Wild mushrooms

[Sakkarin Profile]

Thanks Suffs, I'm pretty sure you're right as I left them to one side and they opened out, and look like the pix in your link. I took a quick pic before work this morning (link below), but having just got home tonight they're not particularly healthy looking now, so I'm not encouraged to cook them.

http://www.sakkarin.co.uk/foodforumpix/horse.jpg

Earlier today I spotted some more as I drove past the place I found those, may pop back there tomorrow and get some fresh ones.

Your comment about the yellow stainers was interesting, as some had a slight yellow tinge, however I bullied one of them and sliced it, but it didn't go yellow. One of my mushroom books says of the horse mushroom, "It has a creamy white cap and stem which discolour and bruise yellow..."

but then says "Great care should be taken not to confuse this with the Yellow Stainer which can make you violently ill".

However it also says if the stem is cut, it will turn yellow if it is a yellow stainer. It didn't.

[Suffs Profile]

They look good to me ..... but I haven’t told you to eat them ....

[Gillthepainter Profile Website]

I watched a film, true story.
Of a loaner. Who lived in the wild wild lonely lands. Foraging, living in a disused caravan. Relying on his foraging botanical book.

But sadly, he ate a weed he thought was safe.
Turned a page, and was told not to mistake it for a deadly plant that shuts the system down. Very sad, he was trapped by the elements around him, flooded river, snow, and died, writing his final thoughts in his diary.

Don't eat those mushrooms, Sakkers.

[Suffs Profile]

The most potent mushroom toxins are very slow acting ... causing gradual and often irreversible organ failure ...

[Lusciouslush Profile]

Why did the mushroom go to the party?

Because he was a fungi.....!

Boom Boom!!!!

[Sakkarin Profile]

From organ failure to party mood in the blink of an eye!

As this thread was started by Joan, who is the Queen of Quails, it's intriguing that the serving suggestion for horse mushrooms in one of my mushroomy books is to serve them with stuffed quail

They were already past their prime when Suffs posted, they deteriorated very quickly, so have been binned - the book also says cook them the day they're picked. Having looked at all the info however, I'm pretty sure they were horse mushrooms, but as they're gone now, I've yet to cook my first home foraged mushrooms.

[Joanbunting Profile]

Of course quails can be stuffed with just about anything savoury and edible though not forgetting grapes which also go very well.

On Thursday I sampled a dish that was newly introduced on a restaurant menu. It was briefly pan-fried fresh foie-gras, brushed with muscat jelly and served in/on a ceps veloute. Chef told me the ceps had been gathered that morning in the area around the restaurant. It was truly memorable and it was on a €34.00 menu, in a not very high-end restaurant!

[Alexandria Profile]

Joan,

Your meal sounds sublimely exquisite needless to say ..

Pleased to hear that you enjoyed and have a lovely day ..

[Joanbunting Profile]

Last evening, in the midst of a kitchen crisis - the gas cylinder ran out - a neighbour arrived at the door with a basket of lactaires whci he and his brother had just picked. They were perfect

The weather has been so mild, not to say warm, and there has been so much rain they are still growing in profusion. He told us they are locally known as truffle mushrooms because they grow in the oak plantations which have been planted for some years to boost the truffle production here. Now I know another place to hunt because it's his land and he says we are welcome in the season. I might even train the cat to sniff out the real thing!

They will be washed carefully - de stalked and cooked in evoo and garlic and served with chopped parsley on grain bread toast for lunch. Anyone have time to pop over??

[Suffs Profile]

............. on our way .........................

[Stokey Sue Profile]

Good luck with training Jules, Joan!

I have a vision now of you and M. herding cats through the forest.

[Uschi Profile]

Lovely, Joan!!! I wish I could teleport!