Eating Chilean wild mushrooms (hongos silvestres Chilenos)

 Last year about this time, I saw a man in La Vega, Santiago’s central market, selling these odd little golf-ball like things from a large basket.

 “What are they?” 

“Dihueñes, wild mushrooms, 6,000 pesos per kilo.” (about $5 a lb.)

“What do you do with them?”

“Make a salad with cilantro and onions, muy rico.”

“Give me a quarter kilo.”

Having managed to forget the name by the time I got home, I spent a few hours on the internet looking for what I had found.  They were Dihueñes (Cyttaria spp.), that fruit in the spring and are collected September through November when it is “common to find them in local markets or from street vendors in the Central-Southern zone of the country.”[1]

And, as it turns out, I was not the first gringo to find them interesting.  Charles Darwin, traveling in Tierra del Fuego in June, 1834 wrote:

There is deserving notice from its importance as an article of food to the Fuegians. It is a globular, bright-yellow fungus, which grows in vast numbers on the beech-trees. When young it is elastic and turgid, with a smooth surface; but when mature, it shrinks, becomes tougher, and has its entire surface deeply pitted or honeycombed, as represented in Plate 55.

 This fungus belongs to a new and curious genus (…Cyttaria Darwinii: the Chilean species is the C. Berteroii.) …How singular is this relationship between parasitical fungi and the trees on which they grow, in distant parts of the world! In Tierra del Fuego the fungus in its tough and mature state is collected in large quantities by the women and children, and is eaten un-cooked. It has a mucilaginous, slightly sweet taste, with a faint smell like that of a mushroom. With the exception of a few berries, chiefly of a dwarf arbutus, the natives eat no vegetable food besides this fungus.[2]

I followed the vendor’s advise (and a recipe I found) and made a salad with onion, cilantro and vinaigrette.  As Darwin noted, they are a little slippery, with a flavor that might be described as subtle:  go lightly with the onion and vinaigrette or that is all you will taste. 

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The Mapuche of south-central Chile suggest that you try Dihueñes  in empanadas, as in this recipe below from Cocina Mapuche.[3]

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In the process of reading about my Dihueñes, I discovered Carlos D. Cisterna Lagos excellent article “Explotación de Hongos Silvestres en Chile”[4] (“Exploitation of Wild Mushrooms in Chile”) from which I have summarized most of what follows.  Several of the photos are also from Hongos de Chile. 

My first surprise was that:

Chile has become one of the major world exporters of wild mushroom, exceeded only by China, Russia and Poland.  With returns of over 50 million US dollars a year, it is without doubt, the most important activity related to non-lumber forest products. As many as 40 thousand people between Valparaiso and Magallanes participate directly in mushroom collecting or processing for more than 35 exporting enterprises.  Some communities are completely dedicated to this activity during fall and winter, for example Empedrado (Region VII), considered the capital of wild mushroom collecting in South America.

The major species are:

The dark pine mushroom, callampa del pino oscura [5](Suillus luteus), and..

Photos Hongos de Chile

the light pine mushroom, callampa del pino clara (Boletus granulatus).

These two mushrooms of northern hemisphere origin are found in plantations of Monterrey Pine in south- central Chile, and were presumably introduced accidently with the trees.  The dark pine mushroom, the most collected Chilean mushroom, produces up to 3 tons per hectare from late fall through early spring.  The light pine produces less and is somewhat earlier.  The two are usually collected and dried together and sold mixed as Callampas. They are widely available in Chile, where supermarkets sell 35 gm (1¼ oz) packages for around 750 pesos ($1.40) and the tostaduria sells 100 gm. for under 1000 pesos $1.85) [6]   Callampas comprise about 90% of Chile’s mushroom exports.[7] 

They can be used in the same was as porcinis or other dried mushrooms:  rehydrated and added to pasta sauce, stews, soups, etc., or see these dried mushroom recipes.  To really appreciate their flavor, try the risotto.  

