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What bountiful lives we have in the Northwest! What a gift it is to live so close to so many beautiful things to eat — I try to not to be crass about it, but I admit I do get a huge thrill out of knowing what wild mushrooms go for in markets these days when I know that I can get them for free.

This week’s mushroom bounty was brought to me by the bracing pine of the mountains and the damp, mossy forests, but lobster mushrooms always evoke the sea — kelp and petrichor on the nose with the vermilion exoskeleton of boiled shellfish. They smell like coasting slowly down the western slopes and foothills of the Coast Range.

While lobster mushrooms are one of our prized summertime finds, I find the late-season specimens, sometimes a little soggy from a cold snap and a week of rain, are better suited to a hearty chowder than a mayo-rich salad on a buttered roll. And hey, you still get to eat them out of a fun-size loaf of bread.

To rescue spongy, waterlogged mushrooms, wrap them in a dry paper towel and stash them in a paper bag in the fridge. If they’re a bit soggy right when you want to cook them, hit them with a few pinches of salt and saute them in a dry pan over high heat until the liquid has all screeched out, then add butter or oil and your aromatics and continue cooking over medium heat. I use instant dashi granules here to accentuate the seafood flavor of the mushrooms, but you can leave it out (or use kelp stock) if you don’t eat fish. And of course, you can always serve it in a bowl instead of a boule. Makes 6-8 servings of chowder

Reminder: as always, if you want to forage wild mushrooms, be sure to go with someone who knows which types are edible and which are dangerous.

Ingredients

1 pound fresh lobster mushrooms, cleaned well and diced

Coarse sea salt

4 tablespoons butter

1 small onion, diced

2 cups diced celery (about 2-3 ribs)

1 clove garlic, minced

½ cup flour

3 cups whole milk

1 cup heavy cream

2 tablespoons instant dashi granules

2 fist-sized red or gold potatoes, diced (skin on is fine)

Salt and pepper

1 small boule of sourdough bread (or large bread rolls) per person

2 tablespoons minced parsley

Instructions

1. Heat a large, heavy-bottomed pot over high heat. Add the diced lobster mushrooms and a few pinches of salt and sear, stirring occasionally, until their liquid has been released — they’ll kind of squeak when you stir (which you should do frequently).
2. When the mushrooms’ liquid has evaporated, reduce the heat to medium and add the butter, stirring to dissolve any browned bits in the pan. Add the onions, celery and garlic and another few pinches of salt and sauté until they’re fragrant and translucent, about 3-5 minutes.
3. Add the flour to the mushrooms and aromatics and stir until evenly coated. Cook, stirring, until the flour begins to stick and cook, about a minute or two. Slowly add the milk, still stirring and lightly scraping the cooked flour off the bottom of the pan until it’s dissolved and no lumps remain.
4. Add the cream, dashi granules (if using), 2 cups of water and the potatoes. Add another pinch of salt and a few good pinches of ground pepper. Bring the chowder to a low boil then cover and reduce the heat to low. Simmer until the potatoes are cooked through, about 20 minutes, then taste and adjust seasoning.
5. To make bread bowls, cut the top inch or so of the boule with a bread knife and pluck the soft bread interior out of the crust, leaving about a ½-inch thick shell (save the removed bread for another use or eat it with the chowder). Serve the finished chowder in the bread bowl with a sprinkle of minced parsley on top to garnish.

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News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2025/10/24/recipe-superabundant-wild-lobster-mushroom-chowder/