Hi everyone, welcome to Pot Luck Food Talks. Today we're going to talk about non-psychedelic
mushrooms.
Man, mushrooms, I mean, what's there to say about these fungi, you know? I don't know,
man, mushrooms are crazy, no? Like mushrooms, there's more to mushrooms than you think,
no?
Like, they're actually not plants, they don't belong to the plant realm, they're like half
plant, half animal, they're like their own thing, they're like a different thing, a different
kingdom and the living being that some of you still have to say.
Yeah man, mushrooms kind of creep me out, you know? It's kind of like when you look
at like a forest ecosystem and you have these like networks of mushrooms that are like kilometers
long and wide and they communicate from like one end to the other, you know, by like electrical
signs, you know? It's like, it's absolutely nuts.
You ever thought like this planning of the subway system in Tokyo that they use mushrooms
to make it grow in the form of the city to design the roots of the subway? There is like
a video on that.
What?
Yeah, it's absolutely insane, man, you have to see that.
That's crazy.
Yeah. Right now people are going to collect mushrooms to the forest, we can also talk
about that. We almost died trying to do that. Shout out to our friend Fernando Palacio who
tried to kill us in a forest.
I do think he tried to kill us because it's like there was no way that that was a coincidence
what happened, you know?
So how was it? We went like early in the morning to Navarra, which is a place where you can
hunt this beautiful super large, most of them are seps, right?
Yeah.
What's the other name for seps?
What else?
Voletus. Voletus adultis.
Yeah.
Exactly.
Exactly. Yeah.
Well, these mushrooms are amazing for me. These are kind of my favorite mushrooms.
I mean, they're the king of mushrooms, right? Like they're just the king. There's lots of
nice mushrooms, but they're like the king of mushrooms.
Yeah. I remember once we were camping in Poland with some friends. What we did was actually
really stupid because it was a beautiful, like magical forest. It was full of apples
and mushrooms in the middle of autumn. So we collected all these mushrooms without an
idea of what it was. And we cooked them and we ate them, which was really dangerous. But
I mean, these mushrooms were so big that the lo of like meat, you know, like you could
pull someone and make them say it was a steak, which I think is super interesting.
Yeah, for sure. I mean, like I think mushroom is like the thing with that, that like closest
gets to meat, you know, like also because it has this like huge amount of very weird
umami. It's not like umami like a tomato, right? It's this very deep, but like very
savory umami.
Yeah, I agree. I actually, when I go to the Asian supermarket, I usually get, there's
like a Chinese brand of soy sauce that is mushroom infused. It has like this layer of
mushroom flavor into your soy sauce, which I think it's amazing.
Yeah, absolutely.
Also, like making pickling mushrooms, I think it's really interesting. Have you ever done
that? Like bringing it to the sour side of flavors?
Yeah, I think it's super delicious. Like pickled shiitake, you know, it's like super nice.
I think you need a mushroom that's like a little bit meaty, like a little bit firm,
because people pickle, you know, they put pickled boletus, they pickle like chanterelles
and stuff. And that I don't really like so much because I feel like it gets kind of like
weird and slimy. But like with something really like meaty and firm, like a shiitake, I think
it's super nice.
And if we have to talk about memorable dishes, the first thing that comes to my mind are
the mushrooms of gambara.
Yeah, of course. I would have said the same.
Those mushrooms have become like a coating, you know, I see once in a while, like some
sushi from Norma posting, oh, I'm making this mushroom gambara style. And so basically,
it's a super simple dish. It's just sliced wild mushrooms, charcoal grilled, and then
it has like a slow cooked egg yolk in the middle. The yolk is small, so you can break
it and that will be the sauce for the mushroom. And it gets salt, no pepper. So like a super
three ingredient dish and it's just amazing.
Yeah, for sure. I think like those are, it's like it's become like a international inspiration,
like you said, you know, like, and I feel like since the Basque country became like
so much more like of a trend, like the food scene that I see this like combination mushroom,
egg yolk, sauce all the time, you know, in like loads of different restaurants. I mean,
like even here in Berlin, there's like three different restaurants that have forest mushrooms
with egg yolk sauce in like three different variations, you know. What I also really like,
like for example, here in central, like to Northern Europe is the chanterelle season,
you know, and then like chanterelles in like a very light creamy sauce, you know, super
nice, especially like, you know, in the Alps, you get it with like a dumpling, you know,
usually made from like leftover bread. And then just like a creamy chanterelle sauce
on top of that. It's just like a celebration of the product, you know.
What about truffles? I would say truffles are the king of mushrooms. Like, Boletus is
just a dude or some noble rank, but the king of mushroom has to be like truffle.
I don't know, because like truffle is like its own thing, I think. Like if I think of
mushroom, you know, it's like, because you wouldn't soak it in truffle and eat it like
that unless you're like, I don't know, you know.
Millionaire.
Unless you're Wolfgang Puck or whatever, you know.
You know, my truffle stealing story, I don't know if I should tell this, if I should publish
it. I probably already prescribed.
You should definitely.
Yeah.
