A Feast of Field Mushrooms

Should one pay attention to the dreaded health and safety experts who give us dire warnings against eating wild mushrooms? Why, instead do they not encourage us to educate ourselves, so that we can identify them properly?

In France, where things are better organised and have more respect for their native foods, you just bring your freshly picked mushrooms into your local pharmacist (they are trained to identify them for you) and then head to the kitchen. They respect their edible fungi and have a useful code of practice, asking foragers to carry their picked mushrooms in a basket to allow the spores to spread and to cut them with a knife to protect the underground mycelia.

This year from August through to October, we have been feasting on wild field mushrooms in County Kilkenny, it has been the best mushroom harvest for several years. Rumours abound of neighbours competing with each other to be the first to gather the overnight arrivals, each having their own favourite secret spot. There were reports of fields, not too far away, being white with mushrooms at dawn. 

Not long ago, children earned pocket money by picking mushrooms, threading them on long stands of grass and selling them by the roadside. Now, we have to pick our own.

Freshly picked Kilkenny mushrooms being prepared for mushroom ketchup.

A couple of buckets (next time we will use baskets) were filled with wonderful fresh mushrooms, with their magic earthy smell. On our arrival back home, the first move was to immediately cook some for breakfast, using good quality country butter, frying a few free range bacon rashers and adding the mushrooms for the best imaginable breakfast.

The surplus mushrooms were made into a delicious soup and the remainder into mushroom ketchup, using an old fashioned recipe that called for copious quantities of brandy.

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Jerusalem Artichokes - Helianthus tuberosus

Jerusalem Artichokes (not to be confused with Globe Artichokes) are related to the sunflower. They are native to the eastern states of the North American continent and were extensively cultivated by the native peoples living there. The misleading name is believed to refer to Ter Neusen, the location at which they were grown in Holland, following their introduction to Europe, via France. This being only one of many explanations: that when the tubers were first brought to England, they were known as Artischokappeln van Ter Neusen, which became corrupted to Jerusalem Artichoke. 

Freshly dug Jerusalem Artichokes for sale at Glasrai & Goodies, Gowran, Co. Kilkenny

Tighe in his Statisical Survey of Kilkenny, 1801, mentions that they were grown in the county as a fodder crop for sheep. This should not put anyone off cooking them, as they make a delicious soup and the two recipes below, taken from Maura Laverty's Full & Plenty, 1960, are well worth trying.

JERUSALEM ARTICHOKES

This root vegetable deserves to figure more often on the menu. But it needs care in cooking. If artichokes are allowed to continue cooking after the have become tender, they are liable to become tough again.

Wash and scrub the artichokes and drop them into boiling water. Cook them, covered, until they are tender. After 15 mins. Test with a skewer.

Drain them and keep them in a hot place while you prepare the following dressing: Melt 2 tablespoons butter. Add 1 teaspoon mild white vinegar or dry white wine. Add 2 teaspoons chopped parsley. Pour this dressing over the artichokes and serve at once.

CREAMED JERUSALEM ARTICHOKES

Cook the artichokes as above. Drain them well and pour over enough cream sauce to make a good topping (about ½ pint cream sauce to 1½ lbs artichokes). Sprinkle thickly with chopped parsley.

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Nettle Soup

Irish Restaurants seldom serve Irish food, so your only hope is to make it yourself. Nettle Soup is a classic, traditional and delicious dish, cheap and easy to make. Young nettles are plentiful and easily found by even the most reticent of foragers.

Wild Nettles (Urtica Doica) growing in County Kilkenny

Pick young nettle tops, using rubber gloves, you can pick them without gloves if you know how to grab the stems and leaves, without getting stung.

Apologies to Darina Allen for corrupting her recipe.

RECIPE
Large bunch nettles
Tablespoon of butter
3 shallots or 1 onion or leeks
1 medium Golden Wonder Potato
1 litre good quality homemade chicken stock

Freshly picked Nettles (Urtica Doica)

Melt the butter until bubbling, add finely chopped shallots and well diced Golden Wonder potato, add a little salt and pepper. Cover and cook over a low heat until the potato is soft. Add the stock and simmer for a couple of minutes, then add the chopped nettles, cook for another couple of minutes.

Nettle Soup

Puree the mixture in a blender until smooth (originally, it would have put through a hair sieve) and reheat before serving. A delicious Irish country soup, the traditional recipe would not have used potato, an introduced species - oatmeal or some other cereal would have been used instead.

According to Ray Mears and Gordon Hillman, Stinging Nettles (Urtica Doica) are a very good source of protein, as well as vitamins C & B, calcium, potassium iron, phosphorous, magnesium etc. So, give it a go...

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Chervil Soup

CHERVIL SOUP, WITH LEEKS & POTATOES
Chervil (Anthriscus Cerefolium). An easily grown, aromatic, spring herb with a subtle aniseed flavour. Delicious with eggs, ham and in soups, at a time of year when other fragrant herbs, like tarragon, are out of season. 

Chervil, a cousin of the carrot and of parsley, probably introduced from
south west Russia and/or south eastern Europe.

INGREDIENTS FOR CHERVIL SOUP

Leeks, sliced potatoes, homemade stock and a large fistful of Chervil.

Chervil, Leeks & Pink, Fir Apple Potatoes

CHERVIL SOUP RECIPE

To make Chervil Soup, sweat sliced leeks until soft, then add sliced potatoes (in this case, Pink Fir Apple potatoes were used, no need to peel them). Add stock and cook until the potatoes are soft, then add a large handful of chopped, bruised chervil. 

Cook for a couple of minutes, then whizz to the desired consistency and correct the seasoning.

Chervil Soup

Serve in warmed bowls with a little organic Irish yogurt and a sprinkle of chopped chervil. If bruised before use, it will release its flavour more readily, makes an interesting replacement for parsley. 

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Kilkenny Pheasant Liver Pate

Eating local and seasonal is hard to beat. A brace of wild Kilkenny pheasants, locally shot and hung for 6 days, arrived on the kitchen table. These pheasants had a healthy, free life until they met their demise.

A fine brace of Kilkenny Cock Pheasants

They were plucked and gutted. The pheasant feathers made a welcome addition to the compost heap. These pheasants were roasted with some fatty bacon and stuffed with a traditional seasonal herb stuffing, using breadcrumbs made from stale homemade soda bread.

The plump breast of a half plucked Kilkenny Cock Pheasant.

The livers were gently cooked, 3 to 4 times their weight, in country butter. Once they were cooked through, they were placed in the food processor along with a clove of garlic, a teaspoon of fresh thyme and lots of freshly ground pepper. The pan was rinsed out with a large splash of sherry, which was then added to the food processor. It was all whizzed up together and poured into a small bowl and placed into the fridge.  So easy.

Pheasant Livers on Melting Country Butter

The pate, with a little added sloe gin jelly, makes a rich starter to any winter meal. 

Pheasant Liver Pate with Sloe Gin Jelly

Waste not, want not... 

The pheasant bones should always be simmered up with root vegetables, herbs and spices to make a good stock. The base for a hearty seasonal soup.

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