Scallop and Wild Mushroom Marsala

You might have heard that California has declared a drought disaster. To be sure, it's been a tough mushroom season for my friends on the North Coast and up into southwestern Oregon. That's where most of the circuit pickers gather every winter to harvest the big three: black trumpets, hedgehogs, and yellowfeet. It's just about the only place in North America at this time of year with commercial quantities of mushrooms.

But not this year. Dry conditions have both commercial and recreational pickers going stir-crazy, contributing to an uptick in the recent phenomenon of "foraging wars" stories in the press as forest users compete for a pittance of fungi. The situation is exasperated in the Golden State, where land managers have seen fit to close large swaths of public land to foraging of any kind, recreational included.

Hopefully the recent rainstorms will mean a late winter flush, easing the fungal pain of Californians, if it's not too late already. Luckily I have some packages of yellowfeet and black trumpets in the freezer.

The black trumpet has always been one of my favorites of the edible fungi; it's only in recent years that I've come around to appreciating the yellowfoot for its own merits and not just as a poor cousin to the trumpet. Yellowfeet, in particular, work well with this dish. They complement the sweetness of the Marsala wine as well as the scallops, and they give body to the sauce. The cheese adds some oomph, and helps thicken the sauce, though you can get away without it. If you have the time, make your own pasta, or buy the fresh stuff.

9 oz fettuccine
1/2 lb scallops (or more, to taste)*
1/2 lb wild mushroom, chopped
1/4 cup diced shallot
3 tbsp butter
1/2 cup Marsala wine
1 cup beef stock
1 cup heavy cream (or less)
1/2 cup grated parmesan (optional)
chopped parsley for garnish
salt and pepper

* I used a half-pound of small bay scallops plus a few large sea scallops.

1. Boil water for pasta.

2. Pat scallops dry and season with salt and pepper. Pan-sear in 1 tablespoon butter over medium-high heat. Remove to bowl.

3. Saute shallots in remaining 2 tablespoons butter until soft. Add mushrooms and cook together a few minutes, cooking off liquid.

4. De-glaze with 1/2 cup Marsala. Cook until Marsala is nearly evaporated. Add beef stock and reduce by half. Lower heat to medium and slowly stir in heavy cream to taste.

5. While sauce is reducing, cook pasta according to instructions.

6. Stir in optional parmesan cheese and return scallops to sauce. Adjust seasonings.

7. Spoon sauce over pasta and garnish with fresh parsley.

Serves 2

Oregon Truffle Festival #9

I've already blocked out the dates on my 2015 calendar. The last weekend in January is truffle time, which means the first few weeks of the new year are a time of belt-tightening.

I'm talking about the annual Oregon Truffle Festival, which will be celebrating its 10th anniversary next year. I hear there are big plans afoot for 2015, so in order to be ready, I might need to join my parents on January 1 when they "put on the hair shirt." Putting on the hair shirt entails cutting out all alcoholic beverages and rich foods for three weeks. They don't last the full month because, according to them, their social schedule begins to heat up again in the last week of January. As does mine.

I look forward to the Oregon Truffle Festival every year. I've made friends who I know I'll see that weekend, and only that weekend. They come from all over the country and abroad. Those of you who have read The Mushroom Hunters know that an entire chapter takes place at the festival. My editor would have been happy to see a whole book from there; he needs to get on a plane to Oregon.

This year's lineup was pretty amazing. Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg, authors of the James Beard award-winning books The Flavor Bible and What To Drink with What You Eat, were guest dignitaries (not to mention charming tablemates), and they helmed a tasting—along with Lee Medoff of Bull Run Distilling, beer guru Christian DeBenedetti, and wine writer Cole Danehower—that pushed the usual boundaries: three flights—wine, beer, and spirits—paired with truffled bites. I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised to see how well an Oregon Vesper Cocktail (Medoyeff vodka, Aria gin) paired with a White Truffle and Duck Liver Mousseline. Whodathunkit?

The first course of Saturday night's Grand Truffle Dinner (pictured above), by Aaron Barnett of St. Jack in Portland, also involved the apparently now hip spirit pairing. Oregon White Truffle Cured Beef Tenderloin with Celery, Oregon Black Truffle, and Oyster Emulsion was nicely matched with a Celery Gimlet devised by St. Jack's John Salas. I'm not a big cocktail drinker, but these pairings proved fresh and tasty.

