Scotch bonnet risotto

Here they are, ready to go into
the risotto

Sorry if yesterday's post was frustrating. Someone told me that no one wishes to read about disappointments. However, I still think that a great part of the joy of hunting for wild food comes from not knowing whether a given trip would be fruitful. An occasional empty run is therefore essential, but nevertheless, here is a success story for a change.

As mentioned in the previous post, after I left the forest I went on to explore the local supermarket, and that's where I hit a motherload. Morels that I saw on my previous visit were gone, and instead the shelf was occupied by Scotch bonnets, marked for some reason as 'Mousseron'. Now, I have never picked these in the wild since I was not sure about their identification, so I was wary at first. But then I thought, hey, what good is my advice about 100% safe to eat fungi, if I wouldn't follow it myself? So I decided to give them a go.

In the pot... and on the plate

Given that they have rather small size, firm texture and distinctive sweet taste, the obvious recipe to use was a risotto. I followed Jamie Oliver's excellent instructions, adding the mushrooms at the stage when half of the stock was used up. Talking of the which, instead of standard vegetable stock I used porcini cubes that a friend got for me at Carluccio's. I was extremely pleased with the result, not just the taste, but the fact that Scotch bonnets worked really well with the al dente rice. Much better in fact than either button mushrooms or even ceps, so will definitely use these fungi again if I can get my hands on them.

They were safe to eat, too, as two days later I can feel no ill effects. Oh, wait, what was that stomach rumble?.. Nah, I'm fine, really.

But enough about edible mushrooms for now. This is not a cooking blog after all. I feel like I need to take time off from slaving in the kitchen and write about a rather fascinating poisonous fungus instead. Which one? Come back tomorrow to find out!