~ Menu ~
Wild Mushrooms on
Toast with Black Garlic Alfredo
Glass of Secret Red
Fresh Plums
Hasn’t the weather been amazing? Last Thursday was the best day I personally
have experienced since, um … early June or so.
My darling and I had a few hours holiday; we went to Porthcothan beach
where he went kayaking and I laid about reading (an excellent book – Katherine
Mansfield’s “The Garden Party”, I’ve read it before, what a writer!) then
picnic lunch (of no particular foodie interest although I enjoyed it), then
blackberrying and sloeing and we finished it all off with a drink at the pub,
of course.
In the picture above - wild sloes, my real man off to the sea (just in case you were wondering what he looks like!), wild mushrooms and two wasps shagging *** on my darling's foot - it was a romantic sort of a day!
In addition to the blackberries and sloes we also picked a few wild mushrooms (these, of course, add a wonderful frisson of danger to any meal) and have been given apples, plums, tomatoes and sweet, hot, long pepper things from people’s gardens and allotments.
So these are the things I have done so far …
I cooked and froze half the apples and all the blackberries
in usable portions – to brighten our winter although hopefully the weather will
stay like this! We picked so many
blackberries the ones in the bottom of the box were crushed so I puréed them
with a handful of brandy (approx 1 tbsp) and some caster sugar. I now have a lush sauce for ice cream.
I made Apple Chutney which I have never done before – it’s
OK, very appley and goes well with cheddar, especially Cornish Crackler, but
next time I shall be a lot more adventurous.
Sloe Gin
This is a sort of autumn rumpot (see here for rumtopf/ rumpot recipe) now I come to think of
it. I really don’t like gin but my Daddy
always made sloe gin and it was yummy.
This is my first go at it. It’s
dead easy; take 500g of fresh sloes and pierce each one a few times with a
darning needle or, alternatively, freeze the sloes and then give them a good
bashing – the idea is to open the skins up a bit. Divide the fruits between 2 x 70cl or so
clean, sterilised bottles. Add 125g of
sugar to each bottle and top up with gin.
Seal the bottles, give them a good shake and store in a cool dark place,
next to your rumtopf. Give them a shake
every week or so.
With the tomatoes and some of the peppers I made my normal
roasted tomato soup and I have done something yummy with a few more of
the hot chillies but I will tell all about soon.
Now then - the mushrooms.
As you may know I am obsessed with black garlic so I made up a seriously
yummy lunch based on a meal I had at The Basement in Padstow a little while
ago.
Mushrooms on Toast with Black Garlic Alfredo
I love this dish and will probably make it often.
Per person …
15g butter
1 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
80ml double cream
2 cloves of black
garlic – coarsely chopped
sea salt and freshly
ground black pepper to taste
a handful of
mushrooms - quartered
1 tbsp olive oil
A thick slice of
great bread
~ First make the
Alfredo Sauce – in a small pan simply heat together the first four ingredients
till the butter has melted and a thickish sauce has formed. Set aside for a few minutes for the garlic
flavour to infuse into the sauce whilst cooking the mushrooms.
~ In a separate pan
sauté the mushrooms in the olive oil till golden – sprinkle with sea salt and
freshly ground black pepper.
~ Toast the bread.
*** I do apologise for being so crude but I think "making love" would have been a bit too anthropomorphic!
1 comment:
and how do you feel today?are you sure they were mushrooms?!!!
i picked mushrooms in the scillies but was not allowed to cook them! x
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