The Grand Truffle Dinner was over the top as always, with everyone donning their finest attire (ahem, Mr. Winkler at right, with his turkey-tail tie). Pictured at the top of this post is the second course, a collaboration between Justin Wills of Restaurant Beck in Depoe Bay on the Oregon Coast and Gregory Gourdet of Departure in Portland, receiving its finishing touches: Oregon Black Truffle Chirashi with Dungeness Crab, Kampachi, Cured Scallop, Yuzu, Takawan, and Oregon Black Truffle Tamago (it helps to have a smart phone at table just to look up such ingredients!). Another unusual hit was the Chawanmushi of Foie Gras with Oregon White Truffles, served up by Hero Sone and Lisa Doumani of Terra in Napa Valley.

Thankfully I was going into this six-course feast with an appetite. Earlier that day I saw the beginnings of a new Périgord truffle orchard at Domaine Meriwether. (Just add water and wait 10 years!) Planted by New World Truffieres, the small plot is something of an experimental orchard, with several varieties of host tree that will be grown organically (no weed killers!) and subjected to new ideas in this otherwise very old business. Later at lunch, the winery served Beef Tartare with Black Truffle Mayonnaise, Micro Greens & Crostini (pictured above left), another of my favorites of the weekend, and paired with their excellent 2001 Brut Rosé. After that we worked off lunch with a walk in the woods. For those who wanted to take home some truffles, this was a good year. Everyone got a chance to forage their own with the help of Umami Truffle Dogs.

Now it's time to put the hair shirt on.

Super Bowl Chili

On days like today, it pays to have a deep bench. I dropped back and went long for…dried pulverized chanterelles and frozen porcini.

First, I had to make a morning run to the market for some last minute provisions. The place was a mob scene at 9 a.m. Even little old ladies were decked out in Seahawks jerseys, pushing carts full of beer. This town is pumped up. The cashier had a big cutout picture of Richard Sherman on a stick that he was waving around when the line got disorderly.

But this is still Seattle, and my job today is to bring a vegetarian dish to the neighborhood Super Bowl party. Everyone loves chili. Mine will be a little different from the norm.

First, the chanterelles. If you dried your excess last fall and buzzed in the food processor like I did, then you have a very nice stash of magic mushroom powder that adds a layer of depth to soups, stews, gravies, and rubs. It's a little sweet yet still earthy. I think of this chanterelle powder as my special teams outfit.

Next, the porcini. I'm guessing the one-pound bag I pulled out of the freezer was about two pounds fresh. Back in the fall, during an epic king bolete pop, I chopped up pounds and pounds of the stuff, sautéed in butter, and vacuum-sealed in single meal sizes. Today the porcini is my meat substitute. Think of it as that now-legendary decision against the 'Niners to scratch the field-goal attempt and go for seven.

Here's the play-by-play:

2 cups dried black beans
2 medium yellow onions, diced
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 bay leaf
1 15 oz can pinto beans
1 15 oz can red kidney beans
1 28 oz can diced tomato
2 heaping tbsp chanterelle dust, reconstituted in 2 cups warm water
2+ cups prepared porcini *
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 jalapeño pepper, thinly sliced
olive oil
4 tsp chili powder
4 tsp cumin
2 tsp paprika
cayenne pepper to taste
oregano to taste
salt

* As noted above, the porcini should be fresh or frozen, about 2 cups cooked.

1. Rinse black beans, cover with water in a heavy pot, and bring to boil. Reduce heat, add half the onions and garlic plus a bay leaf and simmer until soft, about an hour. As the water reduces, stir in chanterelle stock.

2. Add pinto beans, kidney beans, and diced tomato to black bean mixture. Continue to simmer.

3. Saute remaining onion and garlic in a couple tablespoons of olive oil until soft. Add porcini and cook together a few minutes before adding all the peppers. Continue to sauté mixture until peppers are soft. Stir in spices, cook a couple minutes until vegetables are thoroughly coated, and add to beans.

Serve with shredded cheese, sour cream, chopped onion, cilantro, and copious quantities of beer.

GO HAWKS!!!

2014 Pacific Northwest Book Award

I'm excited to share the news that The Mushroom Hunters has won a 2014 Pacific Northwest Book Award! Some of my favorite writers are past winners; my head is spinning...

A sincere and heartfelt thank you to all those readers and bookstores across the region for their support. I've been overwhelmed by enthusiasm for the book, and it goes without saying that this has been a dream of mine—to journey deep into nature's secret garden and come back with a story that resonates with a wide audience—so I'm incredibly grateful.

I'd also like to acknowledge two arts foundations that provided financial support at critical junctures, enabling my "boots-on-the-ground" research in far-flung places: Artist Trust and 4Culture. The work they do to promote the creative process cannot be overstated.

