Mushrooms on Toast or Funghi Alla Veronica – what’s in a name?

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"What's in a name? That which we call a mushroom
By any other name would taste as good."

Dear Mr Shakespeare,

Apologies for misquoting your lovely line from Romeo and Juliet but it was an emergency. You see, I just wanted a quick and lazy supper but the lovely rustic artisan bread I bought down the farmers market screamed DON’T so much as THINK about putting a baked bean NEAR me, sunshine!

It got me thinking about a supper dish my mother, Veronica, used to make my father when he came in from gigs late at night. Would this posh bread entertain the idea of being toasted and adorned with a simple mushroom sauce? Probably not... and then I thought of your beautiful “rose by any other name” line.

What if I called it Salsa Di Funghi Alla Veronica (loosely based on Funghi Alla Veronese)?

Mr Shakespeare, you are a genius! You can come to supper any time. 

For a quick and lazy supper for 2 you will need...

25g butter

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1 medium onion (about the side of a tennis ball), finely chopped

1 fat clove of garlic, crushed

1 tablespoon finely chopped flat-leafed parsley

½ teaspoon fresh thyme, finely chopped

1 tablespoon plain flour

250g mushrooms (your choice but something with a bit of flavour), sliced

100mls double cream or crème fraîche

60mls good quality stock

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste 

2 slices of good quality bread (toasted just before serving) 

Flat-leafed parsley or basil to garnish 

Simple ingredients, magical mushrooms!

1                    In a medium frying pan over a medium heat, melt the butter and add the olive oil. Add the chopped onion and fry gently until just beginning to turn golden – about 6–8 minutes. Add the crushed garlic, parsley and thyme and cook for a further minute.

2                    Now, sprinkle the flour into the frying pan and stir until it is well mixed with the onions. Add the mushrooms and cook gently for about 5 minutes, gently stirring the contents of the pan occasionally.

3                    Add the cream or crème fraîche and stir into the mushroom mixture before adding the stock. Let the mixture bubble for a minute or two. The mixture should be creamy without being liquid. If there is liquid in the pan continue to let it bubble until the liquid has evaporated. Add salt and pepper to taste.

4                    Serve immediately on toast and garnish with fresh parsley or basil – whichever you prefer.

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Smoked Bacon and Mushroom Chowder – Fuel for Dancing at the Crossroads

Pin It Summer arrived on Saturday – for one performance only.  The clouds of the past few weeks gave way to blue sky. The temperature nudged 20°C . It was perfect timing.  

Smoked Bacon and Mushroom Chowder - a 'souper' food

Cabinteely village was closed to traffic and a dance floor was erected in the street. Several local restaurants had set up stalls, with paella and meatballs from Las Tapas, and a range of Thai food from Pattaya. The Horse and Hound pub was five deep at the bar – almost unheard of since the smoking ban. The scene was set for the revival of an old custom - dancing at the crossroads – a tradition prohibited by the party pooping Public Dance Halls Act of 1935.

Hey! This is my airspace!

This community occasion would have been miserable in the rain. As it was, the temperature dropped to a chilly 10°C as the evening wore on. Dancing would have kept me warm but I had worn ridiculous shoes (a recurring theme) and I had to rely on this chowder to heat me up when I got home.  

For 6 - 8 servings you will need...

750g mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
10g dried porcini (optional) processed to a fine powder in a food processor
500mls chicken/vegetable stock
25g butter
150g onion, finely chopped
125g smoked bacon lardons
500mls milk
50g butter
50g plain flour
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh thyme
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh flat leafed parsley
A little extra chopped parsley for sprinkling over the top

1                    Put the sliced mushrooms (and dried porcini if using) in a medium saucepan and add the stock. Bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes.

2                    Meanwhile, melt 25g of butter in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Add the onion and the smoked bacon lardons. Cook gently until the onion is soft and translucent. Transfer to a bowl.

3                    To the same large saucepan, add the milk, the remaining 50g of butter and the flour and stir with a whisk over a medium heat until thickened into a creamy sauce and starting to bubble – about 5 minutes. Strain the stock from the mushrooms into the creamy sauce. Add about 1/3 of the sliced mushrooms, then finely chop the remaining mushrooms and add them too. Finally, add the bacon and onion, along with salt, pepper, thyme and chopped parsley. Simmer gently for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

4                    Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary. Serve with a generous sprinkling of freshly chopped parsley.

This is even better next day, when the flavours have had a chance to develop further.

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Mushrooms à la Grecque – a mayo-free zone

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My Aussie pal, Elena, made an observation about Irish salad/sandwich bars... “What’s with all the mayonnaise!!!!” she asked.

It’s true. It is practically impossible to avoid mayo in Ireland. We even have a county called Mayo.



Cute as a button...



As a broad generalisation, if you walk into a sandwich bar in Ireland your choices are limited: You may be offered tuna... mayonnaise; or egg... mayonnaise; or if you manage not to have mayonnaise in your main filling choice, the server will try and foist some “coleslaw” on you. What is this coleslaw, only shreds of cabbage and carrot drowned in a sea of... mayonnaise. If you manage to parry the coleslaw, they will launch a final offensive, the squeezy mayo bottle already in their hand, and smilingly offer you a squirt to glue the top slice of bread in place.

