Butterflies are excellent edible mushrooms that are known to every connoisseur of forest gifts. Many different dishes and sauces are prepared from fruit bodies. Prepared semi-finished products and even used for medicinal purposes. But in order to cook a really tasty and healthy dish, it is important to know how to properly prepare the butter, because these mushrooms require special attention.
How to clean
After collecting the oil, they must be cleaned. Moreover, it is not enough just to remove forest debris (needles, pieces of soil, etc.), more careful preparation is required here, in particular, removing sticky skin from the surface of the hat. There is a popular belief that a large number of toxins accumulate in it, therefore it can not be eaten.
In fact, harmful substances are distributed throughout the entire volume of the fungus and the removal of only the top film does not solve the problem. But the hat should be cleaned at least in order to give the mushrooms an aesthetic appearance. The fact is that during the heat treatment, the peel on the hat shrinks and the mushrooms acquire an unaesthetic appearance. Also, the chefs noticed that after cooking, the hat with the film becomes stiff, and sometimes a little bit bitter.
Before cleaning, do not soak the oil in water, otherwise they will be saturated with moisture, and the film will swell, which will greatly complicate the process
Experienced mushroom pickers have come up with many ways to clean the oil. First of all, you need to consider the weather in which the mushroom picking takes place. If the process takes place on dry sunny days, you can start cleaning the plant materials immediately after arriving from the forest. If the weather is damp, it is better to dry the forest products before cleaning on a newspaper, since peeling off dry oils is much easier.
Do not forget to treat the knife and the legs of the mushrooms, remove damaged areas. The procedure is best carried out with gloves, since the oily substance cleans a substance that leaves dark spots on the skin during cleaning.. You can wash them without problems if you first hold your hands in a weak solution of vinegar or citric acid.
The film is removed with a sharp knife, prying over the edge. It is not recommended to collect old mushrooms with a large hat, since the cover of the hat is very thin and it is quite difficult to remove it. In addition, these oils have time to accumulate more toxins and salts of heavy metals.
The most difficult to clean are very young specimens, since the upper skin is still quite firmly adhered to the hat, and also fills the space under it. The coating must be removed completely. Such a procedure, by the way, can save you from picking inedible mushrooms - removing the skin from under the hat, you can see what kind of surface it is. If lamellar is not a butterdish, but, most likely, a grebe.
To make the film better behind the surface, dip the mushrooms for 30-40 seconds in boiling waterand then proceed with cleaning. Another way is to put the mushrooms in a colander, and hold for half a minute over boiling water.
People have come up with ways to remove sticky film without a knife. And, although everyone in the house has this item of kitchen utensils, it’s worth considering and trying alternative options, since in the future you can also involve children in such work.
For instance:
- Press the hat tightly onto a piece of gauze, then gently pick up the film and, pulling the fabric, remove it.
- Break the top of the mushroom in half from the inside to the film. Grasping the two halves, part them in different directions and remove the sticky skin.
The cleaned oil can be stored in the refrigerator for 10-12 hours or put in the freezer for longer savings. If mushrooms are to be dried, it is not necessary to remove the film.
Did you know? In the forest you can meet a false double — it is a pepper mushroom. Although it is not poisonous, it is impossible to eat it because of strong bitterness. Lack of skirt and red tint of sponge — distinctive features.
Do I need to boil before frying
Butter, like most edible mushrooms, should be boiled before preparing a dish from them. Some mushroom pickers believe that the cooking process can be skipped, since the mushrooms will still be subjected to heat treatment, only in the form of frying. This is not entirely true - mushrooms must be boiled first of all in order to get rid of the harmful substances that quickly accumulate in them, like in a sponge.
It is noticed that toxins well remove table salt and vinegar. Fold the fruit bodies in salted water and cook no more than 10 minutes after boiling. During this time, harmful substances “come out” of them, and useful substances are almost completely preserved.
