As you might have realised from glancing around this website or my Instagram, mushrooms are one of my favourite things, ever. I’ve loved them since I was a child, when scouring the local Worcestershire fields surrounding the weir for puffballs and field mushrooms was a yearly autumnal treat. To my own (and that inner child’s) delight, I even got to co-write a book about mushrooms, called The Mushroom Cookbook as an adult. It contains more than 40 different mushroom profiles and 40 of my mushroom recipes, written according to the seasons. Anyway, garlic mushrooms is a classic – I certainly can’t claim it as my own – but this the tastiest and simplest way of doing it, and it was a joy to do it for my September supper club at Brown and Green’s, Crystal Palace. You can really use any mushrooms available, but the taste and texture levels go up as soon as you introduce wild mushrooms, so it’s worth going that literal extra mile and finding a good deli or retailer that sells them. If you are struggling to find them, Waitrose does a good wild mushroom pack and if you are local to Crystal Palace, Bora & Sons, on Lordship Lane is a safe bet. We made a caraway sourdough bread to go with this, which I’ll put up the recipe for soon, but any good sourdough will do in the meantime.
Serves 2
50g wild mushrooms, I used golden chanterelles here
1 field mushroom/Portobello mushroom
40g butter
10ml olive oil
2 garlic cloves, very finely diced
1tbsp flat leaf parsley, chopped
1/2 lemon, zest and juice
sea salt and black pepper
caraway sourdough bread, to serve
Clean the mushrooms by wiping with kitchen paper lightly dampened with cold water and small tweezers or the end of a fork to remove any tiny bits of dirt (it’s worth it; don’t worry!). Cut the mushrooms into small pieces, leaving any small mushrooms whole.
Melt butter in a large frying pan and add the oil. Fry mushrooms for 1 min, then add garlic and fry for 2 mins. Stir in the lemon zest and juice, and parsley. Season with salt and pepper, and serve with the bread.
