Wild King Trumpet Mushrooms

Last Sunday Andrew and Lauren visited us after a mushrooming trip in the San Bernardino Mountains with a Los Angeles mushroom club. Andrew found a king trumpet mushroom, 

Wild king trumpet mushroom

which is also known as a king oyster mushroom, which he harvested and brought with him. It had been i.d.'d by two mushroom experts in the club, so we felt comfortable eating it. Andrew washed it and cleaned off the dirt, then separated out the individual pieces. 

I was surprised to see it separate like it did - it had looked like one big blob. He cut the mushroom into small pieces and put just a bit of canola oil in a frying pan. 

He indicated that the goal of the cooking is to get most of the moisture out of the mushroom and that it would cook into a texture similar to abalone  He put on a little truffle salt and then served it. The texture was very similar to abalone, very firm and meaty. 

I believe this is the first time I've eaten wild mushrooms picked by someone I know. I hope there will be many more opportunities.