Content
Ryzhiki are very beautiful and interesting mushrooms that are difficult to confuse with any others, especially since they do not have inedible “doubles”. At the break, they secrete a milky juice of a reddish or orange hue, depending on the variety. This is one of its distinctive characteristics. Despite belonging to the lamellar group, saffron milk caps are one of the few, along with white mushrooms and milk mushrooms, that are classified as edible mushrooms of the first category in terms of nutritional value. Whether to cook saffron milk caps or not is up to each housewife to decide for herself, since they can be eaten in almost any form.
Do you need to cook saffron milk caps?
Of course, due to the current environmental situation, eating raw mushrooms is highly discouraged. Even if we are talking about such tasty and safe representatives of this family as saffron milk caps. Moreover, cooking saffron milk caps does not present any difficulties. But unlike many so-called conditionally edible mushrooms, which require soaking or mandatory boiling before direct cooking, they can be cooked immediately after collection and mechanical cleaning of adhering forest debris.
Mushrooms are versatile in preparation: they can be boiled, fried, stewed, baked, and, of course, pickled and pickled.
Indeed, very young saffron milk caps, collected in environmentally safe places, can be eaten after salting and infusing for several hours in a cool place.
But if there is even the slightest doubt about the quality of the mushrooms or the place where they were collected, then it will be much safer to boil them before any further culinary processing. If you want to get a more delicate taste and consistency, then the saffron milk caps can be boiled before frying or pickling.
True, these mushrooms are pickled only in their raw form. Only in this way can you get a special taste and extraordinary crunchiness of the finished dish.
It should be noted that these mushrooms have a unique taste in any form. And if, for dietary reasons, fried foods are contraindicated for someone, then simply boiling saffron milk caps can help prepare them for a surprisingly tasty snack or even a holiday dish.
How to cook saffron milk caps
Cooking saffron milk caps is not at all difficult; moreover, this procedure does not require strict adherence to any specific rules, as is the case with some other mushrooms, for example, the same milk mushrooms.
Of course, mushrooms brought from the forest must first of all be cleaned of debris, stuck leaves, and fruit bodies that are too old or damaged by mold must be removed. Saffron milk caps quite rarely turn out to be wormy, however, this fact should not be overlooked. Mushrooms should be checked for the presence of foreign animals. Damaged areas are cut out with a sharp knife.
Then the cleaned fruiting bodies are poured with cold water and placed on moderate heat.After boiling, it is necessary to regularly remove the foam that appears from the surface.
If the number of mushrooms collected is not very large, then you can do it differently. First, bring the water in the pan to a boil, and then cook them in boiling water. This will help them retain their shape better.
Salt is usually added at the very end of cooking. It is possible to boil these mushrooms without adding salt at all.
As soon as the mushrooms are considered ready, the water is drained, and the saffron milk caps themselves are placed in a colander to drain excess liquid.
Is it possible to cook saffron milk caps with other mushrooms?
Sometimes from the forest you can bring a bountiful harvest of a wide variety of mushrooms, including saffron milk caps.
Since the latter do not require any special conditions for heat treatment, they can be cooked in one common pan along with all the mushrooms.
During cooking, they should not be combined only with conditionally edible mushrooms, which are boiled to remove bitterness, for example, with milk mushrooms, with rows, with volnushki, with talkers and others. Because the bitterness during boiling can transfer to saffron milk caps.
How long to cook saffron mushrooms
The cooking time for saffron milk caps is not particularly important. If you have to cook them before marinating, then frying or freezing, then it is enough to leave them in the pan after boiling water for 10 minutes.
If saffron milk caps are boiled to prepare some kind of dish from them in the future, then you can keep them in boiling water longer, around 15-25 minutes. If the mushrooms were collected in a questionable place, and there is a chance that they will even taste bitter, although this happens very rarely, then it is better to increase the cooking time.
What can you do with boiled saffron milk caps?
Boiled saffron milk caps in themselves are already a ready-made dish that you can enjoy by seasoning it with sour cream or mayonnaise and adding it to some side dish or simply eating them with bread.
They can be easily pickled by adding vinegar, citric acid and spices.
Many people prefer to boil saffron milk caps for subsequent frying with the addition of potatoes, other various vegetables or cereals. In this case, they become more tender in consistency. And the frying time can be slightly reduced, making the finished product more dietary.
To preserve a large number of saffron milk caps for the winter, after boiling they can be frozen, divided into portioned bags. In this case, the mushrooms are almost ready to eat at any time after defrosting. Moreover, they can be used to prepare some dishes without even defrosting them. And the juice from thawed boiled mushrooms is quite suitable for making sauce or gravy.
Finally, boiled saffron milk caps can be used to make a dish according to any of the following recipes:
- filling for pies, pies, pizza or dumplings;
- minced meat for zraz, meatballs or cutlets;
- mushroom caviar, including those stored for the winter;
- sauce or seasoning for side dishes;
- cold or hot salads with vegetables, fish, meat, eggs, seafood.
Conclusion
In order to cook saffron milk caps, no special culinary skills are required. This operation is not even necessary, as is the case with many other mushrooms. But boiled mushrooms can be useful for making many delicious dishes, and for long-term storage in the freezer during the winter.
