Magic mushrooms

Simon Courtauld

Simon Courtauld says spring brings exotic fungi and some wonderful vegetables

Mushrooms reappear this month. There are, to be precise, two edible varieties which, for reasons unknown to me, choose to break cover in spring rather than, like the rest of the prolific fungal family, in late summer and autumn. The morel, cone-shaped and with a wrinkled, brown or black outer skin, is a woodland mushroom which apparently has a particular liking for ground that has been burned by forest fire. It is seen more frequently in France, often in the mountains – and on French menus – than in this country.

The celebrated mycologist Roger Phillips, who once cooked for me a delicious dish of the purplish and rather sinister-looking amethyst deceiver mushrooms, recommends sautéeing morels in butter, then stirring in an egg yolk and cream and eating them on fried bread. Alternatively, they can be cooked with double cream and served on a toasted brioche. If you cannot find morels easily, or they are too expensive, the dried ones will do almost as well. They are often cooked with chicken or pork.

The other spring fungus is known as St George’s mushroom (because its season begins around 23 April), and flourishes on Salisbury Plain within a few miles of where I live. A friend once told me where to pick them but swore me to secrecy as she harvests them every year for an expensive London restaurant. In the last week of April I go back to the same area, walking carefully in the long grass which often hides these pale-coloured beauties growing in half-moon or ring formations. The St George’s mushroom is also highly prized in France, where it is called le vrai mousseron. I think they are best cooked with chopped parsley and garlic and are particularly good in a risotto, perhaps with asparagus, or an omelette.

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