August ish
Starter: lime leaf (taste sweet and mild, gel like texture)
Main: chicken of the woods nuggets, fat hen cakes
Chicken is the easiest mushroom to spot, sulphur yellow, in shelf like shapes with frilly, fat edges, and tiny pore like holes underneath. I scream when I spot one, thats how joyful and bright and easy to see a distance off they are! If they feel juicy and squeezable they’re good. Dried out chicken with bugs (check he underside also) is too late too dense to be juicy and they’re still a little too young. You want a nice fat ‘shelf’ like a ready made schnizel. Cut a piece off, you’ll need a knife, leaving the base and at least 2/3rds in situ. Clean well, with a brush or under water (one of the few mushrooms you can wash) Cut or tear these up (the texture when you tear them is so satisfying) and then treat like chicken! Curry it! Fry in oil and breadcrumbs! Boil in stock or soup and shred! Spice rub and BBQ! Bake with crumbs! It has all the best bits of chicken but better. Almost a luxurious lobster like feel. Start with a little and see if it treats you well before eating the lot.
As for fat hen, it is my absolute ideal wild weed. It is better than every store bought green though its a little like a soft cabbage or a perennial spinach and just so, so much better for you. It has a better bite, a richer flavour and keeps longer- which i hink is partly due to its magical shiny hydrophobic glittery silver ‘down’ or bloom. This is the weeds dish that just is everywhere in late summer. I actually have no idea why its a weed and not a farmed salad vegetable such is its unscary food-like familiarity. Grab and eat raw by the handful if its not got bugs. Watch it come back in days in someones front garden. But for this recipe, wash and gently blanch to wilt- huge quantities become more manageable, and plunge into icy cold water, squeeze into patty shapes and mix with an egg and some flour and seasoning and fry off. Bonus points, save the seeds from the same plant in late autumn (similar to quinoa- need cold leeching to remove bitterness then have a fim nutty texture) and use them as the a coating or in the flour/ egg mix.
If you like, dress with any fresh or pickled seeds (wild garlic, nasturtium) and seasonal flower petals. Here are some dressed with wild garlic, calendula, chive blossom, and on lime leaves.