Create a Culinary Masterpiece

How fortunate we are to be living in this land of plenty where a fungal feast awaits us when we walk into the woods!

You are invited to celebrate our good fortune by creating a recipe which features mushrooms.  The type of dish is yours to choose:  appetizer, soup, salad/vegetable, main dish, miscellaneous (perhaps even a dessert!).   Local mushroomers will prepare and evaluate the recipes, choosing the winners. 

The grand prize winner will receive a locally made Port Orford Cedar plank and a copy of a mushroom focused book, such as Mycelium Running, How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World, by Paul Stamets.

Port Orford Cedar is unique to where we live on the southern Oregon coast, and was one of the most valuable resources found here by the original settlers.  It was marketed as "white cedar" and combined decay resistance similar to the more familiar Western Red Cedar with a like aroma.  It's lightweight relative to its strength, and its dimensional stability when cut made it ideal for many purposes, including arrow shafts.  It is now used extensively by the Japanese to make sushi bars.  We've used a lot of Port Orford Cedar for trim in our log home, and also fabricated our doors from it.  Oil brings out its grain and color.  We recommend that the winner of the Port Orford Cedar plank apply vegetable oil to the plank before using it, and reapply oil when the plank appears to dry out and lose its color.  Minor scratches can easily be removed with fine sandpaper and a reapplication of oil.

Yes, Mycelium Running is big in both concept and execution.  It's "the first book to give the Kingdom of the Fungi its proper place in the scheme of things.  It is the most important book on nature that I've seen in years" according to Gary Lincoff, author of National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms.  Without a doubt, anyone would be delighted to have it sitting on their bookshelf.  However, we encourage you to wile away the hours browsing its pages and dreaming of how you fit into the world of fungi.  The cover page declares that this resource is "a manual for the mycological rescue of the planet.  That's right:  growing more mushrooms may be the best thing we can do to save the environment and in this groundbreaking text from mushroom expert Paul Stamets, you'll find out how."   We concur!

Remember that your recipe has to be original.  The mushroom gods don't take kindly to plagiarism!

 

Flowers always enhance the dining table.

• E-mail us your original submission written in English for inclusion on our website, using "Recipe Contest" as part of the subject line.  
• The recipe should not have been published in a book, magazine or similar format but may have been published online in a personal blog.
• All entries must be received at MadAboutMushrooms@gmail.com by midnight on January 31, 2019  
• The winner will be notified by e-mail and will be announced on this website on or before February 28, 2019.  The prize for the winner will be shipped on or around February 28, 2019. 
• All recipes must include wild and/or cultivated mushrooms as an ingredient. 
• This is a free contest, open to all who wish to participate.  Contest is open to both amateur and professional cooks alike who are legal US residents and who are 18 years or older at time of entry. 
• The winner will be chosen solely at the discretion of the judges, whose decision is final.
• The prize is non-transferable and no substitutions are allowed. 
• Be sure to include complete instructions, have readily available ingredients which are listed in the order of their inclusion in the dish, use specific standard measurements, and note suggested number of servings.
• Judges have the option of awarding more than one prize.
• Prize winning recipe(s) will be determined based on overall flavor and visual appeal.
• Judging is not open to entrants or to the public.
• Winner(s) will be notified before posting on this site.
• Multiple entries will be accepted.
• Be sure to include your name, mailing address and phone number as well as e-mail address; we need to be able to easily contact you.    Unless authorized in writing, we will not share your personal information with anyone for any reason whatsoever.
• By submitting an entry, the entrant certifies that he/she has authored their recipe and that, as such, it reflects their own efforts and creativity.  Entrant further certifies that the recipe does not violate any copyright laws. 
• The entrant understands that their recipe may be published on this website and/or as part of a manuscript, and, by their submission, authorizes and agrees to such publication without any compensation other than if they are selected the prize winner. 
• All decisions are final.   

 

So, put your creative energies to work.  Show us how you use mushrooms to enhance your culinary life.  Hope to be preparing your recipe soon!