It's mushroom season! We have been getting rain pretty much every day, and it turns out that rain brings more than giant puddles and soaked shoes. Mushrooms have sprouted all over central Russia, and people are descending on forests to pick them. Mushroom gathering might seem strange to a lot of Americans, but the fact that we don't head to the forest after a big rain to pick nature's bounty seems equally strange to Russians. My host family was surprised to learn that I have never been mushroom picking (I'm hoping to go sometime soon). This past weekend, they headed out to the forest near my host dad's village to gather mushrooms and pick potatoes, and they brought back a huge amount of little white mushrooms, which are considered a delicacy.
So what to do with pounds and pounds of mushrooms? For the Russian cook, there are several options. You could boil them with potatoes and onions and make a tasty soup (I took some of the mushrooms and potatoes to work today, and one of my fellow teachers and I made a big pot of soup and treated everyone to lunch). Or, you could can the mushrooms in a marinade, which is what my host family did with a lot of their take; they filled 11 big mason jars full. These marinated mushrooms can then be brought out on a dark winter night, bringing back memories of warmer days. My favorite variant, however, is mushroom caviar. To make this, you run the mushrooms through a meat grinder to make a puree. Then you boil them with garlic and herbs until you have a savory spread that is perfect to put on a slice of hearty black bread. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.
On a totally unrelated note, I saw my absolute favorite ESL error the other day. It was a response to a question about plans for later in the day. The student wrote: "Tonight, I will go home and serf the internet." I thought serfdom in Russia was abolished in 1861--I guess it still thrives on the internet. Here's a picture of some mushrooms:
So what to do with pounds and pounds of mushrooms? For the Russian cook, there are several options. You could boil them with potatoes and onions and make a tasty soup (I took some of the mushrooms and potatoes to work today, and one of my fellow teachers and I made a big pot of soup and treated everyone to lunch). Or, you could can the mushrooms in a marinade, which is what my host family did with a lot of their take; they filled 11 big mason jars full. These marinated mushrooms can then be brought out on a dark winter night, bringing back memories of warmer days. My favorite variant, however, is mushroom caviar. To make this, you run the mushrooms through a meat grinder to make a puree. Then you boil them with garlic and herbs until you have a savory spread that is perfect to put on a slice of hearty black bread. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.
On a totally unrelated note, I saw my absolute favorite ESL error the other day. It was a response to a question about plans for later in the day. The student wrote: "Tonight, I will go home and serf the internet." I thought serfdom in Russia was abolished in 1861--I guess it still thrives on the internet. Here's a picture of some mushrooms:
Serfdom is alive and well in the CSEES dept.....for the record. And i love mushrooms! How do they know which ones are poison and which ones they can eat...is it something they pass down through families?
ReplyDeleteCSEES is definitely not a democracy haha. I think knowledge of mushrooms is passed down from generation to generation--my host dad called his mom a few times to get tips on the best way to preserve a certain type of mushroom. Russians in general seem to have a better knowledge of what is edible and what isn't in the forest.
ReplyDelete