Ingredients
MUSHROOM TACOS
- 700 g oyster mushrooms roughly torn
- 2 garlic cloves crushed
- 3 tbsp soy sauce
- 1½ tbsp maple syrup
- 105 ml olive oil plus extra for shaping
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 4 dried cascabel chillies stalks removed and roughly broken
- ½ tsp allspice berries
- 2 limes cut into wedges,
- to serve salt
- Nice soft Tacos
PICKLED ONIONS
- 1 red onion finely sliced into rounds on a mandolin, if you have one, or by hand
- 150g 2 oranges: finely shave the skin to get 6 strips, then juice to get 60ml
- 2 hibiscus tea bags or 5g dried hibiscus flowers (optional)
- 10 allspice berries
- 60 ml white wine vinegar
- 1 tsp caster sugar
AVOCADO CREMA
- 1 medium avocado peeled and pitted
- 90 g coconut cream
- 10 g coriander roughly chopped
PICKLED KOHLRABI
- 1 small kohlrabi or a large radish, peeled and cut into wide matchsticks (120g)
- 1½ tbsp lime juice
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200°C fan.
- Mix all the ingredients for the pickled onions in a small serving bowl with ¼ teaspoon of salt and set aside.
- Put all the ingredients for the crema into the small bowl of a food processor, with ¼ teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of water. Blitz until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl as you go. Transfer to a small serving bowl and set aside.
- Mix the kohlrabi with the lime juice and ¼ teaspoon of salt in a small serving bowl and set aside.
- In a large bowl, mix the mushrooms with the garlic, soy sauce, maple syrup, 75ml of the oil and ¾ teaspoon of salt. Blitz the cumin, cascabel chillies and allspice to a powder in a spice grinder or a pestle and mortar. Put 1½ teaspoons of the spice mix into a small bowl with the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil and set aside, to serve. Add the rest of the spice mix to the bowl of mushrooms.
- Transfer the mushrooms to two large, parchment-lined baking trays, spread out as much as possible, and roast for 20 minutes. Combine all the mushrooms on one tray, mix well and continue to roast for another 8 minutes, until crisp and browned.
- Warm the mushrooms in a hot oven for a few minutes if they have cooled, then pile on to a large platter and drizzle over the chilli oil you set aside earlier. Serve with the tortillas, lime wedges, crema and pickles (discarding the tea bags from the onions) alongside.
Notes
A tacos meal has an elasticity to it which appeals both to diners, who get to ‘make’ their own food as they assemble their tacos, and to the cook, who can choose how much effort he or she would like to put in. Here, you can prepare your own tortillas, for example, which take no technical skill, really, but still make you feel as if you’d conquered a substantial Mexican summit, or use shop-bought corn tortillas instead. Jarred pickles and a tub of guacamole are reasonable alternatives to our homemade (yet super-quick) versions. The only essential bit, which you won’t regret adding to your repertoire, is the roasted oyster mushrooms, which are crispy, chewy and soft all at once, and soak up flavours like little sponges. The mushrooms also pair wonderfully with our fresh corn polenta (p. 140) or Esme’s rough squash mash (p. 136). The pickles can be made the day before, as can the tortillas. The tortillas should be kept covered with a tea towel and warmed through in a pan or a hot oven just before you serve.
