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#Foraging recipe
pickeatdraw · 2 years
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Chicken of the Woods Recipe
'Chicken', Leek, and Mushroom Pie
Chicken of the Woods (Laetiporus Sulphureus) is one of summer’s most exciting and unmistakable finds. With its distinctive bright yellow-orange colouring and characteristic globular shape, this is a great beginner mushroom for anyone just dipping their toes into mushroom hunting. It goes without saying though: never eat a mushroom that you haven’t confirmed the identity of using several sources.
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Chicken of the woods is a bracket fungus that grows on trees and dead wood. Every specimen I’ve found has been on a beautiful gnarled old oak tree, but they can also grow on cherry, sweet chestnut, willow, and yew. Take care when collecting and pay attention to where they’re growing. Fungus growing on yew can take in toxins from this poisonous tree, and I’ve heard that the occasional specimen on old fence posts can have the same issue with substances used to treat the wood. Be careful and only collect specimens from deciduous trees and stumps.
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When picking chicken of the woods, the younger the better. Small fans with bright yellow colouring and rounded edges are in their prime. At this stage, the fungus is a choice culinary delight, with a soft texture similar to chicken- hence the name. As they age, COTW grow into large fans with wavy edges, becoming pale and dry. Once this mushroom is past its best, it has a texture more akin to polystyrene than juicy chicken!
You can find plenty of recipes online for making meals out of chicken of the woods, often capitalising on its namesake as a veggie replacement in dishes traditionally made with white meat. Lots of recipes include breading and frying, which cotw lends itself well to.
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The recipe below is another foraged play on a British pub classic- chicken, leek and mushroom pie. Though it seems a little excessive (this is actually a mushroom, leek, and more mushroom pie!) the addition of other mushrooms is important to the flavour. As well as having a texture similar to chicken, cotw tastes similar to chicken too- which is to say that it tastes of very little at all. You can use any other kind of mushroom you like, but the best would be those with a strong, mushroomy flavour. I’ve used dryad’s saddles, but some good foraged alternatives would be parasols, field mushrooms, or any kind of edible bolete. If you rehydrate dried mushrooms to use in this recipe, you can replace some or all of the stock with the mushroom-soaking liquid for extra umami!
Chicken of the Woods, Leek, and Mushroom Pie Recipe.
Ingredients
For the Pastry:
80 grams salted butter
80 grams lard (substitute with more butter to make this recipe vegetarian)
500g plain flour
1 egg, plus one for glazing
For the Filling:
500g fresh chicken of the woods mushroom
2 large leeks
200g other mushrooms (rehydrated weight if using dried)
3 cloves garlic
5tbsp plain flour
200ml chicken or vegetable stock
200ml full-fat milk or single cream
1 handful chopped fresh parsley, or 2 tbsp dried
1 handful chopped fresh tarragon, or 2 tbsp dried (optional)
1 tsp craked black pepper
2tsp mustard powder, or 1tsp English mustard
1/2 tsp paprika (optional)
White wine, white wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar for deglazing
Butter for frying
Method:
Make the pastry using a hot water crust method. Measure out your flour in a large heatproof bowl. Crack the egg into the centre and use a butterknife to stir it into the floure. Heat your fat(s) gently in a saucepan with 200ml cold water until melted. Allow the liquid to cool for a minute or so, then tip into the middle of your flour/egg mixture. Stir quickly with your butterknife to combine. Tip the dough out onto a surface and knead very briefly until smooth. Wrap tightly and place in the fridge to cool for at least an half an hour.
Heat a large knob of butter in a saucepan over a medium-high heat. Clean your chicken of the woods mushrooms and slice away any bruised or soft areas. Cut the rest into small bite-sized chunks. Slice your other mushrooms thickly (if using rehydrated, drain off as much liquid as possible). Throw everything in the pan and fry, stirring frequently, until thoroughly browned.
Thickly slice the leeks and mince the garlic. Once the mushrooms are browned, turn the heat down to medium-low and add the leeks with the garlic. Fry for a few minutes until starting to colour. Deglaze the pan with a splash of wine or vinegar, then add the mustard, pepper, and paprika (if using) to the pan and stir.
Turn the heat to low. Add the flour and stir through evenly, so all the filling is coated. Very slowly pour in your stock, stirring constantly, allowing the flour to absorb all the liquid you've poured in before adding more. Once all the stock has been added, pour in the milk/cream and stir again. Stir in the herbs and allow the mixture to simmer gently for ten minutes, stirring occasionally, until thickened.
