My most common running route winds through residential streets to an area called Pinnacle Hill. I'm pretty sure its the tallest hill within the city (probably 100-150 feet from base to top), and there are a number of TV and Radio antennae erected near the top of it. The slopes of the hill are undeveloped, and there is probably 10-15 acres of wooded area. I'm not entirely sure who owns the property, though I suspect its the city. The property is not maintained in any way, and its not heavily used, but there are some trails on one side of the hill. There is even a vew from the top. I mostly see people walking dogs there. I often do part of my runs there because I prefer to run on trails, and I figure its probably good to include hills while I'm running.
So the last couple times I had gone running there, I noticed that a big, immature puffball had been kicked apart near one of the trails. I knew that puffballs are edible when they are young(though I'd never had one), and fun to poke when they are mature (spewing clouds of spores). I'd never actually seen a giant puffball, and I thought it rather unfortunate that this puffball was neither eaten, nor allowed the chance to propagate. There were several chunks of it near the trail, and another chunk about 20 feet away from the trail. This time when I went back, I noticed that the chunks near the trail were rotting, but the chunk away from the trail actually looked bigger that it was before. Upon closer inspection, that "chunk" was actually a different, whole, puffball. Knowing that these are prized edibles, I quickly picked it up, knocked the slugs off the bottom, and set off home with my 'shroom. I was quite excited about this.
I didn't know what puffballs tasted like, but I certainly wanted to give it a try. Personally, I think that mushrooms can have dramatically different flavors. The basic white ones and even the portabellos have a pretty mild, dirt-like flavor. Others that are cultivated and you can find at most grocery stores like oyster and maitake are usually pretty boring, too. In my opinion, Shiitake's are the one cultivated mushroom that have a really distinct flavor. I think they have a stronger flavor and bit of a metallic tang to them that I didn't like at first, but I've actually been craving lately. The uncultivateable, wild foraged ones are the more expensive ones, and from my limited experience, can have some stronger flavors. I love Porcini mushrooms, and they make a pretty amazing risotto. I haven't had Chanterelles or Morels, but those are the most sought-after mushrooms short of truffles. So you can see why I was so excited about trying the wild puffball.
People sure do look at you funny when you walk around a city residential area gingerly carrying a 5.5lb mushroom. I had one kid on a bike stop and say, "Wow! Is that a mushroom?!" As I was walking home, I started to notice the smell of the puffball. I can't say I found it entirely appetizing. At this point I was starting to realize that I may have (almost literally) bitten off more than I could chew.
As soon as I got home, I measured and weighed the specimen. It was approximately 10" x 12" x 14", and weighed in at 5.5lbs. I captured the moment with my phone camera.
The next step was to verify that it was, in fact, edible. Checking my mushroom identification guidebook and the internet, I determined that giant puffballs are indeed, "choice edibles." All puffballs are edible, but the larger species (like this one) are supposedly best. Disclaimer: Some highly poisonous immature mushrooms look like small (we're talking an inch or so) puffballs. Those poisonous mushrooms start off as little balls before popping up into things that look like normal mushrooms. If you cut the puffball open and you see something that looks like the gills and cap of a mushroom inside, don't eat it! If a puffball is more than a few inches in diameter, there really isn't anything else that it can be mistaken for (maybe a soccer ball?). You still need too cut it open to check the inside, though. Once the inside of a puffball has started to mature and create spores, its no good. Supposedly its not really poisonous, but tastes really bad and might "irritate" your digestive system, or so the internet says. So cut it open and check to see that it is a uniform white color inside without any purple or brown areas. Done:
That picture doesn't look too impressive, but that knife is actually a pretty good-sized 9" blade. I wish I had Jaime take a picture of me holding it for scale.
So now that I know its edible, how do I process it? The internet says not to wash puffballs because they suck up water like a sponge. Ok, so I just cut away the parts that had been nibbled on by slugs. Jaime refuses to eat it (or even allow it to be kept in the refridgerator or house). While she likes normal grocery store mushrooms, she's "got a thing about big mushrooms and fungus". So apparently I'm on my own with this thing. I did find one friend who wanted some, so I have him about 1/6 of it. Nobody else has shown any interest, so I'll probably give him a bunch more of it.
On to cooking.... The internet says the best way to cook it is to bread and fry it, or sautee it in butter. Done:
Hmm. Not only does it suck up water like a sponge, it also does the same with butter. It tasted like butter with a bit of generic mushroom flavor. It was surprisingly mild. I can't say that I'm entirely sad about that, though. I was pretty worried about the flavor considering that I wasn't too fond of the smell. I also tried chopping some up and putting it on leftover pizza. I couldn't taste it at all. I found the texture very interesting, though. The closest comparison I could come up with was the inside of a biscuit. Very soft. It didn't cook down to be rubbery or slimey like normal mushrooms do.
My brother (who didn't want any of my puffball because he and his wife already had a puffball of their own that they had found and were eating) suggested that I make puffball parmesan, which is his favorite method of puffball preparation. So I gave it a try.
I liked that quite a bit better than the sauteed in butter method. The puffball flavor wasn't too strong, but it was definitely there. The problem is, I'm not sure that I like the flavor. I want to like it, but I'm starting to think I don't. Its got some normal mushroom flavor to it, but its also got its own flavor that is hard to describe. Hang on, let me pull out my wine wheel.... In addition to the standard dirt-like mushroom flavor, I get hints of oak, medicine, and licorice. I don't know if that really does it justice, but thats the best I can do; the wheel was made for wine, not mushrooms!
I did hear about a few other interesting puffball recipes. I'm not sure if I'll try any of these or not. An internet recipe suggested stuffed giant puffball. You basically cut off the top and hollow it out like a pumpkin. Then you put in meat and chopped up veggies and some of the chopped up 'shroom that you removed and put it in the oven for a long time. I don't see myself doing that, and its already been cut in half. A friend of Jaime's said that her family coats slices in egg and cooks it like French Toast. Lastly, I saw a suggestion on the internet to cut it into slices and use the slices as crust for pizza. Just spread sauce and cheese and toppings on it and cook it like a normal pizza. Considering its mild flavor and bread/biscuit like character, that might be worth a try.
I'll have to do whatever I'm going to do soon, though. I can't imagine it will keep more than a few days wrapped up in a towel in our garage.
No comments:
Post a Comment