October 11, 2010

Kinoko (Mushroom) Day for My Family/我が家族にとってはキノコの日

Today, October 11, my son and I went for mushroom gathering in two mountains, Mt. Kinjo, near Untoan, and another local mountain in Shiozawa, called Mt. Akiba (not the one in Yuzawa, an adjacent town).
We were lucky to find this log, full of honey mushrooms!
今日、10月11日は、息子と2つの山にキノコ狩りに行きました。雲洞庵(うんとうあん)の近くの金城山と、塩沢にあるもう一つの地元の山、秋葉山(隣町、湯沢にあるのではなく)。
運良く、ナラタケがいっぱい生えたこの木を見つけました!

Aren't they beautiful?
きれいでしょ?

Honey mushrooms are called naratake in Japanese, but the local people here in the Uonuma region of Niigata prefecture call them amandare. Honey mushrooms are very popular in Japan, and have other various local names throughout Japan, such as kuzure and boribori.
英語でhoney mushroomと呼ばれるナラタケですが、新潟県の魚沼地域の人たちはアマンダレと呼びます。ナラタケは日本ではとてもポピュラーで、他にもクズレやボリボリなど様々な地方名があります。

We also found this jumbo mushroom, parasol mushroom, more than 30 cm in height and 18 cm in cap diameter.
この大きなキノコも見つけました。カラカサタケです。高さ30センチ以上、かさの直径は18センチです。




Views from Mt. Akiba:
秋葉山からの景色:


All rice paddies have been cultivated.
田んぼはすべて収穫が終わっています。

One of the sad things about mushroom gathering in Japan for the past few years is that sugihiratake (called kataha in the Uonuma region of Niigata prefecture), Angel Wing in English, is now regarded as poisonous.
ここ数年、日本でのキノコ狩りに関して悲しいことの一つが、スギヒラタケ(新潟県の魚沼地方では「カタハ」と呼ぶ。英語ではAngel Wing)が現在では毒キノコと見なされていることです。




We washed the honey mushrooms three times to make sure they were clean.
ナラタケはきれいになるまで3回も洗いました。

I boiled them for about two minutes.
2分程度茹でました。

I threaded the hokoritake (puffballs) onto skewers for grilling.
ホコリタケは焼くため串に刺しました。

I cut the cap of the parasol mushroom into eight equal sectors.
カラカサタケのかさは扇形に8等分しました。

My daughter did the breading (dusting with flour, coating with beaten egg, and then coating with panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)).
娘が衣をつけてくれました(小麦粉をまぶし、溶き卵をつけ、パン粉をつける)。

The mushroom itself tasted of nothing, but we enjoyed the fluffy texture while having it with tonkatsu sauce.
キノコ自体は何の味もしませんでしたが、豚カツソースで食べながら、ふわふわした食感を楽しみました。

I pan-fried hoteishimeji (Clitocybe clavipes (Pers. : Fr.) Kummer), other edible mushrooms, and the stems of the parasol mushroom with some oil, and seasoned with salt and soy sauce. I refrained from having this dish because I know hoteishimeji will poison you if you have it with alcohol (and I was drinking). My son said the stems of the parasol mushroom were stringy and almost inedible.
ホテイシメジと他の食べられるキノコとカラカサタケの軸は油で炒め、塩としょう油で味付けしました。私はこの料理は食べませんでした。ホテイシメジをお酒と一緒に食べると中毒を起こす(そして私はお酒を飲んでいた)からです。息子はカラカサタケの軸は筋っぽくて、食べれないと言ってました。

I made kinoko soup, using some boiled honey mushroom.
茹でたナラタケを使って、キノコ汁を作りました。

Puffballs grilled in the toaster oven:
オーブントースターで焼いたホコリタケ:


I almost forgot to mention that I made tonkatsu (breaded pork cutlets) as well, because I thought that the mushroom fries would not be enough to fill our stomachs. (Of course, my daughter did the breading.)
言い忘れるところでしたが、豚カツも作りました。キノコのフライだけでは食欲を満たせないと思ったからです(もちろん、衣は娘がつけてくれました)。

12 comments:

  1. Wonderful. This, like so many of your posts, leaves me bitter with jealousy. One day I will try all these things you show us.