On Saturday, February 8, at 7 p.m., I'll be at Elliott Bay Books in Seattle for the award ceremony. Elliott Bay is my local. It's where my first book event was held, and I look forward to coming full circle for this occasion. Hope to see some of you there!

Grouper Sandwich

One of my most favorite sammies in the world is a flaky yet succulent grouper sandwich, preferably served with fries, cole slaw, pickle spear, and cold beer. To get such a treat you should go to southwestern Florida, where you might be temped by other similar delights...a soft-shelled crab sandwich, say, or even an oyster po'boy. But the crab sandwich can be readily procured in a Maryland clam shack in season, and the oyster po'boy, as the name implies, reaches sacrament status where the term po'boy was invented, New Orleans.

For grouper, you go to Florida.

The thing is, while in Florida you might make the acquaintance of some other flaky, white-fleshed fishies, some of which might even rival the grouper in taste if not name. The place is lousy with good-eating gilled critters.

On vacation recently I met a couple of these other fish that you won't find on the Mucky Duck's chalkboard, or any other bar menu for that matter, and I have to say they were every bit as personable as the grouper. Luckily I had my boy with me, because he's the one who made the introductions. I could only dredge up one hapless catfish after another, while the kid hooked a whole aquarium of warm-water swimmers in the mangrove-shaded back bays of Naples. We ended up keeping a couple of black drums and a nice sheepshead.

Back at the shack I was disappointed to find a general lack of flour in the cupboards. This was vacation after all. No problem. We put a stack of stale Triscuits into a blender usually reserved for that other Florida specialty, the Planter's Punch, along with handfuls of Cape Cod potato chips and mixed cocktail nuts, plus a dash of Old Bay seasoning and some salt. Voila. A perfectly acceptable dry batter. Next I cut up the fillets into sandwich-sized portions, egged them, and rolled in the batter before frying in ample butter and finishing with a generous squeeze of lemon. The rest of the sandwich is academic: a fairly soft French roll or poppy-seed bun, shredded lettuce, and thinly sliced tomato. We also whipped up a batch of homemade tartar sauce with mayo and chopped pickle.

I wonder how many Florida natives would have discerned the truth about my homemade "grouper" sandwich. And how many reputable establishments are serving "grouper" with the fry cook's catch on his day off? If I lived in southwest Florida I'd definitely be one of those guys you curse at while driving the obstacle course that is the Tamiami Trail, one of those guys fishing from a bridge abutment on an already narrow two-lane blacktop lined with traffic hazards like birdwatchers, panther crossing signs, and orchid thieves.

Florida may be overloaded with white shoes and blue hair, but it's paradise for grouper groupies.

New Classes Announced

Happy new year everyone, and may it be a year filled with wild foods and outdoor adventure. As I write in my January column for Seattle Magazine, this is the year to get outside and turn over rocks like a kid again.

To help with such resolutions, I've got new classes lined up for spring 2014.

• Spring TBD: Razor Clamming Overnight – Washington Coast. Two days of razor clamming and cooking instruction plus lodging. Call to be added to waiting list. This class is offered through Bainbridge Island Parks & Rec, and dates will be determined by Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife official razor clam openings. See page 35 of brochure for more information. To register, call 206-842-2306 x-118.


• March 23: Stinging Nettles Foraging/Cooking – Bainbridge Island, WA. This class is offered through Bainbridge Island Parks & Rec. See page 35 of brochure for more information. To register, call 206-842-2306 x-118.


• March 30: Shellfish Foraging/Cooking – Dosewallips State Park, Brinnon, WA. This class is offered through Bainbridge Island Parks & Rec. See page 35 of brochure for more information. To register, call 206-842-2306 x-118.


• May 3: Shellfish Foraging/Cooking – Dosewallips State Park, Brinnon, WA. This class is offered through Bainbridge Island Parks & Rec. See page 35 of brochure for more information. To register, call 206-842-2306 x-118.


• Ongoing: Side Tour – Seward Park, Seattle. Classes for January 8, February 26, and March 1 are all sold out, but stay tuned for more classes in the future.

Signed Gift Books

Give a signed copy of The Mushroom Hunters to the readers on your holiday gift list! I'm happy to inscribe, sign, and mail books. The cost is $25 for the book, including tax (a discount on cover price), plus $5.60 to ship each copy priority mail with 2-3 day delivery, for a total of $30.60.

