tempus fugit

By ceridwen

Serve delectably?

If you've ever noticed those big plastic-wrapped silage bales with little leathery-looking lettuce-shaped growths erupting from  holes and tears in the covering, that's Schizophyllum commune or split-gill fungus, supposedly the world's commonest mushroom but one rarely noticed until it started to colonize the bales a few years ago. It also grows on wood in every continent save Antarctica, where there isn't much wood.

This image shows the underside of the fan-like lobes, where the divided ridges, curled back on themselves, account for the name split-gill. European mycology handbooks will tell you this is not edible but in some hot countries  it's one of the few fungi that can stand the climate and is valuable for that reason.

Here's a recipe I think I may try. It's from the Philippines where the split-gill is called kurakding. I found it online - my thanks to the anonymous author.

"It is my pleasure to share to you the rare recipe for this edible fungi. This recipe is endangered that only few individual know how to cook it. All ingredients have no exact measurements. Please bear with me! 

Kurakding Cooked in Coconut Milk with Hot Pepper
1) Wash kurakding to remove dirts and other foreign materials then set aside. 
2) On a separate pan put enough amount of coconut milk with chopped onion, garlic, ginger and three bulbs of lemon grass. Blend them using the coconut shell laddle until the coconut milk comes to boil.
 3) When the coconut milk is already boiling, add the remaining ingredients like kurakding, chopped pork and bagoong na alamang (salty shrimp paste). Add salt if it is needed.
 4) Simmer for ten minutes or until cooked.
 5) Serve delectably."

Indian recipe
Thai recipe

Comments
Sign in or get an account to comment.