Brad Makes Smoked Mushrooms

[slurps]

[Interviewer] Did you just lick that lemon?

[Interviewer] No. Oh, okay.

[whooshing, bleeping]

Hey guys. Today on It's Alive,

we're here at Seacoast Mushrooms up in Connecticut.

We're going to be meeting up with my buddy Chris

who grows these beautiful mushrooms.

We're going to head back to my house,

and make one of my favorite mushroom dishes.

Let's go!

[upbeat music]

That's it. [bleeping]

Beautiful day.

Kev, I love that shuffle you've got.

Chris, going on, man.

Hey, good to see you, Brian.

Yeah, thanks for having me, bud.

It's a hell of a shop you got here, man.

You know, when you think of mushrooms

you just think a rotten log in the woods or something, but

[phone ringing]

[echoing voice] Quiet on set, please.

Oops, sorry.

No, it's fine, dude.

Mushroom order. [hold music, applause]

[bleeping]

Well yeah, man. I gotta say,

when I think of growing mushrooms, you know,

I don't think of giant retort machines

and I mean, there's some kind of damper flue system

opening to a tank there.

I mean, like you're a mad scientist.

Sure. [chuckles]

[eerie music, electricity zaps]

We can take a process where we took solid logs

[thudding]

and drilled holes

and sort of inoculated the log, let it incubate.

Sure.

But it takes a really long time.

It must take years. Yeah, years.

So what we do here is we accelerate that process

by using sawdust. Scientists.

We'll take the hardwood, right?

Break it all down in a tiny little sawdust.

And then we enrich it with nutrients

that the mushrooms would need to grow.

Beautiful.

And then we introduce

spawn, what we call it,

mycelium to the sawdust

and we have to actually keep that spawn going.

And so we also sterilize grain

so they can grow on this super nutrient rich rye grain.

And then we use that grain almost as like seed.

And we use that to inoculate the sawdust bag.

[glass breaks]

So how does it do it in nature?

Is it just different spores mingle in the air?

[Chris] That's it That's it.

But what we need to do is create an environment

that the mushroom has no competition for growth.

And we actually run it through our sterilizer

which is really just like a giant pressure cooker.

A giant, oh my God, look at that thing, huh?

I'm going to need one of those.

[latch rattling]

I'm not going in there.

No, don't go in there.

[laughs]

[ominous music, screaming]

[Chris laughs]

So we bring it into this room,

which we call the cool-down room.

And you can literally see by looking in the window here,

this was done two days ago.

[Brian] Look at those! A week ago on the left,

those are actually pink oysters.

In two weeks, we go from this loose bag of sawdust,

to this tight brick of-

Unbelievable! And this is like, literally,

it would fall apart.

If I had dumped the bag over

it would make a pile on the floor.

Right, wet sawdust. This guy, it's a brick.

It's not going anywhere.

That thing's awesome.

Yeah, let's go see the next stage.

Sounds good. [electric buzzing]

[Brian] Oh yeah, I see what you got going on here.

[Chris] So it's kind of creepy,

'cause it's shipping containers, right?

[ominous music, door squeaks]

Oh the smell. Kevin, the sm-

[sirens]

Chris, you got a lot going on in here, man.

You got the humidity.

I mean, this is like something out

of like a sci-fi movie, you know?

Right. It was warmer in there

than it is in here, so it's cooler.

and the humidity is higher

and we change that high CO2 level down to

like ambient CO2 by poking holes in the bags.

What happens is the mycelium is now going into this mode of

I'm going to die because the environment is different.

And so it wants to preserve its species.

Right.

In order to preserve its species,

it's got to release spores.

[twinkling] Wow!

So before it can really spores though.

It's got to put out these fruit bodies

which are the vehicle for spore release.

It's awesome.

It's a lot of oysters in here.

So you got pink, oysters, blue oysters.

Got some golden oysters in the back.

Wow!

Like if you didn't know what this was

and you stumbled across it in the woods, like

Don't eat it! Yeah, your first things

Yeah, like be scared. [Chris laughs]

Eat it, it's pretty good.

[whooshing, thumping]

A lot of folks think it tastes like fruit.

Like melon.

[thumping]

I even get like a little like pepper

like pink pepper corny.

Okay.

[bleeping]

Shiitakes. Shiitakes.

[Brian] One of my favorite mushrooms to cook with.

And then behind you One of my favorites

[Chris] This mushroom is just

[Brian] Hen of the Woods, or maitake.

Try the maitake.

[sniffing] It's such a tasty mushroom.

