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.