As you know, many people just love mushrooms. Visiting restaurants and cafes, they willingly order mushroom dishes and enjoy their amazing taste. Nevertheless, when this raw forest product is in the home kitchen, the question arises - what to do with mushrooms after harvesting?
Do not be surprised that not every family has a person who, in his free time, goes to the forest in search of fungi. Hence, cook mushrooms at home don't have to.
I will try to make a difference by sharing my experience. After reading my article, you will do anything with mushrooms, cook, fry, salt and even dry. I will focus on collecting and cleaning. In general, the article should be very interesting and informative.
How to salt mushrooms
Autumn is slowly approaching. So, soon on the tables will begin to appear a variety of mushroom dishes. While some enjoy their taste, others are engaged in harvesting.
Mushrooms are salted in a variety of ways. Most often, chanterelles, mushrooms, mushrooms, butterfish are salted. Regardless of the variety, you can safely use one salting technology. Get a product with few calories.
Training. Use is recommended only young intact without worms. They are sorted, washed and cleaned. Large chopped.
Soaking. Before salting some varieties, a soaking procedure is provided. As a result, bitterness leaves them. Soaked by mushrooms, thrills and others with a bitter taste. Soaking is recommended in a cool room, periodically changing the water.
Cold salting
The technology is applied to saffron milk mushrooms, breasts, threes and russules. Before salting, it is recommended to soak the breasts, traps and russula for 72 hours. Change the water after 6 hours. Redheads are not soaked. They are washed and roots removed. It is customary to salt in ceramic, glass and enameled dishes.
STEP-BY-STEP RECIPE
- Mushrooms are layered in a bowl with the caps down. All layers must be sprinkled with salt. For a kilogram of mushrooms, take half a glass of salt. You can use dill and laurel.
- Mushrooms should not be covered with a dense cloth. Next, a wooden circle is placed on top, and a light load is placed on it. After a while, they will begin to settle. It is necessary to monitor whether mold appears. If it is present, change the fabric and wash the circle.
- After a week, the mushrooms will condense, and a pickle will appear in the dishes. If there is no brine, increase the mass of the load and cover the dishes with foil. Salting will end in a month and a half.
Hot salting
This pickling technology is faster. The hot method is used for salting russula, boletus, honey agarics and butter. Use is recommended only ripe mushrooms.
Salting in this way involves the use of brine. It is prepared from seasonings and salt. Suitable dill, cloves and laurel.
- Put the pot of water on the fire, add a little salt and let the water boil. Then put mushrooms in a pan and cook, stirring occasionally.
- After the appearance of the foam, remove it, add spices and continue cooking for a third of an hour. Ready Mushrooms sink to the bottom, and the transparency of the brine will increase.
- At the end of cooking, move to a wide bowl and allow to cool. Then lay them in banks, sprinkle lightly with salt and close. The ratio of mushrooms / brine at the level of 5 to 1. Salting will end in 45 days.
Dry salting
This technology is used to pickling hard mushrooms.
- Mushrooms are slowly peeled, cut into slices, laid out on a wire rack and dried.
- Dried mushrooms are sent to a large basin, and mixed with salt. 200 grams of salt is enough per kilogram of mushrooms.
- Tightly laid out on the banks. Sprinkle salt on top and close the jar with a lid.
Video salting at home
I shared three step-by-step salting recipes. Which technology to use for salting is up to you. I note that each of these methods is good in its own way.
How to fry mushrooms
Let's imagine that you know how to collect and clean mushrooms, but the secrets of proper frying are unknown to you. This will be our conversation. To people who stick diets, you should not eat fried mushrooms.
- Wash and peel the mushrooms thoroughly. This procedure is lengthy, especially if there are a lot of them. The taste of the finished dish depends on the quality of the initial processing.
- Put the peeled mushrooms in a colander and leave under running water for 30 minutes.
- Pour water into a volumetric pan and move the mushrooms there. Put a small peeled onion in the pan, which acts as an indicator of toxicity. If it turns blue, it is recommended that the mushrooms be thrown away. Otherwise, you can seriously poison.
