Stick to the Seasons

It’s September and straight away I change my cooking. Yes there will be amazing tomatoes for another few weeks but aside from that I abandon all the Mediterranean influences of Summer. I start to swap olive oil for butter and the occasional dollop of rapeseed oil.

I’m doing three mushroom dishes this week because it’s only now that I feel I can re-introduce them on the menu in the Tannery. I know it’s all a bit pedantic but it’s this kind of rigour of sticking to the seasons that still keeps me excited about food. I impose a sense of monastic abstinence in my refusal to use ingredients out of season. It’s as close to religion as I come. The appearance of a strawberry garnish beside a Christmas pudding can send me into paroxysms of apoplexy. I almost have to be tied down, foaming at the mouth with indignation. The anticipation of using an ingredient you haven’t cooked with for months is akin to looking forward to a chill in the air so you can put on your very favourite coat. That feeling is always worth the wait.

Mushrooms can be divisive though. There’s definitely a textural thing with some people, others can take them or leave them. The true mushroom lovers however are besotted with the myriad of varieties and idiosyncrasies of funghi. I’ve been on a few mushroom hunts but the tramping never seemed worth the meagre reward. I’m not a forager. I prefer the comfort and warmth of the kitchen but I do admire peoples passion for them, that and the fact they can kill you. They have my respect.

Of course you can buy packets of mixed cultivated mushrooms that are interesting for the curious. Old fashioned button mushrooms are so timid in flavour that I think they are hardly worthwhile. On an ordinary day I veer towards chestnut mushrooms or my very favourite, flat caps or field mushrooms. They never let me down. Full of earthy flavour and meaty texture, they give as much pleasure as the fanciest of mushrooms.

The bacon dish is deeply autumnal. One pot dishes are my happy place, the flavours marry as if they were destined to be together.

Mushrooms, cream, tarragon and crisp pastry. If this tart doesn’t make mushroom lovers happy, nothing will.

Field mushrooms are almost beefy in their richness. I’ve added mortadella for interest and a mild Cambozola for some creamy Italian flair.

Pot roast bacon with mushroom and thyme cream

Serves 6

Ingredients

• 1.2 kg joint of back bacon
• 350mls chicken stock
• 1 stick of cinnamon
• Sprig of thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tin butterbeans, rinsed
• 1 punnet (250g) Chestnut mushrooms, halved
• 250ml cream
• 1 small apple peeled and diced
• 1 tbs Dijon mustard
• 2 tbs golden brown sugar
• A good handful of Baby spinach (80g)
• Salt and black pepper

Method

1. Set the oven to 165 degrees
2. Place the bacon into a casserole and add the chicken stock, cinnamon, thyme and bayleaves.
3. Cover and cook for 1 hour 45 minutes.
4. Remove from the oven, turn the heat up to 185 degrees then add the butterbeans, mushrooms, cream and apple around the side then turn together so everything is coated in creamy juices.
5. Brush the top of the bacon with the Dijon mustard and coat evenly with the sugar. Put back in the oven uncovered for 20 minutes until glazed.
6. To serve, remove the bacon from the pot and allow to rest under foil for 10 minutes or so.
7. Add the spinach to the pot and wilt a little in the sauce. Once seasoned it’s ready to serve with the carved bacon.

Mushroom, béarnaise tart

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 1 tbs rapeseed oil
• 1 large shallot, peeled and chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
• 300g mixed mushrooms, trimmed and sliced
• 1 tbs sherry vinegar or red wine vinegar
• 150mls cream
• A few sprigs of Tarragon, chopped
• 1 egg yolk
• Salt and black pepper
• 1 roll of shortcrust pastry
• 1 egg beaten with a little milk

Method

1. Set the oven to 185 degrees
2. Add the rapeseed oil, shallot and garlic into a frying pan and cook over a gentle heat for a couple of minutes without colour. Then add the mushrooms and the vinegar then turn up the heat a little. Cook for two minutes or so until the mushrooms start to soften then add the cream.
3. Let the cream bubble and reduce until it forms a thick sauce around the mushrooms then remove from the heat, allow to cool a then add the tarragon, egg yolk, salt and pepper.
4. Unfurl the pastry, keep the parchment and put it on a baking tray then lay the pastry on top. 5 Brush lightly with eggwash then spread the mushroom mixture over the pastry leaving a 3cm rim all around.
5. Fold the edge in on itself to form a crust then brush with eggwash.
6. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes until golden. Eat warm with a green salad.

First Published Irish Times 3 September 2022
Butter Boy 2023