Some rather special wild mushrooms that I went out picking during a hike in a forest I've not walked through since childhood. Got vivid memories of the place though, thanks to my sitting on (unawares until later during the car ride home) a nest of red ants, which woke up later whilst riding home and started furiously biting and stinging me on the arse. Not an experience I'm likely ever to forget any time soon!)
Much better memories this time though, the only things I brought home were a big bag full of Lactarius deliciosus, the saffron milk-cap, a fungus much prized in spain and many other countries on the continent, weighed them when I got back and cleaned them free of pine needles and adhering generic woodland debris, discarded 2-3 ones that had a maggot infestation, but was left with maybe 2.5kg or so (fresh weight). And live up to the latin epithet 'deliciosus' they most certainly do. Going to go out and buy some fresh noodles, chilli peppers, shiitake and oyster mushrooms tomorrow when I go to town to score, and do myself a wonderful stir-fry out of those. Already had some though, simply put under the grill and roasted for a short while. They came out with a lovely firm, crunchyish somewhat meaty texture and a delicate, quite mild, but very pleasant flavour.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactarius_deliciosusOne of the best wild mushroom offerings I have ever had the good fortune to find, my first time ever seeing this species in person. Helped myself to several gluttonous great big bags full too, which I'm really quite chuffed about. Got enough to munch on to my heart's content, and freeze some, dry some more for future use, as I have more than I can actually eat now. Saffron milk-cap has to rank right up there with stewed fresh wild morels, shiitake, giant puffballs, sliced and fried in butter, fried cep, or one of my other real favourites, the sulfur polypore, or chicken of the woods, Polyporus sulfureus, sliced up and fried in salted, buttery eggy bread batter (which if ever you get lucky enough to find sulfur shelf, which is quite a common fungus, growing on trees in the autumn, then as long as you aren't one of the few who is allergic to it, it really does make a wonderful main meal, I rank it as one of the best wild fungi, although I might not be universal in my preference for it, but I do really find it one of the tastiest, most delectable offerings, when young and fresh and juicy and tender)
Can't wait to do my noodle and mushroom stir-fry tomorrow. If I get peckish in the mean time, I'll roast some with a dressing of olive oil and salt, maybe try some fried in olive oil (apparently better by far for this species than butter in more or less all recipes) for a midnight snack.
In the meantime, I've had a big multipack bag of mini-cheddars (a kind of cheesy, biscuit-shaped crisps), a helping of cherry ripple vanilla icecream with candied chewy cherries on top, and am just about to lay waste to a tub of triple-chocolate choc ripple icecream with milk, white and dark chocolate shavings all over the top.
Breakfast was a bowl of golden grahams, one of my favourite cereals, although a bit of a rip really economy-wise, as one only gets 3 or so properly full satisfying bowlfuls out of a box. But I can't help myself, as they really are soooo tasty I just can't resist buying them anyway.
