MUSHROOM RESOURCES
Mushroom Club of Georgia: gamushroomclub.org
Fifth Kingdom Fine Mushrooms: 5thkingdom.com
Love Is Love Farm/Gaia Gardens: loveislovefarm.com/gaia-gardens
Foraged, farmed or homegrown, many more varieties of wild, exotic and flavorful mushrooms are available around Atlanta these days, making the generic white buttons in supermarket produce sections seem as bland as white bread.
Among the many examples of mycological mania, the Mushroom Club of Georgia promotes the enjoyment and study of wild mushrooms with walks, educational programs and recipe exchanges.
Atlanta’s Fifth Kingdom Fine Mushrooms offers year-round freshly harvested mushrooms, such as lion’s mane, and seasonally foraged wild mushrooms, such as morels, chanterelles and maitakes, supplying restaurants and selling to the public at farmers markets.
At Love Is Love Farm/Gaia Gardens at East Lake Commons, Joe Reynolds nurtures shiitake mushrooms that he sells in East Atlanta and at other area farmers markets. He also teaches classes on growing mushrooms at home. Fresh-cut hardwood logs are drilled with holes, inoculated with shiitake spores and sealed with cheese wax.
“Then we play the waiting game,” Reynolds says. “It takes anywhere from eight to 12 months for the colonization of the logs. Over three to five years, we can get multiple harvests from a log until the shiitakes have eaten everything they can and the colony dies off.”
Reynolds currently gets $16 a pound for shiitakes, the most expensive price of any crop he grows on the small urban farm. But, he points out, a pound is a lot of mushrooms. And, of course, the meaty texture and delicate flavor are well worth it.
At home, Reynolds likes to use shiitakes in elemental dishes that showcase their umami essence. “I’m a pretty simple cook,” he says. “My favorite thing to do is cut them into strips, saute them in butter and serve them on toast with a little salt. That’s delicious. I think they’re delicious with eggs, too. They make a great quiche.”
On the restaurant side, Drew Belline, who oversees the culinary operations at No. 246 in Decatur and St. Cecilia in Buckhead, is a longtime devotee of sourcing regional ingredients and foraging for the likes of ramps and wild mushrooms.
“When I think about wild mushrooms in Georgia, it always makes me hypersensitive to the seasons — particularly to the spring, summer and fall,” Belline says. “Three mushrooms come to mind that tend to be in abundance during those three seasons. In the spring, it’s morels, the summertime, chanterelles, and in the fall, maitakes — definitely my three favorites.”
We asked Belline to come up with recipes using those favorites. He obliged, explaining that he designed each recipe to highlight the flavor of each mushroom, but adding that other mushrooms can easily be substituted, according to the season and availability.
“When cooking with mushrooms, I like to keep things simple,” Belline says. “I want the mushrooms to stand out, and not get confused in a dish with eight or nine different components. With these mushrooms, I like to think in trilogies of ‘what grows together goes together.’ ”
“In the spring, when the morels come around, I’m thinking morels, peas and ramps. In the summertime, when the chanterelles start to pop, I’m thinking chanterelles, sweet corn and tarragon. When fall rolls around, I’m thinking maitakes, broccoli rabe and fresh chiles.”
The recipes showcase the kind of easygoing cooking Belline likes to do at home, and can be made with fish, poultry or pasta.
“With just three ingredients, you can craft a simple, quick dish built around your favorite protein or starch or you can just eat them alone without any other nonsense,” he says. “Plus all of these ingredients will be available together during the peak of each season at any of your local farmers markets.”
Recipes
“These are three of my favorite at-home recipes for our three wonderful Georgia mushroom seasons,” says Atlanta chef Drew Belline. But Belline explains that you can substitute other mushrooms, depending on what’s available at local markets. And you can omit the proteins or starches to make you own vegetarian or gluten-free versions.
Morels, Peas and Ramps Spring Medley With Snapper
Hands on: 30 minutes
Total time: 45 minutes
Serves: 4
Good young sweet peas are crucial for the success of this dish. Taste before you buy; they should burst with sweet pea flavor when eaten raw. If you can’t find ramps, small locally grown onions will work just fine.
2 tablespoons good-quality olive oil, divided
1/2 pound morels, rinsed, dried and cleaned
10 ramps or young spring onions, trimmed and rinsed
Salt and pepper
1/2 cup shelled sweet English peas
1/4 cup dry white wine
2 tablespoons butter
1 lemon, juiced
1 sprig of thyme
4 (4-ounce) snapper fillets
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
In a saute pan over medium heat, add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and morels. Cook for 2 minutes and add the ramps with a little salt and pepper. After another 3 minutes, toss in peas, wine, butter, lemon juice and thyme and cook 2 more minutes. Check the seasoning, adjust accordingly and keep warm. In another saute pan over medium heat, add 1 tablespoon olive oil. Season snapper fillets with salt and pepper and add to the pan skin side down. After 1 minute, place the pan with snapper fillets in the oven and cook for 6-7 minutes, or until they are just cooked through.
