Wacky weather brings on the Porcini

Photo by Robert Alexander

Weather is always a major source of speculation and conversation the world around. We never have a shortage of that around here. This has been another odd year weather wise, and so we find ourselves discussing it's oddness in terms of our beloved mushroom or more to the point, porcino season. Our hills are famous for their porcini or boletus edulis, to be specific. There are a host of other varieties around as well, like the ones you find before the porcini arrive and the ones that arrive signaling the end of the porcini season. Well, that is usually how it is during the autumn season. Spring time season usually is a brief affair, with the only porcino you find is what they here call the "white" variety, which if I am not mistaken I think it is the boletus variipes. The autumn season boasts the "moro or black" varieties, boletus edulis and a host of other variety of edible and ones that are oh so pretty, but oh so deadly. So, best to know what you are doing. Here you can go into any of the hospitals and they will identify or at the very least let you know if it is edible or not. If you buy them from along side of the road or in the market, most vendors usually have a tag on the crate verifying that the mushrooms have been inspected and are edible. We have a vendor in our little village not too far from the bottom of our road who collects all the mushrooms form the hunter and gathers of the area and ships them off to Torino every night during the season. Like I said before autumn is usually when the big mushroom action happens, but this year were going through the full autumn season now. It will be interesting to see how it plays out this autumn. Will we have a second season, or will this be the whole season and when it finishes its over for the year? 

Egle and her treasures

These are the burning questions that are bantered around our house, the home of the mildly crazy, ok, maybe down right, mad for mushrooms,  hunters and gatherers that I call my in laws and husband respectively.  

My husband sporting the latest in mushroom hunting attire

We eat wild mushrooms in quite a variety of ways, big slabs fried in bread crumbs, in risotto, with pasta, 

wild game stews, rustic tarts and the list continues on and on. To preserve them we either stick them in the freezer whole in ziplock bags, or saute them up with a little onion, garlic and parsley and freeze them in small batches for risotto and such. Very handy. We also dry them.

Drying porcini

My mother in laws specialty is preparing them for putting in jars either under oil or vinegar. They really are pretty that way and a most welcome gift for their friends. My in laws are still the type to give these types of gifts to their doctors or dentist or other types of professionals they deal with. I am known to bring along a loaf or two of my home made bread. Most people get very excited when they receive one of Egle's special jars of precious cargo. I do too, especially if it is under oil. I am not so wild about then in vinegar. It tends to overpower the mushrooms for my taste buds. 

Assorted Porcini and a few chanterelles

Porcini and other mushrooms under oil or vinegar.

Porcini under oil

It's not a difficult process, just time consuming. First and foremost you have to find the mushrooms, which can eat up some time, but at least you're out in the woods.

porcini "gold"

Then you need to thoroughly clean and wash them.

Porcini and chanterelles

What you need.

Sterilized jars and lids (usually water bathed for 20 minutes to sterilize)

You won't need them for a couple of days until after you prepare your mushrooms  

white wine vinegar

or olive oil, 

some bay leaves, one or two per jar (we have fresh ones available to us from nearby trees)

a few whole cloves, 1-2 per jar

Cleaned, dried  and ready to put in jars

After you have cleaned them, cut them into large chunks, maybe about 2 inches. 

They are then blanched for several minutes in a combination of water and vinegar, just to kill any bacterial on the outsides of the mushrooms. 

Dry them off and lay on  towels in a a spot to dry with a bit of wind if possible but out of direct sun. 

Leave to dry a day or two till they have released any liquid and are dry. 

Pack snugly and decoratively in your sterilized jars. 

Fill the jars with either oil or vinegar and  screw shut. 

Disclaimer!!!!! This is the way mountain and country people have been preserving their mushrooms for years. I know that you need to water bath the jars to insure a seal on the jar and to conform to food safety  recommendations. This is not a recipe to follow. I do not claim that this is fool proof. This is how my mother in law has been doing it for years with good results. She has a lot of experience and knows what she is doing. I wouldn't recommend this for everyone to try at home. I merely wanted to share the process of this specialty of our area. 

Porcini under vinegar and oil

Porcini Season

It's that time of the year again when I awaken before light to the sound of my father- in -law  lightly clomping down the stairs to go after the big game like Cinghiale, otherwise known in these parts as wild boar, whilst the steady whooming of the oh- so -serious porcino hunters make their way to their favorite part of our woods to stalk the much prized Edulis Boletus.

Yesterday, it was merely 60 cars that I counted parked along side the road as we dodged the traffic going to the market not including the Torino taxi that we see frequently at this time of year. What started out to look like a lean year for the king of mushrooms, has turned into a bonanza with all the weekend warriors that go along with.  Today we had a woman off the road in her cycling gear proceed to make her way around our yard and when asked if we could help her, she told us that she was having a closer look at all the mushrooms in our yard in case they were porcini. Surprise surprise, they were not.  We did however harvest these two pictured below, form certain parts of our garden that I hesitate to mention for fear of over zealous stalkers!

