Finally the mushrooms are showing up, they are late this year. For Cooking with Cook, we go out with a professional wild picker who knows exactly which mushrooms you should have and, above all, which ones you should leave alone. Peter Boek has been doing it for years and is exactly what we need on this mission: a safe guide.
In many nature reserves you are not allowed to pick mushrooms. They serve as food for the wild animals living there. But it is possible in the Alkmaarder Hout. “Provided you never take everything that is there with you,” says Peter. “Thanks to the spores, a kind of seeds, that fall from a mushroom, the fungus that is underground can spread.”
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We find beautiful porcini mushrooms; one of the tastiest mushrooms you can find in the wild. But here in the lawn, a few meters away, there is also the most dangerous mushroom there is: the green tuberous manite.
“This one is beautiful green, but sometimes they also look deceptively white.” Compare the photo above with the one below: they are both green tuberous manites. “If you eat such a mushroom in its entirety, you are guaranteed to die,” says Peter.
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Enough warnings. In the Alkmaar restaurant Neder they like to cook with what Dutch nature has to offer. Chef Brian Luikel makes tea with the beech leaves we just collected. In the Neder restaurant he only cooks with ingredients that come from – indeed – the Netherlands. You will therefore not find exotic things such as coffee or cloves in his dishes.
The sweet chestnuts are very welcome and Pieter is very happy with the porcini mushrooms that we bring. “What a beautiful mushroom that is!” Our dish today fits in perfectly with Neder’s philosophy: a sandwich with roasted chestnuts, mushrooms and goose.
Ingredients for four sandwiches
– handful of sweet chestnuts
– 150 grams of different mushrooms, cleaned
– four thick slices of fresh sourdough bread
– 200 grams smoked goose breast (or duck breast, which is easier to obtain)
– large knob of butter
– two finely chopped cloves of fresh garlic
– sprig of rosemary
– few sprigs of curly parsley
– coarse sea salt
– olive oil
Preparation method
Preheat the oven to 190 degrees. Roast the chestnuts by cutting a cross in them and placing them on a baking tray in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes. Let them cool a bit, peel them and set aside. Then chop the parsley and set aside. Clean the mushrooms and cut them into large pieces. Place a pan over medium heat with a knob of butter in it and add the mushrooms with the whole sprigs of rosemary and garlic. Stir well and when the mushrooms become a little translucent, add the chestnuts. Stir again, turn the heat down and remove the rosemary sprigs. In the meantime, sprinkle the rolls with a little olive oil and place the slices of meat on top. Spoon the mushroom/chestnut mix on top and decorate with a little parsley. If necessary, add a pinch of sea salt to taste.
Enjoy your meal!
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