Mushroom Monday - Pear Shaped Puffball Tacos
Here's a slew of pear shaped puffball mushrooms for this #mushroommonday by @balticbadger
I often find them growing on the ground from little pieces of dead wood. I tend not to harvest the ones off the ground for fear of some animal having urinated on them lol. Here's a video of them showing a ripe and unripe example https://youtu.be/GBmJMGH6cDI
Fortunately there are plenty of them growing on fallen branches as well.
This shot shows the stem that gives them their pear shaped name.
They are abundant in October here in Illinois.
Here's a shot of some younger specimens. They grow to be a bit larger than the acorn in the upper right.
I brought them home and soaked them in water for about an hour to loosen the tough outer skin.
Once the skin has soaked a bit you just have to pinch it and twist a bit for it to slide off. Then you get nice little marshmallow gems like this.
For cooking I pan fried them in oil and spices with some oyster mushrooms I found earlier.
Now its time to make the taco shells. I use 2 cups of blue corn flour and 1.75 cups of water and a teaspoon of salt. Mix it together then roll them into a ball and flatten it in your hands.
Then fry it in some oil for a couple minutes on both sides.
Now the taco shells are done. These are nice and soft with a crispy outer layer.
For the toppings I have the mushrooms, a base of black beans, spicy stir fried chicken. Then I usually add tomatoes, green chilis and some lettuce.
Here are the finished puffball tacos. The puffballs add a smoky mushroom flavor to everything. It goes really well with the corn and spicy chicken. Happy #mushroommonday :-)
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Awesome post... now I’m hungry!!
I just don’t have the nerve or knowledge to pick wild ones...
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These are safe to id and harvest. There aren't any poisonous lookalikes. Just get the ones off logs amd branches to get the best ones.
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Wow ...lots of
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I could harvest many bags worth and save them for the winter. Just cook them and freeze them for later.
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Really cool! I never thought about soaking them in water before trying to get the skin off, it's a real pain!
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Yeah it works better than dry peeling. Though it is similar to peeling a boiled egg. Some have skins that come off easily others you have to pick off little by little. The tougher skinned ones seem easier to peel.
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yours and @borjan's mushroom blogs are the best... I simply in love with them :P
these two are my fave pics from this set.
and the final tacos, ofc. upvoted!
Thanks, i am lucky to have so many i can visit nearby. You and @bambuka have the Russian territory covered for mushroom hunting. Not to many in Asia post mushrooms need to get @joelai to find some more.
i can direct you to @irvanhelmi's artsy posts (Indonesia) but her blog is on weku, no steem reposts.
Hey there @sketch.and.jam! Yup, I really need to look hard for those little things, they are sure hard to find here...
Is it too dry over there?
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It was a dry season for few months, lately started to rain again, so hopefully can see more soon.
Damn, you made me hungry too
This turned out to be a better combo than my usual potatos and puffball recipe.
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Oh my goodness!!! That looks yum! Do you know about the tag #fruitsandveggiesmonday? Also #foraging - AND if you use tag #naturalmedicine it appears on naturalmedicine.io. We have lots of funghi mad people there! I used to harvest puffballs in the UK .. if we found the huge ones we would slice 'steaks' and fry them... so good!!
Oooops... realised it had chicken so cant be #fvm. But DAMN I am hungry now and its only 7 am. Tacos for brekky???
Cool thanks for the tags. The tacos turned out really good. I like to use the giant puffball mushrooms in lasagne, or even as a pizza crust. The chicken ate a bunch of fruits and veggies so it might count for that tag lol.
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Wow, a lot of cooking food items and nice work to collect Pear Shaped Puffball Tacos.
Definitely worth the work.
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