Like over 10 years ago. Well, I was working in this restaurant. This restaurant was really
shitty on me, like everybody. And I remember we delivered like a special dinner for concierge
of different hotels in Berlin. And the next day, the sous chef said like, oh man, here's
the truffle. We didn't send the truffle last night. It was like a tennis ball sized truffle.
It was like, I'm going to bring this home. So he packed the thing and he had it ready
to bring it home. And it suddenly magically disappeared. And I called Xander, actually
the producer of the podcast for people who don't know Xander. And I told him, ask no
question. Do you trust me? Yeah. What's going on? Do whatever I'm going to tell you. Go
to the supermarket, buy the most expensive product, the best risotto variety you'll find,
some chicken bones. And we made like a risotto. That was a memorable truffle experience.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like truffles, truffle is this thing. I think it can be like super,
super wonderful if it's like that, right. And if it's good truffle. Um, but, uh, but
yeah, it's sort of like, like, I think like people are kind of used to like, just like
shitty truffle oil and they just like put like too much of like bad truffle oil on stuff
and sell it and then put a little bit of truffle on top and it just ruins it. You know, but
if you have real trouble, like my favorite truffle is like the whites, you know, the
ones from Alba in Italy and stuff like that, you know, you can get, get them from other
places also, but like the white Italian truffle is just so nice, you know. And dude, there
is like a truffle flavor combination that I've tried again and again. Actually I got
this from Bernardo Rosso, you know, the famous French chef who shot himself. Yeah. He was
like a real classic, especially in the nineties. And I had a cook from him and I remember this
combination of truffle potato celery, which is super French. But you do like a, like a
stupid cream, like a stupid cream soup, you know, not even with stuff with water, no ingredients,
not even with truffle oil. And it's already super delicious. Super nice. And of course,
if you add stock and good truffle, of course it gets to a whole different level, but already
the cheapest version of it is super nice. Super good. Yeah, for sure. I mean, like I,
I used to be really against truffle oil for some reason, you know, cause I thought like,
ah, you know, but like if you have nice truffle oil, like one that's not like chemically enhanced,
you know, with like artificial truffle flavors, you know, and it's like super, super strong.
It's like very nice even for like things that don't have truffle in it, you know, for like,
I like, you know, for example, if I make like a mushroom risotto, not a truffle risotto,
just a mushroom risotto, and I just to enhance the mushroom flavor a little bit, I add like
one, two drops of truffle oil and it doesn't taste like truffle. It just enhances the mushroom
flavor. Yeah. Exactly. Because at the end of the day, truffle is just like a super strong
mushroom flavor. That's what it is. You know? Yeah. Yeah. Some, some interesting tricks
about truffle. So if you ever have like, you ever buy like a hundred wheel of truffle and
you have it at home and you don't know what to do with it, you can leave it on rice. Well,
the rice will get infused with a truffle flavor. It's something really amazing because they're
usually, whatever, in a tupperware jar, you open it, the whole room will smell like, since
I compared the smell to cooking gas, you know, the gas that comes out of the kitchen, people
saying, oh, there's a gas run out. What's going on? And it was somebody opened the truffle
tupperware. Oh wow. Yeah. Really. And that wasn't, we got it. Yeah. I mean, that's a
good trick because like you want to like one thing with truffles, if you ever have spare
truffles at home, like Eric said, you know, you want to keep them dry. So that's why it's
like a, you keep them in rice so that they don't mold so that they keep longer, but also
it flavors the rice. It's a super nice trick. Yeah. Yeah. And also I read this and Robuchon's
book. I've never done it actually, but he also recommends putting it between eggs and
the eggs will absorb the truffle flavor inside the shell. No, I don't believe that. No way.
That's a, well, he's not with us anymore. Is he? You know, one of my absolute favorite
like ways, like one of the few things that I would also make at home, like if I ever
have truffle, if it's like a nicer thing, of course, like, you know, like fresh, like
tagliarini or something like that, just with like butter and truffle is amazing. But like
one of my favorite things is like, you know, when you have like a fruit bread, like a fruit
loaf, like a bread with like dried fruits in it, prunes, apricots, maybe some pistachios
and stuff like a toast, you know, and then you cut a piece of that, you toast it really
nicely, butter it, and then you put some like quince jelly on it and like a soft cheese,
you know, like a, like a, like a brie kind of style cheese. Yeah. And you warm that up
a little bit, you know, and then you put white truffle on top. My God, that's like, like
for me, the ultimate like truffle experience, you know, it's nice to try that. I was completely
lost. I was following, but I was like, where are you going with this? Because I would like
more shoes. Have you ever tried hot cross buns in the UK? No. They're like a seasonal
thing and they're like little buns that they, with like icing, they put like a cross on
it. It's like a, like a holiday thing. I think it's for Easter. But anyway, the dough is
like made with yeast and butter, kind of like a brioche, but also with like orange zest
and dried fruits and raisins and stuff like that. Like something like that with, you know,
jam, cheese and truffle. That's like, oh, to die for. Yeah, right. Well, another classic
dish I would say, actually you introduced me to this one and I've integrated into my
pincho tours in San Sebastian. And every time I finished the tour, I asked which was the
favorite pincho. And a lot of people agree on that, which is a tamborillo's mushroom.
