Hunting & Cooking In The Woods; Winter Survival Food 🍄

There's something almost primal about the hunt for mushrooms in the wild. It's not just about foraging, it's about the journey. Traversing through the damp earthy woodlands, the scent similar to what you'd experience at a luxury spa, and the birds in harmonious song around us, with each careful step is a chance to strike gold. Often the mushrooms will smartly disguise themselves among the thick layer of fallen leaves. I've been unsuccessful so many times mushroom hunting and that's what makes it so rewarding when you finally find some. Today my mushroom foraging friend Roo and his little dog Betty and myself were on the hunt to find some of the last mushrooms of the winter. Oh Roo, my foraging buddy. I'm Betty. How you doing man? Are you going to be successful today? I'm going to smash it. Oh gosh, it's a bit aggressive isn't she? She's the mushroom smelling dog. Mushroom pig, yeah. Mushroom pig dog. All right, let's go find some mushrooms. Let's do it. Lovely day. Stunning. Getting deep into the forest now. Do you think we'll be successful today Roo? Yeah, I think so too. I think there's still a few hanging around. Yeah, it's very much... Oh, I see mushrooms already. Yes. Not edible though. Nah, well at least as far as I know. There's so many different mushrooms in this forest and some are worthwhile, some are not. Some are a bit close to potentially being poisonous. I think I just spotted one of those beautiful red amanitas. They stick out and there's some puffballs over there too. You can send smoke signals with that. That noise is eerie. Here's a trooping funnel and it's a giant beautiful specimen. There's three in a row. They're like mushroom guards guarding this area. I love how they just grow in lines as well. Yeah. Yes Roo, a hedgehog. Our first and there's one there too. Let's have a look. They almost look like oyster-y, lobster-y looking things, don't they? Until you flip them over and you can see why they're called hedgehog mushrooms. Hopefully we'll fill this basket up and I can make you a delicious meal. Please. Let's keep looking. Oh, there's an old porcini. Oh yeah. Look at that. Good spot. It's one of our most prized mushrooms, isn't it? Yeah, it's a shame. It's always such a shame to see them looking old in the wild. I could have had this but now going back into the ground to feed some slugs. Exactly. Oh, there's loads of shroom action going on down here. Yeah, I can see lots of glowing white bits. You spotted something. You can see there's one here actually but there's a pile over there. Oh, there's loads. And these are wood bluets. Oh yes. And they've got a grey sort of lilac-y tinge. I love the look of those gills. Yeah, it's pretty. So we can eat these? Yeah, and you know we haven't had much luck with the hedgehogs yet but at least we got them. So it's something that makes it worth the while, right? Something that will bulk out my dish. All right, let's pick a few of these then. And this is what we're talking about when we're talking about disguising the mushrooms. It's either a little porcini or a bay belete. Oh yeah. It's a work of art, that is. Good spot. And we struck lucky again because look, this is what we came out for. Yes. Oh guys, I can't wait to show you how these look when you're cooking them. Almost like scallop-y. We got a bit of dappled sunroof. The heavens have opened. They are beautiful. What a scene. Beautiful. What a scene. There's nothing better than nature. This is turning into a lovely little harvest for you. This is going to feed us for the weekend. We're going to eat today. I think one thing we need to mention as well in terms of collecting mushrooms, you never want to take all of them, do you? We need to leave some. Take a few and then leave a few as well. Definitely. And also what we're doing here is actually prepping them in the forest so that none of the mud spreads around all of the harvest, but also all the little trimmings are going right back into the soil. Yeah, there's plenty here to feed all the little creatures that live on this floor and keep the nutrients in the forest. Beautiful. That was actually really successful. You got a nice big bag too. Yeah, good weight on this. So we're going to head to yours now and cook something up over fire. Let's do it. Lovely. There's not much room left in my basket though. Mushroomy in my basket, I mean. There's not much room in my basket. All right, should we get a fire going, Rune? Let's do it. Let's cook these mushrooms up. That's some really dry leaves. So dry. Two guys, one fire. And lots of smoke. Good girl. Lay down. You want a stick? Get your stick now, Freddy. You want a stick? There you go. Good girl. I wish I was easily entertained with just sticks. All right, so these beautiful mushrooms we picked. I want to do something a little bit different with them today. And I've got my homemade miso paste. So I think I'm going to make a lovely rich broth. Warming, it's cold. But before we do that, I want to get some lovely caramelization on the