Quarantine Food Diaries : Medicinal Mushrooms, Why They Are Adaptogens and How To Use Them

With fear and anxiety going through the roof for many worldwide, now is the time to really get into medicinal shrooms.  Though Timothy Leary may have been discovering the effects of psilocybin, or psychedelic shrooms, on the brain, we are talking about something much more subtle in nature but no less potent in terms of healing body and brain. 

Adaptogen is a term that has started popping up on the labels of brands I love such as Four Sigmatic, Sun Potion, and moon juice and is defined as an herb or mushroom that acts as a stress and anxiety modulator in the body and brain. I always try to eat clean, closest to the source, but the addition of these powders and supplements to drinks and smoothies is a quick way to boost milligrams per mouthful to whole foods and sometimes hard to get fresh versions of these special shrooms. 

Cortisol is the body's stress response hormone, our fight or flight hormone as it is commonly referred to and it is being activated daily, our sense of security is being put into question, stability, the influence of the news and everchanging face of our world takes it's toll on us collectively and individually everyday. Self care is the key and a component to that is looking at what we eat and how it can work towards soothing and calming our stress. Cooking and Eating activates the senses, creates nostalgia, warms a home with scent and heat and nourishes body and soul, why not have it help our brains to reduce our stress hormone as well?

The rains of fall have begun, the cooler temps and fallen leaves have created a perfect breeding ground for the family of funghi we are looking to consume. Though I am not a successful edible mushroom hunter, I usually find all the poisonous ones, those who are in the know find them for me, so  I am lucky all the same!

Maitake mushrooms or hen of the woods, their common name, are one such species found locally in the Northeast of America where I am. It is, along with reishi mushrooms one of the most potent alternative medicine adaptogens. Helping to regulate the systems of the body that have become unbalanced, these shrooms fight cancer cells, boost immune function and regulate mood imbalances. 

Maitake can be found in many supermarkets nation wide these days where Reishi because of it's woody nature are better taken as supplements. Cooking with Maitake mushrooms is a pleasure, I've made everything from cashew cream maitake mushroom soup to maitake "steaks" seen in another recipe : Maitake "steaks" on this blog. Their flavor is meaty with deep earthy tones and texture similar to a portobello, why those are often used as "steaks" as well. During this season I introduce them wherever I can. A recent favorite rosemary  roasted chicken thighs with maitake mushrooms over soft polenta and turmeric, tahini roasted acorn squash is all about the anti inflammatory properties these foods offer and that is our recipe for this chilly rainy day.

Rosemary Roasted Chicken Thighs with Maitake Mushrooms, Polenta and Turmeric Roasted Tahini Acorn Squash Wedges

Ingredients:

serves 3-4

1 acorn squash, sliced into wedges, skin on, de seeded

6 organic, free range chicken thighs, skin on

2-4 sprigs fresh rosemary

1 large blossoming maitake mushroom 

2 tbsp tahini

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp garlic powder or fresh grated garlic 

dash cayenne pepper

freshly ground pink peppercorns

salt

extra virgin olive oil 

1 cup white wine

1/2 cup instant polenta

2 cups water

1/2 cup grated Parmigiano (lactose free naturally)

2 tbsp butter

Dry off chicken thighs and salt, pepper, cayenne, and coat with garlic. Add a small amount of EVO to a cast iron pan and brown both sides on high heat, add torn pieces of maitake and rosemary and coat evenly in oil letting the aroma of garlic, rosemary and mushrooms fill the air, then quickly add the white wine before the aroma turns bitter from burning, this can make or break your flavor. 

Pop it in an oven, in the same cast iron pan, skin side up at 350F for 40 min. piercing the meat at 30 min to see if liquid runs clear, if it does remove from oven and let sit to rest. 

Meanwhile, arrange squash wedges on  parchment on a cookie sheet and coat in Evo, mixed with turmeric, cayenne, garlic, salt and pepper, finally drizzle tahini over top, it will stay exactly as you see it so make it pretty!

Pop in the oven just after the chicken, 1" wedges should take about 20-30 min and get good color on them, no need to flip.

On the stove top just before the chicken and squash are ready bring 2 cups of water and butter to a boil, sift in the polenta and stir vigorously until amalgamated and starts to thicken, pour in the parmigiano and take off the burner, about 3 min, for instant.

Plate away!!

