Picking blewits in the winter is lots of fun. There are not many other edible mushrooms to be picked in the cold months, but they take some time to find, being covered with leaf litter.
Usually we find them in our secret spots, have a blast picking them, cause they are usually in large numbers. Then we give them away.
Why do we give them away? Well let’s just say that we didn’t know how to cook them.
One time, I tried cooking them down, and I almost got sick. The smell was so overpowering, and looking at the slimy residue that the mushrooms were leaving behind, did not help at all.
Yesterday, we went to take Enoki for a nice run in the woods. It was such a beautiful day outside, we put on our sneakers, and out of the door we were. We went to one of our secret spots, and found nothing at first. By luck, we saw some bumps in the leaf litter, and sure enough, we went home with 2 dozen blewit mushrooms.
We got them home, and I made a very brave decision to cook them up in a soup.
I cut off the stem bases with the leaf litter and dirt for Blewit Burritos and Blewit Bombs.
Here goes the recipe:
Creamy Blewit Soup
From Joe’s Book of Mushroom Cookery
1 cup Blewits, sliced thin
1 T. fresh shallots, chopped – I subbed onions for shallots, since I didn’t have any
1 T. butter, melted
1 cup half cream, half milk
1 cup rich chicken stock – I only had vegetable stock cubes, so I dissolved one in a cup of water
1 t. anisette – I subbed with a few drops of anise extract
salt and pepper to taste
4 egg yolks, beaten and mixed with 1/4 cup cream
1. Wash the mushrooms, and sauté them with the shallots in the butter over a medium heat. You want to draw the liquid out of the mushrooms, but you do not want to let it evaporate. Sauté for about 2 minutes.
2. Add the half-and-half, stock, anisette, and salt and pepper to taste.
3. Bring the mixture back up to heat, but do not let it boil excessively.
4. Slowly thicken the soup by adding the egg yolk and cream mixture, while stirring the soup gently. Stop adding when the soup is just shy of the proper consistency, and stir. Then take off the heat immediately and let it sit for 5 minutes before serving. You may have to stir the soup again before serving.
The soup was absolutely delicious. You must try it.
