​​Pan-fried king oyster mushrooms with chicken butter sauce — a Ravinder Bhogal recipe

Nothing takes me back to my first autumn in England quite like the smell of mushrooms: the humming mulch of the forest floor with an edge of death and rot. My father had fixed a car for a man who it turned out couldn’t afford to pay him. Billy was a natural barterer. He placed a grubby paw, earth lodged under his nails, into my father’s hand and struck up a deal. He’d provide us with an ample supply of mushrooms in return for my father’s labour. The Kentish countryside where he lived was host to a vast array of diverse fungal colonies that were rare delicacies.

Every weekend Billy turned up with a blue plastic crate full of mushrooms. I’d only seen pale, anaemic button mushrooms before then — paper-thin slices fanned out on a cheese pizza — but our first delivery was fungi porn.

There were curious species of shiitakes that looked like toasted marshmallows, field mushrooms with rosy open gills, alien enoki, phallic king oysters, feathery hen-of-the-woods and chanterelles like flimsy golden parasols. The year before in Kenya, I would not have considered eating them, but the aroma of browning butter, garlic and something that smelt ripe, carnal and earthy was hard to resist that nippy October morning.

Mushrooms are mysterious. They are fairy habitats, food, medicine, caretakers of soil, sometimes psychotropic and an essential link in the eternal cycle of decay and rebirth. They can be poisonous too, of course, so find yourself a fungus fanatic like Billy or stay safe and stick to the wild or cultivated bounty at your local farmer’s market.

As people shift towards vegetarian eating, mushrooms provide the texture and umami you might find in a steak. They are tenacious enough to stand up to the boldest seasonings and bursting with their own unique meaty juices, which they release with little encouragement. Arm yourself with a searing hot cast iron pan, a pat of butter and some garlic and you too will fall under the spell of these subterranean beauties.

Pan-fried king oyster mushrooms with chicken butter sauce

Serves four as a starter

For the chicken butter sauce

To serve

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas Mark 4.

2. Carefully slice the mushrooms in half vertically. Using a sharp knife, lightly score a 5mm diagonal criss-cross pattern into the cut side of the mushrooms. Place an ovenproof frying pan over a high heat. Once the pan is almost smoking, add a drizzle of olive oil and the mushrooms cut-side down. Turn the heat down to medium-high. Cook until they turn a nice golden colour. Add the butter to the pan. Once melted, add the thyme and garlic, then season with salt and pepper. Turn the mushrooms over, baste with the foaming butter and place in the oven, while you make the sauce.

3. Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and cook the shallots until soft and translucent but not coloured. Add the wine and chicken stock and cook until reduced by half, then add the cubes of diced butter, whisking with each addition until the sauce is thick and velvety. Stir in the lemon juice, crème fraîche and tarragon, then season. Drain the mushrooms on kitchen paper and serve on brioche toast with the chicken butter sauce.

Ravinder Bhogal is chef-patron of Jikoni. Follow Ravinder on Instagram @cookinboots and Twitter @cookinboots

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