A friend's birthday party was all the excuse I needed to try this recipe with some new mushrooms and some new cheeses. Usually I use a mix of Trumpet Royale and Velvet Pioppini mushroom, but this time I used Matiake Frondosa all by itself. For the cheeses, I used half Gouda and half Wisconsin romano. This particular romano wasn't too salty. If your romano tastes very salty, reduce the salt in the recipe to 1/4 teaspoon.

2 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
8 ounces mixed MYCOPIA mushrooms, or single variety* - chopped
3 Tablespoons chopped shallot
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 Tablespoon fresh chopped sage
a dash of Worcestershire sauce
1/8 teaspoon of nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups half and half
1 1/2 cups mixed grated gouda and romano
about 3 1/2 cups cubed firm bread (day old is better)


Saute the mushrooms and shallot in the olive oil, then add the herbs and toss with the cubed bread and grated cheeses. Whisk together eggs, half and half and the other seasonings and pour over the mushrooms, bread and cheeses.

Now for the Chef's important hints. (1.) Day old bread really is better. I had fresh bread so I sliced it and dried it in a 250 degree oven for about 20 minutes before cubing it. (2.) Let the mixture sit in the bowl for a good 20 minutes before baking. Stir it a couple of times. By the time you put it into a well-greased 8 x 8 inch baking dish, all the custard should be absorbed into the bread. This makes a HUGE difference. DEELISH!

I hope that many of you have tried my recipe for Grilled Trumpet Royale mushrooms with Garam Masala. If not look here. -- When I excitedly offered a taste of my Trumpet Royale with Garam Masala to an Indian Chef she smiled and said, "Oh yes. Sometimes we call that Mushroom Spice." And here I'd thought that I was the first to discover this delicious synergy! The association of mushrooms with Indian cuisine is a long one. "Curried Mushrooms under Glass" was a staple of what passed for fine cuisine in the 50s and 60s. Mushrooms can become the feature in entrees featuring a variety of Indian presentations. I'm fond of lentil dal, and although it's easy to make, you can also find delicious ready-to-eat dal at many stores. To turn dal into a vegetarian feast, saute some mushrooms (Trumpet Royale, Nebrodini Bianco, Forest Nameko or Velvet Pioppini) in mild vegetable oil until fully cooked, then add dal and serve over white or brown rice. The dal and rice together form a complete protein, and the mushrooms add what would otherwise be missing - something to chew! If you're ready to try a more adventurous, from-scratch, recipe, you can't go wrong with this great recipe from a fellow blogger for Mushroom and Eggplant Vindaloo.

Uusally I want to talk about harvests and recipes and such, but today I feel like bragging about what we've helped to create in America's kitchens.

When Gourmet Mushrooms was founded in 1977 "Specialty Mushrooms" was not a category in the produce business. Now we are A TREND!

"Purchases of specialty mushrooms climbed four percentage points from Fresh Trends 2008. As was the case last year, the likelihood of purchase increased according to income." -- Also increasing among the younger age groups, which means - we are raising a new crop of Fungiphiles!

Click on this not-very-tiny-URL for the Whole Story

http://thepacker.com/Mushrooms--specialty/FreshTrends.aspx?articleid=274081&authorid=22&categoryid=122&feedid=255

Herb Stuffing with MYCOPIA® Mushrooms



3/4 loaf day-old bread, cubed, about six cups - mixed whole wheat and white
1/2 stick butter or 3 Tablespoon vegetable oil
8 oz. MYCOPIA® mushrooms, coarsely chopped
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
1 cup celery, diced
3 oz. Madeira or sherry (optional)
1/2 cup fresh chopped parsley
1/2 cup coarsely chopped toasted hazelnuts or walnuts - use blanched hazelnuts
1 teaspoon each dry thyme and dry rubbed sage (or 2 teaspoons Bell’s Seasoning)
1/2 cup vegetable or turkey stock
salt and black pepper to taste


Sauté onion, shallot, celery and mushrooms in butter for about ten minutes on medium heat, add Madeira or sherry and simmer until almost dry. Add dried thyme and sage to the sautéed vegetables, then toss with cubed bread, fresh parsley, dried herbs and toasted nuts. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with stock to moisten. If desired, add one beaten egg to stock before adding to bread mixture. Bake inside the bird or as a side dish. If baked separately, generously butter a pan or casserole. Cover with greased aluminum foil. Bake 45 minutes at 350 covered, then 15 minutes more uncovered. Serves 6-8.



Edison Street Sausage Stuffing



For years friends and neighbors have gathered in our little town near the mushroom farm to share Thanksgiving dinner together. Many of us have moved away from our home towns and discovered a new extended family in Sonoma County. This is not my mother's recipe, but it's the one that makes me think of home. Thanks to Aggie Topolos (Christine’s mom) for convincing me that a little green bell pepper goes a long way to improving my recipe.