  

Red Pine Mushroom - Callampa Rosada (Lactarius deliciosus)

This is another introduced mushroom of northern hemisphere origin, and as its scientific name indicates, one of the most desirable. It is found in spring—or as late as June in the far south—in pine plantations.  It is sold fresh or in brine:  If you find any fresh ones in Santiago, please let me know. 

Photo Mercado Calabajío

Black morel, Colmenilla (Morchella conica)

Photo Hongos de Chile

Occasionally while living in Illinois, morel mushrooms would come up in my back yard along a roadway embankment.  They weren’t Morchella conica, but probably were yellow morels.  One way or another they were wonderful and I look forward to finding fresh morels in a Chilean mercado someday.  They are a spring mushroom, found in both pine plantations and native forest, usually in disturbed or burned areas.  They are exported dried, but may occasionally be found in markets in south central Chile—and maybe someday in La Vega.  I’ll be looking.  (And, FYI, morel recipes abound on the web.)

Chicharrón (Gyromitra antarctica)

  

This South American mushroom has no common English name, but a close North American relative is the “false morel.” They occasionally kill people. The Chilean species is said to be of “low toxicity,” and to loose its poisons when well cooked or dried. Dried, it is exported to Europe.  I won’t be trying this one fresh.

Coral fungi, Changle (Ramaria flava)

A fall and winter mushroom of native forests in the Lakes Region of Chile.  They are not exported, but street and market vendors are said to be common in season in Temuco, Pucón, Chillán, Concepción, Temuco and Valdivia.  

 

  

Photos Hongos de Chile

They are eaten in empanadas and in other fresh mushroom preparations. People from the region are enthusiastic about them, based on comments a fellow blogger received about them:

I’m from Coronel and, for your information; there is a señora here who serves a plate of changles for only 500 pesos.  It’s one of the most delicious things you can eat, and I doubt that a chef could give a recipe more attention. Janny

I’ve tried to try as many of the diverse products of this area as possible and one of my favorites is changle simmered with onion, minced chives, a dollop of thick cream and a touch of white wine. ¡Buen provecho !  Yudi

Gargal (Griffola gargal)

A spring mushroom of the pine plantations, the gargal is considered one of the best of Chile’s wild mushrooms.  It is usually sold fresh or in brine. A similar species of the same genus is native to the US where it is called “hen of the woods.”

Photo Hongos de Chile 

Loyo (Boletus loyo)

Photo Macrofungi from Chile

This is a Chilean and Argentinean mushroom of a world-wide genus that includes the Italian porcini.  In Chile it is a late summer and fall mushroom of the native southern forests.  It can grow large, up to three pounds or so and “…due to its delicious, nut-like taste it is traditionally collected and consumed by native Chileans and can be occasionally purchased on local markets during the season.”[8]  I’m looking for this one too.

See reference [9]

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[1] Cisterna Lagos, Carlos D.  2006-07 Explotación de Hongos Silvestres en Chile. (c) Carlos D. Cisterna Lagos, 2006 -2007 On line at http://www.micotec.cl/silvestres1.html

[2] Darwin, Charles.  Voyage of the Beagle, Chapter IX.  The Complete Works of Charles Darwin, on line at http://www.darwin-literature.com/The_Voyage_Of_The_Beagle/12.html  The illustration is from http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&itemID=F10.3&pageseq=1

[3] Portal de as culturas originarias de chile Ser Indígena, Gastronomía, Cocina Mapuche on line at http://www.serindigena.cl/index/gastronomia/gastro_mapuche_2.htm. For information on preparing empanadas in the “traditional way” see http://southamericanfood.about.com/od/snacksstreetfood/r/empanadaschile.htm

[4] Cisterna Lagos, op cit.

