March 12, 2007

Mushroom Crazy.....

Every year we organise a day trip to Oberon, about two hours north of Sydney, where we go deep into the lush forest in search of field mushrooms.
We left it a little late this year as we normally go in February but it hadn't rained much so we waited until now. We were quite lucky to find so many and the whole bottom shelf of my refrigerator is now full of mushrooms whilst Ive spent a couple of hours last night searching for new Mushroom recipes in my cookbooks and online.
I didnt get into it too much this time as I had to look after Neo who refused to hold my hand let alone be carried so I headed back to the car, set up a picnic blanket nearby and entertained the kids.
This photo of my proud father makes me laugh as we have similar photos from the late 70's to now of our Mushroom picking days with my family members happily displaying their mushrooms...the bigger the better!

There was quite a few of the beautiful but poisonous red polka dot mushrooms just like Julie's collage piece, and some people pick the white ones but we go for these wonderful orange hued mushrooms most half hidden under pine needles. The flavour is quite strong and they taste so good...the smaller ones are perfect grilled with salt and served with lemon juice. I usually chop the larger ones and add to savoury pies, stews and risotto. I think we'll be sick of mushrooms by the end of the week.

17 comments:

  1. Anonymous4:36 PM

    oh wow anastasia...beautiful mushrooms...and im sure they are delicious! Did you take any photos in the lush forest or of the red mushrooms? Mushrooms are great to draw...:)
    Enjoy them!

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  2. These look delicious - enjoy them!

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  3. Anonymous1:49 AM

    You are brave - I'd be constantly worried that I picked the wrong one... It's a typical me-thing to do! But they look delicious, I'd love some :D Do you ever dry them? My MIL goes on regular fungus forays, she brought back an enormous ceps mushroom and dried it in the airing cupboard!

    As for duck eggs, and what to do with them - both duck and goose eggs have really wonderful cake-making properties, they make delicious sponges and cakes of all sorts :) Enjoy your haul!

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  4. how i wish i could go mushroom picking with you! i have never foraged for them myself... have to rely on the grocery :( what a lovely haul you got! mushroom risotto is my favorite... the pies and stews sound so good too! have fun with the cooking this week!

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  5. Anonymous3:14 AM

    i want to go mushroom picking! it sounds like something out of a fairytale...

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  6. Oh my goodness!!!! I love mushrooms, I am so jealous!! Yummie, YUmmy, Yummeeeee!! I am glad you like the striped dress, I think it is my choice for my party,too!!

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  7. hmmmm, you are making me so hungry! the mushrooms look so good and i love the photo of your dad, all proud with his mushrooms, what a wonderful thing to do as a family! neo will be into it in the future, for sure!

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  8. Those look awesome! I am totally out of practice and can't remember which ones are poisonous anymore (except the red spotts ones! hehe). If you're still looking for something to do with extra eggs, you can cook up some of your mushrooms and make a quiche. My favourite is mushroom, artichoke, parmesan and parma ham/prosciutto. If you need a recipe just leave a comment on the blog and I can mail you specifics.

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  9. Anonymous9:56 AM

    Oh they look so yum! I love mushrooms, love to know what wonderful things you find to cook with them. What a great thing to do - mushroom picking! I've never heard of that here before. Renee x

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  10. Mushroom risotto,yum!!!!! Ofcourse still intrenched here in "The AGe of Aquarius" I keep thinking of the mind altering variety,I'm sure none of those were picked!

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  11. Anonymous12:46 PM

    I remember going mushroom picking when I was a wee thing. These days it is more like picking our favourite flavour of icecream at the nearest parlour lol. We used to go berry picking and take home basket fulls of berries for Mum and Grandma to bake with. Mmmmm blackberry pie was my favourite. Enjoy your mushrooms... perhaps you could make them into a recipe you can freeze?

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  12. Anonymous3:17 PM

    Those are amazing!!!!! My goodness!!!!!! Amazing!!!

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  13. Wow! Those are some big mushrooms! YUM! Sounds like a great time! When I was growing up, we would hunt for pine nuts. We'd come home with huge bags full and roast them up!

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  14. Anonymous8:40 AM

    Wow! What incredible mushrooms you collected!

    I like the idea of the vintage fabrics in the loops. Clever!

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  15. Well done for getting out there and foraging for food. WE get the red with white dotd on our land. They are so amazing. Free food is the best food especially if you picked it yourself... I'm so envious of your fridge full of mushrooms. Happy eating!

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  16. Mmmmmm ... Yummo. I love the big white ones grilled with butter, salt and pepper. I prefer to buy mine from Woolies, though. I wouldn't trust myself to find the right ones in the wild.

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  17. Wow! How great these are. I love mushroom risotto

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Thanks for stopping by and taking time to comment!! i really appreciate it!
Hugs
Anastasia
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