- Boil not for long, just a couple of minutes. Then throw them into a colander, grind and fry in oil.
This frying technique is used when the nature of the product is in doubt. In addition, when boiled, mushrooms lose vitamins and aroma. If you know exactly what kind of mushrooms, you should not boil. Just clean, pour over water, dry with a napkin and fry in oil after chopping.
The onion recipe is slightly different.
- Fry chopped onions. After that add chopped mushrooms.
- Do not cover the frying pan for 5 minutes. The result is a golden crust.
- After 5 minutes, cover the dishes and continue frying for another 5 minutes.
- Salt at the end of cooking. If you properly fry the mushrooms, they will turn out to be soft, even and retain their original shape.
Served on the table as an independent dish, cold appetizer or side dish. Some housewives are poured with sour cream sauce, or during cooking, in addition to onions, add other vegetables.
I will say a few words about spices. I do not use them, because the smell interrupts the aroma of mushrooms, especially champignons.
How to cook mushrooms
One likes meat, the second fish, the third mushrooms. It all depends on personal taste preferences. If the intricacies of cooking meat and fish dishes are known to everyone, with the latter everything is a little different. There are many ways to cook them. We will talk about cooking.
Subtleties of preparation and cooking
Before cooking, the mushrooms are pre-processed. Cleaned of dirt and debris and washed thoroughly, but not for long. If washed for a long time, they absorb too much moisture and lose elasticity.
The subtleties of cooking. First, water boils, then mushrooms are thrown into the pan, and only after that salt is added. For flavor, you can add a little noble laurel, dill or onion.
Good taste directly depends on the power of the cooking fire. The ideal option is medium heat. The cooking temperature should maintain a moderate boil of the broth.
Video of cooking mushrooms
Cooking time of popular types
- Champignons. Grown in greenhouses. They are soft, long processing is not required. Cook fresh champignons for up to 5 minutes. In the case of frozen champignons before cooking, which lasts 10 minutes, the defrosting procedure is underway.
- Oyster mushrooms. Also greenhouse mushrooms. They differ from champignons in higher elasticity and density. Cooking time about 20 minutes.
- Chanterelles. Tender forest mushrooms. Before cooking, soak in milk for 60 minutes. Boil in salted water for a third of an hour.
- Whites. The structure is quite dense. Cook for 40 minutes. During the process, foam must be removed.
- Butterflies. Grow in the forest. The structure is delicate.30 minutes are enough for cooking.
- Mushrooms. Cook for at least an hour. After boiling the broth, a foam appears, which must be removed, the water is changed and cooking continues.
I shared the secrets of cooking. You probably managed to make sure that the procedure is extremely simple and the cooking time depends on the type.
How to dry mushrooms
Drying is the most common processing method. After drying, their mass decreases and other taste qualities appear. Dried mushrooms are superior to frozen, salted and pickled nutrients. Light weight and high durability contribute to convenient storage.
For drying, marsupials and tubular mushrooms are suitable - mushrooms, white, aspen, boletus, chanterelles. Lamellar ones do not dry; they contain bitterness, which afterwards does not disappear. They are salted and pickled.
Before drying, mushrooms are sorted, choosing only strong and healthy. Do not wash, because the time increases significantly. They are wiped with a cloth and moss, needles and dirt are removed from the cap.
Large hats are cut into pieces. The legs are cut into rings or columns. Strings and morels are dried whole. For moss, chanterelles and oil, only hats are suitable for drying.
It is necessary to dry evenly and gradually, in conditions of air circulation and high temperature. Otherwise they will go bad.
Drying Methods
Open air
- Choose a dry and hot day. Mushrooms string on a thread. The resulting necklace is hung in a sunny place.
- Readiness is constantly checked. Every evening, the necklace is brought into the house, because at night the air humidity rises.
- Drying is not recommended, it will adversely affect the aroma and nutritional properties. Sometimes drying in the open air is delayed for a week.
Oven or factory drying
Using this technique, lay a thin layer on a wire rack or baking sheet. Dried at a temperature of 70 degrees for several hours.
