Wild mushroom tart with lemon and thyme

hedgehog mushroom

Aw how wonderful it is to get away. Last weekend the boyfriend and I headed up to the Cairngorms for some much needed R and R. The boyfriend has been super busy over the summer doing a very intensive art course and last weekend was the first chance we had to get away together. It was nice to get a bit of attention again hehe. We braved the impending autumn, wrapped up warm and set up camp under ancient native Scots pine trees by the side of a little bumbling burn.

some of our mushroom bounty

We took a little walk around Loch an Eilein just as it was beginning to get dusky. It wasn’t long before we came across masses of yummy mushrooms: chanterelles, golden chanterelles, amethyst deceivers, hedgehogs... The boyfriend was super excited to find a perfect specimen of a cep; he was smiling ear to ear. We have been foraging for just over a year now and it’s nice getting to learn more and more; the nuances of each mushroom’s preferred haunt.

cep-tastic

Evening came and we headed out for dinner, no mucking around with a camping stove for me. The Old Bridge Inn really does know how to do an exceptional steak, we enjoyed it by the fireside with whisky in hand. It was so lovely to spend some time with the boyfriend, after almost 6 years together we still marvel at how in love we are, I hope we don’t turn into a totally smug settled couple though…

This mushroom tart is great if you have a mixture of wild mushrooms and is quite forgiving if they aren’t in the best nick. If you don’t have any wild mushrooms chestnut mushrooms would work pretty well instead. Having just got back from camping I was in no mood for making my own pastry and bought the readymade variety. I hold my hands up. Guilty as charged your honour. 

wild mushroom tart

Wild mushroom tart with lemon and thyme – adapted from River Cottage Handbook No 1: Mushrooms

Serves 2

Oven preheated to 180°C

250g of all butter puff pastry

25g of butter

½ red onion – very finely chopped

roughly 300g of mixed mushrooms – cleaned and cut into equal sized chunks

2 small cloves of garlic – very finely chopped

breadcrumbs – made from 1 thick slice of white bread

grated zest from ½ a lemon

1 heaped tbsp of grated Parmesan

2 tbsp of chopped flat leaf parsley

couple of sprigs of thyme

salt and pepper to season

1 egg – beaten

Roll out the pastry till it is approx 3 mm thick.

Put the pastry onto a baking tray or into an oven proof frying pan and set aside till later.

Fry off the onion until translucent over a moderately high heat.

Reduce the heat down to medium and add the mushrooms and thyme.

Cook for approx 3-4 minutes till just beginning to soften.

If they are producing a lot of juice, drain this off and continue cooking.

If the pan is looking a little dry add a little more butter.

Add the garlic to the mushrooms and cook for a further couple of minutes.

Remove from the heat and add the breadcrumbs, lemon zest, Parmesan and parsley to the mushrooms and mix.

Season well to taste.

Add the mushrooms to the pastry, leaving a few centimetres around the edges so that it can puff up nicely.

Brush the edges of the pastry with the beaten egg.

Bake for approx 20 minutes until the pastry has puffed up and turned a golden brown colour.

Enjoy.

Mushroom hunting part 2: the ubiquitous wild mushroom risotto

One of the laws of physics states that for every glut of foraged chanterelle mushrooms a risotto must be made. Yep it’s predictable but it is perhaps it is predictable because it is just so good, a classic if you will. I think keeping things simple is the best way to show these bad boys off.

In my defence of being boring I thought I would write a list of other potentially boring but ultimately enjoyable/good things –

            Sunday papers

Hong Kong style sweet and sour chicken

Holidays in France

Pyjamas

Radio 4

Stacy from “Gavin and Stacy”

Convinced? Perhaps not but here is my recipe for wild mushroom risotto anyways.

Wild mushroom risotto

Serves 4

300g of risotto rice - arborio, vialone and carnaroli all work well.

