Chicken of the woods potato gnocchi

Mushroom tea 1

Ingredients

• 100 g dried mushrooms/porcini
• 1.5 litres water (or chicken or beef broth)
• 2 slices of ginger
• 10 g garlic
• 3 sprigs of thyme
• 2 sprigs of rosemary
• 5 ml coriander
• 5 ml black peppercorns
• 5 ml fenugreek
• 5 ml fennel seeds
• 20 g onion, chopped
• 40 g carrot, chopped
• 1 bay leaf

Method

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan. Simmer for one hour. Strain and season to taste.

Chicken of the woods

Ingredients

• 400 g chicken of the woods, torn or chopped into small chunks
• 80 g butter
• 50 ml broth or mushroom tea
• 6 spring onions, finely sliced
• Herb flowers to garnish

Method

Sauté the chicken of the woods in the butter, add the broth, and cook until evaporated. Season to taste.

Potato gnocchi

Ingredients

• 500 g potatoes skin on
• 100 g semolina flour
• 1 pasture-reared egg

Method

Bake potatoes on a bed of rock salt at 180^oC until soft. Pass potato through a potato ricer. Sprinkle the flour over the potato. Beat egg and pour over potato and flour. With a wooden spoon work the mixture together to form a dough. Roll the dough into thin lines 1.5 cm thick. Cut into 2 cm lengths. Blanch in simmering salted water.

Skim off the gnocchi that rise to the surface. Sauté the gnocchi in a teflon-free non-stick pan in a splash of olive oil until golden in colour.

Divide the mushrooms and gnocchi equally between four hot open soup bowls. Garnish with the spring onions and the herb flowers.

Pour over the hot mushroom tea.