It’s that time of year for the lion’s mane and the shrimp of the woods.
we, my wife and I, pay our old spot a visit, where we found both mushrooms last year.
But you know, there’s no guarantee that you’re going to find what you set out for.
Plus in most cases, you don’t find the lion’s mane but it finds you.
Today, we see no trace of a lion’s mane, but the shrimp of the woods show up on time.
And this white cotton wad like fungus is the shrimp of the woods.
The smell of the shrimp of the wood is indistinctive.
The mushroom is named so because it tastes like shrimps when cooked up.
they are a quite decent mushroom for pot, especially if you take sometime to caramelize them
The shrimp of the woods is also known as the aborted entoloma.
And this, is a young entoloma mushroom, just like any other gilled mushroom.
So the “un-aborted” entoloma vs. the aborted entoloma.
Starkly different right? because the aborted one, well, aborted.
it quitted developing into its regular mature form.
Long story short, Mycologists used to believe the entoloma can be parasitized by the mycelium
of the honey mushroom, resulting in the deformed fruit body, hence the name “aborted" entoloma.
but recent studies show it is the other way round, that the entoloma parasitizes a type
of the honey mushroom which is then deformed into the cotton wad.
So the shrimp of the woods might be more reasonably called the aborted honey instead of the aborted
entoloma.
Given the close and complicated relation between the entoloma and the honey, it is hardly surprising
that a few feet away, we spot a cluster of mature honey mushrooms.
And some hen of the woods or maitake mushrooms in its close vicinity, under the same dead
wood.
The maitake, the beloved choice polypore mushroom, does have two lookalikes, which
I’ll cover in my next video but for now, just see a close-up of a maitake.
Then, we encounter this little guy, a tooth fungi.
This is the sweet tooth, a type of hedgehog mushroom.
See how the undersurface of the cap is covered by teeth, or spines.
It would be a perfect day if we did find some lion’s mane.
But with all the gills, the polypores and the teeth we've seen within the two hours
of walk we can't complain.
Yet the traffic is unreasonably heavy for a weekend.
Instead of getting stuck in traffic, we veer into another park, where we see loads and
loads of ringless honey mushrooms.
If you haven’t seen my other videos on the key identifying features of honeys and ringless
honeys, just so you know both can, but not always take on a yellow, honey-like color,
both are covered by fine hairs on their caps and stems, both have whitish flesh, both grow
in big clusters on wood and both drops white spore prints.
It’s getting and the traffic should be lighter by now.
So we decide not to finish the loop but to double back.
On our way back to the parking lot, we got to see the other side of trees...
Look at that.
a large lion’s mane, just like a white monkey sticking his head out of a tree.
This lion's mane has found us!
my phone just jammed and then died.
And my wife’s was dead half an hour ago.
But this is life.
Now here we go.
Beautiful lion’s mane to appreciate.. and then of course, to cook.
And just, appreciate this beautiful fungi.
Because this specimen is super clean, so my wife's just wiping it with damp paper towel,
twice.
The intersect reminds me of that of a cauliflower.
We use 1/3 of the lion’s mane to do a butter sherry dish, as we did last year.
Lion’s mane is tart so you have to cover that with some sweetness or alcohol.
But for this guy, even with all the sherry wine, I can still taste its tartness.
So we decide to further neutralize the tartness with cheese and eggs.
First, make scrambled or fried egg with two eggs.
Set aside, and saute lion’s mane in olive oil and sherry wine .
Then, heat the bread in a dry pan, without butter.
When the top side is warm, place a small block of butter on each bread, and flip.
By this you can get perfectly browned bread without burning the butter.
Then build your sandwich.
Avocado and sliced green onions are optional but I really like having them there, adding
some extra layers of flavor and texture to this dish.
Honestly, I cannot think of a better mushroom for the sa ndwiching purpose, because the lion’s
mane can be perfectly flat.
a mushroom steak it is.
also I can’t think of a better way of consuming lion’s mane.
Wine sautéd lion’s mane, sandwiched between two slices of whole-grain bread together with
eggs, avocado, sliced green onion and melted cheese,
heavenly is all I got to say.