Dried Porcini
Today I saw some dried porcini at a specialist greengrocer in Queens Parade. I really wonder where they come from. The country of origin wasn’t marked on the packet and the shop assistant couldn’t help.
Porcini are basically European fungi and Poland is the biggest exporter. I’m still concerned about the effects from Chernobyl and, if I’m buying imported food, I prefer somewhere a long way away, such as Chile.
Porcini are not native to Australia although I believe they are now growing succesfully in New Zealand. I’m happy enough to use produce from New Zealand if I can’t get locally grown, it’s just across the Tasman after all. I adore New Zealand cheese, in particular from Taranaki, one of the best I’ve experienced is the wonderfully tart Wanganui.
Porcini go under a wide variety of names. Ceps is a common one. The contemporary Italian name porcini means “piglets” in Italian, an echo of the term suilli used by the Ancient Romans. Possibly these mushrooms reminded the Italians of little pigs, or refers to the fondness pigs have for eating them.
Reconstitution
You can reconstitute dried mushrooms by soaking or very gently simmering them.
Don’t throw out the soaking liquid! It can add more flavour to sauces than the mushrooms themselves.
You can also pulverise dried mushrooms with your food processor or blender. The resulting powder is superb in stews.
In any case, I now have some dried porcini. Time for a risotto. There’s a real pleasure in a simple meal that takes all of 25 minutes from chopping to chomping.
And I love Mushrooms!