Cleaning and preservation are a laborious process. In Jammu’s Doda and Bhadarwah regions, women spend hours foraging for a cup fungus.Locally known as kundi due to its shape resembling a stone mortar vessel, it grows under the cover of conifers.
“It’s half-merged in soil, so it needs to be washed thoroughly THC Edibles in running water. It’s sun-dried, salted and preserved with turmeric powder,” says Yash Pal Sharma, professor at the botany department in Jammu University and co-author of the study.
These regions also grow oblong pebble-like dudh katt or matij that are had uncooked, and the bhutoo (Boletus spp.) that are fire-roasted.
From ambada (roselle leaves) to bamboo shoot, fermented fish, milk and a variety of other greens and vegetables, tribals cook mushrooms in a number of ways.
In Rajasthan’s Thar desert, the powdery spores of doda (mushrooms from two genuses Podaxis and Phellorinia) are mixed in millet flour.
In many homes of Manipur, the Cheiraoba (Manipuri New Year) feast is incomplete without a saag of eggplant and uyen (a shiitake-like mushroom).
Kanglayen paknam (pan-roasted split gill mushroom) Weed Edibles and uchina kangou (black wood-ear mushroom stir-fry) with peas are other commonly popular mushroom dishes.
“Each has a distinct chewy texture and taste. Manipuris usually prefer these over button mushrooms,” says Ammo Angom, co-founder of The Sharing Bowl, a Mumbai-based food startup that aggregates home chefs on an online platform.
The Khasi tribes in mycophilic (mushroom-loving) Meghalaya place a scalding hot tip of an iron rod in a bowl of cooked mushrooms. This traditional cooking technique known as narsuh helps destroy toxins, if any.
The rugra, meanwhile, is best enjoyed with dhuttu, a rice cake steamed in sal leaf cones, informs Abir Kumar Barman. The Mumbai-based fashion designer and food blogger, who is in Ranchi due to lockdown, went foraging for rugra with locals in the neighbouring Horhap forest for five long hours “but found only a handful”.
He recorded the special song that the Oraon community, dependent on forests, sing during the collection.
The popularity of these precious mushroom varieties is a cause for concern. Many varieties are vanishing, says Angom, reminiscing stories that his father narrated Cherry Edible Cherry Edible of gathering “moss-like stuff called nungshum from far-off rivers for its unique taste”. It is rarely seen now as are the mushrooms that grew in his Imphal home’s kitchen garden.