Mini Mushroom Cheesecake Calzone: Sweet Chanterelle Ravioli

Mini Mushroom Cheesecake Calzone in the oven

It's been a mixed week, here in Fife. We've had sun, rain and hail - sometimes all in one day. I have to say that whenever it rains, I just smile and think *that'll make the mushrooms grow*.

This week I found a new Chanterelle patch, less than 20mins walk from my front door. I revisited the patch yesterday and started thinking about what I could make with my haul.

In my last blog I mentioned my dislike for the texture of mushrooms, but I don't think that's the full story. I love finding and picking Chanterelles and my favourite thing about them is their sweet, fruity smell. I think I get confused when I then pair them with garlic, eggs, or other savoury flavours. I want to taste the fruitiness! So, here is my attempt to bring that flavour out:

Mini Mushroom Cheesecake Calzone

Candying Chanterelles with Long Pepper

Candied Chanterelles

Ingredients:

2 cups Chanterelles
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
1 Long Pepper (Long Pepper is spice which tastes like a blend of cinnamon and black pepper. Raw Chanterelles have a peppery taste, so I thought that Long Pepper would be the perfect accompanying flavour)

Method:

Dice Chanterelles and add all ingredients to a saucepan
Bring to the boil, turning the Chanterelles to ensure they are coated in the syrup
Reduce heat and simmer for 10mins
Leave to cool
Remove Chanterelles with a slotted spoon
Place in oven on lowest setting to dehydrate (I used my trusty dehydrator)
Reserve syrup for dough recipe

Sweet Pasta Dough

Sweet Pasta Dough

Ingredients:
300g 00 Flour
2 whole eggs
1 egg yolk
4 tbsp Chanterelle syrup

Method:
Place flour in a bowl and make a well in the centre
Add eggs, yolk and syrup and mix in flour gradually with a fork
Work together into a dough
Tip out onto a floured surface and knead for 10mins
Wrap in clingfilm and place in fridge for 30mins+
Roll out with pasta machine or rolling pin until translucent
Cut out circles (approx 3-4" in diameter)

Cheesecake Filling

Ingredients:

400g soft cheese (I used Philadelphia, but I think that Mascarpone would be delicious here)
100g caster sugar
100ml double cream
Grated zest of 2 lemons
Candied Chanterelles

Method:

Whisk together the cheese, cream, sugar, lemon zest until thick and creamy.
Add candied Chanterelles and mix thoroughly.

Calzone

These are really sweet ravioli, but I love Calzone and that is what I was thinking of when I made this recipe. Sweet, sweet Calzone.

Method:

Preheat oven to 180°C
Line baking trays with greaseproof paper
Place 1 tsp of filling onto each circle of dough
Fold in half to make little ravioli/calzone/pasties/parcels
Use a fork to seal the edges
Glaze with beaten egg
Place on trays, leaving at least 1" between each calzone
Bake one tray at a time, for 10 mins, or until golden brown
Allow to cool on a rack (again, I used my dehydrator - switched off)

Serve with fruit/cream of your choice.

I will be sampling these tonight and will post an update afterwards.

Calzone chilling

Girolle out the pasta: Chanterelle Tagliatelle

My favourite foraging season is finally here - it's time for Chanterelles! There is nothing more exciting (for me), than walking through woods and spotting the orangey-yellow glint of a Chanterelle in the undergrowth.

I have found a few Chanterelles in woods near Kincardine, but I still like to make my annual pilgrimage to the East Neuk, to pick Chanterelles in Tentsmuir Forest.

As ever, before you pick and eat any wild food, please make sure that you have identified it correctly. I wasted many hours last year in a debate with a 'forager' on twitter, who was celebrating a giant haul of Chanterelles. What he had actually picked were False Chanterelles.

Falsies - or False Friends, as my mum calls them - aren't poisonous, but they neither smell nor taste like the true Chanterelle. Chanterelles smell like apricots and I have previously found them just by sniffing the air and following the scent.

There are many poisonous (often fatally) mushrooms in the UK, so please take care, check and double-check identifying features. If you are in any doubt, then do not eat what you find.

A fact that makes many of my friends laugh, is that I'm not particularly fond of eating mushrooms, despite my joy of foraging them. I do like the flavour of mushrooms, but I'm not keen on the texture. To remedy this, I decided to employ a technique from my last blog post and to use powdered Chanterelles in my recipe:

Chanterelle Tagliatelle

Ingredients

350g fresh Chanterelle - dried and powdered (I use a dehydrator and a coffee grinder) - this produced 30g of powder.
170g '00' Flour
2 eggs

Method

Mix together Chanterelle powder and flour in a bowl
Tip mixture onto a clean surface, make into a mound and make a well in the centre
Crack the eggs into the well and mix with a fork
Gradually mix in the flour until you have a sticky dough
Knead thoroughly for 10mins
Wrap dough in cling film and refridgerate for 1hr+
Work dough through pasta machine or roll out by hand until it is paper-thin
Fold and cut into strips or feed through tagliatelle attachment on pasta machine
Boil in salted water for 3-4mins (al dente)
Serve

I served this with a simple cheese sauce (parmesan and mozzarella mixed with a roux base and milk).

I loved the colour of this pasta and it tasted superb! I will definitely use this technique again, come Porcini season.

Until I write again, Happy Foraging! Xx

WimblEton Tidy: Wild Strawberry and Elderflower Pavlova

I had hoped to make something with gooseberries this weekend, but after finding a grand total of 1 gooseberry yesterday, I was forced to look elsewhere for my ingredients.

Wild Strawberries are now coming into season, so I decided to play around with the Wimbledon classic "strawberries and cream" and make a tennis-inspired, reconstructed Eton Mess. This seemed all the more appropriate, as I picked the strawberries in Andy Murray's hometown of Dunblane.

Wild Strawberries have a surprising depth of taste, despite their diminutive size and I wanted to make the most of that flavour. I thought that this might work best if I dried and powdered the strawberries and used them as a flavouring for the meringue.

I use a dehydrator when I dry my foraged foods, though you can do this in your oven at its lowest setting. Once the strawberries (about 2 good handfuls) were dried, I used my coffee grinder (I only use this for spices - not for coffee) to blitz them into a powder.

Wild Strawberry Meringue - adapted from my mum's pavlova recipe, hence the imperial measurements.

3 egg whites
1oz Powdered wild strawberries
5oz caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 level tsps cornflour
1 tsp vinegar

Whisk egg whites, vinegar and vanilla to a very stiff consistency - so you can tip bowl and they'll not move.

Whisk in most of sugar, 1/3 at a time (leaving a small amount for next step), whisking to a stiff consistency after each addition.

Fold in remaining sugar and cornflour ingredients.

Thw result should be very firm, but soft enough to work. Too much whisking and it will lose bulk.

Pile up in a circle on an oiled piece of greaseproof paper on a baking tray.

Shape to form a hollow in the middle.

Bake at 140C for 1 hour.

Switch off oven and leave in oven for half hour. The meringue should be crisp, very pale brown in colour and soft inside.

Peel off paper very carefully, the meringue is fragile and may break apart at this point.

Elderflower Cream Topping

300ml Double Cream
2 heaped Tablespoons Icing Sugar
3 Tablespoons Elderflower Cordial

Whisk all together into soft peaks.

Spread cream topping on top of meringue.

Enjoy the sugar rush and until next time, Happy Foraging x