Mushroom
Saffron milk cap
NíscaloRovellóLactarius deliciosus
Cut it and it bleeds orange milk; handle it too much and it bruises green. Both are normal, and both help you recognise it.
When
Around: Sept–Dec · At its best: Oct–Nov
Around: Sept–Dec · At its best: Oct–Nov
Around: Mar–Jun · At its best: Apr–May
Around here
In Catalonia mushroom picking is almost a national sport, and the saffron milk cap, which comes up in pine woods in autumn, is king. Markets such as the Boqueria sell them in season. The classic way is grilled or griddled with garlic, parsley and oil; they also go with botifarra sausage or in fricandó.
At the market
- Only pick or eat what you know with total certainty. If in doubt, ask a mycological society or buy them at the market.
- In the woods: a basket, not a plastic bag; a knife to cut; no rakes, and leave the small ones. Check the local rules: some places need a permit or set a limit in kilos.
- At the market: firm, fleshy, fresh-smelling; few green stains and no worms (cut the stem and look).
- Small or medium ones are best: big ones tend to have more grubs.
At home
- If you're not sure what it is, don't keep it or eat it: throw it away.
- Clean them with a brush or a damp cloth; don't soak them, they get waterlogged.
- In the fridge, in paper or a cloth, never in plastic.
- Eat them within one or two days.
If you have too much
- Freeze them sautéed, not raw: a couple of minutes in the pan, cooled and bagged. About six months.
- In escabeche or vinegar, in jars, to dip into.
- They don't dry well: other mushrooms are better for drying.
In the kitchen
- Grilled gills up, with garlic, parsley, salt and oil.
- Griddled, with a fried egg on the side.
- With botifarra sausage, sautéed in the same pan.
- In a veal fricandó or a stew with potatoes.
- In a mountain rice dish, with pork ribs and mushrooms.
- Scrambled with egg, on toast.
What it brings
There's no reliable figure for this one in the tables, so we don't make one up.
Goes with
- ChestnutOct–DecBefore potatoes, chestnuts were winter bread in many European mountains. Today they mostly mean smoke in the street and hot newspaper cones in your hands.
- Sweet potatoSept–JanIt looks like a potato with ambitions, but in the oven it turns almost into a pudding: slow heat converts some of its starch into sugar.
- PumpkinSept–FebIt's harvested in autumn and, whole, keeps for months without a fridge: it was the vegetable that lasted till February. In Spanish, «giving someone pumpkins» means turning them down.