The November blues

After yesterday's black fingers - today it's blue legs, or blewits, one of the very few edible mushrooms that can be found at this time of the year especially when the weather is mild.

Lepista nuda, the wood blewit, and its close relative Lepista saeva the field blewit, which these probably are, can be distinguished by their delicate lilac hue. Because of their unusual colouration and late appearance they are one of the fungi that are most easily recognized. They grow quite prolifically in the same places year after year and are good to eat but only when cooked to remove a very slight toxicity.

Antonio Carlucci, the doyen of gastronomic 'shroomers, writes
Both lepistas are excellent mushrooms: the very thick, moist flesh means that a satisfying meal can be made from just a few specimens. They are wonderful by themselves, simply cooked by the time-honoured method of stir-frying in butter with a little garlic and parsley. You can use them in stews or sauté them with other mushrooms, and they are particularly good in sauces accompanying meat or fish. They freeze well after initial cooking and are very good for pickling and for preserving in oil.

You can find lots of recipes for blewits on foraging pages on the internet and they're often recommended for inclusion in a chicken pie. They are one of the limited number of fungi that can be cultivated, on compost or leaf litter, to be sold as 'blue feet'. Once upon a time, they were eaten by country people here in Britain and could even be found on sale in Covent Garden market in London.

I've cooked these in butter with some garlic and spring onion, and will add some cream before serving them. I photographed them in the porch along with a piece of driftwood which reminds me of an Archaeopteryx (not that we know what that ancient fossililized bird really looked like.)

As it is Thankgiving Day across the pond, here is a roundup of all the fungal diseases that can threaten the traditional repast. No need to feel smug - there's an equally fascinating discussion on Christmas 'shroomery.