2 large onions - finely chopped

2-3 stalk of celery - finely chopped

4-6 cloves of garlic – finely chopped

a large glass of white wine

1 small pot of chicken stock (about a litre)  - keep on a rolling boil throughout the cooking process

400g of cleaned wild mushrooms - chanterelles, hedgehogs and ceps work particularly well, cut in halves or quarters if particularly large

1 tub of mascarpone, about 225g

50g of parmesan

a handful of coarsely chopped parsley

salt and pepper

olive oil and butter

Pop some olive oil and butter in a pan and over a low heat cook the onions and celery. Let these soften for the best part of 10 minutes.

Add the garlic and continue cooking for another couple of minutes.

Do not let the onion et cetra go brown, the idea is that it is sweet and translucent.

Season with salt.

Turn up the heat a little and add the rice, cook for a minute stirring all the time.

Do no let the rice go brown as this will reduce the amount of starch you can get out of it.

Once the edges of the rice have gone clear add in the wine.

It should sizzle as it hits the pan, keep stirring until 70% or so of the liquid has been absorbed.

Add one ladle of the stock into the rice at a time, stirring fairly continuously until most of the stock is absorbed before adding the next ladleful.

The more elbow work you put into your risotto the more gooey starchy wonderfulness it will release, this will ensure you have a lovely unctuous risotto.

After about 12 minutes of cooking the rice pop the mushrooms into a frying pan with a little oil and some butter.

Cook until golden and slightly crispy.

When the risotto is a minute off being ready add the parsley, mascarpone and Parmesan.

The rice will take about 16-18 minutes to cook, once al dente add in the mushrooms, perhaps saving a few for looking pretty on top.

Season to taste.

Enjoy.

Chanterelle pappardelle

chanterelle papparadelle

Life has been very busy recently. I’ve been so caught up with seeing friends I’ve barely had time to sit, think and just be still. It’s been fantastic but by Sunday we both needed to slow it down. Mushroom hunting was the order of the day. We drove away from the city, listening to radio 4 and munching on lemon sherbet sweeties. It was nice just getting to spend a bit of time together.

On reaching the wood we pushed our way through a thicket of nettles and wild raspberries. Once inside it was truly beautiful. Natural, untouched silver birch, pillows of deep sphagnum moss and little shafts of light coming through to hit the forest floor. It was the perfect terroir. It wasn’t the long before we spotted our first chanterelles half hidden away under moss and branches. The ruse of the fallen silver birch leaves often catching us out.

lovely looking chanterelles

We only spent about an hour in the wood but that hour was so restorative. For me there can me few simple pleasures as wonderful as finding your own food especially when it is as tasty as chanterelles. Maybe my enjoyment of foraging is some throwback to some primal instinct but that little bit of time out helped me put a few things in perspective. I felt better.

All our lovely "chanties"

Chanterelle pappardelle – serves 2

150g pappardelle

teaspoon of oil

6 strips of streaky bacon or pancetta

100-300g chanterelles, trimmed and cleaned with the largest ones quartered

2 cloves of garlic, paper like skin still left on

3 sprigs of thyme

30g butter

100ml double cream

handful of chopped flat leaf parsley

½ lemon

sea salt and pepper

Add the oil and bacon to a skillet pan.

Cook until brown and crispy on a moderately high heat.

Remove from the pan and set aside on kitchen paper.

Cook the pasta according to the instructions on the packet with plenty of salted water.

You may need to drain some of the oil from the pan. You will only need about 1 tablespoon worth of oil.

Add the chanterelles in small batches to the pan, making sure there is plenty of space between them so that they don’t stew.

Add the garlic and some of the thyme.

If the pan gets too dry add a knob of butter.

Cook the mushrooms until they are pleasantly soft but coloured. This takes a few minutes.

Season with sea salt to taste.

Once each batch is cooked remove the chanterelles from the pan and squeeze a little lemon juice over them and set aside till later.

Once all the mushrooms are cooked add the cream to the pan, give it a good stir to get the flavour-filled bits off the bottom of the pan.

Allow the cream to boil and reduce down so that it thickens enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon.

Remove the garlic and thyme.

Add the bacon and chanterelles to the pan for 1 minute then stir in the parsley and drained pasta.

Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Enjoy.