Sunday, 29 May 2022
I’ve been trying to be vegetarian since 2020 with more success than not. One of my favorite recipes lately has been mushroom stroganoff. It’s a simple recipe with any type of mushroom, onions, vegetable broth and a few spices along with sour cream. It’s amazingly good.
Mushrooms have a connotation that brings to mind magic mushrooms. Magic mushrooms brings to my mind the days of free love, hippies, love ins, communes. When students would ask me where I went to college, I would tell them the University of Mississippi from 1966 to 1970. Their immediate response was “you’re a hippie!” They severely overestimated the student body at Ole Miss.
In the late 60’s, Ole Miss was probably the second most liberal institution in the state, behind Millsaps College. At least the professors were. You were considered radical if you didn’t wear button down shirts with khakis and Oxfords. Women were not allowed to wear pants and had to sign out of the dorm on dates.
Ole Miss, specifically Powers Hall – my dorm – was the site of the first marijuana bust in the state. One weekend morning I waked to sirens and cop cars pulling into the rear parking lot. There were, conservatively estimated, 100 cop cars from all over the state. Everyone in police work wanted in on the bust. I never found out who it was arrested but back then, Mississippi had a very harsh prison sentence for possession, much less dealing.
In 1970, everything changed for me. I was number 19 in the national draft lottery and number 7 in Scott county and they were drafting the first 9. I enlisted in the Coast Guard and went to boot camp in Alameda, California. Talk about Alice in Wonderland! We were granted a day of leave and several friends and I went into San Francisco which was probably the peak of Haight-Ashbury. It was a wonderland, indeed.
When I was stationed in Corpus Christi, Texas, I finally was exposed to some hipster vibe when I traveled to San Antonio to see my cousin Jo and saw the retail shops around town with a different vibe than Ole Miss. I bought my first paisley shirt somewhere in Texas and then several more. I loved those damn shirts and wore them completely out. It was my go to civvies when I went into town on shore leave. That was about as hip as I got.
I mean, really, all my students had to do was take one look at me and realize how unhip I was. I think part of the reason they thought I was a hippie was because I spent a lot of time in lectures talking about psilocybin mushrooms and how difficult there were to distinguish from a very deadly mushroom. Both happen to be coprophilic and you basically have to do a spore print to distinguish between the species. I was doing it as a noble gesture to warn them away from the Davie cow fields and and cow patties and I think they took it as my being expert in selecting psilocybin.
I always pointed out the discovery of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) from ergot. Ergot is a fungus that infects wheat and rye grasses. Bread made with ergot infestations would often be a darker brown than normal breads. Eating ergot infested bread would cause hallucinations and many people back in the Middle Ages were declared witches and warlocks and put to death because of ergot poisoning. There is some evidence that the Salem witch trials may have been due to ergot poisoning.
The scientist who isolated LSD from ergot has an interesting story. He had a purified vial of liquid LSD and was observing its physical characteristics. He, like any good scientist, kept meticulous notes. He made the mistake of putting his finger over the vial and shaking it. The LSD was absorbed through his skin. He then began to jot down his perceptions. As he wrote in his notebook, he finished the page, wrote across the table, down the leg of the table and onto the floor. He disappeared for a week or two before anyone could find him.
I also mentioned the LSD experiments the military did on soldiers. Sadly, some committed suicide because they had bad hallucinations.
Invariably, students wanted to know more about hydroponics. I don’t think they were interested in growing tomatoes.
There was a fungus we always cultivated in botany lab called Achlya. You could grow it in a Petri dish on either dead cockroaches or marijuana seeds. You can guess which we chose as our medium. We would split the marijuana seed in half and put in distilled water and “seed” the fungus. Students were sadly disappointed when I revealed the seeds were sterile and would not germinate.
I guess I can understand why some students thought I was so hip. All the talk about drugs and their questions about hydroponics.
Mushroom Stroganoff – makes 4 servings
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 cups thinly sliced onions
1 tablespoon Paprika
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 1/4 pounds remind mushrooms, sliced (just about any mushroom will work. Creminis are more mature white button mushrooms. I like to use baby portobellos. I don’t recommend psilocybin!
2/3 cup unsalted vegetable broth
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon flour
1/2 cup Greek yogurt or reduced fat sour cream
2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
Heat oil in a Dutch oven or large frying pan (preferably non-stick) on medium; add onions. Cook 15 minutes or until the onions begin to brown. Stir in paprika, cayenne and lemon zest. Add mushrooms and broth. (I cooked the mushrooms a bit before adding the broth.). Cook for 10 minutes or until liquid is reduced. Season with salt and pepper. Remove from heat and let stand 2 minutes. Stir flour into yogurt or sour cream. Swirl dairy mixture into mushroom mixture. Sprinkle with dill and serve.
Per Person: 179 calories, 8 grams protein, 11 grams fat, 1.6 gram saturated fat, 15 grams carbohydrate, 2 milligrams cholesterol, 295 milligrams sodium, 4 grams fiber.
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