Video drying at home
For example, I looked at two popular drying methods. Ready mushrooms are dry and light to the touch, do not crumble, but break well.
How to peel mushrooms
Earlier picking mushrooms was considered a hobby, today it is a peculiar way of life and a family tradition.
Collecting requires special attention, as does cleaning. If you are just mastering this science, check out my tips.
Flushing
They begin to clean during collection, removing worms and damaged places right in the forest.
- After cutting, debris, leaves and needles are removed from the surface.
- In place, remove the mucous skin of the cap.
- Wormy places on the leg are cut out.
So only pure mushrooms will remain in the basket, and you will awaken in the fresh air longer.
Home cleaning
- Mushrooms are sorted by species to simplify processing.
- Determine what kind of cook in the first place. Mushrooms do not lie for a long time, there are no more than 5 hours to cook.
- Some varieties contain specific substances that promote rapid oxidation. The appearance of such mushrooms quickly loses attractiveness. So that they do not darken, they are poured with salted water.
- The butterflies are cleaned from a hat. The mucous skin is removed from the edge of the cap.
- Tubular cleaned differently. To clean the breasts, use a brush. “Mahra” is always removed, as worms are often present in it.
- White soak before cleaning. After wipe with a brush and remove dark places.
- Ginger ones clean under a stream of water, others do not use water. Redheads grow in clean grass, so it is enough to trim the long legs and lightly douse with water.
At the end of cleaning, pour over with water and immediately cook. A long stay in the water negatively affects the taste.
How to pick mushrooms
Mushrooms can be purchased at the supermarket or harvested with your own hands. A trip to the store will not require much time, but it cannot be compared with a trip to the forest, which allows you to enjoy the beauty of nature, breathe clean air and relax.
There are many mushroom pickers in our time, but few people know the secrets of the proper collection. In addition, you need to go to the forest in the appropriate equipment, grabbing certain gear.
Many simply pluck mushrooms from the ground along with the root. You can’t do this, because the mycelium can be destroyed. They need to be cut with a knife at the very base, and the stump of the legs should be covered with the remains of plants.
If there is no garden knife at hand, the mushroom is rotated around its axis and carefully removed. So the mycelium will receive minor damage. If you save it today, after a while a new crop will appear in this place.
For the normal existence of mycelium, favorable conditions are required. In the forest there are often places that resemble a place of a fight: leaves and needles are dug, and moss is trampled. How in this case can we talk about the safety of mycelium? Only the right mushroom picker cares about such moments.
Let's talk directly about the rules for collecting mushrooms.
- It is recommended to collect in the morning.
- They move between the trees neatly and slowly, inspecting secluded places.
- If the summer is dry, look among the leaves, in the moss, and under thick branches.
- If the rainy summer is sought in open places and clearings.
- Mushrooms grow by companies, if it was possible to find one, carefully examine the site.
- Grow extremely fast. If a small one appeared today, in a few days a giant will be in its place.
We pay attention to the equipment of the mushroom picker, the collection efficiency and the level of the collector's comfort depend on this.
- Mushrooms are collected in a basket. Buckets are not used, because without air flow they quickly deteriorate.
- Going to the forest, they put on light and comfortable clothes. For example, a knitted tracksuit. A raincoat or raincoat is taken with you in case of rainy weather.
- Shoes pick up light, comfortable and moisture-resistant. Soap, leather or rubber boots are considered the best solution. If it’s dry in the forest, sports shoes are also good.
- A shoulder bag made of waterproof material will also come in handy. It is convenient to carry food, a flask of water, matches, a garden knife and a raincoat in it. Ideally, a compass should be present.
If you are new to this area, be sure to heed my advice. It is not superfluous to read the encyclopedia about edible and non-edible mushrooms.
On this note, I end the article. I hope you can now collect, clean and process the mushrooms.
I note that cooking and frying is nothing special. But drying and pickling is another matter. Dried mushrooms are the perfect base for a variety of dishes. They are added to the soup, used as a filling for pies.