I have nothing against mayonnaise – the sort that has actually seen a fresh egg yolk or two, a spoonful of Dijon mustard, some garlic and a light olive oil can be unbelieveable good. And I’ll admit that sometimes even Hellman’s is just the thing – but all things in moderation.



We're hiding from the mayonnaise!



One ingredient that shouldn’t even be in the same room as mayonnaise is the mushroom. Yuk. Even thinking about mushrooms in mayo is making me queasy. If I am going to include mushrooms in a salad then here’s how that would go...

For 4 - 6 servings you will need...

5 tablespoons water

3 tablespoons olive oil

150mls passata, or two tinned plum tomatoes, finely chopped

1 teaspoon coriander seed, crushed

1 bayleaf

a sprig of thyme (lemon thyme is great if you can get it)

1 clove garlic, crushed

juice and zest of an unwaxed lemon

400g button mushrooms (or larger mushrooms cut into bite-sized pieces)

1 tablespoon finely chopped flat-leafed parsley

1          Place all the ingredients - except the parsley – in a medium saucepan over a medium heat and bring to simmering. Simmer uncovered for 5 minutes.

2          Using a slotted spoon, remove the mushrooms and place in a serving dish. Now turn up the heat and allow the sauce to reduce and thicken for a further 5 minutes or so.

3          Taste the sauce and add salt and or pepper if necessary. Then pour the thickened sauce over the mushrooms and leave to cool to room temperature. Scatter with the parsley before serving. This dish will keep for a few days if refrigerated but is best at room temperature. Served hot, it is also wonderful with grilled meats.



Just add crusty bread

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Season of Mists and Mellow Fruitfulness – and Wild Mushroom Soup

Pin It Once upon a time, I went on a Mushroom forage at Avondale, the home of Charles Stewart Parnell, “uncrowned king” of Ireland for anyone who is interested in history. That I am alive to tell the tale is down to the fact that my colourful haul with its minks and mauves and sulphur yellows was confiscated and labelled beautiful... but deadly!

Wild mushrooms... captured!

"I've never trusted toadstools."

- Cheshire Cat

Our guide - a mycological ‘Ray Mears’ - told us that there are around 3,000 types of mushrooms in Europe - or was it 30,000? Either way, it was a bewildering array but the job of making identifications is relatively easy as there are only 30 or so that are good to eat, the rest being inedible or downright poisonous. I unerring selected the downright poisonous. You can catch the full story, broadcast on RTE’s Sunday Miscellany. My bit starts exactly a minute into the clip.

One of the ‘mushroomiest’ mushrooms to eat is the porcini (aka cep, or penny bun) and it is the star of this rich autumnal soup. You’ll be glad to know that I did my foraging at the supermarket. Given my level of foraging expertise, it is much safer that way.

For 4 to 6 servings you will need:

10g (½ oz) dried porcini mushrooms

150mls boiling water

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 onion, finely chopped

1 stick celery, peeled and finely chopped

500mls (1 pint) chicken/vegetable stock

250g (8oz) button mushrooms, thinly sliced

50g (2oz) butter

50g (2oz) plain flour

500 mls (1 pint) fresh milk

2 tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce

1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

Salt and black pepper

1    First, rehydrate the porcini mushrooms by placing them in a measuring jug with the boiling water and leave to soak for 15 minutes. This also allows any grit to settle at the bottom of the liquid.

2    While the porcini are soaking, heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan over a gentle heat and add in the onion and celery. Cover and cook gently without colouring for 5 minutes or so until the vegetables have softened.

3    Remove the porcini mushrooms from their soaking liquid with a slotted spoon and chop finely. Strain the soaking liquid through a sieve into the saucepan, catching any grit in the sieve. Add the porcini mushrooms, button mushrooms and stock and bring to the boil. Turn down the heat, cover and simmer for 10 minutes.

4    Meanwhile, in another medium saucepan, melt the butter, then add in the flour and stir until it forms a paste. Continue cooking and stirring over a medium heat for a minute or so, then remove from the heat. Now, add in the milk a little at a time, stirring rapidly with a wooden spoon. It will almost certainly look a little lumpy. Don’t worry we’ll sort that out in a moment. When you have added about half the milk, swap the spoon for a whisk and add the remaining milk.

5    Return the saucepan to the heat and use the whisk to stir any floury lumps back into the liquid. Now add the cooking liquid from the vegetables and mushrooms and continue cooking (and stirring) until the liquid starts to bubble gently. Turn down the heat and add in about three-quarters of the mushrooms and softened vegetables, along with the Worcestershire Sauce. Simmer gently for 2 minutes, then blend the soup. A stick blender is perfect for this job.

6    Finally, add in the remaining mushrooms and vegetables and the fresh parsley. Taste, and add salt and black pepper if needed.

Gilding the lily...When you’ve dished up the soup, pour a little fresh cream into the centre of each bowl, sprinkling with a little more parsley (or chives if you prefer).

If you prefer a smoother soup, blend all the mushrooms and vegetables at step 5.

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