Asheville Mushroom Club

Squash and Mushroom Soup

1 clove garlic, diced
6 T. olive oil, divided
1 lb. wild mushrooms, cleaned and cut into bite-sized pieces (fresh, tender Dryad's Saddle would be a good choice)
1 tsp. finely chopped parsley
salt and pepper to taste
1 onion, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
2 c. diced acorn or butternut squash
2 potatoes, peeled, quartered, and sliced to 1/4 inch
2 - 3 vegetable bouillon cubes, crushed
6 c. cold water
1 T. tomato paste

Saute garlic in 3 T. oil in a large skillet over medium heat for 1 minute. Add mushrooms and parsley; cook and stir for 3 - 4 minutes; then reduce heat to low. Add salt and pepper; continue cooking, stirring often, for 15 minutes; set aside. Saute onions and carrots in olive oil for 10 minutes, stirring often. Add a little water if vegetables begin to dry out. Add squash, potatoes, bouillon cubes, and cold water. Bring mixture to a boil. Stir in tomato paste and simmer, stirring occasionally, over low heat for 25 minutes. Add cooked mushrooms to the pot, stir well, and season with salt and pepper. Cover and gently simmer for 15 minutes, then allow soup to sit for 5 minutes before serving. Serves 4.

These recipes is featured in "Cooking with
the Asheville Mushroom Club" cook book on
page 33.

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.

Polyporous squamosus AKA Dryad’s saddle, Pheasant back

Ok it’s May and there are probably still morels about, so if you are still out looking remember to look at the dead wood as well. I should probably have mentioned this earlier but sometimes things slip my mind. This polypore can fruit with the morels.

Dryad’s saddle is a fairly common polypore that fruits during the later part morel season and through the fall, most commonly in May. It fruits on dead and dying deciduous wood. The shelf like fruiting bodies can be from 3 inchs to 2 feet wide and up to 4 inches thick at the base. I usually find them singly, but they do fruit in overlapping clusters. The pores are white becoming yellowish descending the short, thick, white stalk with a black base. The top is yellow/brown with brown scales that resemble the feathers on a pheasant’s back.

Dryad’s saddle is edible and I’ve had both good and mediocre experiences gastronomicly speaking. Perhaps the substrate makes a difference in the eating quality? These are usually very easy to clean and prepare for cooking, but large specimens can be quite tough near the base. Sometimes it’s best just to trim off the outer tender edge and toss the rest. In the kitchen treat this fungus as you would chicken of the woods (Laetiporous sp.). I think it benefits from a long, low temperature sauté or simmer. I have never tried to preserve these, but would recommend either pressure canning or cooking well and freezing.

Dryad’s saddle is a good fungus for beginning mycophogists as long as you know what a polypore is. Once you’ve seen it dryad’s saddle is quite distinctive and if you make a mistake I don’t know of any poisonous polypores. They’re out now, so go have a look.

Steve

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