Next, make the filling. Heat a large frying pan over a medium-high heat. Add the butter and half the oil. When the fat is bubbling away, add both the soaked and fresh mushrooms, along with the parsley and thyme. Season with salt and pepper. Toss the mushrooms around the pan and cook for 3-4 minutes, until softened. Mushroom lovers, here’s how to give a festive way to serve mashed potatoes or creamy French style purée. To store: Place in a paper bag in the salad drawer of the refrigerator and use by the best before date.To prepare: Rinse thoroughly under cold running water and dry before use. Do not peel. Leave the mushrooms whole or slice as necessary. If baking and stuffing remove the stalk before stuffing. Heat the olive oil in a large heavy-based pan. Slowly fry the bacon lardons over a low heat until golden brown but not too crispy. Add the onion, celery, carrots, garlic and fennelseeds. Add a good pinch of salt. Slowly fry this soffrito in the oil for at least 30 minutes, stirring from time to time, until sweet and very soft.

To cook: Fry in butter over a high heat or grill, brushed with olive oil for 5-10 minutes, sprinkled with chopped fresh parsley and garlic. Chanterelle To prepare: Wipe with a kitchen towel or rinse briefly and dry before use. Do not peel. Leave the mushrooms whole or slice as necessary. Potabellini Heat the oven to 180C (160 fan)/350F/gas 4. Transfer the lentils to a deep 20cm casserole dish and top with the celeriac-potato mix. Bake for 20 minutes, then finish under the grill to get a nice golden top.To prepare: Cultivated mushrooms are usually very clean: just wipe with a kitchen towel or rinse briefly and dry before use. Do not peel. Leave the mushrooms whole or slice as necessary. I’d be interested to know if those who are more widely into foraging consider that a more or less surprising mistake than confusing a cep with a deadly webcap? Ivy and elder look nothing like each other. Mushrooms are harder to identify than plants: there is less to go. And making a similar mistake of the sort that I made with fruit on those occasions with the wrong deadly mushroom, could lead to at least significant morbidity. Uses: Sauté whole flat mushrooms in a little butter and garlic or remove the stalk and stuff and bake.

To prepare: There is no need to wash, just wipe with a kitchen towel. Remove the tough stems and slice or leave the mushroom cap whole. To store: Keep dried porcini in a cool, dry place and consume by the best before date. Once soaked in water use within 2 hours. To cook: Fry in butter over a high heat or grill, brushed with olive oil for 5-10 minutes, sprinkled with chopped fresh parsley and garlic. Gigante From food writer Liz O’Keefe’s upcoming mushroom cookbook co-authored with the Mushroom Man Michael Hyams.Named after the enoki tree that it grows on, the wild variety has a tiny yellow-orange cap with a long, slender stem, the more common cultivated variety are a creamy colour. They have a sweet, fruity flavour with a slight crunch and are native to Japan where they are widely used. Available all year. Distribution – 3/5– quite common, though enigmatic, often with a short, intense season (3 weeks around the start of September in Scotland, usually later further south), and rapidly infested/decomposing.