Cultivating Mushrooms

These just arrived in the mail. 3 bottles of mycellium or mushroom spores. Rene has now embarked on a new project to cultivate mushrooms in his basement. I told you we're mushroom crazy chez nous. This really brings it to the another level.

I found a website that sells these & ordered 3 different strains for him to try. I'll be sure to post about this & hopefully we will be able to reap the benefits of this venture.

Les Chanterelles en Tube

With this dreadful weather that we're having right now, the only consolation is that we are now flushed with mushrooms.

These are called chanterelles en tube, sorry but I don't know the common name in English. A cousin to the famous golden chanterelle. As I've discovered recently, these grow in abundance in the woods behind us (I can't believe I'm living near a treasure trove of mushrooms).

They are easily identified by their yellow stem & dark brown cap but since they grow near pine trees, are often hidden under moss or piles of pine needles. But once you know where to look, you can easily collect several kilos of these in an afternoon.



They are very easy to prepare. After cleaning, just dry fry them in a pan until all the water is evaporated. Then add some diced garlic, a knob of butter & handful of parsley. Delicious with meat & scallops too - something I just discovered when X recently served them with pan fried scallops.

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.

The little straw house

This is the little straw house my friends Katia & Mathieu are building. You'll remember them from here. This is another example of people who are serious about bricolage. They are literally building their house from scratch.

Katia has even documented the whole process in her photo albums in Facebook. They are building their dream house in a dream location. This is really amazing especially to someone who grew up in the city & whose idea of building is that of Lego bricks.


I also love the fact that the materials they used are going to be energy efficient & environmentally friendly. Can't wait to see how their house turned out which is expected to be in spring next year.

Shall we take a walk around the area ?

Apple tree right in their backyard

The Girls enjoying our little walk around La Souche

Katia assured me this was edible
A mushroom called coulemelle
(which is absolutely delicious in an omelette)
Talk about dream location - a mushroom-growing field right by your house

The mushroom was bigger than The Girl's face

Milky Cap Mushrooms

Oh no not another mushroom post....oh yes it is & I can't promise that this will be the last.

These are called Lactarius deliciosus or Milky cap or Les Marseillais.

Ask anybody around here & they will tell you that these mushrooms grow in abundance in our woods. Of course the exact location is a highly guarded secret. I've seen people walking out with baskets full of these & naturally my interest was piqued.

Based on some rough directions (I suppose I was given this very privileged information by virtue of the fact that I live here but it was still scatchy) by Mr Chautard (he who owns the fig tree), I went in search of these mushrooms. It was my lucky day cos within hours, I found about 15 of them.

They grow near pine trees which is why in the pictures you see them all covered in pine needles. The part of the woods that I found them is a little overgrown, full of blackberry bushes with thorns & if one doesn't have a good sense of direction, could get themselves lost. Perhaps that was why I was able to find so many - I doubt too many people have trekked that area.

I broke several cardinal rules that day - I put them in a plastic bag which was the reason they were in less than stellar condition & I forgot my knife *gasp*. A good thing nobody saw me cos given how passionate the French are about doing things the right way, I'm sure I would have been given a earful for my sloppiness. My excuse - I really hadn't expected to find any, I thought I'd just recce the place.

These mushrooms ooze an orange milk when cut which makes them easy to be identified - see how my fingers are tainted orange. But boy do they perish quickly, I didn't have time to prepare them immediately & before I knew it, they were already turning green.

In the end, I cooked them as I normally do with other type of mushrooms - boil them first in water then fried with garlic & butter. They are meatier & don't shrink too much after cooking. I was a little disappointed with my first taste of these mushrooms - they are not as flavorful as say chanterelles or cepes. I just read that they make excellent meat substitutes in vegetarian mock meat dishes so I will prepare them differently the next time.

Cos there must be a reason they are so popular that they get sold by the truckloads to Marseille thereby earning the nickname Les Marseillais.

Mad about Mushrooms

This post took a while in the making cos I keep finding new mushrooms photos to be added but I think I'm going to stop for now & if there are any more, I'll just post again else I might never get this published.

