Friday, October 31, 2008

Parasol Mushroom or Coulemelle

Ever since I was introduced to these mushrooms, I've been a fan.

Coulemelle or lepiote elevee or parasol mushrooms, so called because they look like little umbrellas. Since the caps grow to a size of 10-35cm, they are fairly easy to spot. We spotted 5 by the side of the road as we were driving to St Michel last Sunday.

In fact you would only want to pick the big ones cos their smaller cousins are toxic.
Another identifying feature is the ring around the stem called an annulus. I was told not to pick any without the annulus.

They are delicious, juicy mushrooms with a nice meaty flavour. Easily one of my favorites now. I was surprised to find that they are not particularly popular esp with X family - they all prefer cepes. Ah well more for me then.



These are young parasol mushrooms that look like drum sticks.

3 comments:

Elaine said...

I love mushrooms and these parasol ones are very new to me. I don't think I'd be able to find coulemelles in Montreal, sadly :(

SIG said...

Wow, lucky you. :)

petite fleur said...

elaine - It also depends very much on the type of trees. Do you get any wild mushrooms over there ?

sig - I know