mushrooms. So into a mixing bowl with the torn up mushrooms. I'm going to add some chopped ginger, garlic and chili from my garden. We'll get those tossed up with some soy sauce and into my really hot pan. Just get all of that flavor over everything. How good does that smell already? It's wafting towards me. So I really want this ripping hot now. So I want to get some caramelization on everything. I want to build like a base layer of flavor on the bottom of the pan. So that when we deglaze it with our stock after, that's all going to come into that broth. We need to get this ripping. We need to get some more heat there. There you go. Nothing like a Welshman's breath to get the fire going. Oh yeah, that's ripping now. Oh, that smells good. A couple more twigs for you there. Now we're cooking, guys. It's a bit windy, so it's not getting as hot as I wanted, which means they're sort of stewing a bit more. But that's going to add a lovely flavor to the broth. It's camping. We're camping, aren't we? It's not going to be perfect Michelin star. Just got to roll with the punches. It's looking good though, and it's smelling good. Oh yeah. All right, so let's intensify this a little bit. I've got some seaweed flakes here. Let's get some of those in. They'll just rehydrate in the broth. Next into the pot, I'm going to add some bashed up lemongrass. Plus I'll whisk together some of my homemade miso paste with some hot water. Once that's well incorporated, I'll add that to my pot. So how do you make your own miso? This miso actually took nine months to make. It's been a labor of love. A miso baby. Miso baby, it actually is. And I could have left it longer. It would have got more intense, but I was impatient. But it was just a mixture of koji, which is the inoculated grain, mixed with some cooked soybeans. And I just blended it all up, packed into a jar, and then let it ferment for nine months. And now we're using it. It's got that rich umaminess, and it's going to be beautiful in this. And we actually don't want this to boil too much now, because that will kill off some of those, the goodness, the good bacteria in here. So we can actually let this go a bit cooler, which is good for you guys, because you can actually see what's in the pot now, because it's been so steamy. Now that we've added the miso, let's add some vegetable stock and let the broth gently simmer away and intensify for at least 15 minutes. I got you a few things from the garden to prettify it. Oh yeah? Oh, look at you with your flowers. Got some fennel flowers, some nasturtium leaves, some borage. Last remnants of summer. Nice, yeah. I think the nasturtium, that peppery wasabi flavour, is going to be perfect with this. Thank you very much. So what part of the world are these flavours coming from, Gaz? Yeah, it's inspired by Asia. Yeah? I think there's nothing better than aromatics on a cold day. And I think the aromatics with the earthy mushrooms is a marriage made in heaven. Oh, that is so rich. That's exactly what you want on a day where it seems to be going from warm to freezing. Yeah, it's those mushrooms. The way they just release all that flavour early on has intensified it. Just before serving, I'm going to stir through some coconut cream, break in some pak choy leaves and then serve up. So you added a nice bit of freshness to the dish with that. Yeah, nice crunch. Add them last minute just so they don't overcook. And I'm also going to get some coriander in as well. Oh, my favourite. Oh, look at this root. Let's get that coriander, a nice little stir in. This looks absolutely delicious. It's really come together now and it's basically ready to serve up. It's looking great. Get that into some bowls. And this is something you could do with noodles or rice or something like that too, but this is going to be so hearty now. All right, so we're going to top this beautiful broth now with some of my homemade fermented hot sauce, which I'm so excited about. And the recipe is on my Instagram if you want it. Plus, we've got some of those lovely flowers that Ru picked and some sesame seeds. Let's serve it up now. I am hungry and I'm cold, so this is the ideal meal. And finally, a little sesame oil. Well, thank you for this. Cheers. This should warm our little cockles up. Oh, it's really good. The lemongrass. Oh, that is... And the mushrooms are meaty. Oh, I love that chilli. I've not had that yet, that hot sauce. I think your miso and the coconut milk has given it a really nice creamy texture as well. Delish. One pot meal as well. Hitting all the boxes. You just have to go and forage your mushrooms. Now, you can try this with any mushrooms. If you like this kind of foraging content, then click... No, tell us below in the comments and we'll do more of it. It's actually the funnest thing, isn't it? Foraging and then cooking. Anytime you want to do it. Lydia usually comes with us and she's the best at finding the mushrooms. Oh, yeah. You're the OG truffle person. Yeah. See you guys soon. Like, share and comment and all that good stuff. Delicious.