[whooshing, upbeat music plays]

Almost tingles in the back. It does!

A little szechuan-y

I have like a little piece of like sour candy

underneath the back of my tongue.

Sure. [light music]

What do you want? Maitake, shiitake?

Yeah, just get a few shiitakes.

[Chris] Go ahead, just start picking away.

I almost feel bad.

Almost. Almost.

These little nuggets right? They're kind of cute.

Almost looked like dark, like German rye loaf.

Vollkornbrot or something or whatever it's called.

Right? I'd slice that up.

Put some homemade butter on it.

Sure. [bleeping]

Let's grab a few maitakes, huh?

Yeah.

Look, this guy's beautiful, right?

This thing's absolutely ready to go.

Kind of put it between your knees.

Keep your fingers, your thumbs at the base.

Uh huh?

Wow. Look at them.

[Chris] Look at that beautiful maitake.

Look at that thing.

[whistles]

That is cool, bud.

I put that in an outdoor sh-

It might even be a shower head.

Out here, showering with the mushrooms.

[water spraying]

So Chris, the pink ones.

That's an oyster mushroom, right?

That's an oyster.

We painstakingly paint each pedal pink.

Fascinating fungus

[hands slap]

We'll be in touch, Chris.

I'll talk to you soon, man.

And I have to have you come over one time.

I'll cook you up my favorite way.

Sounds good to me, yeah.

Oh, that sounds bad.

I'll cook up some mushrooms.

My favorite way.

[laughs]

[light music]

I'm going to be squinting the whole time

and look like I'm [bleep] pissed the whole time.

[chickadee calls]

All right, so we just left Seacoast with Chris.

[echoing] We'll be in touch, Chris.

I'll talk to you soon, man.

Back in my backyard here.

We're setting up here.

I've got the Traeger preheating.

And yeah, we're gonna do one of my favorite little smoked,

kind of baked little mixed mushrooms

that we got from Chris.

Really easy.

It's just a really awesome way to utilize vast

different types of mushrooms.

All right.

So I got in here some buckwheat, all right

little buckwheat groats.

You can get them at your supermarkets

or you can get them online, whatever you want to do.

But it's basically just the little

the little seed of a buckwheat.

And I just throw them in there,

so that they bake in there,

get a little crispy

and they pick up a nice little smoky flavor

[crunching] Mm!

Just to give it a nice little garnish-y

a little garnish-y crisp, you know.

A little crunch, America loves crunch.

So do I. [ominous note]

And even though it's a grill, you know, and it's great,

it's also just an awesome kind of just a smoky oven.

So I use a decent amount of oil.

[oil glugs] olive oil.

Nice. But you can use whatever oil you want.

And then I just started sporadically

putting these things down.

That's that king trumpets that we got.

Same with the maitakes and everything.

I don't really cut these, you know,

if you just follow the natural kind of tearing of it

it kind of just shreds out, nicely into these petals.

Yeah, so we're going to add all the mushrooms to it

except those yellow oysters.

We'll add the stems to it.

But those real delicate petals will add right at the

We'll add them at the last minute.

The stem, the inside, that like sponginess of the

[squeaking]

of the golden oyster.

I'm just going to slice that into little chunks.

[squeaking]

and what we'll throw that in there too.

That's all edible.

And these, I just kind of clean off any woody bits,

down by the stem. [yelling]

And then I just throw them in like that.

Little more olive oil on top. Nice.

And then I just have a few cloves of garlic.

And I just like crushed it about a few minutes ago.

[light music]

[garlic crushing]

Okay, I'm just going to chop it into like little chunks.

[chopping] Yeah. Easy.

I'll hit it with ju%st a pinch of salt too.

And then into the Traeger we go.

We're going to leave it in there. Keep an eye on it.

I put it to

It's at 380, okay?

385, whatever.

And you know, you could go low and slow for longer

if you wanted to.

Or you could probably crank it up.

You could probably do this at 450.

[snaps, guitar riffs] Kinda hot and fast.

I kind of like it right in the middle.

[claps] All right, cool.

Let's make this yogurt sauce.

We're going to add about a cup of Greek yogurt, okay?

We'll hit it with a little salt to taste.

[glass shatters]

And we're going to do, you wanna start small,

We'll do the juice of a third of a lemon.

And then I got

Get your little favorite brand, or even make it yourself,

a little Za'atar, all right?

A lot of variations on it, but

this one's like dried oregano, toasted Sesame seeds

a little sumac.

And I'm going to take just a little bit

of the buckwheat groats.

