As autumn and then winter have swept through Melbourne, I've noticed that wild mushrooms are available at lots of good fruit and veg shops. I've always been intrigued by their gnarled shapes and earthy colours and, after talking about it for about six weeks, I finally got around to actually buying some. Just a pine (on the left) and a king brown (on the right) from one of the organic shops at the Queen Vic Markets to get me started.
To make sure I properly appreciated their flavours, I just fried them with a dob of butter and served them up on lightly toasted Turkish bread. The texture of the king brown was a little soft for my tastes, but both were quite tasty - probably not as exotic or exciting as I'd hoped, but satisfyingly earthy nonetheless. If anyone has any good tips about wild mushrooms - tasty varieties, places to get them (buy them I should say - I'm not quite keen enough to spend the weekends foraging) and recipes to use them in, it'd be much appreciated.
Pine mushrooms are really satisfyingly chewy, aren't they?
ReplyDeleteThe best place I know, for both exotic mushrooms and hints and tips for cooking them is Damien Pike's stand a Prahran Market. There must be one at Vic Market too, but Damien knows his stuff.
He even has fresh truffles, hidden somewhere 'out the back'...
Ah, of course! We haven't been to the Prahran Market since mushroom season hit, but I remember the wonderful stand there.
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