Celebrating the Funghi Festival on the Far South Coast of NSW
Autumn is mushroom season, something as a child growing up in Switzerland I used to look forward to every year. We hunt for all sorts of mushrooms in the woods behind our house. If you were in doubt about a variety of mushroom, you could take it to the designated local Mushroom Master who would tell you whether it was safe to eat. Mushroom hunting was a fun family activity always finishing with some delicious mushroom dishes.
I was reminded of this when I learnt that the Fungi Festival on the Far South Coast of NSW will be starting soon. The festival will have over 50 events and provides information on how to forage for mushrooms, how to grow them and where you can buy their exotic cousins, the black truffle.
There will be music, movies, painting and pottery, so all your senses will be stimulated. Of course many restaurants along the Far South Coast will be creating some amazing dishes featuring mushrooms or truffles.
The Festival runs from 20th June to 20th July. For more details go to the very informative website www.fungifeastival.com.au
Inspired by the coming Festival I have created a recipe that looks festive and tastes terrific. It can be made with any combination of mushrooms.
- Ingredients
- This recipe is for 4 servings
- 100 g Woodear mushrooms
- 200 g Swiss brown mushrooms
- 100 g Shiitake mushroom
- 100 g Enoki mushrooms
- 1 Spanish onion, finely sliced
- 4 cloves of garlic finely chopped
- 1 chilli, some of the seeds and filament remouved
- fresh sage, Italian parsley and thyme chopped
- 150 g thick cream (best Tilba cream)
- a little butter and olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 180˚
clean the mushrooms with some paper towels to get rid of the dirt
in a little butter and olive oil, gently soften the onions, add the garlic, chilli and fresh herbes
slice the mushrooms and add them to the onion mix
stirring the mushrooms well, cook for about 5 minutes then taste for salt and pepper
cut 4 sheets of baking paper about 40cm x 40cm
divide the mushrooms evenly on those sheets of baking paper and add a big tablespoon of cream
now tie the parcels up with string, making sure they are well enveloped in the paper
bake in preheated oven for about 20 minutes
