This summer I had great fun sourcing charcuterie for an outdoor offering I was working on. Putting together some summer love for our guests!! As well as cheeses, conserves and breads, pickles are a regular addition to a good charcuterie board.
While I was hunting for something different to accompany the selection it became clear that there’s much more to pickles than gherkins so I thought I’d try some pickled mushrooms out!! (amongst other things)
Incidentally these go very well with a wide variety of main ingredients including fish, scallops, pate, tuna, lobster anywhere where you want to add little acidity to really bring out the flavours, and it add a little texture too!! What’s not to like!
ingredients (makes 600ml jar)
for the pickling liquor (2:1:1 vinegar:sugar:water)
250ml vinegar
125ml sugar
125ml water
12g salt
2g black pepper corns
2g coriander seeds
2 bay leaves
sprig of coriander
for the mushrooms
150g buna shimeji mushrooms (dark cap - white are shiro either will do)
apparatus / equipment
sterilised jar
creme fraiche / cream pot lid
liquor
bring pickling ingredients to boil, make sure sugar is dissolved and allow to cool
mushrooms
I got these mushrooms from the supermarket, they’re obviously grown in containers with a round edge, which produce bunches of mushrooms. Cut about 1cm (1/2 inch) off the base of the bunch where the root stem is.
You should then be able to gently break the bunch apart, pulling off individual mushrooms.
Put them into a sterilised jar and add the cool liquor over the top adding any other dry leave of flavourings you might like to try.
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So that the mushrooms are preserved they must be completely covered!
If you buy pickled shallots you’ll notice they have a little plastic mesh in the jar. It’s to keep the contents from floating above the pickling liquor and going off!!
I improvised one from a creme fraiche lid! I cut a few slits into it to allow the bubbles through, but cunningly (raises eyebrows) not the mushrooms!
thinking ahead
You can make these well in advance, at least 3 hours for them to take up the flavour of the liquor though.
variations
You can pickle almost anything as far as I know!! Cabbage (Kimchi & Sauerkraut), gherkins, lemons, eggs, fish, meat, ago, chilli. Just make sure you use the right process!! This process is good for anything you can eat raw. IE not meats / fish / seafood!
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