Thanks to friend and neighbor Silas for giving us these beautiful Giant Puffballs (Calvatia gigantea). Chef Dwayne put the idea of a French Toast style puffball in my head at the Cain Foray and as Silas brought these by in the morning I thought I’d try out a puffball brunch before getting the rest ready for preserving.
Another nice sounding recipe going around is to use the puffy slices for personal pan pizzas. I’m preparing the slices for future use as such, or for burgers, or to cut up and add to stews. Also drying some, it’s all new to me, so we shall see.
Here are some pictures.Thanks to Chef Dwayne for the French Toast idea. Dwayne, if you are out there drop me a line.
-
- Slice the puffball
-
- Peel the skin and cut out ant bug holes
-
- Scramble an egg
-
- Dredge the puffball slice
-
- A bit of Butter makes it Better
-
- Fry till golden
-
- Garnish as you please. I went sweet, with smokey maple syrup and berries
-
- To preserve fry lightly in butter or bacon fat. Later use as pizza crusts
-
- Butter fried on the left, Bacon fried on the right. These can also be sliced for soups or stews
-
- Packed up separated by waxed paper ready to freeze
-
- Slicing into 1/4″ for drying
-
- All laid out on the dying racks
-
- Homemade dryer
-
- Overnight in the drier and they are as light and crisp as packing foam. Ready to re-hydrate or powder for soup stock
I’ll post more once I have tried some more recipes:
The maple syrupy french toasty style was a bit weird but the Personal Puffball Pizzas were great!