 |
| Pine mushrooms on toast, mini latte |
Recently, we've really gotten into visiting markets on the weekend. We've been checking out different farmers markets (Boroondara and Carlton have been good so far), and have half a dozen different ones on the list to try. Yesterday we visited my old stomping ground, Prahran Market, to buy ingredients for Sunday lunch and make my mandatory stop at Market Lane Coffee. I had a shopping list (free range rack of pork, roasting potatoes, herbs, gifts for friends from the specialty shops), and wanted to avoid impulse purchases, but couldn't resist when I saw the beautiful display at Damien Pike's mushroom stand. Look at those pine mushrooms! So pretty!
 |
| Damien Pike's Mushroom Stand |
Now, I've never been one of those people who can float through a market, selecting whatever looks the nicest that day and then whip up an amazing meal on the fly. (Don't you hate those people? So smug, so very smug. Hehe.) So I asked the stall owner for advice on the pine mushrooms - he said just to slice them up, sauté them in butter with garlic, a little cream and some herbs. Bang!
I picked two of the most perfect ones, paid for them, and carefully carried the precious cargo home in its little paper bag. As you can see in the above photo, they're $50 a kilo, and those two mushrooms cost $5 in total - super precious! I've noticed that some of the other stalls in the market sometimes also sell similar speciality mushrooms - pines, slippery jacks etc. - and are usually slightly cheaper, but they never seem to look as nice, with bruises or broken bits.
 |
| Pine mushrooms! |
The next morning, (i.e. this morning) I followed Damien's advice, and made these garlicky, buttery mushrooms for my breakfast. I've written up the recipe, with weights and measurements, at the bottom of this page... because I just know that next year I'll wander past his stall again, and think "Ooh! I love pine mushrooms! Now, how do I cook those?" Now I'll have the recipe on my blog. Yay! Future Sarah, you are welcome.
 |
| Breakfast ingredients |
I melted a generous amount of butter in a pan with a little clove of garlic, then tumbled in the sliced mushrooms. Damien said they were saffron milk cap mushrooms, and they turned a really vibrant orange colour.
 |
| Pine mushrooms |
Once the mushrooms cooked down, I fished out the garlic clove and discarded it, generously seasoned the mushrooms with salt and pepper, and added a splash of cream, a squeeze of lemon, and the chopped herbs. Boom!
I tumbled them onto some toast, and served them with a mini latte. Perfect breakfast!
Funnily enough, while I was eating this, I thought it must be similar to the "sole with chanterelles" from How to Eat, so I just had to go searching through my old How to Eat Project and see what that dish was like. Turns out I actually used pine mushrooms that time, rather than the hard-to-find chanterelles, and it looked super similar to this breakfast! (I also see we bought over a dozen pine mushrooms that time, from Damien Pike's stall too - must have cost a bomb! Incidentally, thanks Mum and Dad for sponsoring Sarah Discovers How to Eat.)
So, with that in mind, even though I had these mushrooms on toast, I think you could enjoy them in any number of ways. Cut into finer pieces, and with a bit more cream (or white wine, as in Nigella's sole recipe), I think it would make a great sauce for chicken or fish, or even pasta. Made in huge quantities (maybe bulk it up with some button mushrooms to be less extravagant) with sour cream, and served with rice, it could be like a mushroom stroganoff. Or, of course, just eat them as per the recipe below. Because they were freakin delicious! Enjoy.
 |
| Pine mushrooms on toast, mini latte |
Funnily enough, while I was eating this, I thought it must be similar to the "sole with chanterelles" from How to Eat, so I just had to go searching through my old How to Eat Project and see what that dish was like. Turns out I actually used pine mushrooms that time, rather than the hard-to-find chanterelles, and it looked super similar to this breakfast! (I also see we bought over a dozen pine mushrooms that time, from Damien Pike's stall too - must have cost a bomb! Incidentally, thanks Mum and Dad for sponsoring Sarah Discovers How to Eat.)
So, with that in mind, even though I had these mushrooms on toast, I think you could enjoy them in any number of ways. Cut into finer pieces, and with a bit more cream (or white wine, as in Nigella's sole recipe), I think it would make a great sauce for chicken or fish, or even pasta. Made in huge quantities (maybe bulk it up with some button mushrooms to be less extravagant) with sour cream, and served with rice, it could be like a mushroom stroganoff. Or, of course, just eat them as per the recipe below. Because they were freakin delicious! Enjoy.
Pine Mushrooms on Toast
A recipe by Sarah Cooks
Ingredients
25 grams butter
1 clove garlic, peeled
2 large pine mushrooms
1 tablespoon cream
A squeeze of lemon juice
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
1/2 tablespoon chopped chives
Salt and pepper
2 pieces toast of your choice
Method
Heat a frying pan over a medium heat. Melt the butter in the pan with the (whole) garlic clove.
Brush the dirt off the pine mushrooms and thickly slice. Add the mushroom slices to the pan and cook, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms have cooked down and released their delicious mushroomy juices. Remove the garlic clove and discard.
Add the cream and stir to combine, followed by the lemon juice, parsley and chives.
Season generously with salt and pepper, and pile onto the toast to serve.
Serves 1 lucky person
Posts
