This recipe is full of autumns promise; chilly nights, falling leaves, warming fires and wild food.
If you get the opportunity to pick some of your own wild mushrooms for this recipe, then so much the better. It’s an incredibly rewarding thing to do. Just make sure you have a reputable pocket guide to help you identify them. Alternatively you can buy wild mushrooms from good markets and specialist retailers or use a cultivated variety such as chestnut. Mushrooms and celeriac are wonderful together and make a perfect topping for our Cracked Black Pepper Sourdough Crispbreads.
Serves 4
Ingredients
- 250g of wild mushrooms trimmed and ready to cook
- ½ a medium sized celeriac
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 4 – 5 sprigs of fresh thyme
- 1 medium bunch of parsley leaves picked
- 350ml of organic natural yoghurt
- 1 small bunch of chopped chives thinly sliced
- 2 Tbsp of olive oil
- 25g of soft butter
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 x box of Peter’s Yard Cracked Black Pepper Crispbreads
METHOD
Spoon the yoghurt into a bowl, add a good pinch of salt and mix well. Tip the yoghurt into a sieve lined with a square of clean cotton, muslin or cheese cloth. Set the sieve over a bowl to catch the whey. Let the yoghurt sit somewhere to cool for 12 to 16 hours.
After the allotted time, turn the thickened yoghurt out of the cloth into a bowl and add plenty of cracked black pepper, the thinly sliced chives and a good trickle of olive oil. Mix well and set aside. You can make this lovely fresh cheese several days before you need it.
Pre-heat the oven to 200.c fan
Peel the celeriac then cut it into 2 – 3 cm cubes. Scatter the celeriac out over a large roasting tin and trickle over the olive oil. Tear over the thyme leaves and season all over with salt and pepper. Place the celeriac in the oven and cook for 30 minutes, turning everything with a spatula once or twice. When the celeriac is soft and beginning to caramalise, round the edges remove the tray from the oven.
Scatter over the wild mushrooms and the slivered garlic. Chop half the parsley and scatter this over too. Dot the butter all over the mushrooms and celeriac and tumble all the ingredients together in the tray with the spatula. Return the tray to the oven and continue to cook for a further 12 to 15 minutes. Remove the tray from the oven and allow to cool for a moment or two.
Spread each of the crispbreads with a generous spoonful of homemade cheese. Top with lots of roasted wild mushrooms and celeriac and strew with the remaining parsley leaves.
By Gill Meller
