John Wright
LATIN NAME
Hydnum repandum
SEASONALITY
Late summer–early winter
HABITAT
Common in woodland, mostly with oak, beech and spruce
MORE RECIPES
Sautéed mushrooms with juniper; Woodcock with wild mushrooms
People worry about picking wild mushrooms. Sensible people do, anyway. Identifying some wild fungi is notoriously difficult, but it’s not necessary to be an expert mycologist to pick all wild mushrooms. To become a mushrooming legend, all one needs to do is learn a dozen or so that are easily identifiable. Top of my list of such fungi is the hedgehog mushroom. It is the mushroom with everything.
Delicious, firm and abundant, with no conservation concerns, it is unmistakeable and invariably maggot-free. It usually grows in large rings in oak, beech, pine and spruce woodlands. Look for it from late summer to mid-autumn. The cap of the hedgehog mushroom is creamy/buff, the texture of chamois leather, irregular in shape and adorned underneath, not by gills or tubes, but by tiny, cream-coloured spines, which break off very easily. Nothing looks remotely like it, except several bracket-like species, which always grow on wood, not the ground, and lack any sort of stem. These are not poisonous, but they are mostly very rare and should be left in peace.
The firm, dry texture of the hedgehog mushroom is unusual, as is the flavour, which is mild but very distinctive. ‘Hedgehogs’ should always be cooked, as they are slightly bitter raw, but not for very long as they toughen up easily. The cliché mushroom treatment – sautéed with garlic then simmered with cream – is ideal for this find.
The enormous number of hedgehog mushrooms that can be picked in a single foray can be tackled by slicing and drying (as for horse mushrooms). They dry very easily, but unfortunately do not reconstitute well. For this reason, after drying hedgehog mushrooms, I blitz them in a blender to create a flavoursome dried mushroom powder, to add to soups, sauces and stews. I particularly like to use this in combination with sweet chestnut flour, rather than wheat flour, to thicken the sauce for a game pie.
HEDGEHOG MUSHROOM AND BACON OMELETTE
A simple approach is often the best for wild mushrooms, as this lovely dish demonstrates. You could use almost any mushroom here: try blewits or fairy ring champignons. Serves 1
About 150g hedgehog mushrooms
2 knobs of butter
2 rashers of streaky bacon, derinded and roughly chopped
2 medium eggs, lightly beaten
Sea salt and black pepper
Using a paring knife, trim the mushroom stalks of any roots or earth. Use a pastry brush or mushroom brush to gently brush away any remnants of woodland foliage or fauna, then cut the mushrooms into bite-sized pieces.
Place a small, non-stick frying pan over a medium-high heat. Add a small knob of butter, followed by the bacon. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 2–3 minutes, by which time the bacon should be releasing its fat.
Add the mushrooms, toss them in the bacon fat and cook for 4–6 minutes or until any liquid they release has evaporated and they are turning nice and golden. Tip the contents of the pan on to a plate.
Return the pan to the heat, reduce the heat a little and add the second knob of butter. When foaming, add the beaten eggs. Move the egg around the pan, tilting the pan and lifting and pushing the set egg with a wooden spoon or spatula so the liquid egg can run down to the base of the pan. After 30–40 seconds of this, allow the omelette to settle and cook briefly until it is mostly set but with a little wet egg still on top.
Season the top of the omelette lightly with salt and pepper, then spoon the bacon and mushrooms on to one half of it. After a further 20–30 seconds, use a spatula to flip the other half of the omelette over, enveloping the filling. Slide out of the pan on to a warm plate and serve straight away.