It should be noted that the oils have a rich chemical composition containing vitamins, minerals, amino acids and macro- and microelements that bring great benefits to the body
Eating mushrooms boosts immunity, It has a general strengthening effect on the body, contributes to a speedy recovery from infectious diseases etc. In addition, the butter has a low calorie content (19 kcal per 100 g of product), so it can take pride of place in dietary nutrition.
How to cook oil
The answer to the question of how much to cook will depend on which final product you want to receive. If the subsequent heat treatment is supposed in the recipe after cooking (frying, pickling), you need to cook mushrooms for a short time, and only in order to remove harmful substances. If boiled butter is an independent dish, the process will take more time.
Important! Butterflies are not recommended for people suffering from gastritis, liver diseases and kidney failure, as well as for pregnant women, nursing mothers and children.
Before frying
Fried butter, especially in tandem with potatoes and other vegetables (onions, carrots) is an amazingly tasty dish that is familiar to all mushroom pickers and lovers to enjoy the gifts of the forest. In the process of its preparation, it is important to observe the technology. First of all, mushrooms are cleaned and then kept for 1-2 hours in cold water - during this time, the remaining sand will settle and, possibly, insects or worms unnoticed during cleaning.
Next, the mushrooms should be boiled. For adult specimens, this procedure is required, as it helps to remove harmful substances. Given that in the future there is still frying in a pan at high temperature, the oil should be cooked for no more than 10-15 minutes. Add a pinch of salt or citric acid to the water. As for the small young mushrooms, which have not yet had time to accumulate toxins, they can be boiled for 2-3 minutes or simply doused with boiling water.
Upon completion of the procedure, the raw materials are placed in a dry frying pan and simmer over low heat until all the liquid has boiled away. Then add vegetable oil, chopped onion finely and fry until golden brown. Further cooking is continued according to the recipe. If we are talking about potatoes, they are fried in a separate pan and, already ready, combined with mushrooms and onions, pepper, greens are added.
Before pickling
To pickle the butter, they will need to be boiled twice - the first time in “clean” water, and the second in the marinade. The peeled and washed mushrooms are laid out in a pan with water and boiled for 20 minutes after boiling, constantly removing the growing foam. 5 minutes before cooking, add salt (1 tsp. Per 1 liter), pepper. Then the water is drained, and the oil is washed under running water.
The next stage is cooking in the marinade. The filling is prepared according to the recipe - in most cases it is a solution of water, salt, sugar and vinegar. In the marinade, brought to a boil, spread the oil and boil for another 20 minutes. After that, you can pack the workpiece in banks and roll up.
Until ready
To bring the butter to full readiness, they need to be cooked for 25-30 minutes in salted water. If we are talking about cooking in a slow cooker, mushrooms are placed in a container and cooked in the “Stew” mode for 40 minutes.
After this, the oil can be used as an ingredient for preparing various dishes, as well as send for long-term storage in the freezer. So saving mushrooms in the freezer is much more convenient, because, unlike raw, boiled ones take up less space if packed with dense briquettes.
Did you know? In tropical conditions, oysters literally feed on midges and ants, dissolving insects in their mucus.
How to cook
To prepare boiled butter, mushrooms are pre-cleaned, as described above, washed, kept in cold water to leave the remaining forest debris. Excessively large specimens can be cut into several parts, and small ones left whole. If you use frozen mushrooms, they should first be thawed.
Pour water into the pan and add salt ½ tbsp. salt per 1 liter of water. Place the mushrooms, bring to a boil, and then reduce the heat and cook for 25-30 minutes. During cooking, the surface will constantly form a foam that needs to be removed. After the mushrooms are boiled, the water is drained and the oil is thrown into a colander to dry. If you plan to cook mushroom soup, you do not need to dry them.
Now, knowing how to prepare the butter for cooking and how much time they need to be cooked, you can make a lot of delicious mushroom dishes, preserve mushrooms for the winter or freeze. In any case, they will always please with their excellent “forest” taste and cheer up.
