October recipe: garlic mushrooms on toast
Garlic mushrooms. Photo: mia3mom
To make garlic mushrooms on toast you need:
4 slices of good quality bread – A walnut rye levain or similar would be good
mushrooms – 300g (I used field mushrooms and few shavings of ‘beefsteak’, unlike most mushies – which should be rubbed clean rather than washed – I caution you to wash this well and use in moderation as it is strong-tasting)
ground almonds – 2 high and heaped tablespoons
garlic – 2 fat cloves
mushroom stock cube (or salt)
olive oil/butter – enough to generously cover the base of pan
fresh tarragon – 15g (or generous handful)
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Method
1. Gently heat the butter/oil in a heavy based frying pan.
2. Shave a few slithers of the beefsteak mushroom and wash well. Rub-clean the field mushrooms and then rough chop them.
3. Add all of the mushrooms to the oil/butter – keeping the heat at medium/low. Put a lid on the pan.
4. Peel and finely chop the garlic. Keep aside until the musrooms have started to shrink.
5. When they have curled back a little, add the ground almonds and stir.
6. Scatter the chopped garlic on top of the mushrooms – resist the urge to stir it in just yet as it will fall to the bottom of the pan and may burn (and it will taste bitter if it does).
7.Chop the tarragon, discarding any of the tougher stalks.
8.When the mushrooms have leaked most of their juice and shrunk to about half the size, turn off the heat and crumble in half a mushroom stock cube or season with salt. Add the tarragon as the last moment and stir gently. Replace the lid to allow the ingredients to settle in together.
9. Meanwhile. Toast four slices of bread and butter them. Or, if you are using good quality fresh bread, you could choose to just butter them as they are – bread – particularly good, heavy breads, taste at their best when fresh.
10.Taste mushrooms. Adjust seasoning if necessary.
11. Heap mushrooms onto the waiting toast and try not to eat it all too quickly.
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