[5] “Callampa” = mushroom from Quechuan.  The term is also used in Chile for settlements of poor people that “spring up like mushrooms” on the outskirts of citgies. See http://etimologias.dechile.net/?callampa

[6] For comparison, in the US a 1 ¼ oz packet of Chilean dried mushroom costs about $3.50, domestic dried mushrooms cost around $5 and European porcinis, around $9.

[7] Mercado y Comercialización de Productos Forestales No Madreros en Chile, 4.3 Caracterización comercial de los Hongos, on line at http://www.gestionforestal.cl:81/pfnm/mercado/txt/hongos.htm

[8]Palfner, Götz. Boletus loyo.  Macrofungi from Chile on line at http://www.chilefungi.cl/album/bol_loyo.htm

[9] “Plant and mushroom intoxications are an uncommon event, but can seriously compromise those that ingest them. Despite its low incidence, public and medical community education is essential to prevent and manage these intoxications efficiently.”  Manríquez O, Varas J, Ríos JC, Concha F, Paris E. 2002.Analysis of 156 cases of plant intoxication received in the Toxicologic Information Center at Catholic University of Chile. Abstract on line at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez

Pomaire Pottery/Greda de Pomaire

One of the most important characteristics of Chilean Creole cuisine is its cooking vessels; clay pots from Pomaire. They come in a variety of sizes and shapes, from the classic olla (pot), to casseroles, pitchers, water jars, plates and bowls; they hold heat wonderfully, are said to impart a special flavor to food, are inexpensive, and can be used in the oven or directly over a flame.  A pastel de choclo (corn pie) or paila marina (seafood stew--paila is the earthenware bowl) is almost unimaginable in anything else.[1]

Pomaire olla, a Motera grande

                                         

Paila marina

Pastel de Choclo

  
Click map to enlarge

Pomaire is a village of 10,000 or so, some 35 miles SE of Santiago. The village owes its name to Curaca Pomaire, leader of a group of Indians who in 1482 were settled to the north of today’s Pomaire.  In 1583 they were evidently expelled from property of their encomendero,Tomás Pastene, and settled near present day Pomaire as a Pueblo de Indios, and Indian Town.  Such indigenous communities, common in Mexico and Peru but relatively rare in Chile where most rural Indians and mestizos were attached to a hacienda as laborers[2], were used by the conquistadores and their descendants to house Indians displaced from lands the colonists wanted for their own uses.  Evidently this was the case with Pomaire’s Indians.  The village was established in its present location in 1771, and pottery making on a commercial scale evidently started shortly thereafter. [3]

The pottery technology used in Pomaire seems to have been that of the indigenous Mapuche.  Visiting the nearby village of Melipilla in 1822, Englishwoman Maria Graham found that the technology there was the same as she had observed earlier near Valparaiso.  There was…

…no regular manufactory, no division of labour, no machinery, not even the potter's wheel, none of the aids to industry which I had conceived almost indispensable to a trade so artificial as that of making earthenware. At the door of one of the poorest huts, formed merely of branches and covered with long grass, having a hide for a door, sat a family of manufacturers. They were seated on sheep-skins spread under the shade of a little penthouse formed of green boughs, at their work. A mass' of clay ready tempered lay before them, and each person according to age and ability was forming jars, plates, or dishes. The work-people were all women, and I believe that no man condescends to employ himself in this way, that is, in making the small ware: the large wine jars, &c. of Melipilla are made by men.[4]

  

 Great Ovens for baking the Wine Jars, &c. on the Plain of Mellipilla - 1822

While I found no description of the process in Pomaire, Mapuche chief Pascual Coña dictated a description in Life and Customs of the Indigenous Araucanians in the Second part of the XIX Century. 

