Chef Terradillos' Spanish mushroom scramble with hazelnut and smoked onion soup | The Kitchen

ADVERTISEMENT

Roberto Terradillos is chef-patron of Spanish restaurant TERRA PALENCIA, selected for a Bib Gourmand by the Michelin Guide 2021 and a Sun by the Repsol Guide 2021. He shares with The Kitchen his recipe for Mushroom Scramble with Hazelnut and Smoked Onion Soup, a gastronomic version of a Spanish winter classic: mushroom scramble.

The mushroom scramble is a typical dish of the Basque cuisine, but it has also become a staple in other regions of northern Spain. During the mushroom season, the dish is a regular in the menus of Spanish homes and restaurants, including ours.

My version draws inspiration from my grandmother Catalina's recipe (detailed below), who would cook the wild mushrooms we hunted in the woods with my grandfather.

I like to serve this dish as a lunchtime starter during the winter season when mushrooms are at their best. The onion broth and hazelnuts are very comforting both in flavour and aroma, especially on very cold days.

As long as good mushrooms are selected, success is assured. And in my grandmother’s house, thanks to the proximity of the countryside and the mountains, there were always mushrooms in season, which made her recipe just flawless.

Spanish mushroom scramble with hazelnut and smoked onion soup

Serves: 6

Cooking time: 1.5 hours

Ingredients

For the boletus

• 500 grams of mixed mushrooms, bought or harvested in the forest, cleaned and cut into medium-sized pieces.
• Salt
• Olive oil
• 50 ml of smoked sunflower oil (you can find it in any specialized supermarket).

For the potatoes purée

• 700 gr cooked potatoes then mashed through a potato masher
• 50 gr butter
• 50 gr cream
• 25 gr truffle paste (you can find it in any specialized supermarket or gourmet store)

For the onion and hazelnut broth

• 700 gr of white onion, chopped into julienne strips
• 5 gr of soybeans
• Salt
• Sugar
• Olive oil
• 2 litres of water

For the eggs

• 1 or 2 per person.

TIP: It is important to clean the mushrooms thoroughly. There are two schools: purists prefer to scrape them with a brush and a wet napkin, others, like me, favour cleaning them well with water.

Method

We’ll prepare all the ingredients separately, then assemble them together at the end.

For the mushrooms

1. Heat a large pot over high heat and add an abundant amount of smoked sunflower oil. Wait until the oil is very hot, about 80º. If you do not have a thermometer, place the handle of a wooden spoon in the oil. The oil is ready when bubbles begin to appear around the tip of the handle.
2. Once the desired temperature is reached, add the mushrooms and cook for 6 minutes.
3. Now drain, reserving the juice and oil, and season mushrooms with salt and pepper.
4. With a help of a temperature-controlled mixer or blender, mix the reserved mushroom juice with the oil (not the boletus itself) until you get a silky cream. I repeat, do not blend the boletus.
5. Set aside.

For the potatoes purée

1. Rinse the blender. Now blend all the ingredients for the potatoes purée with the boletus cream until you reach a creamy texture.
2. Set aside.

For the onion and hazelnut broth

1. Heat a large frying pan over medium-low heat, add a little olive oil and caramelise the chopped onions, until they acquire a toasted colour, approximately 20 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent burning. (This is a process that always seems longer than it should but it’s worth the wait.) Now add the sugar, the toasted hazelnuts and the water. Now let it boil over low heat for 20 minutes.
2. Blend, strain and add the soybeans to the soup. Cook for 5 more minutes.
3. Set aside.

The eggs

1. Up to you. You can prepare a simple fried egg or a poached one. For the latter, there are many techniques, some more elaborate and difficult than others. Youtube is an excellent ally to master the technique, many tricks exist that make the preparation very easy.

Ensemble

ADVERTISEMENT

Start by serving the potato purée in the bottom of a soup plate, now place some chopped boletus, followed by the potatoes puré and on top the egg (or two). Now serve the onion soup over everything else. As a topping, you can use grated boletus, I recommend boletus Pinicola.

Serve hot.

Pair it with: A red wine from the area of Torquemada, Palencia.

More about the dish

I have introduced ingredients different than the traditionally used for a mushroom scramble to elevate the character of the boletus. The recipe’s smoky gusto, coming from the roasted vegetables in the broth and mushrooms, reminds me of grilled meat, which I love.

ADVERTISEMENT

Mushroom scrambled eggs, a traditional recipe from my grandmother Catalina

Serves: 1

Cooking time: 35 minutes

Ingredients

• 150 grams of mixed boletus, cleaned
• 2 eggs
• Olive oil
• 1 piece of garlic, peeled.
• Salt and pepper
• French fries, quantity to taste

Method

1. Start by making the desired amount of french fries. To get very crispy ones, soak them in water for about an hour after you have sliced them in your preferred shape. Rinse them twice with cold water and pat them completely dry.
2. Heat oil to 300 degrees in a large pot. Once the oil is hot, fry the potatoes in batches until golden brown. Don’t overcrowd them by placing too many in at a time, they won’t be as crispy. Use a slotted spoon to remove them from the oil and place it on a paper towel.
3. Now poach the mushrooms with olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper. To poach is to cook over low heat with just enough oil. The entire garlic will infuse your oil, then sautée your mushrooms.
4. Beat the eggs in a container while heating another pan over high heat, add eggs to the pan and lower the heat. With the help of a spoon stir little by little to obtain a creamy scramble.
5. Serve over french fries with the boletus on top.

Enjoy.