Becky Selengut - Shroom

When shes not squid jigging, fishing, or cavortingthrough the woods picking wild things for her next meal,BECKY SELENGUT is a private chef, an author, a humorist,and a cooking teacher. A regular instructor for PCCNatural Markets since 2004, Selengut is also an adjunctprofessor in the culinary/nutrition department at BastyrUniversity. Selengut is the author of Good Fish: SustainableSeafood Recipes from the Pacific Coast. Her wife, sommelierApril Pogue, contributed the wine pairings. In the nearfuture, Selengut hopes to clone herself so she can find thetime to do more fun things that other people call work.

APRIL POGUE discovered her passion for wine whileworking with the Fifth Floor restaurant in San Francisco andits award-winning wine list. She has worked for Spago BeverlyHills, Seattles Cascadia, Earth & Ocean, and Wild Ginger.Currently she is the sommelier and dining room manager ofLoulay in downtown Seattle. April teaches classes on food andwine pairing for charitable functions, PCC Cooks, and hastaught students from the Culinary Institute of America. Shealso contributed the wine pairings for Selenguts first book.

CLARE BARBOZA is a Seattle-based food photographerwith a passion for documenting how food goes from the farmto the kitchen to the table. She has photographed over a dozencookbooks and regularly shoots for various publications,restaurants, and chefs. Clare also leads a variety of photographyworkshops out of her studio in downtown Seattle.

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SHARING YOUR THOUGHTS CAN HELP US IMPROVE OUR EBOOKS. WE WOULD APPRECIATE YOUR FEEDBACK. THANK YOU!

TO TWO OF MY FAVORITE BEINGS THAT ARE WITH ME NOW
IN SPIRIT, IF NOT SUBSTANCE: GUMMY, WHO TAUGHT ME TO LOVE NATURE,
AND BUBBA (I KNEW I SHOULD HAVE TRAINED YOU TO BE
A TRUFFLE DOG. YOU WOULD HAVE BEEN A CHAMP).

Contents

Acknowledgments

I should probably first thank the Grand Union supermarket in Landing, New Jersey, for selling my father that hideous can of watery button mushrooms in 1976. That sad can was my childhood entre into the world of culinary shroomery, and the truth is that I had no other choice but to learn how to cook (and choose) mushrooms well, if for no other reason than to wipe that taste out of my culinary memory bank.

Mushrooms have always been one of my favorite foods, and I have The Herbfarm restaurant, specifically Chef Jerry Traunfeld (who provides a recipe ) and owners Ron and Carrie Zimmerman, to thank for allowing me to cook in their kitchen for three years, but especially during their famous Menu for a Mycologists Dream. It was there that I got to cook with more edible mushrooms than I even knew existed in the world.

I owe much gratitude to Jeremy Faber, who, along with Christina Choi and their business, Foraged and Found Edibles, brought those mushrooms through the restaurants back door and into my consciousness. Jeremy has sold me incredible mushrooms over the years and has been a tremendous source of expertise and guidance. This book has the wisdom of his foragers fingerprints all over it.

A gentle and appreciative head bump to my agent, Sally Ekus. She got my sense of humor from the very beginning and taught me how to write a great proposal that really represented my voice and vision. Thank you also to Lisa Ekus and staff.

My editor Jean Lucas was a pleasure to work with. She allowed me endless freedom while also carefully corralling my kookiness. Many thanks to all the staff at Andrews McMeel, especially production editors Dave Shaw and Maureen Sullivan, production coordinator Carol Coe, copy editor Valerie Cimino, proofreader Ann Cahn and my fabulous book designer Diane Marsh.

And then there are those who took me into the woods: Amy Grondin continues to trust me with the exact whereabouts of her secret patches. Following the trail of food by her side is one of my favorite pastimes. Langdon Cook has always inspired me with his childlike enthusiasm for all things that the woods, lakes, rivers, and oceans provide, not to mention his brilliant ability to capture that enthusiasm and knowledge with just the right turn of phrase. Thanks also to Grace Sparks for lighting a mycological fire under me so many years agoI still have daydreams of that mushroom paradise you introduced me to. Thank you to Connie Green for writing such a kick-ass book in The Wild Table; it inspired me endlessly.

My talented crew of cooking advisers must be thanked for their recipe advice and friendship, especially Marc Poodle Schermerhorn and Jeanette Jet Smith. My two-week writers retreat at Chef Ashlyn Forshners fantastic island oasis (Whidbey Island Bed and Breakfast) and the focus it allowed me is one of the main reasons I am so proud of this book. Her B and Bs delicious breakfasts and the wide open spaces to throw the ball for her dog, Tabasco, and feed huckleberries to Phyllis Diller, the transexual rooster, and Hedy Lamarr and Goldie Hawn (aka the best chickens ever) fed me in more ways than one.

Thank you to Chefs Raghavan Iyer, Virginia Willis, and Lynne Vea for their recipe contributions; they were asked because Im one of their biggest fans. Thank you to ThuyLieu Hoang (Im throwing an appreciative head of garlic in her general direction). Jenifer Ward: Best. Biscuit. Ever.

Justin Marx and all the staff at Marx Foods are an exceptionally fun group to work with; their fabulous ingredients inspired many of the recipes in this book. Matthew Amster-Burton and I started a writing group of two a few years ago that quickly morphed into a ridiculous podcast. Being on air with our many guests on Closed for Logging got my creative juices going in ways never previously imagined; I have him and our wacky friendship to thank for that. Whether she signed up for it willingly or not, Jill Lightner makes me a better writer all the time. (I tried to work the word gopher into this book in her honor, but it just didnt work outor did it?) Thanks to the ECI editors Terri Taylor, Jen Ede, Melissa Petersen, and Natalie Russell for giving me the scoop on the availability of mushrooms across the country.

Thank you so much to my Shroomtastic Recipe Testing Team. Because of their diligence, these recipes are now ready for prime time: Victoria Trimmer, Dan Gulden, Joan Mudget, Shannon and Cathy Lyons-McBride, Malia Kawaguchi, Lina Miller Furst and Marc Furst, Courtney Smith, Lee Tostevin, Katie Owsley, Katie Sherrill, Jenny Hartin, Jenny Neill, Zephyr Dunnicliffe, Pam Capone, Erica Kerwien, Koriann and Alex Cox, Alan Draper, Lisa Costantino, Cheryl Miller, Meredith Fanning, Claire Howard, Kirk Peterson, Kevin and Janice Ward, Chris Duval, Karen Rosenzweig, Tamara Kaplan, Adaire OBrien, Suzanne Parcells, Darren Toshi, Maddie Spiller, Jeff Stallman, John Herschell Taghap, Liana Lau, Brenda Vassau, Ellen Marett, Kaya Hoffman, Kevin Oliver, Nancy Harvey, Larry and Kristen Liang, Bonnie Collett, Jennifer Harris, Anna R Hurwitz, and Rhianon and Aaron Wood-Snyderman.