Kaiserlinge - Caesar´s mushrooms

Luxurious Caesar´s mushrooms

Amanita caesarea, Kaiserlinge, Caesar´s mushroos are egg-shaped when young, whitish with hidden orange, of size between a quail´s egg to bigger than a large hen´s egg…10 times more delicate than champignons, ridiculously expensive, luxurious…

Amanita caesarea, Kaiserlinge, the Caesar´s mushroos

The expert mushroom merchant at my fresh market was explaing to customers in his lovely French accent that the Kaiserlinge can be eaten raw or just briefly cooked.
The ones I bought from the market came from Italy, the ones sold at the top end foodstore Globus in Switzerland were of Bulgarian origin. Brief Internet research says that the caesar´s mushrooms can be found in the Mediterranean area in Europe. On my own mushroom foraging trips to the forests I have not seen such, but then again, Estonia is much further north.

Raw Caesar´s mushrooms

I am still looking for convincing evidence on the nutritional value of the mushrooms in general. I have seen views published that mushrooms barely have any useful nutritional content and only serve as stomach fillers or very recently that a chanterelle salad provides you with useful minerals and nutrients. Still deciding what to believe…

What I am sure of is that for those who love mushrooms it is enough to enjoy the different mushroom tastes, texture nuances and be intoxicated by the smells arising from cooking the mushrooms. The Kaiserlinge deserve to be cherished as a standalone dish without lots of additions. They are expensive to serve as a filling in a pot with other ingredients and don´t have a strong distinctive smell like say chanterelles to be used to give the mushroom note to a bigger dish. They are worth indulging on the pure taste of their own.

"Kaiserlinge" mushrooms are delicate and need very brief cooking time

Preparation:
Cut the mushrooms lengthwise into ca 5 mm slices. Heat some olive oil in the pan on medium and fry the musrooms 2 minutes on each side.
Serve just like that or add a few grains of salt, drizzle a few drops of lemon juice, thinly chopped parsley or pepperoncini oil to add a little spice.

Simple Breakfast: Pan con tomate or tomato bread

My tomato bread breakfast in Barcelona or Burgos

“Never go out in the morning without having eaten something.” My Mom used to say this and now I live by this credo of common sense. Thanks, Mom, for the habit of eating breakfast that helps me avoid the blood sugar and brain first aid kit of energy snacks.

I recently attended an Awards dinner where the company recognises the outstanding achievements in Making a Difference for people either within the company or in their communities. My colleagues from the UK won an award for establishing a charity that supports breakfasts for children in their community. A lot of children didn’t eat breakfast and were behaving badly at school, they were not paying attention and their learning suffered. Not only did their own results suffer, they also disturbed their classmates. A proper breakfast changed that. 

Roma tomatoes (the bigger ones) and date tomatoes (the small oval), cherry (the small round ones)

It is summer time in Europe and depending on where you live the tomatoes either are or will become ripe soon. My best holiday morning in Estonia would be to wonder around in the glasshouse and pick a few warm tomatoes (thanks, Dad, for all the hard work), smell the tomato leaves on the fingers and make a nice tomato sandwich with rye bread, butter and tomato with salt and pepper for breakfast. We call it “tomativõileib” or “tomato butter bread”. Like that…

Tomativõileib - tomato bread in Estonia

In Catalunya and Spain my favourite breakfast is equally tomato bread or “pa amb tomaquet”, “pan con tomate “. Tomato, olive oil, bread, that’s it basically. At home I use varieties with fewer seeds like Marzano or Roma.

A bit of fat is good with tomato. It helps the body to make use of the vitamin A from the tomatoes.

4 tomatoes

Pinch of sea salt

0.5 tsp sugar

Black pepper

3-4 tbsp olive oil

Take the skins off by cutting crosses into the top and bottom of the tomatoes, placing them into a bowl of hot water for a minute or two. Then drain the hot water and peel the skins off.

Grate the tomatoes on the side with the largest holes.

Season with salt, sugar, freshly ground pepper and olive oil.

Pa amb tomaquet in Catalan or Pan con tomate in Spanish

Serve with toasted bread. I prefer thicker more robust slices of bread to the regular toast. The slices of bread can be toasted in the oven or in the toaster.

A question on my mind: why is the tomato often very pale in the hotels in Spain where I have eaten pan con tomate? Is it because the less ripe, 2^nd class tomatoes are crushed for this dish or is there a special paler flesh variety they use?

Enjoy your breakfast, the most important meal of the day!

Fresh Herbs Series: Thin focaccia with tomato, oregano and fresh goat’s cheese

Thin focaccia with a crust

One’s own herb garden in summer – a bit of a cliché or a trendy fashion? One might grow a few pots of basil, rosemary or thyme on the windowsill or several garden boxes with a wider variety of herbs on the balcony or have the luxury of real beds of land and the choice that it allows. Regardless of the size and the species of one’s expert or beginner´s cultivation ambition undoubtedly the fresh herbs make a great deal of difference on the plate.

Take today, I wanted a light lunch that didn´t need a lot of time or any special ingredients that would require shopping. Some bread, some olives I still had from last week’s market, a few drops of Italian peperoncino olive oil that I got as a present from a friend for the Eurovision Song Contest party and a quick nip of some basil and thyme - et voilà. Apologies, I had to take a bite before I could take a photo.

Crostini with olives, thyme and basil

My summer trend, having different herbs at hand, has become focaccia. Focaccia is very easy to make despite the time it needs to raise. Yet, other than raising the dough, it is one of the easiest things to make.

Thin Focaccia with cherry tomatoes, fresh oregano and fresh goat’s cheese

Freshly baked tomato combined with the distinctive taste of goat´s cheese can be eaten when the tomato is hot, just out of the oven, still slightly warm or cold. The taste of tomato, especially the note of sour and sweet, varies with the temperature.

Ingredients

The dough:

1 packet of dry instant yeast (7g)

1 tsp salt

1tsp sugar

300g (3 cups) flour or (100g whole grain flour and 200g plain flour)

2dl (1 cup) water

2 tbsp olive oil

Mix the dry ingredients and then add the water. Mix everything and half-way add olive oil and mix again all into dough. Use a wooden spoon, a dough mixer or hands and fold for 5 minutes until all ingredients have combined into smooth dough. Form a ball. Lift the ball of dough out of the bowl and sprinkle some oil into the bowl and on the dough. This will help to get the dough out of the bowl easier later. Cover the bowl with cling film and a tea towel and leave for 1 – 1.5 hours in a warm place until the dough has doubled in size. Avoid draft as it does no good to your dough.

Set the oven to 200°C.

A colourful focaccia topping of tomato, cheese and oregano

 

Topping:

1 shalotte onion

A pinch of salt

More olive oil to drizzle on the dough

A good handful of cherry tomatoes (ca 200g), cut in half

leaves of fresh oregano

Fresh goat’s cheese

Flaky sea salt

Slice the onion and rub it with a generous pinch of salt between your fingers. Drain the liquid.

When the dough has doubled in size spread the dough on a baking tray covered with baking paper. Use slightly wet hands to smooth it. Drizzle some olive oil on the dough and arrange the tomato halves, onion, some goat’s cheese and oregano on the dough and sprinkle with sea salt.

 Bake for ca 15-20 min until a crust has formed.

A feel good snack or an appetizer at a party table