Blue foot mushroom

Pied-bleu

What it is

It fruits late, often into the first frosts when almost nothing else is up, and it prefers compost heaps and hedge clippings to deep woodland — which is why it is one of the few mushrooms with a wild taste that can actually be farmed. The violet in the stem fades in the pan; the perfume, closer to a flower than a fungus, does not.

In the kitchen

Never eat it raw or barely cooked — undercooked blewits upset stomachs — and expect a startling amount of water. Dry-sauté them in a hot empty pan until that water has gone and they squeak against the metal, and only then add the butter.

Goes with

Butter Garlic Parsley Cream Chestnut Thyme Shallot Hazelnut

In season alongside

Celeriac Escarole Lotus root Miner's lettuce Nagaimo (Chinese yam) Ulluco

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