the chic and quick recipe that enhances autumn

A salad of raw porcini mushrooms, delicately seasoned, to enhance the flavors of this refined mushroom, with a few accompaniments: parmesan shavings and fresh fig.

This super simple recipe, even great chefs prepare raw porcini mushrooms this way, with few ingredients and steps. If you can find French porcini mushrooms of good quality (and not too expensive!), this chic and quick recipe is sure to become the star of your fall starters and will be a hit with your guests.

How to choose your porcini mushrooms

You can of course go to the woods to pick beautiful porcini mushroomsbut be careful: for wild picking, you really need know about edible mushrooms and, in case of doubt, check with professionalslike in a pharmacy.

To pick a porcini mushroomgrab it by the base of the foot and twist it to tear it off. From what I have gathered, it is not recommended to cut it with a knife, as you could destroy the base and prevent new growth from developing. Remove the excess from the stem and brush it with a small brush to prevent the soil from damaging the other mushrooms in your basket.

When we talk about porcini mushrooms, it is generally the variety of Bordeaux ceps to which we refer. Choose very firm porcini mushrooms, from head to toe. Avoid those that are shady and favor the smaller ones which have the pretty name “cork”.

How to prepare porcini mushrooms

Above all do not immerse or let them soak in a large volume of wateror even a trickle of tap water. The porcini mushroom is quite porous in texture and it would immediately become saturated with water.

Start by rubbing themstarting from the hat and going down to the foot, either with a small soft brush (or an old soft toothbrush) or with a paper towel, it does the trick very well.

Afterwards, remove the base of the stem by cutting thin strips all around its base. If they are a little damaged, do this on the entire foot.

Once thoroughly cleaned, slice your porcini mushrooms thinly, either with a sharp knife or with a mandolin. I prefer the knife, because we are not sure of large quantities here and, between the hat and the stem, the mandolin is not very practical. But as you wish! I cut slices of around 2 mm which I arrange in a corolla directly on the serving plates.

Carpaccio seasoning

I offer you here a good olive oil with a few drops of lemon and a drizzle of cider vinegar. As always you have several possible variations which I always prefer to give you because it’s all a matter of taste, of what you have available to cook and also to vary the pleasures, it’s so pleasant.

For the oil, you can opt for truffle oil or even walnut oil or hazelnut oil instead of olive oil. In any case, opt for a good quality and very tasty oil;

For the vinegar, it is not necessary not that it is too marked. You can use white balsamic vinegarit’s very fine and it works well with this recipe.

Lemon, fleur de sel and pepper, I go easy on this seasoning to let the porcini mushrooms play the role of star of the plate. You can use fleur de sel with truffle, Espelette pepper…

I suggest you to do not have too heavy a hand on the seasoning and put the rest of your small prepared marinade on the table as well as the seasonings available : oil, lemon vinegar, flavored salt, pepper mill, spices…

The toppings

Freshly cut parmesan shavings are perfect with porcini mushrooms. I prepare them with a vegetable peeler, it’s very practical.

Also add the toppings of your choice. Here, fresh fig, because it’s in seasonat the same time as these mushrooms and I find that the porcini and fig combo works well.,,,,,

Some variations:

• roasted walnuts or hazelnuts crushed, pine nuts for a little crunch
• chopped fresh herbs like chives
• of the scented peppers or the plain or flavored fleur de sel
• a little bit of raw ham, coppa or other dried meatswe then leave the vegetarian dish.

Do you like this mushroom? I offer you other recipes for cooking porcini mushrooms, whether with fresh porcini mushroomsin a delicious omelette or using dried porcini mushrooms. And here, I recommend that you rehydrate your porcini mushrooms in the milk or cream that you use to make your gratin for a potato gratin with fall flavors. Treat yourself to pan-fried dishes, risottos, festive purees, soups, etc.

PS quick photo taken while sitting at the table with friends. The guests loved it, so I’m sharing the recipe with you as is and will try to take some pretty photos very soon.