Giant Puffball
Monday, October 16th, 2006Something white flashed among the tufts of grass and shrivelled brown thistles which grew on patches of horse manure in the field we were driving past. The thing was round, not irregular like a crunched-up plastic bag. I was almost sure—
“Stop the car!”
Bemused, John let his old Vauxhall roll to a stop. I squinted.
“It’s a giant puffball! A little one.”
With these words, I climbed over the gate.
On the far side of the field, two piebald horses looked on curiously as I approached the spot. I was right.
My heart was hammering. Finding a giant puffball is a mushroomer’s dream, but even as I lifted it off the ground, I imagined the sight of the farmer’s air-rifle trained on me, prickling in my neck.
I hurried back to the car and we high-fived and laughed like schoolchildren.
The mushroom weighed over 800 grams—considering that giant puffballs can grow up to 20kg, it was indeed a baby. But the younger the better: when I cut it, the flesh was firm and creamy white. It was in perfect condition. Saying that, even though it rates 3 knives-and-forks in my edible mushroom guide, it tasted of—nothing.
According to the guide, coating the thing in spicy or herby breadcrumbs and frying it in butter is a vegetarian delight, but the crumbs have to be flavoured strongly to impact on the mushroom’s bland taste, and cutting the steaks 1 cm thick meant they needed plenty of time to steam. In the end—after a less than stellar result—we cut the remaining steaks into thinner strips and fried them with bacon, majoram and garlic, followed by marinating in an orange and Dijon mustard vinaigrette.
That still left over a pound of mushroom.
I turned to one of my all-time favourites: the White Dog Café Cookbook for inspiration. Among the many pointers there, I adapted the recipe for ‘meaty mushroom’. Uncooked giant puffballs will not absorb liquid, no matter how long you soak them for, so I reduced the quantities as follows:
80ml each of balsamic vinegar, extra virgin olive oil and soy sauce; 1 crushed garlic clove; 1 tsp dried rosemary; 1 minced shallot; salt & pepper.
Cut the mushroom into potato-sized chunks and soak in the liquid for a few hours, turning occasionally to coat all sides evenly.
Stick into a hot oven (with the Sunday roast) for about ½ h.
A delicious dark glaze coats a marshmallow-like interior.
Day 3, and we are about to polish off the last of the mushroom…
”
Denni