We Bhadra Yogis practice our Vinyasa class outside at Elmwood Park on Saturday mornings in the fall season. While driving through the park this past week, I spotted a Chicken of the Woods in a familiar spot against a tree where I had harvested one (photo above) five years before. These candy corn-looking things are enormous, often weighing five pounds or more. In case there is an impromptu opportunity to forage, I keep a bag and a knife on hand in the car. When the knife is missing, I call Alex - because she will have one, since she is also an avid forager. Knowing that we would not have time to harvest it for two or more days, I did not worry that someone else would come along and snatch it up in the interim. Most people no longer notice mushrooms, hedge apples on the ground, or much else in nature these days due to various distractions like the phone and the dog. I say, “Good. More for me (and Alex).”
That said, I do want people to care more. So, let’s begin with the wonderous Chicken of the Woods mushroom, named as such because it tastes and has a texture very much like chicken. Being a polypore, it is a denser mushroom, so you can marinate it before cooking, and it will hold that flavor. Try not to overdo it - you want the flavor of the mushroom to come through. ALWAYS cook your mushrooms. This goes beyond the wild to the cultivated and common white button mushrooms found year-round in the grocery store. Cook them. The lighter and more delicate the mushroom, the less you need to cook it, but cook it all the same. Remember when our mothers sliced those white button mushrooms and put them raw into our salad? Toxins and bacteria…yum.
I decided to use my pound of Chicken mushrooms in a white bean chili in lieu of the typical feathered chicken, which I never eat anyway. (I am more fearful of salmonella than being accidentally poisoned by a mushroom).
As Julia Child said, “Don’t crowd your mushrooms” when cooking them. Use a large pan and lots of butter. Since they were going into a chili and not standing on their own, I decided to simply cook them in butter with salt and pepper rather than marinate them. Cut off the clumps of the tough, white underside of the mushroom after you have washed them and remove any plant debris or dirt.
This is the delicious result:
Alex sent me a photo of her mushrooms after they were dried in her vegetable dehydrator, and after she then ground the dried mushrooms into powder to add to soups and stews over the winter months:
Cheers!
Love & Blessings,
