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| Wild Mushroom Tamales with Kale, Feta. Lime & Serrano Chili |
Happiest Winter fellow foodies!
It has really been chilly here in Northern New Mexico. The good thing about that?...it really inspires the "foodie urge" to create hot steamy soups and spicy dishes to keep us warm for the next few months. I have been doing a lot of that; from slow cooking Pinto Beans in a Micaceous pot to robust pasta dishes to thick chunky chili with fresh hot crusty Sourdough Bread.
If you know me well, you know that I am crazy about wild mushroom foraging in the summer months here in the high elevations of Northern New Mexico. This year because of a great deal of much needed monsoonal rains, it was like a mushroom fantasy land in our forests. I am lucky enough to be able to do this while practicing the art of keeping myself alive, because I was taught one summer for the entire summer, by a mushroom nerd. Here is where I enter my disclosure;
Mushroom gathering in the wilds can be such a rewarding experience...and to boot, its free food! However, there can be extreme risks in harvesting wild fungi in that the wrong mushroom eaten can, at best cause a violent vomiting session or two or three or four, till the bad enzyme's are out of your system, or at worse, kill you. Just make sure that you truly know what you're doing when out gathering the delicious gilled fungi morsels. This is not a hobby where you can take chances...enough said.
I have been staring at all of my jars of dehydrated mushrooms sitting up on a kitchen shelf for months now...finally yesterday the kitchen spirit moved me. I began researching recipes on the Internet for mushroom tamales. There are numerous recipes out there with flavor slants this way and that way. I knew that I wanted to incorporate dinosaur kale in my recipe, as well as tangy feta cheese. When all was said and done, I had created a culinary fungi masterpiece! I really love this tamale. Fellow aficionados of the wild fungi...you will not be disappointed. In this recipe I am giving instructions for the filling only...if you wish to learn about making tamale masa, refer to my previous blog, where I share all of that in my pork tamale recipe here:
http://www.foodolicious.blogspot.com/2011/01/tamale-masa-hold-lard.html
I used four different wild mushrooms, porcini, lobster, oyster & shaggy parasol. Not certain that you need to use this combination, it was just what I reached for when I was brainstorming yesterday. You could probably even succeed with this recipe if you used all domestic store bought varieties of mushrooms or only used one type instead of four. I will just say that the combination I used in this recipe was dead on delicious. Also my measurements for quantity of mushrooms was from a dehydrated state, before reconstituting with boiling water.
Here is my slant on Wild Mushroom Tamales;
Wild Mushroom Tamales
2 cups dried porcini mushrooms
2 cups dried lobster mushrooms
2 cups dried oyster mushrooms
2 cups shaggy parasol mushrooms
boil up some water and then pour over all the mushrooms into a bowl till covered.
Cover the bowl with a dish to allow for thorough steeping for 30 minutes.
Do not discard the mushroom broth created because you will be using it to add to the recipe.
After 30 minutes remove the mushrooms from the liquid, and chop finely and set aside.
1 medium sized bermuda onion finely chopped
3 large cloves of garlic finely chopped
1 serrano chili
(I used dried and then pulverized in coffee grinder..but you can use a finely chopped fresh serrano)
5 large leaves of dinosaur kale finely chopped
1 cup of crumbled feta cheese
1 cup of dry white wine
1 1/2 cups of mushroom broth (from re hydration)
1 lime - use 1 teaspoon of zest and half of the lime for juice
3 tablespoons cilantro finely chopped
To the saved mushroom broth add 1 no salt vegetable broth bouillon cube (I use Rapunzel brand sold at Whole Foods) and dissolve - set aside
In a large pot, add 4 tablespoons of unsalted butter and drizzle in some good olive oil...
be generous ;)
sauté the finely chopped onion for about five minutes till softened over medium heat
add in the chopped mushroom mixture, the chili (either powdered or fresh chopped) & the garlic
sauté for another 10 minutes...(hopefully you will have a bit of fond at bottom of pan to deglaze with the wine)
Add in the chopped kale and season with salt and pepper
(remembering that feta cheese can be quite salty in of itself)
Once the kale is wilted in a few minutes, add in the wine and deglaze if fond has formed at bottom of pan
Add in mushroom broth and once a boil had been reached, cover pot and simmer for 30 minutes
Add in the lime zest and juice of 1/2 lime
Allow mixture to cool and then add in the crumbled feta and the chopped cilantro
Your filling is ready to make tamales with. Yum!
If you are making your own masa, instead of chicken or pork broth, I used more of the mushroom broth/vegetable bouillon cube mixture for the liquid...so make sure that you pour lots of boiling water over your mushrooms during re hydration...if using fresh mushrooms you can skip this step all together, but you will not have the delectable mushroom broth to use...
Fully fenjoy(?) fellow fungi foodie followers!
;)
robert
