la fête des champignons

	Nothing brings you closer to the natural world than collecting your own dinner from the great outdoors. Mushrooms are a fantastic free lunch as soon as the heavy dews of late summer and autumn begin to fall.
We don't have much of a mushrooming tradition in England but in France everyone and his dog get out in the meadows and woodlands with their baskets searching for trompettes, chanterelles, pleurote, ceps and field mushrooms.

The first rule about mushroom picking is to not go out there without any knowledge. This is irresponsible and potentially lethal behaviour. Get a basic knowledge of the kinds of mushrooms that you can expect to find in the area you're looking in and make sure that you're able to identify the dangerous ones. Once you're sure you've got some good ones, head back home, get out the pans and follow the recipe below.

September and October are the prime mushroom months, although in Scotland chanterelles are plentiful in August. At Francs, we like to keep things simple so the wonderful natural flavours are retained.

THE BASICS: Rinse your mushrooms well, removing any grass or grit. Bring to the boil a pot of slightly salted water. Prepare the mushrooms by cleaning them a discarding any tough woody ends. Throw into the boiling water, cook for 5 minutes and then drain them.

Salade aux Champignons Sauvages
Every time you return from a mushroom hunt with a few nuggets in your basket you can enjoy this salad. It's delicious made with chanterelles or morels to which you can add a few cultivated shiitake, oyster or button mushrooms.

Serves 4

• 1 ½ lb (675g) mixed mushrooms
  
• 6 tablespoons of olive oil
  
• 1 red chilli pepper very finely diced
  
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
  
• 2 tablespoons of roughly chopped flat leaf parsley
  
• 2 lemons
  
• salt and pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a pan and gently fry the garlic and chilli for a minute. Add the mushrooms, stir for a minute or so, season to taste and add the chopped parsley. Allow to cool. Serve with the lemon halves, a sprinkling of parsley and some warm baguette for mopping up the juices.