My new friend PJ and I went out into the Gifford Pinchot National Forest for our Friday Foray, in hunt of Golden Chanterelles, or whatever mushrooms presented themselves. What we found, just a few feet into our hunt, was Boletes ... bunches of Boletes!
Now, you need to understand ... PJ, who is currently a missionary serving with his wife Donna and two sweet little girls with New Tribes Mission in Colombia ... is educated (we're talking college level here, folks) in the culinary arts. He was very excited about the Boletes and what he could do with them in the kitchen.
Most of the mushrooms which you see here are the delectable "Admirable Bolete," Aureoboletus mirabilis. Very tasty.
(There are a few Golden Chanterelles and Angel Wings in the center ... as I mentioned, we were looking for Golden Chanterelles, but due to dry weather, found very few, perhaps a dozen.)
So, after taking this photo, we cleaned and sliced the Boletes. (You have to move quickly when working with Boletes, because they go wormy very quickly. But we found if you let them sit for a few hours, cap side down, the little maggots will tend to crawl out of the mushroom and cling to the bottom side, for some reason. Perhaps instinct? They are then much easier to pick off the cap when you are cleaning them. And, I suppose a few worms fried well or dehydrated with your sliced Boletes probably won't hurt anything. In fact, they may add a little protein ....)
It was a thing of beauty, watching how PJ prepared them. But I think I'll save that for my next post! Suffice it to say now, I am convinced that Boletes are the bacon of the mushroom world. More later!
