Quick-Pickled Mushrooms

I have been reading Anna Karenina for about 7 months now. Not because I'm a slow reader (hello English degree!) or because I'm bored with it--at 800+ pages, it's just too heavy to carry with me on my commute. And my commute is essentially the only time I have to read for pleasure. Oh I am sure I could make time, chat less over afternoon beers, try on less outfits the night before work-days, or skip a trip to the gym. Okay, so I'm not really considering any of that. But I will eventually conquer this book! It's fascinating and melodramatic and thoroughly Russian. A favorite passage of mine describes women hunting for mushrooms in dense Russian countryside, forests with brooks and an array of fungi, which of course, all the characters (and their children!) seemed to be experts at identifying.

Since I can't teleport to the Russian countryside and take photos for you, instead here is a simple, fast and absurdly delicious recipe for Pickled Mushrooms.

You may want to do a bigger batch, because you'll wish you had in a few days!
Seriously.
Tool recommendations: a non-reactive saucepan and a quart canning jar. Possibly a ladle.

If you are not a thyme fan, feel free to substitute fresh oregano, dill, fennel fronds, or sage. Or try them all (just probably, not at once)! I however love thyme and mushrooms together so much, personally, that I probably would not use alternatives, ever.

Recipe adapted from The Kitchn.

Quick-Pickled Mushrooms

Yield: 1 quart

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pounds mushrooms
• 155 g (about 3/4 c.) water
• 68 g (about 1/3 c.) white wine vinegar
• 45 g (about 1/4 c. heaped) finely diced red onion or shallot
• 7 allspice berries
• 1 T. black or multi-colored peppercorns
• 3-4 sprigs fresh thyme
• 1 t. kosher salt
• 3 California bay leaves

Instructions

1. Clean mushrooms by rubbing with a towel or by running cool water over them. Halve, third or quarter them if necessary—you are looking for pieces no larger than 3/4 inches or so.
2. Place thyme in a very clean quart jar.
3. Bring the remaining ingredients up to a boil, then simmer gently for about 15 minutes. Don't be concerned at the small amount of liquid—the mushrooms will shrink massively.
4. Pour or ladle into clean jar, let cool at room temperature, then seal with lid and refrigerate.
5. Here's the hard part: you must leave them for 3 days before trying! They of course, will be edible before that, but the best results come after a bit of time, no pun intended there.