Grab your basket and bravely go to the forest to seek for mushrooms. Or just buy some chanterelles and porcini in the nearest supermarket. You won’t feel funny, that’s not that kind of mushrooms.
Well, I have to admit, when you cook for a long time with lots of energy and money invested, and the result is miserable, then it’s gonna be funny. Hurtful and funny. But this salad recipe will for sure make your mouth water with its incredible flavour and taste
When we were thinking of something to cheer you, chef Alexei Shvets suggested this salad. First of all, it looks nice. Secondly, that’s one more salad which ingredients have to be smoked. And last but not the least, the combination of mushrooms and fragrant oil sounds so scrumptious and yummy.
Ingredients
Method
- For the thyme oil, warm the olive oil and thyme in the small saucepan over the lowest heat for about 10 minutes, until it reaches about 75°C (167°F); it must not fry.
- Take the pan off the heat, infuse for 30 minutes, then strain the oil; keep it in the fridge and use it within a week.
- Slice the garlic very thinly and soak it in the milk for 30 minutes.
- Drain the garlic and pat it completely dry with paper towels.
- Heat the peanut oil in the small frying pan over medium-low heat and fry the garlic for 2–3 minutes, stirring, until pale gold.
- Lift the garlic onto paper towels at once; it darkens as it cools and turns bitter if it browns in the pan.
- Cut the bread into 5 mm cubes and fry them in 15 g of the ghee over medium heat for 3–4 minutes, until golden; drain on paper towels.
- Brush any soil off the chanterelles, trim the stem ends and tear large ones in half; rinse them quickly only if gritty, then dry them well.
- Wipe the porcini caps with a damp cloth instead of washing them, and cut them into large pieces.
- Heat the remaining 25 g of ghee in the large frying pan over high heat until it shimmers.
- Fry the mushrooms in a single layer, in two batches, for 4–5 minutes, until browned and crisp at the edges.
- Season with salt and pepper and let them cool to room temperature.
- Line the wok with foil, put the wood chips in the middle and set the rack above them.
- Open a window and turn on the extractor, then heat the wok over medium-high heat for 3–5 minutes, until the chips smoke steadily, and turn off the heat.
- Set the mushrooms on the heatproof plate on the rack, cover tightly and leave them for 5–7 minutes.
- Lift the lid under the extractor and toss the mushrooms with the garlic chips. If you are not smoking, season the mushrooms with smoked salt instead.
- Pile the mushrooms on four plates and scatter over the croutons.
- Finish with the microgreens, crispy onions, a drizzle of thyme oil and a pinch of black salt.
- Salad starts with mushrooms
- Chop the bread finely and fry on ghee butter.
- Wash the chanterelles and remove the mushroom stipes.
- Wipe the porcini caps with a wet towel.
- It’s not recommended to wash them with water otherwise they will be boiling on the frying pan.
- Chop them coarsely.
- Put some ghee butter to the frying pan and heat it well.
- You have to bear in mind that chanterelles open their taste at the temperature above 150 degrees.
- Put the mushrooms to the frying pan, season with salt and pepper and fry till crisp. Chill it.
- Now it’s Smoking Gun’s turn, I say so
- But the mushrooms to the small bowl and tightly wrap it with plastic foil.
- Make a small hole and insert the Smoking Gun tube into it.
- I also apply some tape to fix it accurately.
- Put the apple sawing to the gun, filling it by half. Switch on the Smoking Gun, set on fire and smoke.
- When all the sawdust burnt out, turn the device off.
- Leave it for 5-7 minutes and then assemble the salad.
- Thyme oil
- Pour the oil to the stewpan, add the fresh thyme.
- Put the stewpan to the oven heated to 75 degrees and cook for 1.5 hrs.
- My onion flakes
- Cut each onion into 4-6 pieces, divide the layers and sprinkle with a little of olive oil.
- Put in the oven, preheated to 180 degrees until a light golden brown.
- Get it out, chill the oven, set the temperature to 80 degrees and put the onions back to complete dry-curing for 6-8 hours.
- Garlic chips
- Finely slice the garlic and put it to milk overnight.
- Then wipe the garlic with a paper towel.
- Fry in peanut oil until gold brown.
- Let’s assemble it!
- Mix the mushrooms with the garlic chips, put it to the plate and add the croutons chaotically.
- You won’t manage that in any other way because of the excitingly trembling hands.
- Add the micro green and onion flakes, and sprinkle with the thyme-flavoured oil. Done! Ready!
- It’s a high time to put aside your basket, grab a spoon and taste it, otherwise there is a risk you’ll be too late and get nothing.
What we changed for home
- Smoking gun replaced with a foil-lined wok and a spoonful of apple-wood chips, or with smoked salt A smoking gun is a bar and restaurant gadget. A covered wok with smoking chips gives the same short apple-wood smoke; smoked salt is a lighter fallback.
- Thyme oil made as a 100 ml batch in a saucepan instead of 500 ml in a 75°C (167°F) oven for 1½ hours The salad uses a few spoonfuls. Oil infused with fresh herbs should be kept in the fridge and used within a week, so a large batch goes to waste.
- Home-dried onion flakes replaced with store-bought crispy fried onions The chef dries onion petals for 6–8 hours; crispy onions from a supermarket or Asian shop give the same crunch.
- Garlic soaked in milk for 30 minutes instead of overnight Half an hour already softens the sharp taste; soak overnight if you plan ahead.
- Amounts set for four plates The chef's garnish amounts (10 g of croutons, 5 g of microgreens) are for one or two plates.
- Porcini can be king oyster mushrooms, and black salt can be flaky sea salt Fresh porcini are seasonal; black lava salt is a specialist product and mainly adds colour.
The dish in the photograph was cooked by the restaurant for this story. Photo: Oleksandr Slyadnyev.
Screen stays on while you cook