Here’s a mushroom you may not have thought of as food, Exidia Glandulosa, or Black Witches’ Butter. Many people are put off by jelly fungi, as they don’t believe they’ll taste good, but let me offer a different perspective. The most common jelly fungus I hear of people eating is wood ear, Auricularia Auricula. I’ve eaten this mushroom several times, the first was in Chang Zhou, China, at a hotpot restaurant. I was actually pretty unimpressed by the mushroom as it has a very distinctively tough texture, and not much flavor.
I do still eat and forage wood ear though, as they have a decent amount of iron and collagen, and are known to have potential in regulating blood pressure levels. I was amazed to discover though, that wood ear is actually unique among jelly fungi from a culinary sense. It is much tougher than Exidia Glandulosa, or the more common Exidia Recisa, or amber jelly roll. These Exidia mushrooms are very soft, well, jelly-like actually, and fit into dishes in a similar way that fats such as butter would. What is pleasant about adding them to dishes is that they do not become the star of the show, they simply lift the dish’s flavor and texture as a whole. This is not a porcini or chanterelle, which often become the focus of a dish. Consider adding them to an omelet or stir fry to get a richer flavor instead of using large amounts of heavily processed seed oils. Another benefit of foraging jelly fungi is that they grow throughout the year. I find them commonly in winter before the frosts get too intense. Exidia Recisa is commonly found fruiting abundantly on portions of sticks raised above the ground. Eat jelly fungi and you’ll be rewarded with another source of food as well as their many medicinal benefits.
To cook: simply pan fry without oil to release a little water, or alternatively, just throw them into a dish that’s already cooking. Make sure they are well cooked, though this does not take long. A word of caution, these mushrooms will jump around and out of the pan when you cook them as the water inside them heats. Make sure you have a lid over whatever you use to cook them. Additionally, jelly fungi are an understudied group of fungi in terms of edibility, so more research would benefit our understanding of their benefits and any potential dangers.
Comments