I found a Giant Puffball!

[SlugLobber]

Woooooooo!!! Haven't seen such a fine specimen since about 2001 and in those days I wasn't so 'hunter gatherer'. It was about the size of my head and on a dangerous bend, so I had to make OH park up nearby, while I ran to get it. I ran back to the truck gleefully, sooooo excited, like a little kiddie!

I made a risotto last night with 1/3 of it and have brought pieces in for two work-colleagues to cook with and STILL have another 1/3 to do something with. My risotto was very much made up, but I'll post the details in Season to Taste in a mo (whilst looking for other puffball recipes!!). I do have a pic (with my glove, for scale!). It weighed in at 0.5kg, so not very big, but it really is a fine one!

Still so chuffed. OH thought I'd lost it, I think, but I've been on the look out for one of these for AGES!

[Headfry]

yummy .....lucky you, We have many shaggy ink caps at work! too lovely to eat though!

[Alison]

My OH found one the other week (I was that excited that I posted about it too), was eating it for several nights. Particularly liked thick steaks of it fried with some bacon, really yummy.

[JanieB]

Haven't seen one of them for years. The last one I saw had been kicked to uselessness by an idiot who thought they were poisonous .

[SlugLobber]

Well I'm still here, Janie! Sick of mushroom risotto, though, so quite glad to have a cheese sandwich for lunch today!! Will maybe fry some as steaks with bacon tonight, though. Or tomorrow. Yes, tomorrow, as a mushroom break would be good! Spotted some Shaggy Ink Caps a couple of days ago, but left them. Didn't want to overdo the mushroom eating!

[kernowyon]

i have been 'shrooming' for a couple of weeks now, havn't found a giant puffball yet, we have loads of bay bolete and penny buns drying at the mo.

[Hilary B]

Inkcaps are delicious when 'new' enough, but they do 'melt' quickly! Be sure they are SHAGGY inkcaps, because the other sort react with alcohol to make you feel VERY ill!!
We used to get Parasol mushrooms, made delicious fritters. Springtime we got St George's mushrooms (not easily confused because so few others around at that time of year)

[nemo]

we cut them into slices about 10mm thick dust them with flour then beaten egg and finally into fine bread crumbs shallow fry until both sides are golden all you need is a splash of ketchup.i dried some a few years ago but the finished article smelt like fish sauce so we dumped it

[SlugLobber]

Ooh Nemo, that sounds good!

Don't worry, Hilary, I don't drink any alcohol with wild mushrooms that I pick, as I am only just learning the latin names, let alone which ones react with alky-ol!

[Hilary B]

It's hard to confuse shaggy inkcaps with the other sort<g>. Parasol fritters are wonderful! The ones we found were 8" across, so I broke them into 4 pieces each, covered them in a herby batter and deep fried, Made a meal all on their own (5 mushrooms between me and 2 children). Pity they don't grow anywhere I've seen around here.....

[wherrelz]

Hey, post a pic, man! Sounds.... splendiferous!! Looking forward to that recipe - though I'll be searching google, too.

[HayleyB]

Wow, I've never seen one except on tv - Jamie - would love to find one. Post the piccy sluggy

[SlugLobber]

Blimey, this is an old thread, now! I don't have the piccie online - I would bluetooth it, but I cleared out my phone memory yesterday, so it's only on the laptop at home!

Wherrelz, I put the recipe in the Season to Taste Section, in October.

[Rhona]

There's quite a few puffballs in the woods not far from Chatsworth. I'm always too paranoid that I've got it horrible wrong though when it comes to mushrooms (though I know puffballs are harder to get wrong...). There's some amazing looking oyster-mushrooms too. We keep trying to grow our own, on logs and in straw etc., but not luck so far!

[Alison]

This is a piccie of one that OH found last year - actually I got a bit bored with it by the end and although they look impressive there are shrooms with much nicer flavours!

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...all_22340.html