Oh yeah. Which is a ridiculously simple dish. It's just mushrooms cooked and white, white
garlic and parsley. Just super well done. But the nice thing they do is that they pre-soak
the bread in the sauce. So the bread comes completely wet, like a wet punch and you have
no option but to eat it with the sauce, completely soaked in the sauce. And for me that's my
favorite, best part. I actually had a guest once who was intolerant to the texture of
mushrooms. So he had a problem with that, but not with mushrooms. So he just had the bread
and he was really amazing. Actually he said it was his favorite pincho, only the soft
bread of that dish.
Hey, honestly, that's such an amazing dish. I had completely forgotten about that because
like the first time I had it, I was amazed because for me it was so counterintuitive,
like because it's champignons, you know, it's like button mushrooms and they're just like
poached in this like, they're just cooked in this broth. They're not fried, they're
not seared, they're just like poached in this broth. And for me, like when I think of that,
it's kind of like with mushrooms, you don't really want to wash them too long. You don't
want to do this. You don't want to do that. And then they poach it and just put it on
a skewer and like you eat it and it's like, oh my God, this is so delicious. You know,
that's like, that's really the like, that's really amazing cooking, you know, if you can
do something like that.
Yeah. And I think that that's one thing that they have at that place at Tambo because also
the hake we had is just hake like in an egg wash, throw to a fryer and that's it. It's
amazing.
Yeah.
I was also, when I had the hake the first time, I was also really amazed and I was like,
because I just ordered it and I was like, hake fritters and then it just comes and it's
just deep fried hake. And I was kind of like, ah, like we were already at the end of our
meal and I was like, oh, maybe we shouldn't have ordered this. Like I'm already quite
full. And then you eat it and you're like, oh my God, it's like perfectly made, you know,
fish is perfectly cooked, perfectly seasoned. I was like, what is it? So good.
Well, going back to the mushrooms, like a big topic that is emerging is microproteins.
Well, in general, mushrooms are taking over in many aspects because they're used to generate
energy. They're starting to be used to make packaging. If you put in the same package
as mushrooms, if you put kombucha there, like in the congee realm, so to say, or that they're
used to be making clothes, so it becomes like a really broad thing. I'll just explain that
thing that you find in your champions and the bridge that looks like cotton, that's
actually like the structure that generates mushrooms. You start that in the forest that
are like this huge networks of mushrooms communicating with each other. That's their way of communicating
this cotton looking like thing. It's called miscalculating. That's actually the DNA, the
texture. I don't know how to describe it properly. And you can make sausages and all kinds of
stuff. And this is still in a, I would say in a very experimental phase because I've
tried microprotein. I think it still has a long way to go to become like a thing. But
as I said, I've tried mushrooms also in the Amazonas. We found a mushroom that wasn't
the biggest one I found with my friend Ken. So it was like he was born in the Amazonas.
So he was in his environment. It's super interesting to walk with him in the rainforest because
he just sees everything, knows the path and everything. We found a mushroom big like,
I want to know how to describe the size. Like a wheel, like a car wheel, that big. Okay.
Like a huge thing. It's insane. And that also had like, man, like lots of meat texture.
It really felt like you were eating meat. You could fool someone for sure. Yeah, that's
so cool. I mean, like, I'm sure you've seen, uh, John Kwan on Chef's Table, the Korean
guy. None. No? Yeah. The one that brings kimchi with her bare hands. That was kimchi juice.
Yeah. She drinks kimchi juice with her hands. Yeah. And I mean, like there, she also talks
about like this, she tells the story where her father comes to visit her in the monastery
and she makes him this dish with mushrooms, you know, that's like super savory, super
meaty and how he then kind of like, uh, is able to let go of his worries about his daughter
and what she's doing. Yeah. I mean, like we're, we're also serving a dish and that, uh, and
it's super simple, but it's like really effective. You know, we take oyster mushrooms and we
get these really big oyster mushrooms and we like roast, steam them. And then afterwards
when they're like a little bit cooked, so like oiled, salted, a little bit cooked, and
then we brush them with brown butter and then we grill them until they're super crispy and
like golden brown on the outside. And then we serve that with an egg yolk sauce, you
know, egg yolk that's seasoned with like reduced whey and koji. So it's like super sweet, like
salty, savory, acidic. And those mushrooms, like the combination of like the smoke, the
brown batter, uh, butter, like the butter fat and the like nuttiness and like the mushroom
texture, it really feels like you're eating meat, you know? It's, uh, and like loads of
people say that it's sort of like, Hey, it's, it's crazy. Like, especially vegetarians.
They're sort of like, man, I haven't eaten meat in like ages, but this is like the closest
thing. Absolutely. Yeah. I completely agree. And also, uh, working with, with mushroom
starts and mushroom reductions and all these kinds of things, you can bring it to real
crazy direct. Yeah.