Meeting March 1^st

Talk: Amanitas: From Deadly to Delicious by Debbie Viess

Debbie Viess, aka "Amanitarita" will bring her fascination for amanitas alive in this richly illustrated, informative and entertaining presentation. Amanitas are some of the most feared, as well as some of the most coveted of all edible mushrooms. Come learn about the realities of this often maligned but never boring group of colorful and graceful, delicious and sometimes deadly mushrooms. From her personal experiences with amanitas in California to tales of amanitas from around the world, this promises to be an eye-opening talk. Maybe Rita can make an amanita fan out of YOU!

Debbie Viess is a biologist, writer and artist who has been obsessed with mushrooms in general, and amanitas in particular for over fifteen years. She is the Co-Founder of the San Francisco Bay Area’s newest mushroom club: the Bay Area Mycological Society (BAMS!), and leads mushroom walks and teaches mushroom classes for a variety of non-profit organizations, including the California Academy of Science and Pt. Reyes Field Seminars. She has published articles on amanitas for Bay Nature magazine, and in Fall 2009 published an extensive, illustrated article on East Bay amanitas for the Manzanita, a respected, local botanical journal. In 2008 she introduced the Bay Area public to amanitas in a "Science Café" presentation, sponsored by the U.C. Berkeley Natural History Museum. She has contributed articles to numerous local mushroom club newsletters, Mushroom, the Journal of Wild Mushrooming, and is a contributing editor to FUNGI magazine. She gives entertaining and informative mushroom talks to assorted groups and mushroom clubs in California and across the nation. She is a frequent contributor to various online mushroom forums, and is an important member of the MushroomObserver.org community. When she is not in the field collecting and photographing mushrooms, she can be found at home writing about or illustrating them, or even, sometimes, cooking them.

It is fortunate that her husband and BAMS Co-Founder David Rust shares her interests, but her daughter Syd wishes fervently that there were fewer fungi in the family refrigerator. Debbie looks forward to speaking to the San Diego club and revisiting the desert. In addition to mushrooms, she enjoys observing birds and animal behavior and flowering plants. Before mushrooms completely possessed her, she considered herself to be a bit of a desert rat. Perhaps there is a wash-dwelling Podaxis in her future??!

The meeting will be at the usual location, Room 101 at the Casa Del Prado in Balboa Park at 6:30 pm. If you happen to find any mushrooms, bring them for discussion and identification.

Pre-meeting Dinner

We will observe our usual custom of treating the speaker to dinner.
Meet at 5:00, March 1st at
Soltan Banoo
4645 Park Blvd
San Diego, CA 92116

Foray Sunday Feb 28

We will be having a foray with our speaker Debbie Viess at Will Wilson's farm. Meet at the trailer at 10:00AM February, 28th. Bring a lunch if you wish, and wine, beer or other beverages too. MAP Click here

Will's trailer and barn are located almost exactly 1/2 mile west of the San Luis Rey picnic ground on Hwy 76. The red barn is an easy landmark, sitting near the river on the south side of the road. Will's trailer is opposite the barn on the north side of the road, with a white mailbox that says 'Lighthouse Farm'. You can park along the driveway that goes up to the trailer. Meet there at 10:00 am. Allow about 2 hours travel time from San Diego.

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Mushroom News

• Industrial-strength Fungus
• Leccinum Poisoning
• More on the Leccinum Poisoning
• J.D. Salinger was a fungus fan

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Mushroom Views

• North American Fungi
• Scroll down to Feb 8th, 10th, and 24th
• COMA's Fungiphotos
• Worth Visiting
• Mushroom Shopping
• Fungi at Palomar College
• Slime Molds

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What’s Cooking!

Fungi As Food

Chanterelle recipes from the BAMS discussion group.

