In season: mushrooms

What's growing in your garden or flooding the markets? In Season follows Witt's many chefs in their quest to source the freshest fruit and vegetables, and serve them up with simple sense and inspiration.

Mushrooms are on the menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner at John Hudson's place.

The Witt chef tutor has just returned from the UK, where he travelled around in a campervan.

"There were mushrooms everywhere, but people were too scared to pick them," he says.

"We picked them every morning and chucked them in the frypan for breakfast. You can't beat them."

Back at Witt, John has turned his hand to more creative ways of using the tasty fungus. For breakfast or brunch, he makes mushrooms in pastry cases. For lunch, he adds them to a frittata. And for dinner, he cooks up a Beef and Ale Hotpot. His first advice in cooking with mushrooms is not to wash them with water.

"They will absorb the water and that dilutes the flavour. Wrap them in a clean tea towel and give them a good rub."

Then throw them into a pan with garlic and oil and cook them over a medium heat.

"They will take a bit of cooking, but just keep jiggling that pan."

John knows when the mushrooms are ready because they make a high-pitched sound.

"They lose their moisture and they give a lovely squeaking noise when they are just about ready."

Take them out of the pan and drain them on absorbent paper towels and then toss them back into the pan with sour cream or cream cheese. On the In Season day at Witt, there was a problem with the sour cream, so John opted for two tablespoons of cream cheese and was surprised at the result. It coated the mushrooms well, but was not overpowering. One of the tricks to this dish is double-cooking the mushrooms, which enhances the flavours.

Making the pastry cases is easy. It's simply a matter of cutting, brushing, stacking, scoring and baking (see recipe). Once cooked to golden brown, take the pastry out of the oven and, while still warm, remove the square top and scrape out the uncooked pastry inside.

"These are so versatile," John says of the cases. "We could have put our hotpot in there if we wished, or a chicken or venison casserole."

Instead, he adds the double- cooked whole mushrooms, sprinkles them with fresh dill (you could substitute chives), toasted sesame seeds, cracked pepper and places the pop-out pastry square on top. This dish is best served with oven-roasted vine tomatoes, which create their own juicy sauce to offset the pastry, and rashers of crispy bacon to round out the breakfast for non-vegetarians.

The frittata is perfect for midday visitors. John opts for light cream, but uses regular cream cheese for the cubes, which are less likely to break up. For a lower-cholesterol option, use whole milk instead of cream. Serve with a big green salad and fresh, crusty bread.

For the hotpot, John cooked the whole thing on the stovetop and added vegetables to make it an entire meal in one.

"In this day and age, we want a family meal that has all the vitamins covered."

To make the most of the dark ale flavour that permeates this dish, he recommends adding the fungi and alcohol together.

"The mushrooms absorb the flavour of the beer."

He uses topside, which he says is excellent for casseroles. While John made his hotpot on the stove, people could cook theirs in the oven for a couple of hours at 180[Degree], or throw it all into a slow cooker before leaving for work.

For those people who decide to go a-mushrooming, do take care - there are some toxic types out there.

 

Beef and Mushroom Hotpot

Serves 4

700g topside steak

White flour for dredging

2 level Tbsp wholemeal flour

2 cups of large-diced field mushrooms

2 medium-sized onions, diced

1/2 cup diced carrot

1/2 cup diced celery

1/2 cup diced leek

4 Tbsp cooking oil

2 Tbsp chopped parsley

1 Tbsp chopped thyme

1 Tbsp chopped marjoram

1 bay leaf

500ml beef stock

1 Tbsp tomato paste

275ml dark ale

8 potatoes, peeled, boiled and mashed with butter, milk, salt and pepper

1/ Cut the beef into 3cm cubes and coat in the white flour. Brown the beef in small batches in a large, deep-sided saucepan in half the oil. Take out and set aside, then clean the pan.

2/ In the same pan, cook the onion, carrot, celery and leek in the remaining oil, then add the wholemeal flour to make a roux.

3/ Add the beef stock, tomato paste, herbs and browned beef to the pan. Cook slowly to reduce the liquid.

4/ When the mixture has thickened, add the dark ale and mushrooms. Cook slowly on top of the stove until ale has reduced and beef is tender. The total cooking time is between 90 minutes and 2 hours.

5/ In a pot, boil peeled potatoes in water until tender. Drain, leaving potatoes in pot. Add 50g butter, a dash of milk, salt and pepper and mash until creamy. Pipe mashed potato over hotpot and serve.

 

Mushrooms in Pastry Cases

Serves 4

1 egg, whisked

2 cups whole mushrooms

1/2 cup light sour cream or cream cheese

2 tsp oil

1 clove of sliced garlic

2 Tbsp finely chopped dill

1 tsp toasted sesame seeds

Freshly ground black pepper

4 sheets puff pastry

1/ Preheat oven to 200[Degree].

2/ Cut each pastry sheet into quarters, wash with whisked egg and layer four high on to an oven tray lined with baking paper.

3/ With a sharp knife, score a square about 1cm in from sides to the pastry, taking care not to go through the bottom layer.

4/ Place in oven and cook until golden. Take out of oven and carefully remove the top inside square of pastry. Using a fork, hollow out the pastry to leave a square shell. Keep square top, but throw away scooped-out pastry.

5/ In a pan, saute the mushrooms and garlic in a little oil.

6/ Drain the mushrooms on kitchen paper.

7/ Place back in pan, add sour cream or cream cheese and cook slowly until the mushrooms are coated. Do not boil.

8/ In a separate bowl, mix toasted sesame seeds and dill.

9/ Once mushrooms are cooked through, spoon mixture into pastry cases and sprinkle with dill, sesame seeds and freshly ground black pepper. Place square of pastry on top and serve with slow-roasted vine tomatoes and rashers of crisp bacon.

 

Mushroom Frittata

Serves 6

2 cups button mushrooms, left whole

1 Tbsp oil

1 chopped onion

1 tsp minced garlic

5 eggs

1/3 cup light cream

1 cup grated cheese

1 cup soft bread crumbs

225g cream cheese cut into cubes

Olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

1/ Preheat oven to 180[Degree].

2/ Cook whole mushrooms in oil until tender. Set aside in a large bowl.

3/ Saute onions and garlic in oil. Add to mushrooms.

4/ Beat eggs and cream and season with salt and pepper

5/ Add the egg mixture to the mushrooms. Add the bread crumbs, cream cheese and grated cheese. Stir but don't break up cubes of cream cheese.

6/ Pour into a well-greased 22cm pie pan.

7/ Put in oven and cook for 40-45 minutes.

8/ Cool for 5-10 minutes and then cut into wedges and serve with a green salad.

- © Fairfax NZ News