It’s not just the presents under the tree that can be wrapped at Christmas. I love filling squares of parchment paper with a variety of wild, exotic and baby button mushrooms, slices of cooked potato or celeriac, crushed garlic, chopped herbs, double cream and a splash of aniseedy liquor, to seal the festive deal. After scrunching up the parcels, tying them together with string and baking for about 20 minutes, you’ve a ready-made-pressie-and-meal all in one.
It’s very late in the day to be suggesting a dish for the Christmas menu, I know, but mushrooms really are a great thing to have around at this time of year. Robust and substantial enough to keep you going, they’re also, crucially, light enough not to impede the chances of the next feast being approached with full gusto. Enjoy the cooking, eating and togetherness, and have a very happy Christmas.
Portobello mushroom tarts with pine nut and parsley salsa
Don’t throw away any unused broth here. Instead, use it to make a jus to finish off the dish. Strain into a small pan, then reduce until you have about 70ml of thickened liquid left. Stir in 10g of unsalted butter and drizzle over the tarts before finishing them off with the pine nut salsa. It’s an extra step in an already long recipe, I know, but the result is more than worth it. Serves six.
15 sprigs fresh thyme
8 sprigs fresh rosemary
500ml vegetable stock
2 large cloves garlic, peeled and finely sliced
2 lemons, zest peeled off in long strips
4 small cinnamon sticks
30g unsalted butter
12 medium portobello mushrooms
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
200g feta, finely crumbled
40g parmesan, finely grated
1 tbsp rose harissa
Plain flour, for dusting
500g block all-butter puff pastry
½ tsp Aleppo chilli flakes (or other chilli flakes), to finish
For the pine nut salsa
3 tbsp olive oil
30g pine nuts, roughly chopped
1 tbsp lemon juice
20g parsley, roughly chopped
Heat the oven to 150C/300F/gas mark 2. Put the first eight ingredients in a large bowl with half a teaspoon of salt and plenty of black pepper. Mix gently, so the mushrooms get coated in the liquid but don’t break up. Transfer to a high-sided medium baking tray (about 25cm x 35cm), making sure the mushrooms sit skin side down on top of the mixture. Cover with foil and bake for 90 minutes, basting the mushrooms every half-hour or so. Remove from the oven, lift the mushrooms out of the liquid and set aside to cool. Cut six of the mushrooms lengthways into 5mm slices, and leave the rest whole.
Raise the oven temperature to 190C/375F/gas mark 5. Put the feta, parmesan and harissa in a medium bowl with three tablespoons of the poaching liquor, stir until smooth and spreadable, then set aside.
Line six 10cm wide x 2cm deep tartlet tins or fluted round ceramic dishes with a circle of baking parchment. On a lightly-floured work surface, roll out the pastry to a 30cm wide x 44cm long x 2-3mm thick rectangle. Cut out six 12cm-diameter circles from the pastry, and press them into the lined tins. Divide the cheese mixture between the tins and spread evenly on top – you should be left with 1cm of pastry clear at the top of the tin. Fill with sliced mushrooms, then finish by firmly pressing a whole mushroom skin side down on top. Bake for 25 minutes, until golden-brown and cooked through, including at the base.
Meanwhile, make the pine nut salsa. Pour the oil into a small saucepan on a medium-high heat. Once hot, add the pine nuts and fry for one to two minutes, stirring constantly, until golden-brown. Add the lemon juice carefully – it will spit! – then remove from the heat and pour into a small bowl. Set aside to cool, then stir in the parsley.
Once the tarts are ready, remove from the oven and set aside for 10 minutes to cool slightly. Serve warm or at room temperature, with the parsley and pine nuts spooned on top and a sprinkle of chilli to finish.
Warm mushroom salad with smoked bacon and goat’s cheese
Your Christmas Day menu has no doubt already been planned for, with ingredients bought and preparations well under way. But for anyone who is flying more by the seat of their festive pants at this delightfully late stage in the day, this would be a winning Christmas day brunch. I’m just putting it out there. New Year’s Day menus can, as a more forward-planning alternative, also apply. Serves four.
8 slices smoked streaky bacon
2 tsp maple syrup
1 pinch cayenne pepper
3 tbsp olive oil
3 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
1 tbsp picked rosemary leaves, finely chopped
2 tbsp picked thyme leaves, finely chopped
200g shiitake mushrooms, destalked, cleaned and cut into 1cm slices
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
200g chestnut mushrooms, cleaned and cut into 1cm slices
200g chanterelle mushrooms, cleaned and kept whole
20g unsalted butter
2 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted
1 tsp sesame oil
2 tbsp lime juice
60g rocket
90g watercress
60g baby spinach
50g soft rindless goat’s cheese, broken in 2cm pieces
Set the grill to its highest setting. Put the bacon on a medium baking tray lined with parchment paper and dribble the maple syrup on top. Sprinkle with cayenne, then grill in the middle of the oven for six to eight minutes, turning once halfway through, until crisp on both sides. Break into 4cm pieces and set aside.
Put a large sauté pan on a medium-high heat with a tablespoon of the oil. Once hot, add a third each of the garlic, rosemary and thyme, plus all the shiitake mushrooms, a quarter-teaspoon of salt and some pepper. Fry for four minutes, stirring every minute, until the mushrooms are golden-brown and starting to go crisp. Scrape out into a large bowl and set aside. Repeat with the remaining oil, garlic, herbs and mushrooms, though cooking the chanterelles for just three minutes.
When all the mushrooms are cooked and in the bowl, add the butter to the pan and cook on a high heat for a minute, until it starts to froth. Pour over the mushrooms and mix through with the sesame seeds, sesame oil, lime juice and a third of a teaspoon of salt.
To serve, add the leaves and bacon to the mushrooms and use your hands to mix everything thoroughly but gently. Arrange on a platter, dot with the cheese and serve at once.
Wild mushroom, urfa chilli and feta omelette
You can use the same pan to cook the mushrooms and the omelette, so saving on washing-up, but a smaller frying pan for the omelette will make it thicker and softer. Serves four.
50g unsalted butter
1 medium onion, peeled and finely chopped
300g mixed wild mushrooms, cleaned and trimmed (cut large ones into halves or quarters)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
8 eggs, gently whisked
60ml double cream
2 tsp urfa chilli flakes (or 1 tsp regular chilli flakes)
60g feta (or other creamy ewe’s cheese), broken into large chunks
5g tarragon leaves, roughly chopped
5g chervil (or parsley) leaves, roughly chopped
Heat the oven to 200C/390F/gas mark 6. Put a large nonstick frying pan on a medium-high heat, add 20g of butter and, once bubbling, add the onion and fry for seven to eight minutes, stirring a few times, until it starts to colour.
Add the mushrooms, a quarter-teaspoon of salt and plenty of freshly ground black pepper, and fry for six minutes, stirring every now and then, until the mushrooms are cooked through and starting to colour. Tip into a small bowl.
Mix the eggs with the cream, a third of a teaspoon of salt and a good grind of pepper. Put a small frying pan on a medium heat with 15g butter and half of the chilli flakes. Once it’s hot, pour in half of the egg mixture and gently swirl in the pan for a minute and a half, until the egg is starting to set. Sprinkle over half the mushrooms and dot with half the cheese, cook for a minute longer, then sprinkle over half of the herbs.
Carefully fold the omelette, then slide it on to a large parchment-lined baking tray. Repeat the process with a second omelette, then bake both for two to four minutes, until the egg is just cooked. Remove, cut each omelette in half widthways, and serve at once.
Yotam Ottolenghi is chef/patron of Ottolenghi and Nopi in London.
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