Some of the old-time women were very skilled in the art of pottery; making various pitchers, jars, pots, plates, cups: all kinds of clay vessels….  When the clay was well mixed a handful was taken to work with.  First a round vessel bottom was formed from the clay.  Then another handful was molded into a strip or “piulo” using the palms of both hands.   When this piulo was long enough it was placed on the round bottom following its circumference, and was pressed into the base with the fingers.  Then a second handful of material was pressed onto the previous strip and the grove between the two piulos was smoothed inside and out.  The later work proceeded in exactly the same way.  According to what they wanted to make, the width, height and form of the vessel were formed.  As they were very experienced in their art, they produced many different shapes.[5]

While the technology seems to have been indigenous, the shapes were largely determined by Spanish taste.  The pieces below, and the one following the first paragraph, above, were made by Teresa Muñoz:

…born in Pomaire in 1915, learned the craft from her grandmother and mother.  She has practiced it since she was 16.  She works in the old style, forming the shapes by hand and repeating the patterns made by her ancestors.  She obtains the clay, already prepared, from the same area. She is one of the few artisans who maintain the tradition in the way she works and in the patterns she follows. [6]

  Paila (bowl)

More of her pieces can be found on line: see Traditional ceramic pieces from Pomaire, Collection of traditional Chilean craftwork, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile.

Today Pomaire is an attractive tourist destination for Santiagueños and visitors, who come on weekends and holidays to window-shop, buy pottery and other handicrafts, and to enjoy the Chilean Creole cuisine.

Dozens of shops line the main street.  Some include artisans demonstrating their work.  Today’s technology includes the wheel, but it remains an artisanal craft.

  

Prices are reasonable.  The casseroles to the right were 3,500 CLP, about $6.50 US.

  In addition to utilitarinan ware there are figurines, such as these crèche figures.

  

And other, non-religious novelties.

And there is food to take home or eat on the street.

And restaurants serving traditional Chilean Creole cuisine in pleasant shady patios.

But back to the pottery:  it is unglazed earthenware, thick and relative good at even heat distribution.  It can be used in the oven, over a flame or on charcoal, for roasting, sautéing, boiling or simmering, and for serving.  It keeps food warm for a long time.

Many people recommend that you “cure” new pieces; although it is not essential (my wife used her greda for years without curing any). The idea behind curing is to seal the pores of the clay.   Many techniques are recommended, but for pots that will be used for soups, stews, cooking beans, etc., boiling whole milk (preferably fresh from the cow) for 10 minutes or so seems the most common.  Others recommend boiling water with a good dollop of oil or lard added. (I tried this with my new piece, above—seems to have done no harm.) For casseroles, platters, bowls, etc., oiling the surface and then heating for 5 to 10 minutes in a hot oven is recommended.[7]

A few other suggestions:

• For long simmered sauces, etc., that may burn on the bottom, use a heat diffuser 
• Pre-heat casseroles that will be used in the oven for lasagna, baked chicken, etc. or expect to add 10 minutes or so to the cooking time.
• Preheat bowls for serving soups and stews, cazuela, paila marina, etc.
• Cook individual pastel de choclo, shepherd’s pie, mac & cheese, pot pie, etc. in greda bowls.
• Use some caution in adding cold liquids to a hot casserole or immersing one in cold water. Greda is durable, but it’s not cast iron.
• Don’t be overly cautious.  Sauté onions and garlic in the casserole, brown some meat, add wine, vegetables, simmer or pop in the oven. Take to the table and serve out of the pot with crusty bread and more wine. Enjoy. 

 Casuela de ave from a Pomaire restaurant

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[1] Some take-out places sell pastel de choclo in bowls of greda for an extra $1 or so.

[2] Bauer, Arnold J. 1975.  Chilean Rural Society from the Spanish Conquest to 1930.  Cambridge Latin American Series, 21.  Cambridge University Press.  P. 47

[3]  Popular accounts of the early history of Pomaire such as the one published by El Detallista (Pomaire crèche y se proyecta a futuro, on line at http://www.eldetallista.cl/edi71/Vitrina/pomaire.htm) seem to be sanitized, ignoring the circumstances under which Indians were dominated and exploited by the Spanish.  Discussion of the founding of the Pueblo de Indios of Pomaire come from Los Indígenas De Chile Central, Informe Comision Verdad Historica Y Nuevo Trato - 2001- 2003, Vol 1, Part 1, Chapter 2, p 74 on line at http://www.serindigena.org/territorios/recursos/biblioteca/monografias/historia/documentos/2_primera_parte_I_historia_antigua_cap2.htm .