Contact me at finspotcook AT gmail DOT com with mailing address and recipient name, and I'll send you PayPal instructions. No gift wrap. Hurry while supplies last and there's still time to send priority mail.

Everyone knows Santa loves mushrooms... Happy holidays!

Seattle Book Events

Two pieces of good news: The Mushroom Hunters was just short-listed for the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Awards (thank you local indies!), and my first TV interview will be broadcast on the PBS show Well Read. Admittedly, I didn't sleep much before the interview (and I had a frog in my throat, the first cold of the season), but the 30-minute conversation flew by in a blink, and I thoroughly enjoyed talking with host Terry Tazioli, who is smart, curious, and an all-around good guy.

I'll be staying close to home through the remainder of 2013, with plenty of readings and slide talks planned for the Seattle area. If you're curious about edible fungi or the hidden subculture of mushroom pickers and buyers, stop by one of these events:

• December 3: Tom Douglas Cookbook Social, Seattle, WA, 4 p.m.


• December 5: Book Larder, Seattle, WA, 6:30 p.m.


• December 8: Urban Craft Uprising, Seattle, WA, 1 p.m.


• December 10: Puget Sound Mycological Society, Seattle, WA, 7 p.m.


• December 18: University Bookstore, Seattle, WA, 7 p.m.


• December 19: Kitsap Mycological Society, Bremerton, WA, 6 p.m.

Next Stop, the Big Apple

The West is now home, but I never pass up a chance to revisit my childhood roots and plug into the electrical current that is New York City. On November 21, at 7 p.m., Slow Food NYC is hosting me for a slide presentation in Brooklyn, at Fitzcarraldo restaurant, and I guarantee a good time for all.

The picture above was snapped a few years ago from the inside of a wild mushroom delivery van at dawn as it hustled several hundred pounds of Oregon chanterelles from Newark International Airport to the finest restaurants in Manhattan and Brooklyn. You can't research North America's fast-and-loose wild mushroom trade and not visit the most fabled eateries on the continent, where fungi have been elevated to a place among the top ingredients in a chef's pantry. I write about my time in New York in a chapter titled "Ingredients as Art," a phrase borrowed from Sam Sifton's 4-star review of Del Posto in The New York Times. President Obama happened to be in town to light the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center, and Occupy Wall Street protesters had just been evicted from Zuccotti Park. As always, electricity was in the air.

If you're in the New York area and you're curious about the wild mushroom trail—and the colorful characters who make their living on this itinerant, informal circuit—then come on by, have a beer, and stay for the presentation. I'll be showing slides and talking about the book.

Pickled Chanterelles

As reported in earlier posts, the Pacific Northwest's fall mushroom season has been a boon to recreational pickers this year. Kings, matsutake, chanterelles, sparassis, and others are fruiting in big numbers, and such abundance encourages us to get creative with how we stock the larder.

Most years I'll sauté and freeze more than enough chanterelles, to name but one variety, to get me through the rest of the year. This season I'm taking it a bit further. I'm dehydrating and powdering the mushrooms to make a Chanterelle Spice Rub, and I'm also pickling them.

Here's a very simple way to pickle chanties. The key is to get as much moisture out of the mushrooms before pickling so that they can then be bathed in liquid later. This makes for flavorful mushrooms with good texture. You can use any sort of vinegar, but cider vinegar complements the hints of stone fruit in chanterelles, while the addition of water insures that the mushroom's delicate flavor isn't overpowered.

2 lbs chanterelles
1 1/2 cups cider vinegar
1/2 cup water
1 tbsp kosher salt, plus a pinch
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp pickling spices *

* I used a commercial pickling blend that included black peppercorns, allspice, coriander seeds, mustard seeds, bay leaf, red chili pepper, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, mace, and cardamon. An equivalent amount of black peppercorns, allspice, and coriander seeds is fine, plus a bay leaf.

1. Use button chanterelles if possible. Clean carefully. Keep small mushrooms whole; cut larger ones in half or quarters.

2. Heat a deep sauté pan over medium without oil or butter. Add chanterelles and stir immediately, continuing to stir at an easy pace until the mushrooms begin to release their water. Increase the heat to high and continue to stir until most of the water has evaporated. Sprinkle a healthy pinch of salt over the chanterelles and reduce heat again to medium.

3. Add vinegar, water, salt, sugar, and pickling spices. Simmer 5 minutes.

4. Use a slotted spoon to pack mushrooms into sterilized jars. Pour liquid and spices over to cover, with a quarter-inch of head room. Top off with more vinegar if necessary.

5. Seal jars and process in a hot water bath for 15 minutes.