The warm, late summer has suddenly ended, leaving me gasping! I wasn't prepared to let go of our sunny days and balmy nights for this weekend's wintry environment of rains and winds. Still, in spite of the weather, I'm mushrooming and finding a host of gifts: golden and white chanterelles, pigs ears, and cauliflower along with a host of boletes, including admirable, fibillorous, orange capped, king and queen. What a gift this mushroom season has been with its variety and abundance!
Today's foray offered an extraordinary experience: our first orange capped boletes. Standing tall in the duff, the boletes revealed a deep orange-red cap, lightly touched with fog and slightly sticky. The white-fleshed stem was elongated and covered with rough gray/black points, occasionally staining blue in the base of some specimens. And, the loveliest surprise of all: a flesh that slowly turned to lilac-gray in some places where it was sliced. I saved some of the caps for an appetizer but the remaining caps and stems quickly went into the dehydrator. I usually prefer my boletes dried simply because the dehydrating process and then storing the dried product for some period of time seems to intensify the flavor and aroma.
Today, thanks to nature's bounty of fresh boletes this year, I'm planning a light dinner around small plates of fresh mushroom offerings: Quick Fried Boletes on Cracked Wheat Sourdough Bread, Shrimp and Chanterelle Fritters. I'm complimenting these small dishes with a wild greens salad and Hot Sichuan-Style Green Beans. A selection of several varieties of Oregon pears drizzled with annisette is a refreshing finish to the fungal feast.
Quick Fried Boletes
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups fresh bolete caps, cut into 1/4" slices
1/4 teaspoon caraway seed, ground fine in a coffee or spice grinder
1 teaspoon dried basil
salt and pepper, to taste
Toasted and buttered cracked wheat sourdough bread
- Heat oil in cast iron skilled until smoking. Add sliced bolete caps, ground caraway seed and basil. Toss and stir mushrooms until mushroom slices are heated through and begin to give up their juices. Serve on top of the bread pieces.
Shrimp and Chanterelle Fritters
1 egg, lightly beaten with 1 tablespoon water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon soy sauce
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 cup flour
3/4 cup sliced (not chopped) chanterelles
3/4 cup thinly sliced white onion
1/2 pound baby shrimp
oil for frying, heated to 375 degrees
- Thoroughly combine all ingredients except shrimp. Fold in baby shrimp. Add 1-2 tablespoons water if mixture seems too thick. Allow batter to stand for 15 minutes.
- Drop batter into hot oil and fry until golden brown and crisp. Drain and serve with Worcestershire Sauce.
Hot Sichuan-Style Green Beans
1 pound green beans
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
2 teaspoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon hot chili flakes
1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 tablespoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
- Rinse and drain green beans. Trim off and discard stem ends. Cut in 2-3 inch lengths.
- In a small bowl, mix soy sauce, rice vinegar, sugar, chili flakes, and white pepper.
- Set a 10-12 inch frying pan over high heat. When pan is hot, add beans and 1/4 cup water. Cover and cook, stirring once, until beans are bright green and slightly crunchy to bite, 3-4 minutes. Uncover and cook until any remaining water has evaporated.
- Add oil, garlic and ginger to pan. Stir until green beans and garlic are lightly browned, 1-2 minutes. Stir soy mixture and add to pan. Bring to boil and stir until most the liquid has evaporated and the sauce thickens and coats the beans, 2-3 minutes. Serve hot or at room temperature.
Friend and mentor Jim Coffee's been celebrating the joys of boletes this year, too, both at the table and with his camera. Some day you'll have to ask him about this photograph and "Boleteville"...it's a delicious story!
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