Fellowship,QuakkenAsh and Fried Pickles..

                   Okay- so this Saturday Brian and I ended up on a Mushroom hunt with another couple. We work with the Wife half of the couple, via Facebook, I saw her pics of these beautiful, but mysteriously named mushrooms.. QuakkenAsh. I commented on the picture that I would love to look for the mushrooms or at least learn to and we should have a picnic while we were at it too! Well, according to her Hubby, I had her at Picnic! We had a beautiful afternoon conversing and looking for the QuakkenAshes (yea- I made up the plural spelling) We had an incredible picnic, conversation and just a plain olde great time! 

                  We got home yesterday around dinner time, still full from the Greek salad, Greek Chicken sandwiches and delish mint brewed iced sweet tea and brownies, that Brian and I decided to just deep fry those QuakkenAsh up in a batter... hence my search for an awesome batter. After some searching and picking and choosing I came up with the following... I will post the recipe - with pics- but at the end of the post- I will put the actual recipe so you can copy and paste if you want. This batter works incredibly well with Pickles too- which - we did after we realized we had more batter than mushrooms and not one to waste food- we wrapped some pickle spears in paper towels to dry them and batter fried them.. I have no pics of those as I was too busy eating.

So the first thing we did was wash the mushrooms and cut the part off that was attached to the trees that you find them on....

Okay- so after alot of searching - apparently QuakkenAsh are actually Oyster Mushrooms- but during our search we decided that the name QuakkenAsh was a much cooler name since we also came up with a reason for why they were called QuakkenAsh- Quakers obviously were the first to find them on Ash Trees!

 

The next step was to heat the oil- I used my cast iron dutch oven. The recipe called for 3 inches of oil, I used about 1 and a half inch of smartoil- and not to be out done by smart oil, I added 3 Tablespoons of Bacon grease and 2 Tablespoons of lard... no self respecting deepfryin person uses straight "Smart Oil" I mean seriously you are deep frying!

I just got this dutch oven so I figured this would help season it, it is an old Wagner cast iron, don't bother buying new cast iron if you can help it they are not made as well.

While I was heating up the oil, bacon and lard goodness.. Brian was making the batter. Here is an action shot of him pouring the liquid and mixing at the same time into the flour mixture.

Then once it was all mixed up well, we started adding the mushrooms to the batter using a slotted spoon to let some of the batter drip off, we added it to the oil.

You kinda gotta swish them around to get the batter all over , then seemingly to defeat the purpose, we tapped the slotted spoon on the side of the bowl

We added more than 2 at a time, this is just when the pic was snapped, we added about 7-10 at a time and used the same slotted spoon to flip them after they were a nice brown color on the one side.

And here is my handsome hubby, using a pan lid as a shield, considerin this was the first time I ever deep fried something in a open kettle, I had the heat up to high. He yelled get me something! This was the first thing I grabbed, he is kinda like 'captian America deep fryer'

I think Captain America needs a larger shield next time!

Here is the beautiful pic of the QuakkenAsh (Oyster) Mushrooms all nice and deep fried:

I suggest using this recipe because it the first thought that came to my mind as I was eating my plate of Deep Fried Mushrooms and Pickles was, I am eating a way better meal than I would ever get in a restaurant right now.. Brian or maybe it was me I can not remember now stated, "Now this here, is good eatin'"

Here is the recipe:

• 2 cups beer - we used a can of Yuenling Lager Light- it is what we had on hand
• 2 cups sifted flour
• 2 teaspoons garlic powder
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 1 teaspoon parsley flakes 
• About 1 to 1/2 cup of oil, 3-4 tablespoons of bacon grease,2-3 tablespoons of lard
  
• 1 -2 lb whole fresh large mushroom, washed and dried or any other veggie- heck try oreos or pickles- I can bet we woulda tried oreos- if I purchased those kinda things!

Directions:

1. Pour about 3 inches (more if needed to cover the mushrooms) of oil into a large pot.
2. Heat until it reaches about 350 degrees
3. Meanwhile Mix beer, flour, garlic powder, salt, pepper and parsley flakes in a large bowl.
4. Mix until smooth and well blended without any lumps.
5. Dip mushrooms into batter and coat well.
6. Fry mushrooms in batches in oil until crispy and brown.
7. Time will vary depending on temperature of oil and the amount of mushrooms being fried.
8. I usually do about 10 mushrooms at a time and it takes about 8 minutes.
9. When done, remove mushrooms to a plate or bowl lined with paper towels to drain off excess oil.