Wild mushroom bruschetta

Description

The mushrooms in this recipe should have started to soften and taken on a very soft texture when served.

Ingredients

200g/7oz foraged mushrooms, such as blewitts, chanterelles, chicken-of-the-woods, lycoperdon, ceps, morels, russulas, blushers (see note below), etc
slices seeded sourdough bread
2 tbsp good-quality olive oil, plus extra to drizzle
2 cloves garlic
30g/1oz unsalted butter
150ml/5fl oz London Pride, or other similar ale
Maldon sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 sprigs flatleaf parsley, roughly chopped

Method

1. Using a small, clean, soft brush, clean any grit or leaf mould off the mushrooms, then break them up into rough pieces. Some mushrooms may need to be cooked a little longer, such as blushers, so keep them separate and throw them into the pan a few seconds before the others.
2. Toast the bread, and keep warm while you cook the mushrooms.
3. In a large, heavy-bottomed frying pan, heat the olive oil and cook the garlic until it's a nice nutty brown.
4. Add the butter and the mushrooms. Toss this all together, then turn the heat up and add the ale. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper and keep the heat high. When the liquid released by the mushrooms and the ale has reduced and thickened a little, throw in the parsley.
5. Place the toast on plates and scoop the mushrooms on top, dividing the juices between the plates. Drizzle a little olive oil on top and serve with a twist of black pepper.

Note: Some mushrooms, such as blushers (amanita rubescens), have thermo-mobile toxins that break down and become harmless when heated. However, only pick these if you really know what you're doing as they have relatives, including fly agaric - amanita muscaria - that are, at best, psychoactive or, at worst, deadly poisonous and that look similar. The golden rule of mushroom picking is: if you don't know what it is, or are even a little unsure, leave it well alone.