Nature's Gift

Of course one can buy cultivated Pleurotus oestreatau (oyster mushrooms); but as a rare gift, one comse accross a tree with soft scale like growths that are these mushrooms in the wild. Recantly this good fortune came our way and we cut down a large bounty. From these I made soup. They weigh very little so a large mound is deceptive. I cleaned the mushrooms by cutting off the hard part of the stems and cut them into strips about a quarter inch wide following the lines of the gills. This gave me a pound of prepared mushrooms which I put in a sauce pan with five cups of chicken stock. I brought theme to a boil and reduced to a simmer and let cook about fifteen minutes. I stirred in three quarters of a cup of white miso and that was that. It was also a good opening for a meal of composed salads.

It is also gluten and lactose free.