    All the mushrooms look delicious.

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  2. Arthur3030: Thank you for your comment. Are you sure you really want to get up early in the morning on a holiday, go into the woods, running the risk of encountering bears, come home, wash all the dirty mushrooms thoroughly, and cook them, running the risk of having some poisonous mushroom (laugh)?
    Luckily, we didn't encounter any bears, but we were bitten by mosquitoes and other unknown insects. Both my hands still itch, do does my right ear!

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  3. That looks beautiful. What a fabulous mix of mushrooms. What a feast.

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  4. Bbq Dude: Thanks for calling our mediocre dinner a feast! It is no feast by any standards, but it sure is for my son, who is a mushroom geek!

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  5. Are the stems of the parasol mushroom in the top left & right of the photo of the cooked dish? They look rather woody, no wonder they were difficult to eat.

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  6. Parasol is one of the finest mushrooms (beside of cepes) which one can find in our neighbourhood woods (nearby in 200 m distance, I live in a moor and forest area). Parasol tastes like veal. Just a little salt an pepper, flour for dusting, beaten egg and breadcrumbs for the coating will do: a perfect "wiener schnitzel" with a slice of lemon to squeeze over. Funny, I would never have guessed that this kind of parasol-recipe is known in japan - the world is really small.
    Anyhow - this year was a very good mushroom year. I found some champignons (Agaricus campestris) and lots of hallimasch (Armillaria spp) and shiitake!! even in my garden and lots of mushrooms I don't know and therefore didn't dare to cook because my husband is still a nice guy ;-)
    Good look to your next mushroom hunting. Your landscape fotos look very beautiful.
    Kiki from germany

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  7. Chee Fai: Yes. My son said he managed to get it down (his throat), and I replied he could spit it out anytime!

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  8. Kiki: It's my son who decided how to cook the parasol mushroom. We have one big book on mushrooms and other three smaller books, and the recipe was in two of them. The big book says that the stem can be finely chopped and added to minced meat. I guess I could have tried that.
    In Japan, this year is not a good one for mushroom because of the very hot summer.
    You found shiitake?! Wow, I envy you! We have never found wild shiitake, nameko, or enoki.
    My son belongs to the athletics club of his junior high school, and he is very busy as a member on weekdays and weekends around this time of year, but he insists that we go mushroom gathering again in this season.

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  9. Hiroyuki: Don't mistake me, shiitake don't grow wild in germany. I injected an old treechunk with shiitake-breed to cultivate the shiitake in my backyard. This year was sucessfull. I will create a bigger mushroom garden patch next spring with other types of mushrooms, growing on treechunks and straw.
    There you will find an example:
    http://www.pilzebaum.de/html/garten.html - sorry only in german

    Here is another mushroom recipe: fill stirr fried and afterwards chopped mushrooms, mixed with spice (chilli, pepper, salt, soysauce), chopped spring onions, finely chopped garlic and crumbled silken tofu in wantan-dough-leaves - just make little sacks and deep fry. Tastes very nice!

    Enjoy your father-son-hobby. Children do grow up so very fast.
    Kiki

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  10. Kiki: Thanks for your clarification. I should have realized that shiitake is not native to your country.

    Thanks for the link. I have done this kind of mushroom cultivation in my small yard with oyster, maitake, and shiitake mushrooms.

    Thanks for your recipe. Sounds like a very delicious dish. You must be a very good cook!

    Yes, children grow fast, but the sad thing is that we adults grow "old" as fast as they do.

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  11. Helloo friendly visit from Turkey

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  12. Lalique: Thanks for your comment. I visited your blog and found photos of very pretty girls!

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