Passport & Plate - Tarragon Pickled Mushrooms
Canada | Wednesday, March 4, 2015 | 5 photos
Ingredients
small fresh mushrooms
shallots
white wine vinegar
water
white sugar
pickling or kosher salt
fresh tarragon
How to prepare this recipeEquipment: Ten small 125 ml glass jars or five 250 ml medium jars with lids and rings, a canning funnel, large pot and slotted spoon.
Begin by sterilizing your jars and soaking the lids in a bowl of hot water, then set canning equipment aside. Clean mushrooms well with a damp paper towel to remove all debris. Wash only if necessary and do it quickly, as mushrooms soak up water during washing.
Heat a large frying pan to medium, and begin dry sautéing the mushrooms in batches (no oil, just using the heat from the hot pan), flipping them over occasionally. Sauté each batch until the mushrooms soften and have released most of their moisture. While mushrooms are sautéing, cut each of the tarragon springs into several smaller pieces. Remove the skins from the shallots and slice into tiny, thin rings.
Combine the white wine vinegar, salt, sugar and water in a large pot and bring to a boil. Add the mushrooms, shallots and tarragon and bring to a boil again, then reduce heat to a simmer for an additional 5 minutes. Get the hot, sterilized jars ready on the counter. Using a slotted spoon and canning funnel, fill the jars with the mushrooms and shallots. Add a sprig of the tarragon to each jar. Ladle the hot vinegar brine into each jar of mushrooms, leaving a half-inch of head space. If you don't have quite enough liquid to fill the jars to the right spot, top them up with extra white wine vinegar. Remove any air bubbles.
Wipe off the top edge of the jars. Add the lids and tighten rings. Let jars cool to room temperature, then store in the fridge for up to a month.
To preserve your mushrooms in a water bath canner:
Lower your cans into a pre-heated water bath canner and bring to a boil. Boil the jars for the allotted time depending on size: 10 minutes for 125 ml size jars and 15 minutes for 250 ml size jars. Remove from the canner and cool on a tea towel. Check lids to ensure jars have all sealed tightly. Store in a dark, cool cupboard or pantry for up to a year.
The story behind this recipeI’ve felt the pull of Canada’s coastal rainforests and Pacific Ocean my entire landlocked life, but never dreamed I would ever live in British Columbia and forage wild food in those old growth forests. But after much planning and a little luck, we finally pulled up our frozen Canadian Prairie roots and moved to Vancouver Island, settling on the edge of a fascinating new ecosystem.
Imagine my foodie delight to discover that we had moved to the heart of wild edible mushroom country. I met locals who have foraged this area for generations and they began inviting me to join them on hunting treks for wild Chanterelle mushrooms.
I’d never had a culinary experience quite like that - hiking up steep hills lined with ferns as wisps of mist slip through the trees, searching for elusive golden crowns in the moss. Finding Chanterelles and other wild edibles isn't an exact science, it's a treasure hunt through the forest. Each forage is a different adventure, sometimes coming home with just enough to top a steak dinner.
But every once in a while, we'd time it just right, spotting one Chanterelle, turning to see ten more, then twenty more... Finally the buckets we always bring, ever-hopeful, fill to the brim. Tired, muddy and elated, we start planning how to prepare our wild harvest.
A great way to preserve fresh mushrooms at home is to pickle them. Pickled mushrooms are a European staple, the process preserves the texture and flavour while soaking up the aroma of herbs. These Tarragon Pickled Mushrooms go with charcuterie, appetizers and tapas platters. And while I hope every food lover has the chance to learn about foraging wild mushrooms in (with a professional, amateurs should never forage alone), I’m happy to say that the following recipe tastes just as great with farmed or wild mushrooms sold at your local store. The mushrooms are infused with white wine vinegar, shallots and fresh tarragon, adding a gourmet twist and bright flavour to this fancy mushroom pickle.
