Milk Mushroom Caviar for the Winter
Fragrant, savory caviar made from milk mushrooms! Plenty of food lovers know this wild-mushroom "caviar" — a genuinely tasty spread you can slather on bread like a pâté, stir into other dishes, or use to fill hand pies. You can make it from all kinds of forest mushrooms, but milk mushroom caviar is a special favorite. There are countless versions: from fresh, dried, or salted milk mushrooms, from white or black ones, with tomatoes, carrots and onions, with zucchini, with bell pepper, with garlic, and so on.
Cooking method
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Step 1:
One of the simplest and most popular ways to make mushroom caviar is from fresh milk mushrooms. In peak mushroom season, when they're everywhere, this is the quickest, easiest way to put them up for winter. Be sure to work with fresh mushrooms that haven't been sitting around since you picked them. Wash the mushrooms, clean off any forest debris, leaves, and twigs, and discard any rotten or wormy ones.
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Step 2:
Ideally, place the milk mushrooms in a deep container, cover with cold water, and add salt. This draws out any insects hiding inside and also cuts the natural bitterness these mushrooms have. Drain the soaking water, cover the mushrooms with fresh cold water, set the pot over the heat, and bring to a boil.
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Step 3:
Drain that water, cover the mushrooms with fresh water, bring back to a boil, and cook over medium heat for one hour, skimming off any foam that rises to the surface with a slotted spoon. Then tip the mushrooms into a colander and let them drain completely. Let them cool all the way down.
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Step 4:
Peel the onion and finely chop it with a knife.
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Step 5:
Pour the vegetable oil into a skillet and heat it up. Add the onion and fry until golden.
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Step 6:
Run the mushrooms through a meat grinder, or pulse them in a blender or food processor until they reach a coarse, caviar-like texture. Add the fried onion, and salt and ground black pepper to taste. Mix everything together thoroughly.
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Step 7:
Get your jars ready ahead of time. Small jars are best for mushroom caviar, so it won't sit around too long once opened. Wash the jars with baking soda and sterilize them using whatever method you trust. Wash and boil the lids. Spoon the mushroom caviar into the sterilized jars.
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Step 8:
For long storage, the caviar needs to be processed in the jars. Lay a cloth on the bottom of a pot of water, set the jars of caviar on it, cover the jars loosely with their lids, and process at a gentle simmer for about 20 minutes. Seal the jars, then let them cool to room temperature under a blanket. Move them to a cool spot for storage.
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Step 9:
Enjoy!
Caloric content of the products possible in the composition of the dish
- Pickled milk mushrooms - 26 kcal/100g
- Fresh milk mushrooms - 16 kcal/100g
- Ground black pepper - 255 kcal/100g
- Vegetable oil - 873 kcal/100g
- Salt - 0 kcal/100g
- Onion - 41 kcal/100g
