WILD MUSHROOMS
Wild foraged mushrooms may only be available for a short window of time, but there’s no other food as diverse. In Asian cuisine, we see the likes of shiitake, shimeji and the noodle-looking enoki. These are typically flash-fried, dropped raw into broths or dried. In Europe, porcini portobello and champignon are common and used in stews, sauteed in butter or olive oil, or marinated for antipasti. Head Chef Mate Herceg is a forage master and owner of an organic mushroom farm; click here to see some simple yet delicious he’s prepared for you.
Now you’ve got your wild foraged mushrooms, would you like some quality recipes from our Executive Chef and resident fun-gi, Mate Herceg? Read on!
PICKLED PINE MUSHROOM
INGREDIENTS
250g pine mushrooms cleaned and sliced
200ml sherry or red wine vinegar
200ml water 100g sugar
50ml olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
5 black peppercorns
3 cloves garlic
3 juniper berries
2 bay leaves
1 sprig rosemary
1 sprig thyme
METHOD
To clean pine mushrooms, soak and clean them in a vinegar cleaning solution - we like six cups of water with half a cup of white vinegar.
Place the vinegar, water, sugar, olive oil, salt, peppercorns, garlic, juniper berries, bay leaves, rosemary and thyme in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Add the sliced mushrooms and simmer for a minute.
Remove from the heat and once cooled, place in a sterilised jar. Make sure that the liquid reaches above the mushrooms. These can keep in the fridge for six months (as long as the liquid always covers the mushrooms).
PINE MUSHROOM GOULASH
INGREDIENTS
1 kg pine mushrooms quartered
10 dried porcini mushrooms soaked in water
200g carrots sliced
200g onions sliced
1 garlic clove chopped large
30g smoked paprika
30g sweet paprika
10g chilli powder
250ml passata
250ml water
60g tomato paste
20g plain flour
1 bay leaf
4 stalks fresh thyme
1 bunch parsley chopped
1 pinch sea salt
20g olive oil
METHOD
Heat sunflower oil in a frying pan and fry the onion and garlic until glossy. Add the smoked paprika powder, sweet paprika powder, flour and thyme. Stir very well and add the mushrooms. Add the carrots. Fry for a further five minutes and deglaze the pan with the water.
Add the stock cube, passata, tomato paste, bay leaf, sweet paprika powder, chilli powder, salt and porcini mushrooms and the water from the soaked mushrooms.
Stir well and turn down the heat to a simmer. Add the lid to the frying pan and let it simmer for 15 minutes.
Cover with the sauce, top with the lid and let it simmer for further 15 minutes. Add the fresh parsley and turn off the heat. Let it rest for 15 minutes before serving.
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