Inspired by my European blogging buddies, I splurged and bought myself 500g of dehydrated wild mushrooms for Christmas. It really wasn’t that huge a splurge – this very large container cost me $39 and will last us for a looong time.
The instructions for rehydrating were very specific – the mushrooms had to be soaked in lukewarm water for fifteen minutes, then drained, then “dipped” in boiling water for a further ten minutes, before rinsing well in cold water. I saved the liquid from each stage to use as mushroom stock. Here’s what the mushrooms look like rehydrated..
We had a gourmet “pantry” dinner tonight – Pete took the mushrooms, Di’s organic garlic, Maude’s porcini oil, lemon juice, white wine, and mushroom stock and created this wickedly good risotto…
….then topped it off with shavings of buffalo parmesan, cracked black pepper and a drizzle of cousin Andrew’s delicious extra virgin olive oil.
Hmmm…given that 20g of dried mushrooms was enough for dinner for all four of us, our 500g container should provide us with twenty-five meals. Surely that means it’s a bargain rather than a splurge?
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
One of our favourite dishes and one I haven’t made for a while now. I’m licking my lips right now and remembering that taste.
Yours sounds gorgous! We used to collect lots of mushrooms in the big park behind Hampton Court Palace in south London when I lived nearby. In the autumn the old deer park used to be full of giant parasol mushrooms and the odd porcini. I don’t know if they still grow there in such numbers, this was going back about ten years now. There was also a rare mushroom which grew in huge fairy rings there.
We had grilled chorizo and squeaky cheese (halloumi) on salad for lunch, salty but good!
Sigh…between you, and Anna, and Ozoz, you’ve all got me drooling for fresh wild mushrooms! The only unusual ones I find at the markets are the Korean varieties – inoki, trumpet, King Brown, shitake. They are gorgeous though – when I can get them! Chorizo and squeaky cheese (great name for halloumi, btw) sounds delicious! Did you grill or fry the halloumi as well?
Cheers, Celia
This time I fried it. Usually I griddle it to get those nice brown stripes. I found a tip for doing this, which is to coat the slices lightly in flour before you fry them, I think there was also a call for a dash of ouzo, but I didn’t do that. All in that very pretty cookbook Falling Cloudberries, a delightful mixture of greek/cypriot home cooking and finnish recipes, the writer’s background…(I think she lived in Sydney at one point too!) she has a great leg of lamb dish, where you brown the lamb first and then cover it in loads of lemon juice and oregano and olive oil and cook small pieces of firmish potatoes round it in the liquid… sort of hot pot style. I am sure Gromit would approve… makes a change from the rosemary and garlic stuffed variety we usually do! I bought half a Bridgewater bay salt marsh lamb in September and we are gradually working out way through it.
What a fabulous name for a cookbook! I think I’ll have to buy it for the name alone.. :)
Is your lamb in the freezer, or do you have a place to hang it a la Hugh FW?
And you’ve inspired me – when the cheese shop re-opens, I’m going to buy some halloumi – Pete loves it! Not sure about the ouzo, but then again, it IS a Greek dish.. :)
Hi Celia – we use dried porcini all the time. You can throw a few in a bolognaise sauce – and I have a delicious and v easy Italian soup recipe with porcini and tomatoes. My mother-in-law made an amazing potato gratin with porcini this xmas and also keeps every last morcel when she dries them – then grinds it up into a powder. She sprinkles this into everything she cooks with porcini and it adds an amazing boost.
The soup recipe comes from a book called Recipes from an Italian Farmhouse by Valentina Harris – and I think I gave a copy of it to my brother. Wander on over and pick it up (if they can find it!!).
I have also made polenta with porcini in it….mmmm…
Thanks Anna, I’ll see if I can borrow the book from him! The idea of grinding up the dried mushrooms to make a powder is a fabulous one – I might try and see if it works with our wild mushroom mix (goodness knows we have enough to play around with!). :)