1 pound breakfast sausage

1 Tablespoon olive oil



¼ pound butter

1 large sweet onion, chopped (about 1/ ¼ cups diced)

3-4 large shallots, chopped (about ½ cup, diced)

1 ½ cups diced celery

1 medium green bell pepper, cut in very small dice



10 cups cubed white and whole-grain breads (see note)

1 cup chopped flat leaf parsley

1 Tablespoon Bell’s Seasoning (or mixed herbs, see note)

½ teaspoon each salt and black pepper

a few shakes of ginger

¾ cup toasted hazelnuts or walnuts, chopped

1 large tart apple, diced (about 1 cup)

1 cup turkey stock (from neck and wing tips)
3 whole eggs



Brown sausage. (The little bit of oil helps to get the process going). Break sausage up as it cooks. When sausage is browned, remove from pan, pouring through a sieve to drain the fat off. Set sausage aside to cool. Discard fat. Add butter to the skillet without wiping skillet out. Cook onion, shallot, celery and bell pepper over medium heat until onion is translucent. Meanwhile toss cubed breads, parsley, seasonings, nuts, apple, and sausage meat in large bowl. Add cooked vegetables. Mix stock and eggs. Toss all together. Pack lightly into generously buttered, heavy pan or casserole. Cover with foil. Bake in 350 degree oven for 45 minutes, remove foil and bake an additional 15 minutes.



Bread Note: In the best case scenario the white bread is a day-old sourdough, and the whole-grain is fresh, coarse and firm. If day-old white bread is not available, cube fresh white bread and bake in moderate oven until lightly toasted, but not dry.

Bell’s Seasoning Note: Bell’s is the best commercial poultry seasoning and a “family memory” flavor that will always be the perfect blend for me. The ingredients are rosemary, oregano, sage, ginger, marjoram, thyme, and pepper. If you don’t have Bell’s handy, you can play with various combinations of these.

Happy New Year! I'm declaring November 1st the Mushroom Hunter's New Year. We found some beautiful porcini growing wild right behind our mushroom farm today. Thanks David Kaspar and Jesus Martinez!

So with the New Year comes a New Year's resolution. I'm going to be better about keeping my blog up to date. To start us off, here is a great recipe for a hearty Fall or Winter dish. A savory, cheesy, mushroomy Bread Pudding. Hope you enjoy:

Savory Mushroom Bread Pudding

A ridiculously easy recipe. Very little time to prep, and your friends will love it. May be easily doubled or tripled for large events.

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
8 ounces mixed MYCOPIA mushrooms, or single variety*
3 tablespoons chopped shallot
1 level teaspoon dried thyme
a dash of worcestershire sauce
1/8 teaspoon of nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups half and half
1 1/2 cups grated gruyere, gouda or cheese of your choice
about 3 1/2 cups cubed firm bread (day old is better)

Rough chop the mushrooms with the largest pieces being about the size of an olive. Sauté the mushrooms and shallot in the olive oil until wilted and slightly browned. Whisk together the remaining ingredients except the cubed bread. Fold together the cheese/egg mixture, mushrooms and bread. Let stand at least fifteen minutes. (That’s important.) Pour into a lightly greased 8” x 8” pan and bake in a 350° for about 45 minutes or until set and lightly golden on top. Let stand a few minutes before serving. Serves 4-6.

*If using single variety of mushrooms particularly good candidates are Maitake Frondosa™ Velvet Pioppini™, or Trumpet Royale™

Gourmet Mushrooms, Inc.
Sebastopol, CA
www.mycopia.com

The Definitive Guide to Mushroom Nomenclature


Gourmet Mushrooms, Inc. has been concerned in recent years over the misnaming of mushrooms in markets, cookbooks, menus and web sites. In an effort to bring order back to this chaotic situation we are making this guide available to food writers and editors, chefs, restaurateurs and produce brokers.

Mushroom nomenclature needs to be rescued from its current state of disorder. Gourmet Mushrooms, Inc., a pioneer in the field of cultivated mushrooms, has perhaps unwittingly added to the confusion by creating distinctive names for its cultivars. We continue to feel that our mushrooms deserve differentiation, because they each have readily identifiable unique characteristics.

Mushroom lore thrives on regional and idiosyncratic names. Even mycologists (scientists who study mushrooms) are sometimes unclear about their names, shifting mushrooms from one genus to another, or deciding that two previously identified species are really just manifestations of one. One needs a little Latin, a little Japanese and a lot of patience to talk about mushrooms.

We have no objection to one mushroom having many names. What we seek to avoid is referring to different mushrooms by the same name when one is correct and the other is not.


