Puffballs? [General]
2012 Oct 8
Hey Andy, I have found pounds and pounds of puffballs this year... it's not my favourite, the deer really seem to like them though! You can slice them into cutlets, bread them and panfry them. Delicious! They are big flavour sponges, so they benefit greatly by marinating them for a little bit. It's a great wild edible to experiment with, for sure! Very safe to eat!
2012 Oct 10
I ate puffball yesterday. I first sliced it in half, a bit of a feat seeing it was too big for any knife blade I have. I then sliced in 1/2" to 3/4" half moon slices, and cut off the skin. The texture made me think of fresh young foam rubber when I cut through it - it kinda grabbed the knife a wee bit, felt spongy and dry. It was nicely white throughout so that meant it was edible, so I started frying it up in a nonstick pan with a couple Tbs of unsalted butter bubbling away. (BTW that's a 33 cm frypan showing the size of those slices). They browned nicely but sucked up ALL the butter, incredibly absorbent. Flipping the slices over was a breeze as the slices were really not delicate as I had first thought. Out of the frying pan and onto a plate while more butter and puffball went into the pan. The taste was very very mild mushroom, less flavourful than button shrooms, but you sure could taste the butter so flavour is OK. Texture was tender and almost creamy in the center, nothing weird there. Overall they won't add much to a dish I'm thinking, yet they could be used for their uniqueness as a base for other tasty ingredients. I made some cutouts to see if they would be useable and found they were. Now to think of what to pile on top of them? Sauteed mushrooms? fish? They suck up the butter so adding spices to the butter is one way to flavour them - smoked paprika or cumin I was thinking, s-i-l thought saffron...
I fried up a couple lb maybe, then sliced it, bagged it and froze it. I'll add it to some soups, stews, casseroles ... more for the novelty maybe than the flavour - I can see why it's not a fave Chimichimi as there's not a whole lot to like but there's no reason to dislike it so I'll make use of it and will in the future.
I also made some lunch with fried garlic, chilis, onions, puffball cubes and a couple scrambled eggs, all on toast, and the puffball basically was undetectable in that mix but it all tasted good. I was so hungry I forgot to take a pic. Sorry. It did look good if you'll take my word for it.
I fried up a couple lb maybe, then sliced it, bagged it and froze it. I'll add it to some soups, stews, casseroles ... more for the novelty maybe than the flavour - I can see why it's not a fave Chimichimi as there's not a whole lot to like but there's no reason to dislike it so I'll make use of it and will in the future.
I also made some lunch with fried garlic, chilis, onions, puffball cubes and a couple scrambled eggs, all on toast, and the puffball basically was undetectable in that mix but it all tasted good. I was so hungry I forgot to take a pic. Sorry. It did look good if you'll take my word for it.
2012 Oct 11
AMR it really was spectacular, the biggest I've ever seen. Yesterday I went back to the remaining 3 that I had seen but someone had taken one, the next largest. Today I went to school to help my dw with her class's Art in the Park natural art project and some kids found some puffballs in the bush - I allowed only 1 to be picked for 1 group's project and it was the largest though considerably smaller than ours. I was able to tell the kids about eating ours but they weren't allowed any tastes of raw mushroom.
When I was taking the picture I too thought of the moon shot (and positioned the "crater" into the pic) and thought of sending in a copy to Sky News, Canada's Magazine of Astronomy and Stargazing to which I subscribe - they often have spectacular reader's pics. But not of mushrooms, though maybe I should email them a copy just so I can say that I have done so.
I never knew that fresh young foam rubber would be a description I would use about food but it describes perfectly what the raw mushroom felt like and cut like, at least in my mind!
TMac, all I had was unsalted but you're right, salted is the way to go.
hipfunkyfun beware the spores - not to be inhaled apparently!
When I was taking the picture I too thought of the moon shot (and positioned the "crater" into the pic) and thought of sending in a copy to Sky News, Canada's Magazine of Astronomy and Stargazing to which I subscribe - they often have spectacular reader's pics. But not of mushrooms, though maybe I should email them a copy just so I can say that I have done so.
I never knew that fresh young foam rubber would be a description I would use about food but it describes perfectly what the raw mushroom felt like and cut like, at least in my mind!
TMac, all I had was unsalted but you're right, salted is the way to go.
hipfunkyfun beware the spores - not to be inhaled apparently!
Andy