Hobba’s Mushrooms - Chef Recipe by Joshua Green

Ingredients

Pistou Sauce:

50g flat leaf parsley
50g basil
2-3 cloves of garlic
120-150mL olive oil
50g gruyere cheese
Sea salt to taste

Mushroom Puree:

500g button mushrooms
1 Tbs porcini powder
1 tspn tarragon
3 Tbs oil
2 cloves garlic
1/2 lemon (juiced)
100mL water (more to blend)

Galette:

1.25kg royal blue or similar potatoes
100mL clarified butter
1 Tbs thyme leaves

Mushroom Stack:

12 flat field mushrooms (small to medium in size)
18 oyster mushrooms
6 king brown or king oyster mushrooms
1 punnet (200g) enoki mushrooms

Capsicum Caviar:

75mL strained capsicum juice
0.5g sodium alginate
175mL water
0.9g calcium chloride

Method

Galette:

This needs to be made the day before, as it needs to be weighted down in the refrigerator overnight.

Pre-heat oven to 170 C and line a 26cm x 32cm baking dish with non-stick baking paper. Wash, peel and wash potatoes again. Using a mandolin or a very sharp knife, thinly slice the potatoes length-ways into 0.5 cm slices.

Brush the bottom of the lined baking dish with clarified butter and begin to layer with the sliced potato, with a slight overlap on each piece to ensure no gaps. Between each layer brush with more clarified butter and season with thyme leaves and salt.

Cover with tin foil and bake for 60 minutes, or until cooked (pierce with a knife to check). Remove tin foil and place non-stick paper on top. Press with a similar-sized tray, weighted down with some heavy tins or bottles filled with water, in the refrigerator overnight. It is important the weight is evenly distributed on the galette overnight.

Remove from the tin and trim the edges, slice into six even pieces, about 8cm x 9cm.

Pistou:

Pick herbs from the stem, wash and dry thoroughly.

Combine all ingredients, except the olive oil, in a blender and blitz together, slowly adding the oil until desired texture and consistency has been achieved.

It should be thick enough to coat the field mushrooms when tossed together.

Mushroom Puree:

Reconstitute the porcini powder in hot water. Thinly slice mushrooms and roughly chop garlic cloves.

Heat oil in a heavy based deep pan or pot, add mushrooms and cook until they are a deep golden brown. Halfway through cooking, add the garlic so as not to burn it.

Add porcini stock and deglaze plan. Add mushrooms and all remaining ingredients into a high-speed blender and blitz until smooth, adding more water if necessary.

Puree should be smooth and creamy and able to hold its form when piped. Season to desired taste with salt and lemon juice.

Transfer to piping bag, or a squeezy bottle and keep warm for plating.

Capsicum Caviar:

Use a juicer to juice capsicum and strain through cheese cloth or a fine strainer.

Using a stick blender or blender, thoroughly mix the sodium alginate into the capsicum juice. Strain once more and pour mixture into a small squeezy bottle, or use a syringe.

Dissolve calcium chloride in water and set aside in the refrigerator.

Mushroom Stack:

Remove roots from the bunch of enokis and peel apart each mushroom from the bunch. Spread out evenly and thinly on a lined baking tray, drizzle with olive oil and season with salt. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 170 C until golden brown.

Don’t worry if they are not crispy in the oven, they will crisp up as they cool. Once cool transfer to an airtight container.

Prep the oyster mushrooms by tearing them into even-sized strips and remove roots from the king browns, slicing each one in four length-ways. Bake the flat field mushrooms in the oven until cooked.

Plating:

Fry each portion of galette in a frying pan until warmed through, golden and crispy on each side. Remove and place on a paper towel.

Saute oyster and king brown mushrooms, ensuring not to overcrowd the pan so mushrooms can colour and cook evenly. Remove and place on a paper towel to remove excess oil.

Toss hot flat mushrooms with pistou until well coated.

Slowly drop individual droplets of the capsicum mix into the calcium chloride solution to form caviar-sized spheres. Leave in solution for one minute to set, then strain into a small tea strainer or sieve.

Place galette in the middle of the plate with pistou tossed mushrooms on top as evenly as possible, then stack the sautéed oyster mushrooms, followed by the king browns in a criss-cross formation on top to form the stack.

Using either a squeezy bottle or piping bag, pipe three dots of puree around the galette and using a teaspoon, place an even amount of the caviar of top of each dot of puree.

Ball up the crispy enoki to form six nest-like bunches and place on top of the stack. Garnish with micro herbs or a sprig of chervil.