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 The
Complete Mushroom Book
by Antonio Carluccio
Review by Kevin Schoeler
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the book
A
longtime mushroom expert and London restaurateur, Antonio
Carluccio has written a definitive new book on his favorite
subject and aptly named it The Complete Mushroom Book.
He is the proprietor of the popular and pricey Neal Street
Restaurant in Covent Garden, famous for mushroom-laden Italian
fare-rustic starters of fresh, wild mushrooms sautéed
in olive oil and sublime pasta like fresh tagliolini with
shavings of summer truffle. He has also written more than
seven cookbooks and done the celebrity chef stint on BBC.
The
Complete Mushroom Book's introduction is an engaging
biographical read. We learn that Carluccio loves to collect,
identify and eat mushrooms, and that his sixty years of
mycological experience is enough assurance that he won't
lead us astray-especially for those of us concerned about
picking and eating a bunch of deadly wild mushrooms and
meeting a gruesome end.
The
ensuing field guide is a first-class education in wild mushroom
classification, identification, collecting and picking,
including a must-read code of conduct devised by Carluccio.
More than a list of rules, these are preservation-oriented
guidelines and helpful tips for the wild mushroom collector.
Carluccio
teaches how to identify nearly eighty types of wild mushroom,
with detailed cues for visual recognition, and complete
habitat and seasonal information. You'll learn how to pick,
clean and cook edible wild mushrooms (rated as edible, good,
very good and excellent) and how to avoid non-edibles (labeled
as not edible, toxic, poisonous and deadly poisonous). In
other words, if you eat, or sometimes touch, a non-edible
mushroom, (clearly tagged with oversize red dots), you can
get sick, really sick, or die a slow and gruesome death.
Not to worry, Carluccio's thorough text and the clear photos
will see to it that you walk away with a bagful of Black
Trumpets and not the beautiful but poisonous Fly Agaric.
The
guide to cultivated mushrooms includes background facts
and general cooking tips for a dozen types you may find
at your farmers market or grocery store-depending, of course,
on where you live. This section feels mundane following
the wild mushroom guide, but Carluccio gives it equal care
and attention.
If
you love to eat mushrooms, the cookbook section is pure
torture. The photographs are stunning and the dishes are
delicious, rustic and comforting things like Spaghetti with
Mushroom and Lamb Sauce, Cream of Porcini Soup, and Roast
Pork with Four Mushrooms. While there's something for everyone
in at least a few of the one hundred-plus recipes (like
a Mushroom Strudel or even Veal Chops with Porcini) most
folks won't have a $300 truffle budget to attempt Umbrian
Trout with Black Truffle.
The
recipes themselves are generally uncomplicated, easy-to-follow
and well written. What does it take to wrap a bunch of enokis
in some prosciutto and drizzle them with lemon juice and
olive oil? Or sauté some potatoes with porcinis?
The frustration kicks in when you need to find those fresh
morels to stuff with pâté de foie gras.
In
the U.S., chances are you won't be able to easily find or
afford many of the mushrooms used in Carluccio's recipes—but
his earthy masterpieces are a great starting point for experimenting
with what you can find locally. And it's inspiration to
make friends with the mushroom vendor at your farmers market.
Who knows? Maybe they've set aside a secret stash and you'll
be able to make that Gnocchi with Horn of Plenty and Sulfur
Shelf Mushrooms after all.
Buy
the book
RECIPES:
VEAL
CHOPS WITH PORCINI
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