Mushroom Devil

A friend just sent me a photo of a giant mushroom, difficult to tell but it looked the size of a large dinner plate. There followed a delicious photo of it fried in breadcrumbs, garnished with chopped chives and served with what looks like mashed potato, and apparently it tastes like a schnitzel. In general I think mushrooms – fresh mushrooms, ‘real’ mushrooms,  fall into the love them or hate them category. In general I like them, but the bigger mushrooms, gently fried whole and served on toast, but every so often, they repulse me – and having bought them, give them to husband.

I suppose because both my parents grew up in fairly rural areas (Pavenham in Bedfordshire for mum, Cambridge for Dad – a much smaller city on the 1920’s and 30’s!) they often went out mushroom gathering, and knew which were safe to eat. The big large ones were called horse mushrooms then, and had the best flavour.  My mum in particular never grew out of the habit, and I remember when we were in Scotland once, she saw a field of them, and dashed about in excitement picking the beauties. I’m not sure if it was before or after that, she had a vivid dream of collecting mushrooms, gathering them in her skirt because she had no bag. The more she picked, the more grew up! It could have been a nightmare, especially for someone suffering from mycophobia – you can guess what that is! For her it was a wonderful, happy dream, no doubt sending her back to childhood memories of adventuring with her sister.

Here is a recipe from 1956 from Constance Spry and Rosemary Hume, which my mum could have used for her skirt full of freshly picked mushrooms:

Mushroom Devil

• 1 lb freshly gathered mushrooms of even size
• 1 oz butter
• pepper, salt and a little lemon juice

Sauce

• 1 gill cream
• 1 tablespoon tomato ketchup
• freshly grated horseradish
• 1 tablespoon Harvey sauce
• 1 dessert spoon tarragon vinegar
• freshly grated nutmeg, mustard and lemon juice

1. peel the mushrooms and cut the stalks level with the cups; do not pull them out
2. heat a frying-pan and drop in half the butter, when foaming add half the mushrooms
3.  sauté over a very hot fire for 2 or 3 minutes
4. remove and lay the mushrooms in a casserole or deep dish, sprinkle liberally with pepper, salt and lemon juice
5. put the remaining butter in the pan, sauté the remaining mushrooms, add to the dish, seasoning in the same way
6. whip the cream stiffly, beat in ketchup, vinegar, salt, seasonings and nutmeg
7. make the sauce piquante and aromatic, spread it thickly over the mushrooms
8. bake quickly without a lid to a golden brown in a hot oven, 5-10 minutes
9. it is important to sauté the mushrooms quickly to prevent the juice from running out

It doesn’t mention how the mushrooms would be served with or on what, maybe toast! Harvey sauce is an English savoury sauce made from fish and garlic, find out more here:  http://www.foodsofengland.co.uk/harveysauce.htm

My featured image is of some random mushrooms/fungi which were just normal size, not as big as dinner plates!