Summer in the alps is always time for delicacies. You can go hiking and collect a great variety of mushrooms on your way to sweeten up your cuisine. Yesterday I went together with a friend and what we found, was worth around 30 EUR in raw material. If you calculate the dish in a restaurant, you have quite a little luxurious meal.

The time flies by when you combine the outdoor activity with this tasty hobby and all you need is a little knowledge about where to find those beauties. The Boleti are growing close to the dense forest, where the sun can still reach. Mostly accompanied by Amanita muscaria and sometimes, that was my observation, close to ant nests.You will find some of them even in the dense forest on moss rich areas which are humid. The Cantharellus cibarius – Eierschwammerl (German) – are growing in the moss as well, accompanied by myrtillium vaccinum, the blue berry. You have to lift the moss here and there to find them. It’s easier to find them in dense spruce forests, though. There they grow, well to see, on the ground covered with the spruce leaves, when a sufficient humidity is given. You can just walk by and sometimes cut hands full of it at one place. The Amanita muscaria are not to eat of course, but they are colorful and most beautiful!

Boletus luridus and erythropus are toxic Boleti, if they are not cooked properly. Most people don’t take them, but I do. You have to cut and blanch them, before you roast them in butter, then those species are very tasty, spicy and good to eat! They have a very special taste (awesome) and grow in the same habitant as Boletus edulis, sometimes even on meadows in the mountains, where lots of light comes through. Keep updated, since I will present some recipes the upcoming days for Spätzle with mushroom cream, Pizza with Gorgonzola mushroom topping, and Carpaccio of Boletus edulis.

An entry for toxic mushrooms can be found on the Homepage of the Klinikum Rechts der Isar in Munich (German).