Quarantine Food Diaries, Get outside, Picnic Packing Goodies and Shinrin-Yoku

The weather is warm and we can all be outside, reconnecting to the earth, walking through a forest, releasing, discharging our bodies frenetic energy and absorbing the negative ions released by our planet, bare feet upon the earth.
In Italy we take our entire lunches to the beach in the summer or  into the countryside, it's called a "scampagnata" literally to escape to the countryside. We carefully prepare and pack way more than the typical sandwich and potato salad, you might say it is somewhat of an art, not as much as the Japanese create sushi and bento boxes to go but all the same the italian will figure out the how to of eating well during a "scampagnata".
Picnics will become a new way to pass time with friends, bring a plate to share and be with others,  here are a few of my go to favorites.

Insalata di Riso

 

1 cup dry arborio rice

Tonino brand or other glass jar tuna ( please no canned tunafish)

handful or more pitted olives sliced ( I use calamata, but your preference is fine) 

1 cup fresh spring peas

2 hardboiled eggs

1/2 cup chopped carrots

1/2 cup chopped radishes

1/4  cup mayonnaise 

1/4 cup chopped parsley

Himalayan Pink salt, Pepper

The recipe is super simple, the key is to eat a little warm and then chill it for up to 24 hours before taking it on your picnic. Mix all ingredients, add Mayo salt and pepper and chill!


PANELLE
Chickpea flour fritelle

a common Sicilian street food is Panelle, a smooth chick pea flour paste that is deep fried into little rectangular pancakes and placed in a bun called "rosetta" with a squeeze of lemon and off you go.
Because I am gluten free, I use the panelle like the bread and make a frittata to put between two to take to the beach!


Savory Pinwheels and Napoleons

Store bought puff pastry sheets
sauteéd maitake or button mushrooms
chevre
cherry tomatoes
a few fresh basil leaves
1 egg yolk


De thaw puff pastry sheets until flexible, flour and roll out cut rectangles for layering the  napoleons and one long recatangle for rolling the cherry tomato goat cheese spirals. This is uber easy but presents like it was way more complicated!
Spread chevre and sliced tomatoes and a chopped basil, salt and pepper on the long rectangle, roll and slice into spirals. Arrange on parchment on a baking sheet.
Layer puff pastry squares alternately with sauteéd mushrooms and chevre until they are neatly stacked, place on parchment paper. Wash both spirals and napoleons with an egg yolk wash and
pop in the oven 400F for about 20 min, e´voila!!
Picnic blue ribbon ready!!

Quarantine Food Diaries, Grilled, Truffled Portobello Steaks, Adaptogens

I’ve never met a mushroom Quarantine Food Diaries, Grilled, Truffled Portobello Steaks, Adaptogens

I've never met a mushroom I haven’t loved, truth be told. Mushroom’s have incredible healing power and not just the psychedelic ones can take you on a journey of discovery 🍄!  I was diagnosed 13 years ago with an auto immune disease which left me taking copiously high doses of maitake shrooms, known to cure cancer. I have been super aware of what goes in this body ever since that time. Mushrooms are some of the most potent adaptogens around, balancing immune responses, adrenal function and energy potential in the body. So pardon my excess of mushroom based recipes, but now you know why. 

Grilled, Truffled Portobello Steaks 

•••••••••••••••

4 portobello caps ( brushed never washed) 

3 tbsp balsamic vinegar 

1/4 extra virgin olive oil 

1 tsp truffle oil

Pinch or so fresh thyme about 3 branches 

Himalayan pink salt and  fresh ground pepper 

1/2 cup pine nuts 

1 tbsp salted butter 

Chèvre to garnish 

Honey 🍯 

Rucola

 •••••••••••••

In a shallow baking dish combine olive oil, balsamic vinegar, thyme leaves, salt and pepper and place the mushroom caps to marinate, about 20 minutes. ••••••••••

Meanwhile sauté pine nuts in butter until butter and pine nuts are delicately browned and impart their nutty aroma, don’t burn!!

•••••••••••••••••

Take roughly half of a small log of chèvre and amalgamate honey to taste, I prefer it just a tad sweet not cloyingly so. Up to you. 

••••••••••• 

Grill mushroom caps, nicely softening and creating a few beautifully placed grill marks. About 10 minutes. They must soften. 

Compose your plate, mushroom steak, a dollop of honey chèvre, a sprinkle of buttered toasted pine nuts, a sprinkle of rucola, for peppery crunch and a drizzle of truffle oil !  Buon appetito ! 