Preheat your oven to 190 degrees (fan 170, gas mark 5). Lightly grease your tin. A large, flat tart tin works, but I've used a deep 9-inch cake tin to give the pie a little height. If making a deeper pie, split the pastry into two pieces of roughly two thirds (for the bottom) and one third (for the top). If making a flatter pie, split it roughly in half.
Roll out your bottom piece of pastry into a rough circle big enough to cover the bottom and sides of your dish. You shouldn't need to flour your surface, but you can do so if your pastry sticks. Place the rolled out pastry into the tin and gently press into the sides. Pour the filling into the pie crust.
Beat an egg in a small bowl with a splash of milk. Brush a little of this eggwash around the lip of the pie crust. Roll out the top piece, and place it on top. Use your thumb and forefinger to crimp the edge, then slice off the excess pastry with a sharp knife. Use the offcuts to decorate the top if you're feeling creative, and slice some lines to allow steam to escape. Then brush the top off the pie with more eggwash.
Bake for about an hour, or until golden brown on top. Let the pie cool for ten minutes or so after removing from the oven so it holds its shape better when sliced. Eat as it is, or try it with roast veg and a homemade mushroom gravy!
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askwhatsforlunch · 2 years
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Blackberry French Toast
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Whether you have it for breakfast or a late brunch in the garden, this Blackberry French Toast is worth going out foraging on a Sunday morning! And if you serve it with a scoop of Goat Milk Ice Cream or Vanilla Bean Ice Cream, it makes a brilliant dessert! Happy Sunday!
Ingredients (serves 1):
1 small egg
2 tablespoons semi-skimmed milk
1 teaspoon Homemade Vanilla Extract
1 tablespoon caster sugar
1 tablespoon unsalted butter 
1 thick slice (about 50 grams/1.75 ounce) stale Sourdough Bread (or any other bread you like)
1/2 tablespoon unsalted butter
3 dozens Wild Blackberries
1 heaped teaspoon natural honey
Break the egg in a shallow plate. Add the milk and Vanilla Extract, and whisk thoroughly with a fork until-well blended. Then, whisk in caster sugar until dissolved. Set aside.
Melt butter in a small, nonstick skillet or frying pan over medium heat. 
Soak Sourdough Bread slice into the egg mixture, on both sides until just softened.
Once the butter is just foaming, add soaked Bread slice to the skillet, and increase heat to medium-high. Cook, about 2 minutes on each side. 
Serve French Toast onto a plate; keep warm.
In the skillet, melt butter.
Rinse Wild Blackberries thoroughly, and add -saving half a dozen- to the butter once it is foaming. Cook, 1 minute, shaking the pan to coat the Blackberries in butter and break them up. As they start reddening, drizzle with honey, and cook, a further minute or two.
Top French Toast with Wild Blackberry compote and fresh Blackberries.
Enjoy Blackberry French Toast immediately.
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allium-girl · 4 months
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Pine Needle Soda: Fermentation for Beginners
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fullcravings · 11 months
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Chocolate Cremeux Cake with Espresso Buttercream
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sometiktoksarevalid · 6 months
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bekkathyst · 24 days
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I’m taking full advantage of the unseasonably warm weather. Here are some snippets of the lovely Spring feast I made 🌸
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tried making the forager chef’s winter chanterelle broth recipe
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goodthingstoknoww · 1 year
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pussy-king420 · 2 years
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i made dandelion honey!! it looks like a magic potion and tastes incredible!
recipe:
2 cups dandelion petals (removed from the green flowerheads - this took me about 175 flowers for 2 UK cups but anywhere between 150 and 200 should be alright)
3 cups water
1 tsp vanilla essence (you can use bean paste or a whole bean i only had essence on hand)
3 lemon slices
sugar
in a pan, bring to the boil and lower the heat slightly to simmer for 30 minutes, then leave to steep overnight or 6-12 hours. strain the liquid through a jam strainer or cheesecloth, then measure the liquid and add an equal quantity of sugar to the liquid (i used grams rather than cups for this part), then gently boil for an hour until syrupy and reduced to about two thirds of the original depth. Pour into a sterilised jar, let it cool, then enjoy!
you can use it as you would normal honey, I've used it on toast, in coffee and in cake so far, all with good results.
tip: it may crystallise like a syrup or honey does, but you can gently heat the jar in a pan of hot water to return it to a liquid state.
always remember to forage responsibly and safely, make sure you don't use a polluted area or where its likely to have been contaminated by dogs etc, and leave some for the bees!
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los-plantalones · 6 days
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Ready for some delicious syrup made from grape hyacinth (muscari) flowers?! LET’S GO.
Ingredients:
1 cup grape hyacinth flowers
1 cup water
2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Instructions:
Wash the flowers (we REALLY don’t want bugs in our syrup).
