Winter Oyster Mushrooms: A Forageable Succulent Treat
It is not just the briny bivalves that taste good in months with an r in them.
Photography by Marie Viljoen.
Viewed where they are stored in the Cloud, my photographs of winter oyster mushrooms foraged from a log frosted with ice nestle beside images of neat packages of fresh taro leaf, steaming in our kitchen that night for dinner.
Winter comfort—firm, meaty oyster mushrooms in January. I only saw the mushrooms that day because the usual, obscuring thicket of summer mugwort hiding the large log, mid-slope, had been stripped of leaves by the cold.
Winter-picnic pastry rolls stuffed with oyster mushrooms.
A cluster of oyster mushrooms in December on Staten Island. Years before, on a frigid walk on Staten Island, a dead tree standing in shallow water at the edge of a pond bristled impossibly with golden oysters.
The clean gills of winter mushrooms.
Oysters mushrooms are saprotrophic, digesting organic matter.
Dusted with remnants of snow, these oysters emerged from a hidden, decaying log.
Oyster mushrooms have distinctive, decurrent gills—they extend partially down their stems. Sometime oysters have no stems at all, and when they do, they are generally off-center.
Lentinellus—a very bitter-tasting oyster mushroom lookalike.
Oyster mushroom lookalikes include dainty Crepidotus species; the incredibly bitter-tasting but possibly innocuous Lentinellus species (which fooled me, when I was first learning about oysters); and the more worrisome Pleurocybella porrigens, known as angel wings, and linked to fatalities in Japan.
The edible fall oysterling (or greenback or mukitake), Panellus serotina also favors cold weather. The best way to learn how to collect any mushroom safely is in the company of someone who knows them well.
Weighing an oyster mushroom find in our cozy winter kitchen.
Young oysters simply sautéed with butter and field garlic.
Creamy Mushroom Eggs
This is a quick, easy, and comforting cold-weather meal. • 4 oz baby oyster mushrooms, sliced lengthways (or roughly chop larger mushrooms). Stir well and continue to cook uncovered, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking, until the juices have concentrated and the mushrooms begin to sputter.
Oyster mushroom sauce just before the eggs are added. Cook beneath the broiler for 2 minutes, or until eggs are just set.