Gang Gang Warfare

Underbelly has nothing on Avianbelly. Its on! Gang Gang warfare has started at Sunnybrae with this innocent looking member of the Callocephalon fimbriatum tribe living up to her handsome Australian cockatoo reputation as scout and spotter for this gang of thieves. After a quiet chat to her about the virtues of well hung game birds and a quickpick all the quinces are quickly stashed ready to be slow cooked in the residual heat of the wood oven. Ripe fruit is fair game but when they start to attack green fruit I get very curious as to how a well hung native bird might taste? Tony Bilson tells the tale of Cambridge style family dinners in the Western District of his youth, where roast Black Swan was featured on the menu and many older locals also recall the days of eating wild birds during the depression. Just joking Polly.

Then my neighbor Hans dropped in a box of his prized Bramley apples a variety seldom seen in the market. They are an old English variety mainly used for cooking but to my taste are an equally delicious fresh crisp eating apple. The variety celebrated its 200th anniversary last year. Disaster struck when the original Bramley tree blew down during violent storms at the turn of the 19th century. However, the tree somehow survived and is still bearing fruit more than 100 years later. http://www.bramleyapples.co.uk/

The non astringent Fuyu persimmons have never completely captured my taste buds. They are sweet crisp but nothing on the silken texture and taste of the well ripened astringent varieties.

Quite recently I realised that the Fuyu also bletts or ripens to a jelly like texture with an undefinable unique flavour . Many asian grocers almost give the ripe ones away as it’s the opposite of what they are looking for. I have to admit they also taste pretty good crisp with a seasoning of chilly salt.

Apropos to the last post this is the yellow stainer Agaricus xanthodermus it looks like a field mushroom but stains yellow and smells of Phenol.. Beware!

The next avian assault will be from the Sulphur Crested mob on the olives.

We’re ready Polly!

Horse Mushrooms

A local farmer kindly dropped off this magnificent haul of Horse Mushrooms a couple of hours ago. It has been many years since I have seen a haul like this. They are Agaricus arvenis but even with these seemingly choice mushrooms quite a few checks need to be made. Firstly where were they were found? Near native trees, pines or open pasture? Alarm bells go off if they are in a native or pine forest. But as they were from open paddocks I can continue to check. Do they stain yellow on scratching? No but they have a slight yellow hue both positive and necessary identification signs for Horse Mushrooms. Does the odour have taints of Phenol? No also good. Are the gills the right shape? Yes. Do they have a double veil? Yes

And finally is the spore print a chocolate brown? Yes.

All OK, so I am able to use them.

But what can we do with such a large amount of very mature examples? The small ones will be used for a special vegetarian dish and some kept for a request for the cooking class on Monday but the rest especially the very large ones will be dried.

They are now safely sliced and in the food dryer where the flavour will be concentrated and we can use them at our leisure to enhance sauces, stocks and any dish that needs the autumnal umami that dried fungi provides. These horse mushrooms are slightly different from what we often call field mushrooms. Again I stress do not rely on post like this but always get an experienced opinion from someone who has seen the specimens before you graze on any wild fungi.

A WORD OF WARNING

Each year as the fungi season begins I dread reading the news that some unfortunate individual will succumb to the temptation to try a dangerous wild mushroom/toadstool and get very sick or worse die. I have been collecting fungi for over 20 years and each year instead of getting more and more adventurous I get more and more cautious. There is no certain way to identify edible fungi other than from a very experienced and knowledgable person.
 Books are useful, but often a very highly powered microscope in the hands of a very experienced mycologist is the only way to identify fungi and even then, the most common verdict here in Australia is "not known to be edible". We live in a continent that has the most extraorinary variety of fungi but edibility is not known for most of our indigenous fungi. The above collage is a small sample of native boletes. They are not porcini/ceps but do belong to the same family of fungi that have do not have gills but a  sponge under the caps. They are not slippery jacks so be very careful, the consequences of eating them are unknown. No matter how careful you are only a qualified expert can be your guide.
In Europe where there is a well established culture of collecting edible wild fungi  and there are official channels to certify edibility. In France chemist shops have qualified staff to examine a foragers catch. In most European markets there is a stall where qualified experts certify and stamp a stall holders stock. Sadly no such service is available at local markets.

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This sequence was taken at 10 second intervals.
There are choice,edible blue staining Boletes in Europe; but this is NOT one of them. True identification can take more than 25 steps including a highly magnified image of the minute spores.

For the serious collector click below but!!
PLEASE TAKE CARE

Pomegranates Red/White

This is the finest time of year for the temperate garden, late ripening figs, chestnuts, hints of a great fungi season are revealed. Apples are at their best, the pears are ripe, quinces are on the way and... The Pomegranates Have Landed.

Over the years the problem with pomegranates [for me] has been how to tell the white seeded ones from the red ones without cutting them up? The white ones are very sweet but there is little complexity compared to the red ones that have a sublime sweet/sour balance with a unique flavour.
Last week I plucked up the courage to ask my pomegranate seller, a gentle Iranian man at the top of A shed at the Victoria Market how to tell the difference. At first they both look the same but take a very close look; the white ones have a telltale white ghosting around the tiny spots on the skin but the red ones have even smaller spots just a bit closer together with no white outline.

For an introduction to the extraordinary history/cultivation/use of this fruit you could start with Louis Glowinski’s complete guide to Fruit Growing in Australia and meet Persephone and her downfall with Hades due to seven pomegranate seeds. The symbolism continues throughout the ancient world.
You may have noticed a marked improvement in the quality of Australian pomegranates that up to a few years ago were nowhere near the quality of imported American varieties. The flower is spectacular, its up there with a passionfruit flower for sheer beauty. In the city I often glean a few fruit from neglected trees planted for decoration. I use them fo enliven rice dishes added at the end after cooking or add them to salads. They are a splendid addition to yoghurt, make a spectacular sorbet, the juice can be used in the cooking of duck or lamb and of course is the base for grenadine.
But I prefer them raw as a cool contrast in a spicy pilaf or tajine.

Back to the harvest......