Gastronomia - Reborn

What is this - a new food blog? Didn't you just announce that you were going to stop cooking regularly??

Yeah I know, I know. But men can be fickle too, sometimes. I just thought I'd start on a more wordy and narrative food blog, rather than the previous one, which looked more like a standard recipe book with the occasional comment thrown in. In any case, I'm using a different URL purely for sentimental reasons (yes, don't look at me like that - I can be sentimental!) The previous blog was started during my stint in Glasgow, when I was forced to do some very creative cooking using the only method of cooking I had - a small, dingy microwave. Nope, I didn't even have a stove. Yeah, I just wanted to keep the original Gastronomia as it is, for a keepsake.

But I digress. I'm starting this off with a salad that I came up with today, which received some nice comments from guests today. Yanxian and I actually visited this mushroom farm over the weekend - Mycofarm, over at Seletar Farmway. They had about 20 temperature-controlled greenhouses where they produce a variety of fungi, including Shiitake, oyster and willow mushrooms. I was actually a tad disappointed, as I was looking forward to buying one of those grow-your-own-mushrooms kits (which they didn't have), and was crossing my fingers for white buttons, portabello and morels (fat hope, I know). Either way, I found myself involuntarily grabbing a small pun of white willow mushrooms and racking my brains on what to do with them...




I simply love mushrooms. They are the embodiment of earth itself, and are ever so versatile in dishes. Fry them, fritter them, make them into soups, pates or stews - the only thing I haven't seen, is a mushroom cake. And what other food comes in such a ready-to-eat form? No washing or peeling needed, and heck, you could even eat them raw if you wanted to. Oddly enough, it was my mom who introduced me to eating raw mushrooms. This, coming from someone who can't live without rice and abhors "western" meals, is simply too much for me - I simply had to try those raw button mushrooms that she was raving about, and I was hooked.

Willow mushrooms are known by a variety of names, including Black Poplar mushroom in the States, Pioppino in Italy, or by its botanical name Agrocybe aegerita. They have the most amazing form which begs for a beautiful presentation, and the crunch in their stems is something to die for. These shrooms have a slightly earthy tone with a hint of freshness or zest, somewhat more mellow than the flavour of white buttons.



This dish is to present the willow mushroom at its best - raw. I wanted it to be quirky, fresh. A hint of zing in it, yet sufficiently sweet to introduce the tones of this mushroom. As an aside, you do not wash mushrooms - ever. Mushrooms are clean enough as they are, since cultivated ones don't actually poke themselves out of the ground, and neither are they grown in manure (not locally, at least). For best results, use a soft brush to brush away any debris, or if you really must, rub gently with a moist cloth. Washing them will cause mushrooms to absorb water and you will end up with a soggy mess during cooking.



For the greens, I've selected mild ones like lettuces and spinach, so as not to distract from the taste of the shrooms. For that added zing, you would do very well using herbes fines. Use whole leaves from the subtle herbs like chervil, chives and perhaps a few sprigs of various basils - I highly recommend cinnamon basil and lemon basil, both of which can be found at Cold Storage. The dressing was made with Dijon mustard as a base, with some lemon juice for a clean mouthfeel and a good proportion of honey to lead the initial sourish spicy tone gently to the mushrooms and greens. The sweet peppers and roasted beets serve the same function of balancing the tones as well. Being the incorrigible carnivore that I am, I seared some salmon lightly in the pan and flaked it in. (That, and that today's Norwegian salmon at Cold Storage was so fresh, it was literally beckoning to me. "Eat me! Eat me!") Add a sprinkle of good sea salt and some coarse black pepper, and you have a winner right there.

For want of a better name, I have thus named this dish:

The Mushroom Salad



Ingredients (serves 6):

200g White willow mushrooms, stems on
Herbes fines - fresh chevril, chives, parsley
Cinnamon basil - 10 leaves
Holy basil - 5-6 leaves
Lemon basil - 10 leaves
100g baby spinach
Half a head of lettuce
4 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons honey
Juice from 1/2 a lemon
1 small beet
2 tablespoons sweet peppers preserved in brine
Freshly ground pepper - coarse grind
Sea salt
Optional meat - salmon belly cut 200g

For the dressing, mix the mustard, honey and lemon juice well. Add honey to taste, if you prefer something a little smoother. Wash the salad greens and herbs, and leave to drain. Add the mushrooms and sweet peppers to the mix.

Preheat oven to 200C. To roast the beets, skin the beet and cut into 1cm-thick slices. Place them on a sheet of aluminum foil, drizzle with olive oil and chuck them into the oven for 10 minutes. Cut them into bite-sized pieces, and add to the greens.

Lightly coat the salmon belly with dried dill weed and season with a pinch of salt. Heat a pan over a medium heat, and coat with some Pam or other non-stick coating. Sear the fish for a minute or so on each side, allowing the very centre of the fish to remain pink (the fish will continue cooking from its own heat after).

To serve, toss the greens with enough dressing to lightly coat them, then flake in the salmon. Add some salt and freshly ground pepper, and serve in a large salad bowl.