The late Jane Grigson didn’t think much of St. George’s mushrooms in her book The Mushroom Feast. She felt their flavour to be too strong and mealy for most tastes. Other chefs have told me that they need to be infused with something else to impart any sort of flavour at all. I am here to defend what I consider to be one of the tastiest mushrooms of the year and as a bonus, the first of the year, sometimes fruiting as early as the first week in April.
Collected when young and fresh in a wet spring, a basketful of St.George’s will permeate the whole kitchen with a strong almost perfumed fungal aroma. This smell is retained in the flavour of the mushroom when either sliced raw or after cooking. I suspect the young dirty fresh ones imported from Europe may have been sitting around chilled too long in boxes and as a result, after cleaning, lose most of their vibrancy. As these poor imported specimens are generally the only ones available to restaurants, this may explain the accusatory flavourless charges levelled against them.
If this mushroom is allowed to mature in the ground around late May, the texture becomes leathery and the smell, although just as strong, develops a musty intensity which is not altogether pleasant. These are the ones I suspect Jane Grigson may have tasted when she delivered her verdict. Collect just enough young fresh ones for your requirements and treat yourself, using any recipe that calls for mushrooms.
For a real treat, try this recipe (see recipe pages) kindly given to me by Norfolk’s latest Michelin starred Chef, Kevin Mangeolles, owner of The Neptune Restaurant with Rooms in Old Hunstanton – W: theneptune.co.uk
Clive Houlder is a professional greengrocer and forager, responsibly and sustainably harvesting wild food from Norfolk’s fields, woods and coast supplying some of the county’s best chefs with wholesome natural provender in season.
T: 01328 738610
A2xvZY aygzophaiqur, [url=http://wnmhmwvztuzx.com/]wnmhmwvztuzx[/url], [link=http://vlakqdlfadyn.com/]vlakqdlfadyn[/link], http://orumnghegqey.com/
Posted 6 months ago