Beer-battered mushrooms

This native Australian spice blend heats up salt flakes in a dry frying pan to gently release flavour from the spices to flavour crisp mushroom slices, cooked in a light beer batter.

• serves

  4

• prep

  5 minutes

• cook

  5 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• 5 large pine or portobello mushrooms
• 2 litres vegetable oil, for deep-frying
• lemon wedges, to serve

Beer Batter

• 1 cup (150 g) self-raising flour
• 1 bottle (375 ml) ice-cold beer

Aussie spice salt

• 2 tsp sea salt flakes
• ¼ tsp mountain pepper
• ¼ tsp ground wattleseed
• ¼ tsp ground kutjera (bush tomato)
• ¼ tsp ground aniseed myrtle
• ¼ tsp smoked paprika
• ½ tsp saltbush powder

Instructions

1. For the beer batter, combine the flour and beer in a large bowl, whisking lightly to combine. Don't over-mix the batter. Retaining a few lumps is fine. Slice the mushrooms into thick strips around 1 cm wide.
2. For the native ingredient salt, heat the salt in a frying pan and toast until hot. Pour over the remaining ingredients in a mortar and grind to a fine powder.
3. Heat your oil in a large saucepan to 170˚C. Dip each piece of mushroom into the batter, and fry for around 3 minutes until golden brown. Drain on a wire rack.
4. In a large bowl, toss the mushrooms with the native ingredient salt and serve with lemon wedges.

 

Photography by Kitti Gould.

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Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.