[4] Graham, Maria. 1824. Journal of a Residence in Chile, During the Year 1822.  London: Longman, Hurst, etc. On line at http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=Journal%20of%20a%20residence%20in%20Chile%20AND%20mediatype:texts

[5] Wilhelm de Moesbach, P. Ernesto. 1930 Vida y costumbres de los indígenas araucanos de las segunda mitad del siglo XIX.  Santiago: Imprenta Cervantes P. 216.  My translation of the Spanish translation.  On line at  http://www.memoriachilena.cl/archivos2/pdfs/MC0008879.pdf

[6] 2001 Piezas de alfarería tradicional de Pomaire, ARQ (Santiago)  n.49 Santiago dic. 2001 on line at http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?pid=S0717-69962001004900021&script=sci_arttext.

[7] Facebook discussion board, Artesania a domicilio, Cuidados de los pocillos de Greda, on line at http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=95777677776&topic=8172

The Eighteenth: Chilean Independence Day

In Chile “the eighteenth” (September 18), has the meaning that “the fourth” once did in the US: patriotism; nationalism; Chilean unity; military might, the end of winter; and of course, Chilean food and drink. Celebration begins at noon the day before, is stretched over a week, and is lubricated by a bonus given to Chilean workers.

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Celebrants in the Parque Intercomunal Padre Hurtado

Throughout Chile, parks are turned into fair-grounds with booths selling all that is typically Chilean:  here  hats, ponchos and boots of the Chilean cowboy, the mythic huaso (pronounced “waso”).

And there are rodeos with real huasos (or at least real huasos urbanos) and demonstrations of horsemanship by the military and the national police…

…and games for children.

But the real stars of El Dieciocho are empanadas and chicha.  Empanadas, meat, seafood or cheese-filled pies, are the height of “Chilenidad” and the original Chilean fast food.  They are inexpensive, good, filling and can be eaten out of hand.

 And chicha[1], partially fermented grape juice, is the ideal companion for empanadas.  Fresh, tart and slightly sweet, the best is artisanal, un-filtered, un-pasteurized, and produced from the fall harvest.  Its alcohol level depends on the sugar content of the grapes and the length of fermentation, but it usually seems to be 3 – 5%.

 But once the obligatory empanada and chicha are dealt with, the serious eating and drinking can begin.  By far the most popular foods for the 18^th come from the parrilla, the grill.  High on the list are anticuchos[2], mixed meats and sausages skewered with onions and grilled, and served with a marraqueta – a Chilean French-roll.

And there are chorizos (sausages) served on a split marraqueta, hotdog-style to make a choripan…

 And ribs.

And in the bowls at right, pastel de choclo, literally “corn pie,” with a filling of beef and onions, plus a piece of chicken, hard-boiled egg and an olive.

Plus pigs and lambs, roasted Patagonian style.

And to drink, more chicha, beer, wine, pisco (Chilean brandy), and pipeño (a light sweet wine), plus those Chilean classics, Pepsi and Coke.

Celebration is communal.

And if you still crave something sweet, candy from nearby Mendoza, Argentina.

  

It’s a lot like an old fashioned US celebration of the fourth, but without corn dogs.  

Viva Chile, mierda!

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[1] In South America chicha is a generic term for drinks made of fruit or corn, usually fermented with low levels of alcohol.  In Chile chicha is usually made of grapes, or in the south, apples.  “Cider” is a close English equivalent.

[2] “Anticucho” is from the Quechua for “cut meat stew” see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anticuchos