Photo by Andreas Kunze, Wikipedia
Provenance of Dish
Of my own creation
Recipe
Ingredients
300g mushrooms cleaned with a brush (if they are wet leave to dry in a very low fan oven with the door left slightly ajar)
2 banana shallots
2 tbsp olive oil
6 cloves garlic sliced
1 sprig thyme
1 sprig rosemary
100ml sherry vinegar
100ml white wine
1 tsp maldon/sea salt
1 tbsp light brown sugar
1 pinch dried chilli flakes
1 pinch ancho chilli flakes
Small bunch of flat leaf parsley
Instructions
Tear mushrooms into similar sized pieces (rustic suits this dish best)
Cut the offending roots off shallots, slice in half lengthwise and remove the brown skins.
Separate the shallot halves into petals and keep the smaller ones from the centre whole and slice the remaining outer ones lengthwise
The garlic should be sliced into slivers a couple of mm” thick, they will pickle nicely in the escabeche
Heat a heavy based skillet or frying pan over a medium heat and add 1 tbsp of the oil. When it’s nice and hot (not too hot), add the mushrooms to the pan in one layer being careful not to overcrowd and resist the urge to stir them at first. This will help them to fry crisp and prevent them from stewing. Once they have taken on a golden burnish gently toss them in them in the pan to colour the remaining sides.
As each batch are nicely browned on all sides remove them with a slotted spoon and place in a colander or sieve set over a bowl to catch any juices. Do not discard any juice as you will need this later.
Turn the heat up on the pan slightly and return the collected juices scraping the bottom with a wooden spoon to remove any crispy bits and reduce until concentrated. Tip the mushrooms into the bowl you used to collect the juices add the pan scrapings, give it a good mix with half the salt. Chop the parsley roughly and add to the mix.
Rinse the pan, add another glug of olive oil, remaking salt and garlic. Gently sweat till fragrant taking care not to burn or it will become bitter. Add the rosemary and thyme sprigs, shallot petals, chilli flakes and continue to sweat everything till it begins to wilt.
Once everything has softened slightly remove from the pan and mix with the mushrooms and transfer to a sterilised kilner jar.
Return the pan to the heat one last time and again increase the heat. Pour in the white wine and reduce by half and the alcohol is burned off. Add the vinegar and sugar and bring to the boils for a minute or so and the acidity has tempered.
Pour the mixture over the mushrooms and close the lid. Leave everything to cool then transfer to the fridge or a cool cupboard.
Try and resist eating them for a few days to allow the flavours to mingle.
Serve with roasted meats, firm fleshed white fish like halibut and cod or over roasted squash. Excellent when strained of the juices and eaten on hot buttered toast.
