I grew up in Nigeria, where mushrooms weren’t a capability in the kitchen, or at the table. Years later, I’d understand that mushrooms were introduce, recent and dried in kitchens across Nigeria, in the southeast, and in the southwest.
This is enjoyed cooked as a textural component in soups, but too as a protein-rich meat replacement called #mgbam. It binds to the egusi using the addition of water, the mix causes the release of a nutty egusi oil, and a firm dough is the consequence.
It is ground down, united, repeatedly together with ground egusi seeds and processed.
The earliest and second photos are by James Ransom, my friend and photographer who took the photos for Chop Chop.
My initial thought was “This must be like a truffle” but they aren’t the same thing. They are brown-skinned, like Nigerian yams, and are peeled to acquire at the white interior which is bright, spongy, and lacking scent or fragrance and makes a useful binder together with oily seeds.
And whilst ósú, like truffles lack caps or stems, they do not have any flavor per se, or aroma. Ero ósú, Mushroom ósú or king tuber mushroom, like truffles develop where mushrooms are found during the rainy season.
When I look up pleurotus tuber regium, I come across a coverage of things which look quite independent from what I recognize of ósú, at times (erroneously?) called usu. It is anticipated that there’s a extent of possibilities and geometries in the family.
The soup is generally served at parties, weddings, Modern Yam festivals, and other events.
In the southeastern states of Abia, Anambra, and Imo, the cakes of egusi and mgbam are integrated including tender hearts of achara, a perennial grass to create ofe achara, a ceremonial edition of Ẹ̀gúsí Soup (page 253 of my cookbook).
It is familiar variously as pleurotus tuber regium which forms a substrate for mushrooms to expand.
The earliest mushroom-adjacent thing I learned around was ósú- an edible mushroom tuber.
There’s additional to study regarding ósú and I’ll offer as much as I can.
