Asheville Mushroom Club

Salmon with Creamy Black Trumpet Leek Sauce

4 salmon filets, skinned
juice of 1/2 orange
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 - 3/4 lb. fresh black trumpets, cleaned and chopped into bite-sized pieces
4 T. butter
1/2 clove garlic, finely chopped
1/3 c. fresh leek greens or ramps, sliced across in 3/4 inch strips
1/2 c. vegetable or fish stock
1/2 c. white wine
1/4 c. heavy cream
extra leek greens, sliced thin for garnish
orange zest for garnish

Put salmon on a plate and cover with orange juice. Sprinkle with salt, cover, and set aside. Melt butter; add garlic and saute for a few seconds; then add mushrooms. When the mushrooms are cooked, stir in the leek greens and saute until wilted and deep green. Add stock and wine; continue cooking until liquid is reduced by half. Add cream and season with salt and pepper to taste. Keep the sauce warm. Butter the salmon filets; grill or broil them to desired doneness. Spoon the mushrooms onto plates and place the fish on top. Garnish with finely julienned leek greens and orange zest. Serve with asparagus and roasted potatoes. Serves 4.

This recipe is featured in "Cooking with the Asheville Mushroom Club" cook book on page 100.

Club members have collected hundreds of recipes featuring local
and cultivated mushrooms to create a unique specialty cookbook.

Purchase your copy at club meetings for $10 or by ordering from Ken McGill, PO Box 182, Campobello, SC 29322 for $14.95.

Each month we'll be highlighting one mushroom that can be found in WNC during that current month. This is in an attempt to help members or guests learn our local mushrooms. It will also be noted whether the mushroom is edible, ill advised, or poisonous.

Craterellus fallax, C. cornucopioides, C. cinereus

The French call them "les trumpettes des morts". That name, black "trumpets of death", doesn't really inspire confidence in the aspiring mycophagist, but I assure you they are quite wonderful table fare. My old favorite easy recipe works well with these: Whatever edibles you have sautéed with garlic in good olive oil, tossed with linguine and parmesan reggiano.

I usually don't find these mushrooms until I find one. Then they magically appear. I can spot a morel at 50 feet easily and yet I regularly walk on these without seeing them. It is believed Craterellus species have a mycorizal relationship with oak and beech trees and to me the grey-brown to black fruiting bodies look just like another clump of dead leaves. Occasionally, rarely the stars & planets align, the humidity is just so and the breeze perfect and I can smell them. That subtle, woodsy fruitiness, barely discernable yet unmistakable fragrance that tells all who know it black trumpets are near.

Look for single to clustered, grey-brown to black trumpet shaped fruiting bodies. You might think the thin fleshed fruiting body isn't worth the effort to pick, but there is tremendous flavor packed in there. Trim & clean them as you pick and dehydrate them for long term storage. Crumble a handful into your next stew for an amazing flavor addition.

I listed 3 species above, 99% of the time you will be finding C. fallax. The others are rare, but quite edible, so no worries. Fallax has a buff-ochre to buff-orange spore print while cornucopioides is white. Fallax and cornucopioides are smooth and cinereus has well formed ridges similar to true chanterelles.

This delicious fungus is found throughout North America, July through November. They're fruiting now, so get out there and find some!

Steve Peek, field mycologist and long standing member of the Asheville Mushroom Club