mushrooms – will garden for cake

We have grown mushrooms on many occasions. The kits available make it easy to grow shiitake, oyster and buttons but for serious hobbyists, purchasing innoculated plugs and loose spawn are the preferred methods. Last year in the spring, Darry innoculated some oak logs with shiitake plugs and 16 months later, we are harvesting mushrooms for the first time here in Virginia. It takes a long time for the mycelium to spread out within the log and when conditions are right, it produces fruit; mushrooms are the fruit of the mycelium.

Fresh shiitake look very different from the ones commonly found in the supermarket. Notice the shaggy appearance of the cap? It was surprising to me as well-I forgot about that!

While many mycelium grow in wood, many more grow in the ground. The mycelium for a web that spreads out under the soil surface and when the conditions are right, mushrooms pop up. Right now, stink horns are popping up all over the ground under our crape myrtle and in areas of our former vegetable garden. They are bright orange and are the subject of more than a few less than “tasteful” jokes in our yard. The greenish-brown top has a strong odor which attracts flies who in turn, spread the spores of the fruit. Without flies, these stink horns would not be able to reproduce.

Stink horns are very fragile and do not last long. They come up early in the morning and by late afternoon, this is what they look like. The good news, mushrooms growing in the garden is not a bad thing. Not only are they good at helping to compost things like wood, they can also improve the soil in the garden and increase the yields of vegetable plants. When you see them growing in the garden, leave them there and enjoy the benefits of the mycorrhizae-the symbiotic association of the mushroom mycelium and the roots of plants as they grow in the same space.

Along with the stink horns, our former garden is full of these fragile mushrooms. They are rather small, notice the blades of grass? And just like the stink horns, they do not last long and are generally gone by late afternoon. The mycelium for this mushroom is all over the garden area. They came up in beds and walkways and all over the front yard. We let them do their thing and left them to break down in the beds. This spread the spores and allowed them to spread and it also helped to improve the soil. If you are looking for good, organic garden soil, be sure to grab a bag with mycorrhizae in it and see the difference it makes when you have active and living soil in your garden!

for this weeks challenge, we have chosen to make tomato and cheese galettes. sigh. big sigh…tomatoes are not in season yet here in tennessee. the spring weather was so cold and wet so late in the season that our tomato plants didn’t go into the ground until the third week of may. oh well, off to market i go.

in between stops, i ducked into my local publix supermarket. generally, i can expect them to have a better than average selection of produce. finding heirloom tomatoes shouldn’t be a problem there and i didn’t have time to go across town to whole foods to over pay for said tomatoes. all i can say is that if tomatoes are not in season in tennessee, it is unlikely that tomatoes from ontario (yes, ontario in canada) will be better. way to go publix! at least 75% of what they had available was listed as produce of canada. honestly, can we not grow our own tasteless hot house tomatoes? do we really need to import them??? my options were severely limited, i chose a tomato from florida and made the decision to focus on mushrooms and onions-at least i knew they were going to have some flavor.

we have begun to go hostless here at tuesdays with dorie so to see the original recipes, buy the book! or you can check it out on this heart of mine, blogger amy posted the recipes for the dough and the galette back in 2011 and it is word for word from the book.

my first bit of tinkering was with the flour for the galette. i have a bag of atta flour-indian flour made from durham wheat and wheat bran, and the only cornmeal i like to bake with is blue.

when combined, it looks a little grey.

i cut the butter in by hand and it looks a little lumpy when done properly.

the recipe cautions that it is a soft dough. trust me it is. however, i think that is more due to the mixing instructions than the nature of the dough. you are instructed to use sour cream or an equal portion of yogurt or buttermilk and to whisk it into the water. however, the ingredient list suggests that you may not need all of the water. so why would you combine the sour cream with all of the water? it should tell you to add the sour cream (buttermilk in my case) and begin mixing and to add the water bit by bit as needed to get the proper consistency. my dough was a little on the sticky side. luckily, i know how to work with sticky dough, i partially froze it and worked with it cold. while the dough chilled, i made the topping.

one thing i do know, it is chanterelle season here in tennessee; we picked some last week. these are a little past their prime but would be fine for the topping
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the herb garden is pumping out leaves all over the place so finding them was easy. exit back door, snip, snip, snip… i quickly had basil, oregano, thyme and sage leaves.

first step, caramelize some sweet onions. to this i added a little garlic but was careful not to burn it.

in went baby portobello mushrooms and the chanterelles.

the herbs were last. i let the filling sit and cool while i rolled out the dough.

the texture of the whole grain flours gives the dough a nice crunch and a little color.

close up you can see the dark flecks of blue cornmeal and little bits of wheat bran.

first on was a layer of fontina and romano cheese. i used about 3/4 of it on the bottom. then came the flavorless florida tomatoes (sigh) and the onions and mushrooms. the last bit of cheese was sprinkled over the top.

honestly, the dough was too soft to do much with so i quickly folded it up and into the oven it went.

it took the full 40 minutes to bake but it was nice and bubbly with just a little color. the house smelled like pizza and it almost tasted like it until you got the crust-that made it taste like a tart. a winner if you ask me, but next time, can we do this when tomatoes are in season? please???