"This dish is the meatiest plant-based dish around. It’s a minimalist approach allowing mushrooms to shine brightly. The shitakes are so simple to cook but with such depth of umami flavour…The fleshy texture is enough to satisfy any carnivore" - Douglas McMaster

INGREDIENTS

For brown butter solids:
Butter 35gr
Dry milk powder 35gr
For 3CG butter:
3 cornered garlic (roughly chopped) 80gr
Double cream 320gr
Shiitake Mushrooms 320gr
For garnish:
3 cornered garlic (finely chopped) 5gr
3 cornered garlic flowers 4gr
 

ORGANISATION

Get the freshest mushrooms you can.
Forage 3 cornered garlic and its flowers (or wild garlic).
Season: December to June.

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees
Useful equipment to have: blender, cheese cloth, whisk.
Ideally your serving plate will be slightly concave. If its flat the butter will run across the plate and look messy. 
Heat the plates up before serving.
 

PREPARATION

Brown butter solids:
Melt butter
Add milk powder and whisk continuously. Cook until gold/brown.
Strain through cheese cloth and leave to drain.

3CG butter:
Blend 3CG (80gr) and cream together.
Continue until the whipped cream separates into butterfat and buttermilk. Transfer the butter in a container and keep aside.

Garnish (3CG and flowers):
Always wash before use.
Discard yellow or ruined parts.
Separate flowers from leaf.
Pick flowers individually. Store in a sealed container in the fridge with a wet cloth underneath (to keep as fresh as possible).
Finely chop 3CG (5gr)
 

SERVICE

Roast the mushrooms in a little bit of oil and salt. Dependant on the size, cook until slightly caramelised but without drying out the edges. Between 3-5 mins. Once out the oven, dress with apple cyder vinegar.
In a saucepan, melt the 3CG butter. Take off the heat. Add a pinch of salt and the finely sliced 3CG.
Spoon a large teaspoon of 3CG butter sauce on the centre of the bowl.
Add the roasted mushrooms neatly in the centre of the bowl.
Spoon a tablespoon of the brown butter solids over the mushrooms.
Sprinkle the 3CG flowers over the dish.

For more fine-dining zero waste recipes from Duncan, head over to his Brighton-based restaurant Silo right here.