Mushroom Monday - Pear Shaped Puffball Tacos

Here's a slew of pear shaped puffball mushrooms for this #mushroommonday by @balticbadger

I often find them growing on the ground from little pieces of dead wood. I tend not to harvest the ones off the ground for fear of some animal having urinated on them lol. Here's a video of them showing a ripe and unripe example https://youtu.be/GBmJMGH6cDI

Fortunately there are plenty of them growing on fallen branches as well.

This shot shows the stem that gives them their pear shaped name.

They are abundant in October here in Illinois.

Here's a shot of some younger specimens. They grow to be a bit larger than the acorn in the upper right.

I brought them home and soaked them in water for about an hour to loosen the tough outer skin.

Once the skin has soaked a bit you just have to pinch it and twist a bit for it to slide off. Then you get nice little marshmallow gems like this.

For cooking I pan fried them in oil and spices with some oyster mushrooms I found earlier.

Now its time to make the taco shells. I use 2 cups of blue corn flour and 1.75 cups of water and a teaspoon of salt. Mix it together then roll them into a ball and flatten it in your hands.

Then fry it in some oil for a couple minutes on both sides.

Now the taco shells are done. These are nice and soft with a crispy outer layer.

For the toppings I have the mushrooms, a base of black beans, spicy stir fried chicken. Then I usually add tomatoes, green chilis and some lettuce.

Here are the finished puffball tacos. The puffballs add a smoky mushroom flavor to everything. It goes really well with the corn and spicy chicken. Happy #mushroommonday :-)

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