Wild Mushrooms and Asian Noodles

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The Pacific Northwest offers many varieties of wild edible mushrooms in both spring and fall. Often they can be found right on the edge of hiking trails. The key to cooking with these delicious fungi is to minimize the other flavors, and cook the mushrooms to best display their flavor.

This simple recipe is an example of such simplicity, yet lends itself to countless variations.

One LARGE word of warning - if you haven't been trained to identify wild mushrooms, DON'T EVEN touch any mushrooms you might find. Some of the deadliest neurotoxins reside in amaniteae and other species, and they are all too common.

2 cups of fresh wild mushrooms, cut into pieces about 1" x 2" This time I used a mix of rosites, herecium and lactarius

1/4 cup chopped parsley

1/2 t black mustard seeds

1 T Olive oil & 1 T butter

1/4 cup chopped chives or garlic chives

4-6 oz asian noodles.- try to find real wheat noodles, not the cheap, pasty, fat-calory laden ramen packages. In Asian markets look for chūka soba or shina soba. Parboiled chūka soba can be stir-fried to make yakisoba. Or cooked as below to make 'ramen' which is the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese characters lo mein, which means "boiled noodles."

1. Boil 2 quarts of water, toss in the noodles and cook to 2-3 ' until the noodles are done. Strain, and plunge the noodles into cold water to stop the cooking. Set aside.

2. Melt the butter in a large suacepan over medium heat and add the olive oil. Add the mustard seeds and let them heat til they start to pop. Toss in the musrooms and stir fry for 2-3 minutes, then reduce heat to low and let simmer for about 10'.

3. Mix in the noodles, toss until noodles are warm and top with parsley.

I served this with sides of steamed acorn squash and asparagus