For those who do not follow the BAMS discussion, here are some recent suggestions for chanterelles, lightly edited.

over the top chanterelle method
From Patrick Hamilton

If anybody wants to truly make outstanding chanterelles (and check their hat with their arteries at the door) try butter poaching. Strip them, as in pulling them apart from the cap down the stem so that you have nice shreds--not too thin nor too fat (say 1/4" average thickness at the bottom and 1/2 back up at the cap end)), and put them in boiling butter mixed with a little water to cover. Continue to boil until most of the liquid is gone (you might pour off some for another use) and then, when all the liquid is gone, allow the chanterelles to sort of saute in the butter fat that is left until the edges of them are crisp and golden. By this time they will have lost any softness (read: "sliminess"), will be cooked perfectly through, and then can be used sparingly perhaps to top black cod ("sable fish") with a mango tarragon sauce (or use the wild fennel now coming up) or placed atop a nicely roasted chicken breast that has been sauced with a grilled apricot/blood orange creation.

Chanterelle Bacon
From Debbie Viess

Another good but not necessarily heart healthy prep for the "heartbreak" of too many chanterelles is the old standby, chanterelle bacon. This only works with our ginormous meaty (as in fat and fleshy) California golden oak chanterelles... you know...the two pound single fruit body versions! This prep does not work as well with other mushrooms; the porcini version just tastes burnt, to my palate.

Clean and chop finely one or two chanterelles (big'uns). The small size (fine chop not coarse) is critical to getting all of the water out (they must be crispy) without burning it. Think of it as "bacon bits" rather than slab bacon.

Drop about a cups worth into a wok filled with hot oil (I use the fairly reasonable and lightly flavored grapeseed oil from the Berkeley Bowl). Let bubble until the chanterelles no longer give off water and lie still on the surface. Scoop out with a large flat strainer and drain on paper towels or brown paper. Repeat.

Chanterelle bacon tastes like, well, bacon. Somehow, when the chanterelles are treated in this way, they end up with a bacony flavor and lovely crunchy texture. But don't take MY word for it...;) It can be frozen and used as needed. Makes a great addition to spinach salad (or anything else you might think of) and allows your veggie/vegan friends to have an ersatz bit of that smoked meat magic! You can also save the oil, but pretty much must dedicate it to this particular use since it is very strongly flavored.

Another approach
From Hugh Livingston

Here's my trick for you to try at home:
chop your chanterelles and keep a little saucepan on a separate burner. As quickly as the mushrooms shed water (and salt them generously to encourage the moisture release), use a bulb-baster to draw the water off into the adjacent pan. Add some white wine or cream and keep it boiling down. The important thing is to keep the mushrooms from just steaming or stewing while you are waiting for the water to boil off (and the deadly gumminess). Keep doing this til they literally stick, and maybe even a little longer, and only then add a bit of oil or butter to release that wonderful caramelization from the pan (remember that some flavor proteins dissolve in alcohol, some in fat, some in oil).
When the mushrooms are done, pour back your dramatically reduced liquids for an intense flavor concentration, finishing with onions and parsley.
In the drier seasons, or with store mushrooms, I will make them almost crispy like nuts to scatter over a fish, but these days that is far too much moisture to render.

If you don't have a bulb baster handy (for those of us with second homes in the country or camp cooking), just keep a sieve over the sauce pot and pour off the liquid, but use a very heavy pan for the mushrooms or you'll lose all the heat capacity each time it comes off the burner.

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Two sources for a "Recipe of the Month".
BAMS, and MAMS

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Fungi of the Month

Now there are two "Fungus of the Month" sites:
Tom Volk's long-running series at : http://tomvolkfungi.net/.
And a new one at: http://www.bayareamushrooms.org/mushroommonth/index.html.

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Renewal Time

Remember, all memberships now expire each February. Bring your check for $20 to the meeting and save a stamp. If you joined recently, your membership is good until February 2011. If in doubt, talk to the treasurer.

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Liability Waiver Forms

Participation in SDMS Forays requires a signed liability waiver. To save time at the start of forays, you can download a form here, sign it, and turn it in with your membership renewal.

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SDMS Information