When I was very little my father and I found mushrooms like these growing under the barbed wire fence on the koppie over the road from our house. The land on the other side of the fence belonged to the state president. But we figured the mushrooms belonged to us. My mother said they were horse mushrooms (Agaricus arvensis) and cooked them for my father's supper. But we didn't eat any. Just in case, she told me, years later.
Occasionally I see perfect large brown mushrooms in local supermarkets. These were at Best Yet, on Frederick Douglass Boulevard. Delivery seems to be once a week and if you hit them on the right day they are perfect - six inches wide and plump with moisture. Six days later the same poor shrooms lie wizened and gasping and ignored.
We ate these filled with an old fashioned combination of garlic, breadcrumbs, fennel and parsley, with a squeeze of lemon juice. Forty minutes in a very hot oven.
Your first paragraph made me chuckle, though your father might not be as amused. :)
ReplyDelete...my father will never know...Computers are another planet, for him, sadly. My mother, on the other paw...:-)
DeleteYou stuffed these with fennel, do you mean finely chopped or thinly sliced fresh fennel or fennel seeds? They sound delicious :)!!
ReplyDeleteFresh fennel seeds from terrace...
DeleteIt was Shirley Conran (Terence's second wife) who first said, "Life is too short to stuff a mushroom." Caroline, his third wife, said, "So I stuff mushrooms as often as I can." I don't know what Vicky, his fourth (and present) wife says about mushrooms, or stuffing them.
ReplyDeleteI never associated Shirley Conran with Terence. Huh. My mother owned Superwoman.
DeleteWhat do you say about mushrooms?
Betsy, you made me splurt coffee!
ReplyDeleteThese look like the giants our supermarkets sell as Portabella(sic).I've always thought they look exactly like the horse mushrooms we picked along the rail line near a coal mine. many years ago. Delicious on bruschetta, with tomato and garlic chives for a wint'ry lunch
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