Brown butter mushroom tartlet with bacon jam recipe

Prepare: less than 30 mins
Cook: 10 to 30 mins
Serve: Serves 4
Dietary: Nut-free Pregnancy-friendly

Sweet, salty bacon jam is the perfect ingredient to make an otherwise simple mushroom tart really special. If you can't get hold of the mushrooms Suzie uses, most large supermarkets sell packs of exotic mixed mushrooms which will also work brilliantly.

By Suzie Lee

From Suzie Lee's Great Food Made Simple

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Ingredients

For the bacon jam

200g/7oz smoked bacon, sliced into small strips
1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 shallots, thinly sliced
3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
75g/2½oz dark brown sugar
3 tbsp apple cider vinegar
3 tbsp honey
½ chilli, seeds removed and finely chopped

For the pickled mushrooms

100ml/3½fl oz white wine vinegar
3 tbsp caster sugar
1 tsp salt
pinch freshly ground black pepper
50g/1¾oz beech mushrooms
50g/1¾oz enoki mushrooms
30g/1oz cordyceps
30 baby oyster mushrooms

For the brown butter and mushroom filling

100g/3½oz salted butter
100g/3½oz king oyster mushrooms, roughly chopped
100g/3½oz baby button mushrooms, roughly chopped
100g/3½oz chestnut mushrooms, roughly chopped
100g/3½oz shiitake mushrooms, roughly chopped
100g/3½oz oyster mushrooms, roughly chopped
pinch of salt
3 springs thyme
2 garlic cloves, finely sliced

For the pastry

1 free-range egg
320g pack ready-rolled all-butter puff pastry (about 35x23cm/14x9in)

Recipe tips

Method

To make the bacon jam, begin by setting a frying pan over high heat. Once hot, fry the bacon until crisp, this will take 5–7 minutes. Remove the bacon from the pan and set aside.
Reduce the heat to low, and add a splash of oil, if needed. Add the shallots and garlic and cook slowly until softened, this will take 10 minutes.
Once the shallots are soft, add the sugar, vinegar, honey and chilli to the pan. Cook gently over a low–medium heat, until the vinegar and sugar syrup has reduced in volume, this will take 5–10 minutes. Stir continually to ensure the shallot jam does not stick to the pan and burn.
Add the crispy bacon to the jam and cook until thick and sticky, this will take a further 10 minutes. Add a pinch of salt to balance flavour if needed. Set aside.
To make the pickled mushrooms, combine the white wine vinegar, caster sugar, salt and pepper in a bowl. Add the mushrooms and set aside to pickle until needed.
To make the brown butter, put the butter in a small pan over a medium heat. Continually swirl the butter in the pan for 5–7 minutes. The milk fats and solids will separate, and this is what you want to brown – you don't want the butter to burn, as it will become bitter so keep a close eye on it and reduce the heat if needed. Transfer the browned butter to a bowl and allow to cool.
To make the tart, preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas 6.
On a baking sheet, roll out the pastry, keeping the parchment underneath.
Score the edges of the pastry, making a 1cm/½in border and brush with egg wash all over.
Place into the preheated oven and bake for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, add all the roughly chopped mushrooms to a large sauté pan (do this in batches if you don't have a large enough pan). Cook over a high heat for 2 minutes, turning occasionally.
Add a pinch of salt and the brown butter. Stir to coat the mushrooms in the butter and cook for a further minute.
Stir in the garlic and thyme and cook over a low heat until the mushrooms release their liquids. Set aside.
Once cooked, remove the pastry from the oven and using a spoon, push down the middle of the pastry. Allow to cool briefly.
Spread the bacon jam over the cooked pastry, arrange the brown butter mushroom mixture on top and finish with the pickled mushrooms.