Mushroom Confit Recipe
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 1.5 hours
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600g/1.3lbs mushrooms (I used saffron milk caps)
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4 cups/1 litre/2.1pints canola oil (or other neutral oil)
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6 garlic cloves, peeled, whole
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2 sprig thyme
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2 teaspoons brown sugar
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2-3 teaspoons salt
Step 1 - Adjust your oven shelves to accommodate your pot and lid. Preheat oven to 90C/194F fan forced (very low). Wash and clean debris from mushrooms (avoiding touching the gills if you're cooking pine mushrooms). Remove the stalk and slice up to around 1/2 a cm or 0.2 an inch slices. Add the oil, garlic, thyme, brown sugar and salt to a large cast iron pot with lid and stir to combine. Add the sliced mushrooms and mix to coat with the oil.
Step 2 - Place the lid on and bake in the oven for 1.5 hours. During this time the mushrooms will cook down and submerge completely in the oil. Allow to cool until warm. Line the opening of a sterilised large pickle jar with foil and scoop the confit and oil into the jar. Make sure that the oil covers the mushrooms.
We've been eating these confited mushrooms for a few weeks now. For me Easter signals mushroom picking time and on the first day of the long weekend we went mushroom picking. Ever since we did a mushroom picking class a few years ago, Mr NQN loves foraging for saffron milk cap pine mushrooms. On Good Friday we headed to the Belanglo state forest (yes that one) with Teddy and Milo in tow. Dogs are allowed in state forests (not national parks) and we love doing things with them because they love being in nature so much.
What should have been a 1.5 hour drive took much longer because a lot of people were driving towards south Canberra and the South Coast. We arrived just after 3.15pm and we saw quite a few groups of people already mushroom picking while some were packing up, huge boxes of mushrooms procured. Mr NQN headed off with Teddy and Milo into the forest while I followed them for a bit but then fled back to the safety of the car. I find forests a bit scary (especially this one) and honestly I am not at one with nature. I stayed in the car, ate snacks and drank tea and read and watched videos. Milo ran back and forth between us wondering why I was in the car while Daddy was picking some strange mushroomy things.
Mr NQN ended up picking a large box around 1.5 kilos/3.3lbs of mushrooms. After checking the dogs for ticks we headed home. While I had intended to relax most of Saturday was spent confiting these mushrooms. We ended up with so many that all of my friends received some of the confit mushrooms to try. Laura was a big fan of these and wanted to make some once her supply ran out. And Mr NQN has promised to take her along the next time we go foraging!
So tell me Dear Reader, do you ever forage for things? Have you ever tried saffron or pine mushrooms?