Currabinny Cooks: Mushrooms - don't cap your enjoyment of these recipes

Pearl Barley with Wild Mushrooms

The personal journey I have had with mushrooms has been somewhat of a rollercoaster. I would flat out refuse to eat them until around eight or nine years ago. I would, if pushed to, reluctantly eat them around five years ago and only if they were sparsely included in a dish. 

In the last five years, I decided to make it my business to overcome this aversion. I love all kinds of food and apart from mushrooms and pineapples (which I still detest) there wasn’t really anything else out there in terms of ingredients, I wouldn’t have enjoyed eating. My decision to tackle mushrooms was borne out of their relative ubiquity in most of the world's cuisines and also an appreciation for their beauty, the exciting amount of different types and the fact that they grow like magic out of the forest floor.

Currabinny is primarily made up of a small but beautiful forest which covers the hilly headland and mushrooms grow abundantly on the decaying wood and foliage. In this sense, I really needed to get on board with mushrooms, they are one of the most abundant foragable ingredients Currabinny has.

I am happy to say that I am an almost completely reformed mushroom hater. I now delight in eating them in all their many shapes, sizes, textures and flavours. Just don’t give me mushroom soup, some hurdles are just too high.

I have mainly fallen into the trap of boxing mushrooms into a strictly Autumnal/Winter ingredient.

This is, of course ridiculous, as mushrooms grow all year round, with the main crop of them growing throughout the Summer and into Autumn. They do tend to go well in nutty, creamy, starchy dishes with an emphasis on comfort but this is just one side to mushrooms. In the summer their nuttiness and mellow depth offers a welcome meatiness which lends itself well to bulking out otherwise quite light dishes. In the summer I tend to use feature them more as the star ingredient than I would later in the year.

There is a huge range of mushrooms available in Ireland nowadays. You can either get out there yourself and forage for them (being careful to pick the right ones) or increasingly they are available in green grocers, farmers' markets and from specialist producers. This week I managed to pick up a lovely mix of mushrooms from one of the best veg shops in Dublin, Evergreen on Wexford street.

They had a recent delivery of wonderful wild Irish mushrooms. This week's recipes feature chestnuts, hen of woods, white beech, oyster and shitake. Using a good mix of mushrooms in a dish can only make it better so do not be afraid of using a wide variety. Some of them might look a little scary but trust me, they are all delicious.

Pearl Barley with wild mushrooms 

This is a great dish for knocking up mid-week. It has minimum ingredients, takes no time at all and is very filling. We usually make loads because it makes for the perfect lunch all week after you’ve had it for dinner. You can also use this recipe as the base for playing around with adding all sorts of exciting things like roasted squash, feta, tofu, chicken or beef.

Ingredients:

• 200g pearl barley
• 2 shallots, sliced thinly
• 200g mixed wild mushrooms, torn or sliced thin pieces
• a few sprigs of fresh thyme
• 1 clove of garlic, crushed
• Handful of fresh coriander, chopped
• Handful of fresh parsley, chopped
• Juice of half a lemon
• 50g butter
• Olive oil
• Sea salt and black pepper 

Method:

Cook the barley in a pot of boiling salted water over a medium heat for around 20 minutes until cooked through but still with a little bite. Drain and leave aside while you prepare the rest of the dish.

Using a frying pan or skillet, heat a little olive oil over medium high heat and cook the shallot for around 5 minutes, stirring them around the pan regularly until they have softened and starting to caramelise. Remove from the pan to a plate and wipe the pan clean. Return the pan to a medium high heat with another tablespoon or so of olive oil and place the sliced mushroom in, seasoning them with sea salt and black pepper. Let them sizzle away for around 5 or 6 minutes. Add the butter to the pan along with the crushed garlic and move the mushrooms around the pan so that everything gets coated in butter and garlic. After a minute or two add the thyme sprigs and cook for around 10 minutes on a slightly lower temperature. Remove the mushrooms from the pan and add to the barley and onion in a medium sized bowl and mix everything together including the chopped herbs. Squeeze in a little lemon juice and check the seasoning. Serve warm in bowls.

Miso Cannellini Bean Puree with Wild Mushrooms & Kale 

Miso Cannellini Bean Puree with Wild Mushrooms & Kale 

This dish is bursting with lots of complex and interesting flavours. We have made a classic white bean puree lots of times but this is the first time we enhanced it with miso and tahini, making it even more addictive. Use whatever wild mushrooms you can find or even just chestnut mushrooms.

Ingredients:

• 200g wild mushrooms, torn or sliced
• 1 small bunch of cavolo nero kale, stalks removed
• Small bunch of fresh coriander leaves, chopped 
• 1 banana shallot, sliced thinly 
• 1 clove of garlic, sliced thinly 
• Sea salt and black pepper 

For the white bean puree:

• 1 can of cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
• Juice of 1 lime 
• 1 clove of garlic, minced 
• 1 heaped teaspoon of miso paste 
• 2 tablespoons of tahini 

Method:

Make the puree first by blitzing all the ingredients together in a food processor along with 3 tablespoons of water until smooth.

Cook the mushrooms in a hot frying pan with a little olive oil, seasoned with sea salt and black pepper. After around 10 minutes the mushrooms should be crispy and browned. Transfer the mushrooms to a plate and wipe down the frying pan.

Over medium high heat in the same frying pan, cook the shallot and sliced garlic in a little olive oil for around 3 minutes. Add the kale along with a small pinch of sea salt and cook for a further 5 minutes.

Divide the puree between two plates and arrange the mushroom and kale mixture on top. Garnish with a wedge of lime.

Wild Mushroom & Courgette with Orzo 

This is another easy to make dish which would work great as a mid-week dinner and also great for lunches in the following days. I used some lovely white beech mushrooms which are also known as shimeji, they are not commonly used in dishes with such Mediterranean flavours as this but the beauty of mushrooms is that they are incredibly adaptable. Use whatever mushrooms you can find for this dish and I’m sure it will turn out delicious.

Ingredients:

2 shallots, sliced thinly 

1 courgette, halved lengthways and sliced thinly

300g mixed wild mushrooms

Juice of half a lemon 

Handful of basil leaves 

Sea salt and black pepper 

50g butter

Olive oil

150g orzo

For the pesto:

175g walnuts 

1 clove of garlic

Big handful of fresh basil 

100g parmesan, grated 

6 tablespoons of olive oil

Sea salt 

Method:

Make the pesto by putting all the ingredients in a food processor and blitzing until smooth.

Cook the orzo in boiling salted water until al dente, drain and set aside.

Heat a little olive oil in a frying pan over a medium high heat. Add the shallot along with 50g butter and cook until golden and soft. Next, add the courgette and cook for another 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms to the pan along with a little sea salt and black pepper. Fry for another 5 minutes and then take off the heat. Stir in the juice of half a lemon. Stir through the basil and walnut pesto along with the orzo and serve garnished with lots of fresh basil.