Quarantine Food Diaries, Day 3

 Food for Mind and Body

I chose not to watch the news today, open twitter or perpetuate more panic inducing behaviors. Instead I coerced my partner into offering up what he does best, healing.
If you have ever met a modern day Shaman you might not understand at first but when he is in his healing space it is instantly evident on visceral, emotional and spiritual levels that you are being healed, that there is a shift in you that is tangible.
I teach yoga, I practice meditation, I read and assimilate philosophy into my daily practice of yoga “off the mat”. What this is, what he does, is something entirely apart. We often find ourselves in one act of doing after another, sometimes a yoga practice can be this as well, sometimes reading and absorbing information is still an act of doing. When we speak of being and not doing that is when real restoration occurs. It is understood that shavasana is the ultimate place of yoga, the slowing of the fluctuations of the mind. Shavasana is the final resting pose at the end of class where the expectation of the physical, emotional and mental bodies is absolutely nothing, simply to be, receive, accept, allow.
What my partner does takes one from this space into deep energetic healing through sound. I’m offering access to these video clips of his work in Seva or service to our community.

Sound Healing and Meditation with Justin Marx

Sound Healing and Meditation Part 1 

Sound Healing and Meditation Part 2

Sound Healing, Shamanic Drumming Part 3

I know, my quarantine food diary, but you see it is all connected, looking at ourselves these days and every day in a holistic way, with all of our facets. I am back in my kitchen, I think if I had to choose a single ingredient to eat forever, if there were only one thing left in the world, it would have to be a mushroom. Specifically a maitake mushroom. Known for it’s properties of combatting the free radicals in the body that cause cancer I was introduced to this mushroom at the time of my monumental diet change to combat systemic inflammation. I began taking maitake supplements in super high doses and it almost singlehandedly reduced all my inflammation. My father is a mycologist, a mushroom hunter, teacher, and I have had the fortune to have had numerous varietals of wild mushrooms because of it. Maitake or hen of the woods is still one of my favorites for it’s versatility. It has also become easier to find in supermarkets.
It’s a beautiful lacy mushroom and it’s flavor is rich and meaty it’s texture firm, it holds it’s own as a “steak” on the plate, and tonight it is our “steak”.
Super easy to prepare and accompanied simply with a sautéed sunchoke which in a pinch could be substituted with potatoes though the flavor profiles are super different.

Unlike yesterday tonight is less labor intensive, way quicker and completely vegetarian, well if you believe mushrooms to be vegetarian, but that is a later discussion.

Seared Maitake “steak” , Crispy Lemon Zest Sunchokes

Ingredients:

1 lb Maitake mushrooms

2 tbsp sesame oil

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Oyster sauce or worchestire mixed with a little maple syrup ( for brushing mushrooms)

6 sunchokes peeled and sliced thinly

1 Lemon zest peeled not grated

2 cloves garlic

1/2 cup white wine

Dust off Maitake shrooms, don’t wash!! Slice into 1/2 inch thick “steaks” as much as possible

Set aside.

Take peeled and sliced sunchokes or potatoes if you didn’t have or couldn’t find sunchokes ( though they are in season right now) and put in a pan with olive oil, sliced garlic and sliced lemon zest making sure not to have taken much or any of the white of the lemon. Salt and pepper, sauté on medium leaving to take on color on one side before moving to the other side, you may find they stick in which case, you may not have put enough oil or had a high enough heat or maybe there was just too much water on your sunchokes. No worries, add the 1/2 cup wine and they will loosen. Flip and continue to cook on medium until all of the wine is absorbed. At this point salt and pepper. Sunchokes can be eaten raw so they can be eaten as well at any version of “al dente” whereas potatoes must obviously be completely cooked through and you may need to add a bit of water to finish them.

While your sunchokes are cooking begin your mushrooms.

Heat a pan medium high with a little sesame oil and a little olive oil lay the mushrooms in not overlapping, salt and pepper. They need to sear on both sides when they are browned on both sides add a dash of water and the mushroom will plump up!

You may need to do two or three batches.

As they come out of the pan brush with a little oyster sauce or worchestire/ maple syrup blend.

Plate the sunchokes and place a Maitake “steak” atop... my version of steak and fries 😉

Serve with a simple green salad. Enjoy!

54°F Sunny

11 Provincetown Dr, Marlton, New Jersey, United States