Just watched the second episode of wild gourmets on channel 4 (Tuesday 8.30) and still not sure what to make of them. While it is great to encourage people to eat wild food, how realistic is it for ordinary people (without a camera crew in tow) to turn up at stately homes in Surrey and ask them for free food from the kitchen garden in exchange for a bit of wood chopping. I'd like to see them do it without a camera crew and without their posh accents. In this week's show they shot some pheasants, caught a couple of pike and picked some mushrooms including parasols (they looked more like shaggy parasols to me but I could be wrong). Last week they swapped some beefsteak fungi for eggs and all manner of things at a local shop. which seemed utterly unrealistic to me. I know what my local veg. shop would say if I turned up with some battered bracket fungi and asked to swap them for a dozen eggs and some olive oil. So far almost all the herbs she has used have been cultivated ones - why is she not using wild garlic and all the other things that woods are full of rather than relying on what she can scrounge from the local toffs kitchen garden? I think we are supposed to fancy them (hence the shot of his arse this week - I will lay odds that there will be more of this posterior in future episodes) - personally I find them both utterly sexless and the recipes suspect but I will probably keep watching.
The mushroom season around dublin has been very erratic this year thanks to the miserable Summer with many mushrooms blooming earlier than usual and some not at all. My usual spots for parasols and ink caps are yielding but I have missed out on some beauties by mistiming my hunts (they were too old to pick on at least 4 occasions). I did find some (slightly maggoty) slippery jacks in Bushy Park last week (my first time finding them in this wood) and some shaggy parasols so there is still lots of growth.
The link above for the slippery jacks says they are not worth eating - this is untrue as they taste just like a blander softer version of the bay bolete (boletus badius). I simply peeled the slimy skin off the top and cut carefully watching for little baby maggots (especially prevalent in older ones) and fried the flesh in olive oil and a little butter, adding some garlic for the last 30 seconds, and spread them on toasted challah (jewish new year bread from the corner bakery in Terenure).
For the parasols I chopped them with some fresh herbs and garlic, placed them in a baking dish with some sea salt and a good dash of olive oil, covered them in tin foil and baked them in a low oven for 20 minutes. They lose their liquid and shrink quite a bit but you can then add them to risotto or spread on toast or add to eggs etc. I often freeze them in their juices in little empty creme fraiche pots for use later on.
Blackberries are just about finished in Bushy Park but there are still lots in Marley and the season in Wicklow is only beginning so get picking.
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