I spotted these at Central Market and knew I had to get them D At about 13:30 on Saturday, there weren’t many mushrooms left as the market was about to close and wouldn’t re-open till the following Tuesday.
Even though they were expensive – $7.50 for 250 g (O_O|||) – I bought one to try (only one!!). I got a larger one and it cost $3.50.

The red pine mushroom, lactarius deliciosus (heh) is also known as the saffron milk cap. The “lactarius” and “milk cap” names refer to the characteristic of mushrooms in that genus to exude “milk” or latex.

They probably come from the huge pine plantations in the south-east of the state…

I wish the sign at the stall was more detailed. It took me awhile to find the exact latin name for the mushroom -complain-. When you search for "pine mushroom" you generally get links to matsutake (which, after all, literally means “pine mushroom”) type mushrooms. And it definitely does not look like matsutake. Turns out matsutakes are in a totally different genus – tricholoma instead of lactarious -grumble-. I’m pretty sure it is lactarius deliciosus as the photo on the wiki looks more similar than for the tricholoma mushrooms, name, and the fact that wiki says it has been introduced to Australia.

It looks really bad right!! Real manky…with suspicious-looking green bits. I was wondering if it was mold >_> Nonetheless since it was pricey I did the right thing. I didn’t wash it with water, only brushed it. Danger is my middle name!

It turns out that the mushroom stains a green colour when handled. But I only found this out much, much later when I read the wiki for the mushroom.

Note darker red on the cut edges of the mushroom – that’s the latex

The bottom right hand photo is the finished dish. Lousy pic, but you get the point. The similarly-coloured bread in the background probably wasn’t helpful.

The store girl said to cook it like a normal mushroom, and that it was the same except it had a stronger flavour. Sounds good.

I took a softly, softly, approach. Just real simple to emphasize the natural flavours. After quartering the cap, I pan fried it with butter and a clove of squashed garlic (although according to the wiki you shouldn’t use butter D:). I seasoned it with Murray River pink salt and freshly ground black pepper and finished it off with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. I wish I had some Italian flat-leaf parsely on hand to sprinkle on top. It would have gone fabulously together.

I had it with some nice ciabatta bread from Skaala bakery at Central Market. They do fabulous ciabattas btw. I cut it into large chunks and toasted the cut ends in the same pan as the mushrooms, swirling it around to soak up all the garlicky buttery goodness. I only regret that the butter started smoking after awhile and then the fire alarm went off. Have I mentioned that the fire trucks are automatically called out and that if it is a false alarm you have to pay $500? SUPER STRESSFUL. I rushed around opening all the doors and turning on the air-con to blow the air out and the alarm turned off before the fire trucks got called out. When I was finally able to sit down to my mushrooms they were lukewarm, which is better than stone cold I suppose (which is what happened the last time the alarm went off).

Conclusion: lactarius deliciosus is delishus.