Cordyceps dried flowers

I’ve always been interested in mushrooms. For as long as I can remember some of my favourite meals were made with foraged mushrooms, usually in the begining of autumn, in the mountains, at my grandparents’ house. Throghout the years I went back to those recipes again and again and I’ve also discovered new recipes and types of fungi and every time I’m amazed at how good they taste. So I’m always on the lookout for the next amazing mushroom.

I’m taking a creative food course this year and one of the modules in this course is about mushrooms. So this was the perfect excuse to go into more depth about the culinary (and not only) possiblities of these and find out about new species. It was also an excuse (not that I need one, I know) to read “Entangled Life” by Merlin Sheldrake which was already on my reading list and I have to say it was quite a treat: informative, inspiring, well written. I defenetly recommend it if you are curious about fungi and don’t know where to start.

So one of the new mushroom I’ve experimented with lately was cordyceps, these zombie flowering bodies of a fascinating fungus (sinensis and militaris are the two edible species). They are considered an adaptogen mushroom, meaning that their compounds help the body adapt and deal with stress and fight to find balance. It has a long withstanding use in tradicional chinese medicine. They have high antioxidant content, are thought to reduce inflammation, balance blood sugar, enhance oxygen utilisation, so overall helpful.

How to introduce it to the diet? I have found them in two forms, powder and dried flowers. I’ll share some ideas about the use of powder in another post (well besides adding it to smoothies and sauces which is perfectly fine and easy) but for now I just want to point out a couple of uses for the flowers.

For one, well, tea. I’ve paired the cordyceps here with dried galangal root (a relative of ginger and turmeric), that is also used for fighting inflammation, to strengthen the immune system, to support digestive health. It is thought to be beneficial for skin, brain health, reduce cholesterol and many more good things. So I thought it pairs well with lemon and thyme for that citrusy and herbal pleasant taste. All that resulted in an adaptogen tea perfect for mid morning or a lazy afternoon pick me up, infused with sweet herbal notes and just a hint of umami. Of course, my advice is experiment with different elements and tastes, give it a sweeter warmer profile with cassia bark or ceylon cinnamon sticks, spices, or use your favourite herbs and fruit. The idea is to play with different teas, make it interesting, let it become a habit.

The other use I want to point out is the fried flowers, dried or rehydrated (I found that it works both ways) used for adding to any meal, in this case for topping the adobo sauce and sauteed mushrooms, to give a crunchy element to the plate, but also for its worderful savoury taste and why not, to help with the styling of the dish. Part of the rehydrated cordyceps I’ve cut into pieces and added to sautees and stews and it worked really well. So the same advice here, try out new ingredients and new ways of using them and any dish has the potential to be fresh and inspiring if you harbour the potential of plants and fungi.