When we arrived at the market, it was quite the mushroom extravaganza. Mushrooms on almost every stall and naturally a mushroom in every pot. Ok, may not in every stall or pot, but it was a fantastic display everywhere in the market. Mostly they were porcini, but there were a smattering of other less prized varieties, of which I'm not so sure about the names, but some of them looked like the chicken of the woods variety. As I came to this stall I was surprised to see that these were from our village Pinasca, that is where we turn off when we make our way back homee up the hill. there's a good possibility that some of these mushrooms might have evne been from some of those people that park along side our road and scour the hill sides. As you can see they were pretty well picked over by the time we saw them. If you note the price is €9.50 per half kilo or just over a pound. Still a little pricey, but much cheaper than last week, but nothing like the price of when you find them yourself.

Our friends had the good fortune to find some fantastic specimens on their hike today, up to Cucetto for the views.  Nice schroomy finds, pictured below, huh?!

 

Can you guess what is on the menu tonight? No, well, it's mushroom risotto and perhaps a side of breaded sliced porcino steaks to go along with.  I made a rustic tart the other night with big slabs of porcini layered on top of tomini cheese in an olive oil crust and it was so scrumptious, that we ate it  before I could even think about getting a photo of it.  A similar recipe that you might want to try if you find yourself in a mushroom kind of mood is my" Porcini e Tomini in pasta sfoglia" recipe.

Whatever the case enjoy some woodsy treat of mushrooms any way you can, the season is upon us.

Porcini Pin up for today October 08

Ok, so I told a recent guest that the coming of the Chuidino mushrooms meant that is was the end of Porcino(boletus edulis) season. Strictly based on anecdotal information given to me by my in laws, sources of most conventional mountain wisdom. I did say that there might be a few random ones here and there but for the most part the season was done and dusted. But then Dante, my father-in-law came home with these beauties, Friday. after a little hike up to one of his favorite places where the mushrooms grow big and are not easily found unless you know.
Obviously, he knows.
So here are a few photos of what are called "Nero and Bianca" porcini. The red ones being the Nero and the little one the Bianca one. My mother-in -law said these are about 15 days old as you can tell by the look of the "sponge' underneath the cap. Just a little something to tide you over till I get my Slow food photos up and some recipes that are still in progress together.

Porcini follow up

No Fabrizio wouldn't relent on the publishing of his calender photo, although I think he secretly wants me to do so, but alas, I will leave it to your imagination. Here however are a couple of photos of what I did make the night of the giant mushroom find. When ever we are having guests for dinner I don't always get to making a formal photo of everything, or am in such a hurry to not hold everyone up, that I don't always get a good shot.

Porcini Fritti

Probably the most preferred way f eating large Porcini in this part of the world is plain old lightly bread crumb coated porcini steaks and pan fried in olive oil and served immediately.
That's what we did with these but we gobbled them down so quick that there wasn't a trace of them except for the ones we put in the freezer.

Then we took some ore of this big boy and sauteed him up to make for a filling for our chicken thighs that we had partially deboned , leaving the bone in as kid of a swan's neck. We stuffed our mushrooms in with some fresh herbs, like oregano, parsley, sage and rosemary. Trussed them up , browned them off, before baking them off. We serve them on some fresh green beans, a drizzle of pan juices, and balsamic vinegar reduction to finish off the plate.


It didn't take long to finish it all off. Last night I made some more mushroom treats with some mushrooms found by Fabrizio's mother and made a simple saute of the mushrooms with shallots, fresh porcini and regular to have a bigger impact of mushrooms for the four of us. Sauteed them all up with olive oil and a bit of butter and white wine, before tossing with my home made tajarin pasta and a sprinkle of fresh parsley and fresh grated parmigiana . It disappeared quickly and of course without a trace.
Coming soon, my interview with our summer intern, Rachel, from Colorado, working as a stage/apprentice, just down the road a piece from us. Maybe I can get her to share some of her secrets she's learning over at Maison Verte.

Summer at last, with Porcini Pinup!

At last summer has arrived after waiting for the ark to turn up any day in the last month.
Unfortunately for some of our guests they didn't get to see much of the sky line from our perch in the alps, but they did get to see a wall of green with a gray moody backdrop.
Now we're on to full on summer and I for one, am glad that it's here.

I couldn't resist taking a couple of pictures of the huge beeches we have around here while strolling around in the neighborhood a couple of days ago.

But the best part was Fabrizio's prize find of the day.

Porcini for all!

He won't let me publish the great shot of him with the porcini in a "Calender Girl" type pose, but I keep threatening to just post it on flickr.
We shall see if he relents. He always says he wants to be famous and I say, here's your way to infamous!

