one teacup) until they split. 

Added some all-purpose flour and a bit of stale bread.  Seasoned with salt,  pepper,  wild garlic,  lovage,  cumin,  turmeric,  finely diced onions and paprica.  Made a stiff dough. 

Fried them in sunflower oil until golden brown. 

 I really like those! 

Delicious Chicken of the woods Steak with wild herb spinach

On a recent hike I came across a really nice specimen of chicken of the woods (laetiporous sulphurea, in German: Schwefelporling), grown on some fallen cherry.  

Took home a good piece of it (please do forage responsibly and only take 25% ) 

Cleaned it thoroughly. 

Boiled for ten minutes.  

Marinated in olive oil,  salt,  pepper,  cumin,  turmeric,  onions,  wild garlic,  ground ivy,  and ground elder, a bit of lemon juice and lovage over night.  

Chopped an onion and three handful of nettle,  wild garlic,  and ground elder.  Glazed the onion,  quenched with water,  miso and lovage, added the wild herbs and cooked for five minutes.  Added a spoon of peanut butter. 

Fried the mushroom steaks until crispy on the outside and soft inside.  

Absolutely delicious! 

 

More Mushroom Mischief

Today I found another wonderful tinder conk. It offered an added bonus. 

See,  I always try to harvest the conks responsibly. I process most of it on the tree and always leave the part of the trama intact that roots into the mycelium inside the tree. Conks and mushrooms play a very important role in the ecosystem,  so I try to just take a bit in order not to kill it off.  On the other hand,  this is a very resilient conk. You will learn why in a second... 

The polypore was growing on a tree that only but recently,  some years ago,  had been felled by the storm. The conk,  while still maintaining its trama at the root,  also had developed a rather thick trama on the underside in order to adapt to the new position.

So I left a sensibly thin layer on the conk and cut off the rest. After removing the callous on the underside I was still left with a thick layer of nearly perfect trama. 

Needless to say,  by the way,  that I am doing this on private ground,  with permission. Also,  all of the conks I harvested through the years have grown back. Please do forage with common sense (I am convinced you will. ).

After half an hour of some working the piece,  this is what came out. Simply lovely,  and working that material is deeply satisfying. 

There is still somewhat of a stretch to it,  meaning,  I can still get more out of it. 

The stuff is simply fascinating. What I would really love to do is make myself a hat or clothing from it,  but there is still a learning curve to be had. Which definitively is a fun thing. 

Really looking forward to the next pieces to the puzzle.