Exeter's Vino E Vivo Chef Finds Giant Mushroom In Brentwood. This Is What He Did With It. - Techno Pedia

EXETER - Chef Paul Callahan has been hunting for mushrooms for several years, but he was still surprised by the size of the polyporous mushrooms he found in Brentwood this autumn.

Callahan, executive chef of Vino e Vivo in Exeter, took her son and daughter for a walk near the beaver pond where she had spotted the fungus earlier.

"There was a stone wall near some pine trees, and I happened to look up and see it," he said. The first day he left the mushrooms. I knew from past experience that octopuses were good for soups, stews, and stir-fries.

"I know it takes longer to get ready to vote, but when I went out to see it, it blew up, it was amazing," she said.

Mushrooms that big are usually not good to eat because they are bitter, he said. But when he tasted a piece of it, it was always good. He took it to the Vino e Vivo kitchen and made small plates of mushroom tempura with black garlic tzatziki and tomatoes.

“It was just the texture of the mushroom and its shape. It is suitable for use in tempura,” he said.

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About six years ago, Callahan started searching with chef friends to find different ingredients for cooking that he couldn't order. He talked about teaching people how to eat properly and safely and it started to become common practice.

"There are many other mushrooms you can grow at home, some you can't, some you have to find in the wild," he explained. "There is a sister strain called black polypore, which is great for pasta; The cuttlefish from the mushroom world is like ink and colors pasta the same way.

Other favorites include Jungle Shrimp and Lobster Mushrooms. "Lobster mushrooms are basically mushrooms that have been parasitized by a fungus that turns them into new, edible, lobster-tasting mushrooms," he said.

Mushroom hunting takes time to learn and know what to look for in the woods.

“It depends on the trees in the area. If you are looking for a certain type of mushroom, you can search for a certain type of tree,” he said. “For example, a partridge (mushroom) grows on an oak tree. "

And it's not about mushrooms when Callahan goes into the woods. Look for ramps, wild garlic, and even wild blueberries. But finding elusive mushrooms is exciting. "There's nothing like finding a mushroom in an area, like a black stream, because you can't really see it until you start looking for it," he says. "But if you're interested in foraging, you have to be careful what you choose and start with someone who has experience."

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Adding picked mushrooms to the dishes she creates is just another way Callahan helps her guests expand their palates. The taste of store-bought mushrooms cannot even be compared to that of wild mushrooms, he said.

"They're wild, good, earthy, plump, and have a much better meaty texture and flavor," he says. "They are much tastier and they smell great."

At Vino e Vivo, where wine pairings are a specialty, mushrooms are a natural addition to the menu.

“Wine and mushrooms go together,” he says. "Partridges would be light wines, like chanterelles, maybe with rosés, and with red wines, a red mullet or a hen would go well."

This article originally appeared in the Portsmouth Herald: Exeter Vino e Vivo chef finds giant polyporous mushroom in Brentwood