Black and White Truffle Tracking

Having sampled many of the specialties of the Montiglio Truffle festival and purchased the coveted white truffle, with a black one thrown in gratis for good measure, we decided to move on.Part two of the Truffle tracking adventure took us on to Castellinaldo to the Marsaglia Cantina, for some wine to go with our truffles, since we were in the neighborhood. The Marsaglia family has been making wines in the Langhe region for 4 generations, producing delicious local varieties, Arneis, Nebbiola and Barbera on their small mostly south facing farm. Marina Marsaglia, always the gracious hostess welcomed us in even though we just turned up on Sunday without calling. Marina has worked tirelessly to bring their small family production the respect and recognition that it deserves. She is part of the "Le Donne del Vino del Piemonte" association of women winemakers, helping to put Marsaglia on the map. We sampled a few of their delicious wines before heading home for the evenings feast and later on as well.

As we got closer to home we decided to stop in our local wholesaler of Porcino in Dubbione, located at the bottom of our road and where my in-laws sell their over flow of Porcini and our wholesalers send on to Torino and eventually to many other point of sales around Italy and beyond. It's always an interesting stop to see the local cottage industry in action during the season. Arriving home we got busy cleaning and preparing the porcini and truffles for greedy consumption. Starting out with cleaning these ever so fresh funghi and tubers to remove all the dirt so there won't be any grit to detract from enjoyment later on.

The evening's menu consisted of crude thinly sliced porcino topped with shaved white truffle, dressed with a fruity extra virgin olive oil. Followed by Porcino and Truffle Risotto, which we were halfway thru before we realized we forgot to take any pictures and then a Secondo of Turkey Saltimboca accompanied by prefectly grilled slabs of Porcini. Yum Yum Yum...I'd like to have that again tonight, but alas not for another season I think.

then the sun, the Foehn winds and now our first spring Porcini

Yes I could go on speculating about the weather but all I can really say is that it has been strange indeed. We desperately needed the rain so our lovely risotto rice can flourish this year, and we seemed to get it even if it was torrential for 4 days or so. Then the unrelenting warm winds from the the south battered all life forms as we know them. Everything in the flower boxes and garden looked beat up and parched after 3 days of that. Anyway, now we're back to summer even if it is May and the clusters of song birds are singing in the day and the progression of wildflowers are moving along up here at a bit of altitude.
Although we received substantial rain, the higher peaks across the valley from us were quite white again, but already the sunning is winning and the snow is melting off quickly. In spite of it all, my intrepid mother in law managed to find the first porcini of the season a couple of days ago. We made quick work of it after its moment being photographed and went rather well with some "riso nero" I had prepared. Sweet chewy black or what looks to me, purple rice from our organic grower friends, "Il Frutto Permesso" ( the permitted fruit), made for a satisfying and simple lunch. The sweetness of the rice offset the earthiness of the wild mushroom and whetted my appetite for a few more the forests gifts. Happpy hunting.

Just One More Porcini or Two

Ok, Ok, Ok, perhaps I'm just a little caught up in the mushroom madness myself. It must be from the sleep deprivation of all the cars rushing up before the crack of dawn and trying not to count them every morning. Perhaps it's the fact that Fabrizio's parents life is completely rearranged by the hunt at the moment as well. Normally, they have lunch at precisely noon, or half past at the latest, if there is too much to get done in the garden or some such errand in town that takes a bit longer. Dinner is a 7 pm unless it's hunting day out with the boys, but usually you can set your watch by their mealtimes.

Now it's lunch at about 11am so they can be out when the morning hunters and gatherers are off to lunch with their booty, leaving the woods peaceful and still full of the fabled porcini for those privy to 40 years of hunting for them in their backyard, to fill a freezer, line shelves of jars of mushrooms in vinegar and dried ones as well. Then, of course, there are the ones they sell off to the local vendors. It's quite a sight at the the local buyers shop with people coming from all over our hills with baskets lined with beech leaves and covered with fern fronds to keep the curious from knowing exactly what you found and more importantly, where. It's an impressive sight and everyone is busy sorting and grading and paying for the mushrooms that come in that day from 8 am till 10 pm when father and son take off in their trucks to deliver the goods to all parts of Italy, all night, while Mom holds down the weigh station till they return and the evening rush begins again.
Last week a Japanese man flew in and bought a container worth of the local booty and shipped it back to Japan. Globalization.

Anyway, I digressed. Today, we rearranged our schedule to get in on the hunt with Dante and Egle. Dante is off to the higher country where the larger porcini are found and Egle and I are off to the parts of our woods that the casual hunters have overlooked and have left us enough that I'm finally feeling like I can join the ranks of respectable hunters. I have been given the gift of being shown secret places that others don't always find. We had to hurry though, as the neighbors were about to get out before us and they are the serious competition as they have a few years on us and know most of the same spots. If Bruna and Murrat( their dog named "black" in dialect) get out before us we can forget finding as many as we had hoped for. As the first pictures lets you know, we beat them to the hunt and found quite a few that the others passed by and we circled back to find after they had tromped thru. There are white and black porcini as they are called here. The basket pictured above contains the "Catch of the day". Not as plentiful as before, but all quality and delicious. It was a satisfying day indeed.
Thank you Egle!