Grilled Maitake Mushroom Tart Recipe
medium
Ingredients
- 80g of unsalted butter, cubed
- 165g of plain flour
- 100g of Parmesan, finely grated
- 15g of cep powder
- 1 egg
- 100g of spring onions
- 2 tbsp of vegetable oil
- 50g of spinach
- 100g of wild garlic
- 2 maitake mushrooms, large
- 40g of unsalted butter, melted
- 1 large shallot, sliced
- 40g of unsalted butter
- 150g of frozen ceps
- 1 tbsp of beer vinegar
- 125g of unsalted butter
- 12.5g of fresh yeast
- 125ml of stout
- 1 lemon, zested and juiced
- wild garlic leaves
- wild garlic flowers
- pickled wild garlic
Method · 2 h 20 min
- For the pastry, combine the butter, flour, Parmesan and cep powder in a stand mixer fitted with a beater attachment. Process on a medium speed until it starts to resemble coarse breadcrumbs then add the egg and bring it together into a ball. Leave to rest in the fridge for at least 1 hour
- For the wild garlic purée, place the whole spring onions in a frying pan (or on a hot plancha) with the vegetable oil and cook until fully cooked and soft – this will take about 25 minutes
- Meanwhile, blanch the spinach and wild garlic in a pan of boiling water for 1 minute. Refresh in iced-water. Once cool, squeeze out the excess liquid and place in a high-powered blender
- Add the spring onions to the blender and blend until you have a smooth green purée. Season with salt, then set aside at room temperature
- Preheat a charcoal or electric grill to medium-high. To cook the maitake mushrooms, grill them over the medium-high heat, whilst brushing with the melted butter to stop them from becoming too dry. If you don’t have a grill, use a hot frying pan and sauté them until golden and cooked but still juicy. Once cooked and cool enough to handle, use your fingers to separate the mushrooms into bite-sized chunks. Cool and set aside in the fridge until needed
- For the cep cream, sweat the shallot in the butter in a small saucepan until soft but not coloured. Add the cep mushrooms and cook for a further 10 minutes or until all the liquid has evaporated. Add the beer vinegar, then transfer to a blender and blend until smooth. Season with salt, close cover by covering the surface with cling film to stop it forming a skin and store in the fridge until needed
- For the beer and yeast sauce, first make a yeast butter. Place the butter and yeast in a saucepan and cook over a medium heat until the yeast starts to caramelise and the butter starts to lightly brown. Remove from the heat and leave to cool
- Preheat the oven to 200°C
- Once the pastry dough has rested, use a rolling pin to roll out the pastry dough into a rectangle the thickness of a 1p coin (1.5mm). Bake the sheet of pastry for 3 minutes. Remove the tray from the oven and, whilst still hot, use a 3cm ring cutter to stamp out 6 discs of pastry whilst being careful not to break them. Return the discs to the oven for a further 3-4 minutes until they are golden and crispy. Set aside to cool on a wire rack then store at room temperature in an airtight container
- To finish the sauce, warm the stout in a small saucepan, add the yeast butter and season with the lemon zest, juice and salt. Make sure it is hot then blend using a handheld blender to aerate it
- Reheat the mushrooms over the grill until they are hot. Reheat the cep cream
- Place a spoonful of the wild garlic purée on the bottom of each plate and top with a pastry disc. Place a spoonful of the warm cep cream on each tart base. Top with the mushrooms and add a few wild garlic leaves and flowers and some pickled wild garlic. Finish with a spoonful of the hot foamy sauce (re-aerate it if you need to) and serve immediately
Merlin Labron-Johnson takes us for a walk in the woods with his vegetarian starter. Grilled maitake mushrooms, a wild garlic purée and a cep cream are placed atop a wafer-thin Parmesan and cep pastry disc. The dish is elegantly finished with a stout and yeast sauce that is foamed at the last minute for a light, aerated texture.
PASTRY
charcoal or electric grill
3cm diameter cutter
