The Calvatia gigantea I found last August was a very large puffball. But the ones I found yesterday deserve the name “giant puffball.”
I probably should have stuck with what I knew and made giant puffball pizza, but I just had to experiment. The larger puffball was too old to use. Seriously, if the insides are not white, dump the shroom. That still left me with a puffball that was almost too big to fit in my daypack.
I’m beginning to understand why chef and fellow COMA member Damon Brunette does not like to cook with puffballs. He tossed my August giant puffball into a jambalaya. I should have done that.
I peeled the outer skin and cut the puffball in half.
Then I scooped out the insides and coated the shells with a combination of olive oil and canola oil and baked them at 350 degrees until they were brown - 30-40 minutes.
I took some of the scooped out contents and crumbled them into my cast iron pan, added oil and let them get crispy. That should have been a clue.
I’d soon learn that the walls of my mushroom shells were too thick.
I had steamed some veggies earlier in the day. I cooked some sticky rice, let it cool and mixed it with the veggies. I added just a touch of toasted sesame seed oil and stuffed the mushrooms.
OK, it looked good, and it even sliced well. But despite being baked, the puffball shell had the texture of soft tofu - or maybe melted marshmallows.
My next thought was to add an egg. The resulting scrambled disaster looked revolting. I ate my mistake.
Maybe I should have deep fried the puffball before stuffing it. I can handle fried okra, baked tofu or well-done eggs.
Soft tofu, soft-boiled eggs, and boiled okra make me gag. There may be something you can do with giant puffballs if you like those textures. I’m not going to try. The more I heated the puffball, the more it melted. There may be candy or confection waiting to be discovered. I won’t go there.
If I have Nori in my pantry, I can rescue the sticky rice and veggies.
As for the remaining puffball, I’m going to crumble it up and cook it in oil until it’s crispy.
Final note: A previously baked puffball will not crumble nor will it get crispy.