Quite a few of you have asked me about my mushroom hunting jaunts so I thought I'll do a post on it. I'm certainly no expert & I'm still learning as I go along. But here's what I do know :

1. Use a wicker basket to carry your mushrooms. The theory is that it will allow the spores of the mushrooms to escape to start new patch & will also keep them fresher. Mushrooms sweat & if you keep them in a plastic bag, you'll reach home with a wet mess (I know this cos I speak from experience).

2. Cut not pick. Although we use the term to pick mushrooms, we actually don't pick them from the ground. You should always cut them at the stem just above the ground. That way you will not disturb the mushroom spawn allowing it to grow back. Besides it would be easier to clean without the load of mud attached to them. There are special mushroom knives out there but a regular knife would suffice. And for mushrooms like the mousserons that have small stems, it's easier with a pair of scissors.

3. The best time to look for mushrooms is when there is warm sun after a bit of rain & preferably when there's a full moon - apparently that's when mushrooms sprout most.

And the most important of all, if you don't remember anything else, remember this

4. When in doubt, don't pick. Only pick those that you are 100% sure without a doubt. For beginners, it's always best to go with someone who know what they are doing. In fact that's how I learn. It's very different comparing mushrooms in the wild to a picture in a book. Mushrooms have many lookalikes & sometimes dangerous cousins. It's better to err on the side of caution - you'd rather throw away what could be perfectly good mushrooms than get really sick.

Just to give you an example - I picked quite a few what I thought were chanterelles or girolles & called Rene to check. But when I told him where I found them, he said they are not known to grow in that type of vegetation. So I threw them away instead.

In France, you can also bring your mushrooms to the nearest pharmacist to have them verified - they are trained to tell you what's edible or what's not.

Very often mushroom hunting will take you into the woods & off the beaten track. Stay clear if hunters are in the vicinity & even if you don't find any, just enjoy your forage in the forest.

The woods behind our house turned out to be very fertile ground for mushrooms. I went earlier this week & here's what I found.

The one on the right's called Amanite tue-mouche
It's rated 2 skulls in my mushroom book ie. dangerous

The one on the right looks like wood ear fungus

These were what I thought were chanterelles. I probably wouldn't have died from eating them but might have gotten a very bad tummy ache

I love how they seem to sprout out of nowhere

These look like something that you would find under the sea

With the exception of the faux chanterelles, I didn't pick any of these. Some of them might be perfectly good mushrooms but until someone tell me otherwise, I'd stick to what I know best even tho it may be limited to a handful of mushrooms. Better safe than sorry.

Cream of Wild Mushroom Soup

Growing up, I thought Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup was the best thing in the world. My mother always had cans of these in the pantry & I even eat it over rice. Even though I haven't had it in years, I still love me some cream of mushroom soup (not necessarily Campbell's of course).

I'd only ever made it with the cultivated champignons de paris & with my bounty of mousserons, I was keen to do this with wild mushrooms. So for this, I also dug into our stash of dried morel (morille) mushrooms to give it more flavor.

And don't you love my new colourful cups ? Well they were a present from Helena & Simon-Pierre (thank you again !) with special instructions to use them on the blog. I couldn't think of a better introduction for these little beauties. I expect that they would be featured a lot on the blog.

Cream of Wild Mushroom Soup

500g assorted wild mushrooms - I used mousserons & morel *
1 small shallot
1 Tbsp butter
50cl heavy cream or creme fraiche
1 1/2 cup of chicken stock
4 Tbsp dry sherry, white wine or sake

* If using dried mushrooms, put them in a bowl of water & into the microwave on high for 2 mins. When done, squeeze out the water from the mushrooms & keep the mushroom water (you can use that to flavor the soup)

1. Chop mushrooms in processor (I leave a portion unchopped cos I like to bite into pieces of mushrooms)

2. Fry shallots in butter

3. Add mushrooms to the pan & fry for 10-15 mins (they are going to exude a lot of water, don't worry)

4. Next add stock, cream, dry sherry, salt & pepper (& mushroom water). Bring to a boil then simmer for 20 mins

5. Get ready to dig into a bowl of delicious creamy chunky wild mushroom soup

Note : You can also make what is called Cappuccino of Mushroom Soup. Add more stock & use less cream. When it's done, just blend till it's frothy. Serve in coffee cups.

We just can't get enough of these mousserons

Dried Morel Mushrooms