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15 April 2007-  Mushrooms Waiheke

Easy, cheap, quick and delicious.

A team of journalists and cameramen from Noumea came to Waiheke island to cover a meeting of former crew members of the Rainbow Warrior for R.F.O. (Radio France Outremer,  a French TV channel for overseas territories.)

On the last day of their visit we invited them for dinner. We simply threw some steaks and veges on the barbecue in the true Kiwi fashion. They asked me for the recipe of the mushrooms I cooked to go with the meat.

There it goes.

Buy some large flathead mushrooms.(These are the same kind of mushroom as the white button. They simply have been left to mature an extraday.)  Plan for one mushroom per guest but buy a couple more because they are very fragile and if some break during transport and handling, they will become useless for this particular recipe.

First prepare a pesto made of garlic, capsicum, parsley and some basil all finely chopped or crushed and mixed in olive oil. Also add bread crumbs, salt, pepper and whatever else takes your fancy. Make enough of this mixture for one table spoon per mushroom or more.

Gently wash the mushrooms under cold water, leave their skin on but cut off any protruding stems. Turn the mushrooms flat on their back, the gills facing up and pour some olive oil on each of them, sprinkle them with salt and pepper, Spread one table spoon of your pesto on each mushroom, topping it with a generous sprinkle of finely grated parmesan cheese.

You can now fry the mushrooms belly up in shallow olive oil. Use either a frying pan or the barbecue plate. Five to ten minutes is all it takes, I prefer them well done. Serve hot, with the meat and a side salad.

Please keep each steak under 200 grams. Red meat is delicious and nutritious but I find obscene and repulsive the huge steaks I sometimes see being served at some restaurants. lets not dig our own grave with our own teeth. If you think that your guests will be very hungry, make something else to go with the meat and mushroom, like a bowl of pasta.

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