I found a Shrimp mushroom in the forest and Oyster mushrooms in my neighborhood. With some other foraged and homegrown plants, this plate of Bell Peppers is flat-out amazing! It's an ocean theme, fresh from the land!

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Getting the Ingredients Together

I've been in the forest again. I found some good mushrooms! One of them was a single Shrimp mushroom (Russula xerampelina). Many Russula mushrooms are acrid and peppery, but this one is so incredibly tasty -- like seafood! And then, in my own neighborhood, I found a big patch of Oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus ostreatus). They are such a substantial, good-tasting mushroom!

It's funny how so many mushrooms are named for ocean creatures. I already used Lobster mushrooms in the Steemit Iron Chef contest and wrote about how to identify and prepare those forest-dwelling lobsters. So when I found these Shrimp and Oyster mushrooms, I wanted to use them with this week's ingredient - Bell Peppers.

Like most wild mushrooms, these should be cooked! So I'll need to cook some of my bell peppers to go along with the mushrooms. Shrimp and Oyster mushrooms go well with bell peppers, because they have strong flavors that stand up well to the intensity of bell peppers. All the mushrooms need is a simple sautee in butter, because they have such strong, delicious flavors built in!

Left: Oyster mushrooms in my neighborhood. They look like they are growing from the ground, but they are not! Like all wild Oyster mushrooms, they are growing from decaying wood, In this case, a decaying tree trunk is embedded in the ground. Right, top: The Shrimp mushroom I foraged in the nearby forest. Right, bottom: the Shrimp and Oysters in my kitchen, ready to cook up!

But I didn't want only cooked bell peppers. I wanted some that would be fresh and crunchy. So, I also gathered some ingredients for a marinated salad -- flat-leaf Italian parsley from a garden bed, Jerusalem artichokes from where they have escaped cultivation, and Black Nightshade (Solanum nigrum) from my neighbor's patch of weeds. From my cupboard, I got my prize-winning Spruce Tree Balsamic Vinegar.

Clockwise, from top: Spruce Tree Balsamic vinegar with Spruce needles, Jerusalem artichoke tubers, black nightshade berries, Italian flat-leaf parsley.

So what about the peppers? I don't have any fresh, homegrown Bell Peppers in mid-November. My bell peppers are all in the freezer by now! They are wonderful food, but won't look nice enough for the Steemit Iron Chef contest. So I bought some.

To make a crisp bell pepper salad, I sliced the green pepper into one really long piece and marinated it, and super-thin slices of Jerusalem artichokes, in the Spruce Tree Balsamic Vinegar.

To cook the yellow and orange peppers, I charred them in the oven and then removed the burnt skin. This makes the peppers sweet and smoky-flavored. I filleted the peppers to separate the soft exterior wall from the more crisp inner wall. They have different textures and flavors that I can use! :D

Right, top: I roasted these peppers under my oven's broiler and then put them in a paper bag. Then the charred skin comes off easily, leaving a nice roasted flavor. Right, bottom: the skinned roasted peppers.

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Ready to Eat!

I'm sorry that you can't taste any of this. It's fantastic! And it has a theme, too. The green bell pepper salad is like the kelp in the ocean. It's trapped big white, Jerusalem artichoke "fishing-net floats", like the big glass ones that drift onto Oregon's beaches that I like to visit. And there are some Black nightshade berries, too, like smaller floats. All still crisp in the spruce tree balsamic vinegar.

I paired the crispy shrimp mushrooms with the soft exterior wall of the roasted orange bell peppers, that I sliced into thin noodles. The sweetness of each of them go so well together. Together, they seem like sea anemones swirling their appendages in the currents.

The Oyster mushrooms are tender, yet firm. I put them on the textured inner-wall of the bright yellow roasted peppers. I think the inner pepper wall looks like a layer of sea urchin roe! The Oyster mushrooms, with their large gills, look like living, swimming, sea creatures! The finely chopped parsley is like small plankton in the sea.

I hope you enjoy looking at my Ocean-themed plate. If you could taste this, you would be out looking for mushrooms with me!

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What Do You Think?

• Do you like Wild Mushrooms or Jerusalem artichokes?
• Have you ever found Shrimp Russula or Oyster mushrooms?
• Do you forage for any mushrooms?
• Do you grow Bell Peppers or Jerusalem artichokes?
• Would you eat my bell peppers with shrimp russula and oyster mushrooms?

I eat a lot of wild plants and show you how, because I believe that we can all have lives that are richer, more secure, more grounded, and more interesting by getting to know the plants and the land around us – in our yards, our parks, and our wild places.

I would like Steemit to be the premier site for Foraging on the Internet! If you have any thoughts about foraging, or experiences to share, write a post and be sure to use the Foraging tag. And check out the @foraging-trail to see curated quality posts about foraging. Happy Foraging!

Thanks @progressivechef for creating the Steemit Iron Chef contest series!

I try to make content that's interesting! If you found this informative and helpful, please give it an upvote and a resteem.

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Plant List

• Shrimp mushrooms - Russula xerampelina
• Oyster mushrooms - Pleurotus ostreatus
• Italian Flat-leaf parsley - Petroselinum crispum - leaves
• Jerusalem artichokes - Helianthus tuberosus - tubers
• Black nightshade - Solanum nigrum - fully ripe, black berries
• Spruce - Picea spp. - young needles
• Bell peppers - Capsicum annuum - fruit

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Haphazard Homestead

foraging, gardening, nature, simple living close to the land
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