To serve: Place fillets on plates and spoon spring mushroom medley over the top.
Per serving: 278 calories (percent of calories from fat, 47), 26 grams protein, 10 grams carbohydrates, 3 grams fiber, 14 grams fat (5 grams saturated), 57 milligrams cholesterol, 119 milligrams sodium.
Chanterelles, Sweet Corn and Tarragon With Pasta
Hands on: 30 minutes
Total time: 30 minutes
Serves: 4
Think of this recipe as a flavor guideline for many different delicious summertime dishes. For instance, you could toss in some Georgia white shrimp and Sapelo Island clams. If you want to get a little more intense, make some ricotta ravioli instead of the pasta.
1/2 pound of your favorite pasta, fresh or dried
1 pound chanterelles trimmed, rinsed and dried
Good-quality olive oil
3 cloves of garlic, slivered
1 cup fresh sweet corn kernels
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup dry white wine
Juice of 1 lemon
3 tablespoons fresh tarragon leaves
Salt and pepper to taste
Chili flakes, a pinch
Grana Padano cheese, for grating
Get a large pot of salted water boiling and cook pasta according to directions. The pan sauce will only take 6-7 minutes, so cook the pasta accordingly. In a large saute pan over medium high heat, add the chanterelles and some salt and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add a splash of olive oil and garlic and cook for an additional minute, add the sweet corn, toss through and cook for one more minute. Quickly add butter, wine, lemon juice and tarragon and adjust the seasoning as necessary with salt, pepper and a pinch of chili flakes. Add pasta and toss through the sauce.
To serve: Family-style on a platter or divide the pasta and sauce mixture between four bowls and top with grated cheese.
Per serving: 419 calories (percent of calories from fat, 30), 11 grams protein, 62 grams carbohydrates, 11 grams fiber, 14 grams fat (5 grams saturated), 16 milligrams cholesterol, 18 milligrams sodium.
Maitake Mushrooms, Broccoli Rabe and Fresh Chiles With Roasted Chicken
Hands on: 45 minutes
Total time: 1 1/2 hours
Serves: 4 with leftovers
Whole roasted pastured chicken is even better when you have big, meaty mushrooms like maitakes slow roasting underneath it, soaking up all of the delicious pan drippings. This is a perfect dish for when the weather starts to turn cool.
For the roasted chicken:
2 pounds of maitake mushrooms that have been trimmed, washed and broken into large chunks
1 pound small potatoes (whatever potato you want to use, but no larger than a golf ball)
6 whole garlic cloves
3 tablespoons olive oil
4 sprigs of thyme
1 lemon, sliced
1 cup chicken broth
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 whole pastured chicken, 3-4 pounds, from your favorite farmer, trussed and rubbed with salt, pepper, extra-virgin olive oil and crushed garlic
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a large roasting pan, layer the mushrooms, potatoes and whole garlic cloves, and add olive oil, thyme, sliced lemon and chicken broth and season with salt and pepper. Place the whole chicken on top of the mixture and roast an hour or more until a meat thermometer registers 165 degrees. The skin should be golden brown and crispy. The mushrooms will have absorbed all the pan drippings and should be soft in the center and crispy on the outside.
To serve: Carve chicken and plate over mushroom mixture with broccoli rabe on the side.
Per serving (without broccoli rabe): 369 calories (percent of calories from fat, 45), 30 grams protein, 23 grams carbohydrates, 3 grams fiber, 19 grams fat (3 grams saturated), 69 milligrams cholesterol, 193 milligrams sodium.
For the broccoli rabe:
1 bunch of broccoli rabe with the woody bases trimmed away
2 tablespoons good-quality olive oil
Local spicy chiles, slit lengthwise; the amount you use is up to you; make it as spicy as you want
3 garlic cloves, sliced
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste
In a pot of boiling salted water, blanch the broccoli rabe for 1-2 minutes. In a medium-size saute pan over medium high heat, add the olive oil. Strain the broccoli rabe from the water, making sure you give it a second to drain, and add it to the hot pan with the local chiles, saute for 1-2 minutes and add the sliced garlic. When the edges of the garlic just start to brown, remove from the heat and add the lemon juice, salt and pepper. Serve as a side dish for the roasted chicken and mushrooms.
Per serving: 71 calories (percent of calories from fat, 54), 3 grams protein, 6 grams carbohydrates, 3 grams fiber, 5 grams fat (1 gram saturated), no cholesterol, 28 milligrams sodium.
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