Pine Rings, or commonly known by the rest of the world as Saffron Milk Caps, are a gorgeous wild mushroom that have a tan coloured cap that can range from an off blue to green. They also have distinct rings, but their ring visibility does differ depending on the mushroom. They have connected gills underneath that bleed a brilliant bright orange colour when cut.
In South Africa it is officially wild mushroom picking season, which means lots of baskets, rain and slipping down embankments following the trail of mushrooms. And when you find the jack pot and it means pickled mushrooms, dried mushrooms, fried mushrooms, mushroom soup and just mushrooms, mushrooms, mushrooms!
My all time favourite though; Pickled Pine Rings!
Ingredients for favour:
I would firstly like to state that it is your own choice how you mix and match your ingredients in your jar, as each person has their preferred taste and quantities that they enjoy, but here is a list of my favourites;
-Rosemary
-Garlic
-Chilli (various different colours so that it looks pretty!)
-Oregano
-Onion
-Parsley or Coriander
-Ginger
I would personally fill each jar so that the ingredients make up less than one third of the given space, it can be lovely if you leave some of these whole as they can look very artsy, especially a full sprig of rosemary!
Preparing the mushrooms:
Bring a big pot of water to the boil, using the ratio of 2 litres of water to 3 heaped table spoons of salt.
Whilst the water boils, prepare the mushrooms.
As these are wild mushrooms they will all need to be cleaned, you can do this by taking toilet paper and wiping the caps clean, and removing any other forest bits by hand. Refrain from using water as this can make them go slimy, this is not necessarily an issue but it can make the mushrooms delicate.
You can leave them whole or if you only have small jars then slice them into your referred size so that is will be easy to take them out later .
All of the mushrooms will have to go through the boiling salt water until they wilt, this generally takes between a minute and a half to two minutes.
After your mushrooms have wilted drain them like you would pasta and then wait for them to cool off.
Whilst you wait for this to happen you can move onto your pickling 'sauce'.
Preparing your vinegar brine:
Using the same pot that you boiled the mushrooms pour water to 1/4 of the way and add the same ratio of salt as before hand.
Add double that amount of your choice of White Grape Vinegar or Red Wine Vinegar, I personally prefer a combination, for flavour and colour.
Bring this to a boil.
Please remember to steriliser your jars else your hard work will all end up in a mouldy mess!
Now on to the jarring:
First put in your chosen flavour combination and then fill the remaining space with mushrooms, leaving about 1 cm of space from the top of the jar. Fill in the jar to the 1 cm mark with the vinegar mix and then fill to the top with an oil of choice. I would recommend a vegetable or sunflower oil as these are generally longer lasting.
Make sure to tighten your jars properly before storing in a dark cool place for roughly 2 weeks then you are welcome to enjoy your delicious pickles!
Best served on a sandwich or as a relish with most meals!
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