The great rule about eating fungi collected by yourself in this country is: don't. That is, not unless you have an expert with you or have a friendly expert whom you can consult. On the Continent, in France particularly, there is a great cult of the wild fungi. Chemist's shops, in many parts, show huge illustrations in their windows and many types are to be bought in the market. The taste for them is growing here, but most people prefer to buy from reliable fruit and vegetable dealers.
A friend who is also a landscaper rang the other day with the news that he was eating his way though a huge puffball he had found. About 10 inches across. He fries thick slices in butter or oil, preferring butter. He gave half to a neighbour. Apparently the puffball can be eaten if the flesh is still white. Pure white. Not if it is turning yellowish at all. Later, as you know, the inside turns to a dusty brown. But if you're sure, it is a good, tasty thing, says our friend. In a way, not unlike chicken!
That splendid book by the authoritative Roger Phillips, Wild Food, illustrated as no cookbook you have seen before (it's all photographed in the open, on grass, or beach pebbles, or attached to a tree truck and so on) gives a recipe for those who know their puff-balls. You make fresh bread-crumbs and toast them. You whip an egg with a little water and mix in two ounces of flour. Pepper and salt. Leave 20 minutes, he says, for flour to swell. Now, you've already fried some bacon. You did your slices of puffball (he recommends one quarter-inch thick, our friend goes for the thicker slice) in batter and then bread-crumbs, and fry in the juices of the bacon. So, bacon and puffball, fried until they are golden brown for breakfast. Phillips gives this as Crunchy Puff Ball. He has another for Savoury Puff Ball with beef, onions, courgettes. Puff ball, he says comes from Puck or Poukball. The Irish, he gives as Pooks-foot. De Bhaldraithe gives bolgan beiche. The book is a tour de force - large softback £13.99, Macmillan. Phillips is assisted by Jacqui Hurst.