Add the flowers to a mason jar or other heat-safe container. Pour 1 cup boiling water over the flowers and let infuse for 1-2 hours (no longer or it can turn bitter!)
Strain the flowers and add the infusion to a pot along with the sugar and lemon juice.
Simmer over medium heat, until the sugar is completely dissolved.
At this point, your syrup is technically done. BUT if you want it to be thicker, you can continue simmering, stirring occasionally, until it’s to your liking.
Remove from heat and pour into a sterilized mason jar. At this point you can either 1) Store your syrup in the fridge if you plan to use it soon, or 2) Water bath can it for long term storage.
YOU DID A SYRUP! This can be used to make lemonade, mixed into cocktails, poured over ice cream. . . you do you!!
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bitegore · 13 days
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soliciting your favorite recipe using dandelions! any part of the plant works for me, i'm just eyeing the new crop this spring and thinking about what i can make that isn't salad
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pickeatdraw · 2 years
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Saffron Milk Cap Recipe Suggestion
Garlicky Milk Caps with Onion Rice and Asparagus
If you’re lucky, you’ll get a decent haul of specimens of the same mushroom on a good year. The problem is deciding what to do with them all!
This is not so much a recipe as a suggestion. One of the problems I find with wild food recipes, aside from trawling through hundreds of variations of the same meal, is that quite often the ‘recipe’ is more of a manner of cooking. I love all my foraging guides, but there’s only so many time I can “fry in butter with bacon and salt” before I die of boredom…
I want to know what spices people are using, and what they’re serving on the side! I want to know who thinks it’s a breakfast food and who thinks it’s a decorative garnish.
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So, here’s a recipe suggestion for saffron milk caps. They’re fried Spanish style (as suggested by Roger Philips), but as a pile of mushrooms isn’t a whole meal to me, they go with some tasty and complimentary sides.
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I’ve actually used false saffron milk caps in this recipe. Though the use of the word ‘false’ in front of a delicious edible mushroom usually triggers panic in a forager, this one is thankfully not a poisonous imposter trying to pull off a very mean trick. In fact, it’s a very similar mushroom- apparently so similar that until recently, both were thought to be one species. The differentiating characteristic is that saffron milk caps (Lactarius Deliciosus) are found under pine, while false saffron milk caps (Lactarius Deterrimus) are found under spruce. The differentiating characteristics of pine and spruce are for another post!
Most foragers seem to recount true saffron milk caps as delicious and their false counterparts as only slightly less so. I’ve not been lucky enough to fine the pine species yet, so I can’t confirm that, but I will say the specimens I used in the recipe below were lacking in flavour but had a very pleasant texture. Luckily, some well seasoned side dishes make this a well rounded meal. Two warnings before the recipe begins; first, never eat a mushroom if you’re not 100% sure what it is; second, if you’re not a fan of garlic, this isn’t for you.
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Garlicky Milk Caps with Onion Rice and Asparagus Recipe
Serves 2
Ingredients
5-6 large saffron milk caps, chopped, or more smaller specimens, intact
1 bunch asparagus
1 small onion
1 cup long grain rice
1 bulb garlic
1/2 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp sweet paprika
Handful chopped fresh parsley, or 1 tbsp dried
1 cup chicken or vegetable stock
Butter, for cooking
Salt to taste
Method:
Dice the onion and add to a saucepan over a medium heat, with a knob of butter, and fry until beginning to brown. Then add 3 cloves diced garlic, paprika, coriander seeds, and a pinch of salt. Throw the rice in the pot and stir through, toasting slightly.
Pour the stock into the rice and cover with a lid. Turn the heat to low and allow to simmer for 15 minutes, then turn off the heat. Don't open the lid at any point until you're ready to serve.
While the rice is cooking, place your milk caps into a pan and set to a medium heat with no fat. Allow them to sweat out any liquid, sprinkling over a pinch of salt to aid the process. Continue to dry fry the mushrooms and allow them to brown slightly, turning the heat a little higher if you need to.
Meanwhile, prepare your asparagus however you prefer. I used a griddle pan to fry the stalks in salted butter over a medium-high heat, turning after a few minutes or once griddle marks appear. For thick stalks, add a spoonful of water to the pan, cover with a loose lid and allow to steam for a minute or until tender.
Once all your components are ready, dice another 3 cloves of garlic and add them to the milkcaps with the parsley. Stir a few times, then serve hot with the rice, asparagus, and a slice of crusty bread.
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allium-girl · 11 months
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Honeysuckle Ice Cream
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fullcravings · 11 months
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Coconut Doughnuts
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sometiktoksarevalid · 7 months
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bekkathyst · 1 month
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Happy Spring Equinox! 💞🌸
Here’s a soup 😊
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