Below you will find a listing of exotic cultivated mushrooms, beginning in each case with their scientific names and followed by widely accepted alternates. Gourmet Mushroom, Inc.’s trademarked names are in bold.

Agrocybe aegerita
Pioppini. Velvet Pioppini™, Pioparelli, Black Poplar Mushroom Piopino, Chestnut Mushroom (Sometimes misnamed, even in Italy, as chiodini which is Armillaria mellea, the honey mushroom)

Grifola frondosa
Maitake, Hen-of-the-Woods (Not related in any way to Chicken-of-the-Woods – which is Laetiporus sulphureus.)


Hericium erinaceus
Lion’s Mane. Pom Pon Blanc™, Pom Pom Blanc, Bear’s Head. Old Man’s Beard. Monkey’s Head

Hypsizygus tessulatus (or sometimes Hypsizygus marmoreus)
Honshimeji, Buna-shimeji. Alba Clamshell™. Brown Clamshell™. Beech Mushroom. (Hon-shimeji is still a very common for this mushroom even in Japan. Buna-shimeji is considered correct and preferred in Japan.)

Lepista nuda (also Clitocybe nuda)
Blewit. Bluefoot. Ped Blau. Pied Bleu

Pholiota nameko
Nameko. Forest Nameko™. Butterscotch mushroom. Sometimes called Cinnamon Cap or Cinnamon Nameko. The nameko species can always be identified by its glossy cap. People sometimes call this a honey mushroom (Armillaria mellea) based solely on appearance, another incorrect usage.

Pholiota sp.
Cinnamon Cap™ The Cinnamon Cap variety always has a dry cap, often speckled with white flakes.

Pluerotus eryngii
King Oyster. Trumpet Royale™. French Horn. Gambone. Royal Trumpet. Eryngi.

Pluerotus nebrodensis
Nebrodini Bianco™, Bai Ling Gui (Sometimes called Abalone mushroom. This is incorrect. The Abalone is Pleurotus abalonius. And that’s no baloney!)

Pleurotus ostreatus
Oyster Mushroom. Baby Oyster Cluster™. Pleurotte. Hiratake. Baby Oyster. Baby Blue Oyster™. In the old nomenclature shimeji was often used by itself in Japan as shorthand to designate this mushroom. Hiratake is now considered to be correct, but the use of shimeji continues. There are a number of colored oyster mushrooms, all of the Pleurotus species, but often not Pleurotus ostreatus.

Two excellent web resources for accurate information about mushrooms are www.mushroomexpert.com and www.tomvolkfungi.net.

For further information please contact the author Bob Engel, Gourmet Mushroom’s Chef Liaison -- bob@mycopia.com.

Fall rains are eliciting Chanterelles, Porcini and Matsutake from our local woods. Yummy treats if you know where to look. Also popping up are many Amanita muscaria, the bright red mushroom with white dots that was featured in Disney's Fantasia and is common in many fairy tales from Northern Europe. I've always thought it odd that this mushroom occurs in so many children's fables as it is poisonous, though not usually fatal. There is a hallucinogenic effect from Amanita muscaria, but the ratio of hallucinogen to toxic elements is never certain. It's like buying a bottle of vodka that has at least some poisonous wood alcohol in it, but you never know how much. A bad bet.

A much better bet is my recipe for Turkey Stuffing (or Dressing depending on what part of the country you come from). It's good with almost any mushroom, wild, white, or exotic cultivated ones like the Trumpet Royale. Trumpet Royale is the trade marked name for the king oyster mushrooms grown by Gourmet Mushrooms, Inc. They are available under the Mycopia brand from many Whole Foods and other stores.


Herb Stuffing with Trumpet Royale™ Mushrooms

3/4 loaf day-old bread, cubed, about six cups - whole wheat or white
1/2 stick butter or 3 Tablespoon vegetable oil
8 oz. Trumpet Royale™ mushrooms coarsely chopped
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
1 cup celery, diced
3 oz. Madeira or sherry (optional)
1/2 cup fresh chopped parsley
1/2 cup coarsely chopped toasted walnuts
1 teaspoon each dry thyme and sage (or 2 tsp. Bell’s™ Seasoning)
1 egg (optional)
1/2 cup vegetable or turkey stock
salt and black pepper to taste

Sauté onion, shallot, celery and mushrooms in butter for about ten minutes on medium heat, add Madeira or sherry and simmer until almost dry. Add dried thyme and sage to the sautéed vegetables, then toss with cubed bread, fresh parsley, dried herbs and toasted nuts. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with stock (mix with beaten egg, if desired) to moisten. Bake inside the bird or as a side. If baked separately, generously butter a pan or casserole. Cover with greased aluminum foil. Bake 45 minutes at 350 covered, then 15 minutes more uncovered. Serves 6-8. Butter can be increased to taste. Recipe can be doubled or tripled as needed.