Wild mushrooms

There is just nothing nicer in mushroom terms than freshly picked field mushrooms, just simply fried with a little salt and pepper and served on toast… On the hill in Uphill there are places where you can find big field mushrooms, sometimes very big field mushrooms, but I don’t know where those places are, I must keep looking!

My mum was once on holiday and walking across a field climbed a stone style into the next and there before her were mushrooms, mushrooms, mushrooms as far as the eye could see! My dad said she was like an excited little girl as she rushed around trying to decide which to gather! In fact she often used to dream of picking mushrooms, and gathering them in her skirt until there was no room for any more but then seeing another bigger, more perfect one!

Mushrooms are something you either like or don’t like, I don’t think you can be so-so about a mushroom! There are all sorts of edible fungi, but I wouldn’t dare pick any just in case I made a mistake and picked the wrong ones, which could be fatal! I’ve read too many Agatha Christy stories were mistaken mushrooms caused a lot of problems!

In many European countries it is a big tradition to go out into the woods and look for mushrooms, big parties of friends and family, and there are lots of recipes not just for serving but also preserving mushrooms, drying or pickling. Here’s a Ukrainian recipe:

• 12 small OR 8 medium OR 4 giant field mushrooms with stalks cut off and finely chopped
• 4 slices of stale white bread, crusts grated off but kept
• 4 oz hard cheese such as cheddar, grated (you can miss this out and double the sheep’s cheese if you prefer)
• 4 oz sheep’s cheese such as feta, crumbled into small pieces (see above)
• 4 rashers of bacon, lightly fried so not crispy, fat cut off if you don’t like it, and divided into as many pieces as you have mushrooms
• 4 fll oz milk
• butter
• 1 well-beaten egg
•  fresh dill chopped
• garlic (to your taste) finely chopped or crushed
• freshly ground pepper

1. soak the bread in the milk, when soggy, squeeze out excess liquid
2. fry the chopped mushroom stalks in a little oil then add to about 4 oz of the soggy bread – you may need to have more bread according to the size of your mushrooms, or if you want a very generous filling!
3. add the dill, garlic, pepper, grated and crumbled cheese, beaten egg and mix it all carefully so it doesn’t just become a mush
4. STUFF YOUR MUSHROOMS!
5. put into a greased oven-proof dish and bake for about 20 or so minutes until the stuffing is cooked through and the cheese has all melted, 375ºF, gas mark 5, 190ºC (adjust according to your oven – you don’t want to burn the bacon to a frazzle
6. serve on or with toast

My featured image is up on our hill.