We're going to save some for the top

but I'm going to incorporate some into the yogurt too.

And then, oh, Kevin, stay here.

Let me go get the pepper.

[galloping]

[western music, horse whinnies]

[toilet flushes]

A little black pepper. Okay?

Beautiful.

Oh, you know what I'll add too, right into it,

just a little bit.

I'm going to add it on top as well

but I got some, like a little chives.

I found these in the yard, a little wild onion.

So we'll just chive these up a little.

Hope the wind don't come. [slicing]

Oh god, here it comes.

Not a lot, okay? Just a little.

A subtle kiss of onion.

And I also have a little mint in here

but I'm going to wait.

Cause if you slight

Mint tends to get a little

I'd do that right at the end,

because sometimes if you slice it up too long ahead of time

it can start to bruise on you and get a little

a little [bleeping] on you.

[bleeping] is that a brand?

[muzak plays]

All right. Well, here we are.

I guess I can stir the mushrooms.

Traeger!

The trumpets ain't so we're gonna need a few.

I'm gonna test one. Hot!

[slicing]

The scallop of the forest.

Mm. That texture.

This is the mushroom that sometimes

it almost does look like a scallop

almost like it came from the ocean, right?

That little bit of smokiness just goes so nicely with it.

[clanging]

A little butter, man.

You can't go wrong with little butter and shrooms.

Yeah, babe.

All right, leave that alone.

That's gonna take a little while.

I fudged my time,

it's going to take 30 minutes.

[muzak plays]

So I got the, you know, about a cup and a half or whatever

of Castelvetrano olives

and the mushrooms too, the

those little delicate pedals

of the yellow oyster mushroom that we saved.

Cause they're just so delicate.

They didn't need to be cooked and roasted like that.

It'll add a nice hit of freshness,

a little color to it, as well as the olives.

I'm just going to dump it in in here.

Well, let's check out the check out the mushrooms too.

Oh yeah.

That's what we're looking for.

It's kind of perfect.

Mushrooms are perfect.

[echoing voice] Fascinating fungus.

So we're just going to prep our garnishes a little,

I got some of those those wild onions that grow, you know,

in the spring all over here.

Let me get the mint too, all right, bud?

Just a little.

All right, in the meantime, we can set up our little yogurt.

Little yogurt deal. [squishing]

Why aren't you going to give it a little [whistles]

just a little creamy kind of pad, you know?

Mm hm.

Mm hm.

Mm hm.

[remix music starts] Mm hm. Mm hm. Mm hm. Mm hm.

[scraping, splatting]

Nice.

And we're going to, I'll put it a little bit of herbs on it.

A little bit of the fresh, Za'atar

and the buckwheat groats.

Look at that. Perfect.

I'll get a little composed bite

with a little olive, a little bit of each of the mushrooms

[boinging] You go back on there.

[boinging]

[boinging continues]

[evil laughter]

[slurping]

Mm hm!

Every now and then you make something,

and you're like, you just surprise yourself

how damn good it is, you know?

[upbeat music, party horns pop]

[people cheer]

They are just loaded with this unique flavor,

that I don't know how else to put, but like umami, right?

And just a satisfying,

rich, meaty.

It's not even a vegetable.

It's a mushroom.

I'll do that again. [bleeping]

Well big, thanks to Chris

over at Seacoast Mushrooms

for hooking me up with some beautiful, mixed mushrooms.

Maitake, trumpet, oysters, just kind of is

just very satisfying filling

and you just feel good after eating it.

[slurping]

Eat more mushrooms, smoke more mushrooms.

[music slows down] That sounds weird.

[claps]

Bon appetit, we'll see you next time, baby.

Close your eyes.

Picture some birds going [whistles]

All right?

And then boom, you're in like this

like misty, like evergreen forest.

I'm laying on the duff, these pine needles.

[sniffing]

And you smell, what's that?

Mushrooms all around you.

I transported.

I was there.

I don't know that you guys, but I went somewhere.

Sure. [applause]

[bleeping]

What'd you say the name of this was?

[Woman] False hellebore.

False hellebore.

Hellebore is going to be our band name.

[she laughs]

[Woman] Hellebore. Hellebores.

[exploding]

Oh my god, there's a huge spider on me.

Ah, oh my god, oh my god.

I hate spiders.

[Woman] Oh my god, oh my god.

[screaming]

There's only one rule at this pizza party,

is that you gotta put ramps under it.

I place it right kind of right

[whooshing] Ah!

Careful. Right in that center.

[muzak plays]