Autumn recipes with a fungi focus

Autumn is definitely here, the colours are just beginning to turn and the season for wild mushrooms has opened. In the market in Basel every weekday morning, there's a stall that sells only wild fungi. If you're a mushroom collector yourself, you can take your own basket of goodies and for a small fee they'll check them out for you and give them a certificate of health. Otherwise buy some and use them in any of these gorgeous autumn dishes.

It’s good if you can find a nice assortment of wild mushrooms (e.g. chanterelles (yellow or grey), horns of plenty, hedgehog fungus, shitake, ceps etc.) for this lovely autumn salad, served over mixed salad leaves. Otherwise make up the weight with cultivated mushrooms. The hazelnuts and the lardons are optional, but provide a nice bit of crunch.

• If using hazelnuts, toast them first: heat the oven to 200oC. 
• Put the nuts in a small tin and toast/roast them for about 10 minutes – be careful, they burn easily
• Rub and blow away any husks that will come away easily
• Roughly chop the nuts and reserve them
• If using lardons, fry them gently without extra fat till golden and crispy and drain on paper towels
• Toss the salad in the vinaigrette and arrange it in soup bowls
• Clean the mushrooms, rinse briefly in cold water and spin briefly in a salad spinner
• Slice or quarter them depending on size
• At the last minute, fry the shallot and garlic gently in hot oil for 4-5 minutes without allowing them to brown, add the mushrooms and cook a further 5 minutes or so - they will make a lot of juice
• Raise the heat and cook till the juices evaporate
• Add 2 tbsp of vinegar and cook down hard till reduced
• Scatter a selection of mushrooms on top of the salads
• Garnish with chives, flowers and toasted hazelnuts or lardons and sprinkle with a few drops of vinegar

A tasty mushroom soup with a shot of frothy milk at the end to lighten things up. If wild mushrooms (chanterelles, ceps, horns of plenty etc.) are scarce, bulk them up with some cultivated ones. 

• Soak the ceps in a cup of hot water and leave to soften and infuse
• Heat the butter and oil, cook the onion and garlic gently without allowing them to brown
• Add the mushrooms, salt and pepper, cover and stew gently till the juices are rendered (10-15 minutes)
• Uncover the pan, raise the heat and cook hard, stirring, till juices are concentrated and evaporated
• Stir in the flour and cook a little more
• Add the stock, milk and ceps with their soaking liquid, season to taste, add a grating of nutmeg and bring to a boil, stirring
• Simmer the soup for 15 minutes – take care it doesn’t boil over!
• Blend the soup in the pan with a hand-held blender; or leave to cool a little and blend in the liquidizer
• Check the seasoning
• Froth up the milk in the coffee machine 
• Ladle the soup into 6 heated bowls or 10-12 little coffee cups and top with a bit of frothy milk (or stir in some cream instead)

A robust autumn dish of layered polenta with wild mushrooms and Gorgonzola. Great with roast chicken or quail.

• Put dried ceps or mixed fungi in a bowl, cover amply with warm water and leave to soak for about an hour or until plumped up
• Drain the soaked fungi and rinse well to remove grit; strain the juice through a fine cloth or a coffee filter paper
• Put 1 litre (4 cups) water and 1 cup of strained juice in a large pan with the salt or stock cube and bring to a boil
• Tip in the polenta and bring to a boil, stirring vigorously – it will plop about explosively – and then simmer for 5 minutes, stirring the while
• Turn the polenta into a greased dish (or spread onto a piece of foil and shape into a rectangle) and let it cool
• Trim the fresh mushrooms, wash briefly under running water and slice 
• Melt the butter in a saucepan and soften the spring onions and garlic
• Add the sliced mushrooms and drained fungi, season with salt & pepper, cover and cook till they wilt a bit and render their juice
• Raise the heat and cook hard to evaporate and concentrate juices
• Add 4-5 tbsp soaking liquid + 3 tbsp cream and simmer 5 minutes more 
• When the polenta is cool, cut it in 1 cm slices, arrange a layer in the bottom of a lightly oiled ovenproof dish and cover with some cheese and half the mushrooms. 
• Follow with more polenta, more cheese and the remaining mushrooms. 
• Finish with a layer of polenta, fromage blanc and more cheese
• Bake in a 200oC oven for about 30 minutes or until thoroughly hot and bubbly

The classic Swiss dish of diced veal with mushrooms in a yummy creamy sauce. Include some wild mushrooms with the cultivated ones, if available.

• Put a handful of flour, a pinch of salt and some freshly ground black pepper in a plastic bag
• Throw in some veal and kidneys (if using), a handful at a time, shake well to coat with seasoned flour. Tip into a colander and shake off any excess flour
• Heat some of the butter and oil in a heavy frying pan and sear the meat VERY briefly in several batches, turning once. Remove the meat as it is ready and keep warm in a dish in a 80oC (cool) oven (or the warming drawer of a Swiss stove)
• Add a little more butter and oil if necessary to film the bottom of the pan and fry the onion and garlic gently till golden
• Add the mushrooms, lemon juice and thyme, season to taste, cover the pan and cook for 5-6 minutes till the juices run
• Uncover the pan, raise the heat and cook hard to evaporate juices
• Add the wine and cook hard to reduce to almost nothing
• Add the stock and cream and boil steadily for 5-10 minutes or until well reduced and tasty. Put the reserved meat (and kidneys, if using) into the mushroom sauce. If ready to serve, heat the meat and sauce very briefly just enough to heat through and amalgamate the flavours. Alternatively, for a longer wait, let sauce and meat cool, refigerate them. Reheat just before serving
• Sprinkle chopped parsley over the finished dish and serve with Rösti 
• VARIATION: use tender, diced game instead of veal