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Daily Maverick
11-07-2025
- General
- Daily Maverick
AirFryday: Zesty brown mushrooms in your air fryer
Mushrooms cook madly quickly in an air fryer. Put them in on the highest heat, as the last element you cook before serving your meal. Mushrooms can be seasoned with salt and pepper and one or two extra seasonings of your choice, then cooked in 10 to 15 minutes. These mushrooms were intended as a side-dish to chicken portions I had cooked in my large air fryer. But they can serve other purposes too. Once cooked, they can be scooped out, cooled, sliced and used as a stuffing for an omelette or in a frittata. Or spoon them onto buttered toast and pour the pan juices over to be soaked up by the bread. I like something zesty with mushrooms. I often use a squeeze or two of lemon juice and also lots of garlic when cooking them in a pan. To achieve that zestiness in an air fryer I avoided using juice, as the mushrooms have plenty of their own juices which they release during cooking. The juices render out into the pan – in this case the air fryer basket. You can cook them for less time or more – cooking them for longer will enable their juices, which they release when very hot, to cook away to a degree. The longer you cook them, the more the juices will evaporate. But those juices have their own value. You can think of them as a sauce, to be spooned or poured over the cooked mushrooms when serving. I sometimes pour mushroom juices onto a steak if they're accompanying that. Instead of citrus juice, however, I decided to use lime zest, from a lime so ripe that it had turned yellow to resemble a small lemon more than a lime. But taste the juice and it is unquestionably just a very ripe lime. The only other seasonings were salt and black pepper, but you can use some garlic and/or chilli, or a powdered chilli spice such as cayenne pepper. I also grated some fine zest onto the mushrooms when serving. These brown mushrooms were medium in size, not the huge ones often found at vegetable markets. I used a very high-quality olive oil for these – De Rustica Estate Collection Coratina olive oil. Its green olive flavour profile adds some intrigue to the mushrooms' own taste. Note that mushrooms soak up olive oil, which is why I used more of it than I might normally use in an air fryer. Tony's zesty brown mushrooms in the air fryer (Serves 2 as a side-portion) Ingredients 8 medium brown mushrooms 4 to 6 Tbsps De Rustica Estate Collection Coratina olive oil Salt and black pepper to taste Zest of 1 lime Method Put the mushrooms in a bowl and add the seasoning, olive oil and half of the zest. Toss well so that everything is evenly coated. Preheat the air fryer to 190°C. Cook at 190°C for 15 minutes, shaking the basket after 5 and 10 minutes. They should be soft with some firmness by now. If you're not happy, put them in for 2 or 3 minutes more. Sprinkle the remaining lime zest over when serving. DM Tony Jackman is twice winner of the Galliova Food Writer of the year award, in 2021 and 2023.
Daily Maverick
12-05-2025
- Daily Maverick
Lekker Brekker Monday: Olive oil-poached eggs with lavender and garlic
A bounty of high-quality extra virgin olive oil has come my way, thanks to a round-figure birthday and the generosity of friends. It has me seeking to use it in ways that honour the best this product can be. So why not breakfast… One of the advantages of being known to be a 'foodie', though that's not a term I'm very fond of, is that people tend to know what you do for a living. And when they're thinking, 'What shall we get Tones for his birthday?', their thoughts immediately go to food. Let me be clear: I cannot afford most of the fancy olive oils that I'd prefer to use, so I, like most of you out there, tend to buy (relatively) cheap. Yes, of course there's no such thing as cheap olive oil, but you know what I mean. As if the four bottles of fine extra virgin olive oil that arrived on my birthday were not enough, I was also sent product by Tokara in Stellenbosch (and their exquisite aged balsamic vinegar), and award-winning versions by no less than De Rustica. De Rustica is near De Rust, which is 35km from Oudshoorn just before the road carries you through Meiringspoort towards Klaarstroom and Prince Albert, unless you turn right towards Willowmore and on to Abeerdeen, Graaff-Reinet and ultimately Cradock. That's our route home when going via Route 62. When I chatted by phone to Rob Still, who owns De Rustica, last week, he told me he was sending me some of his olive oil. Their De Rustica Estate Collection Coratina had just been placed second overall in the annual Evooleum competition, the only estate outside of Italy and Spain to be ushered into the top 10. That was the 2024 edition of Coratina. He sent me the 2025 edition which he says he believes is even better. Now, I don't know if he'd be pleased or horrified that I have poached eggs in it. But if I just poured some over a salad it would seem like a missed opportunity to do something a little more profound with it, given its pedigree. Or just drink it… And I did have a taste of it, pure and raw. The tasting notes on De Rustica's website say you're looking for green almond, artichoke and 'peppery spice' when tasting. With this in mind, I'm planning a pasta dish this week using another birthday gift: a jar of artichokes with peppers, garlic and herbs. I'll know more about that recipe once I've thought it through, so watch this space. The eggs will not look anything like water-poached eggs, more like fried eggs in appearance. I fried some slices of tomato to go alongside the eggs. Tony's olive oil-poached eggs with fried tomato on the side (Serves 2) Ingredients 4 eggs ½ a cup of the best extra virgin olive oil that suits your budget (or enough to almost cover the eggs, leaving the yolks exposed) 2 lavender sprigs 2 garlic cloves, peeled and slightly crushed Salt to taste 1 medium tomato Butter for frying the tomato Method While the eggs are poaching, slice a tomato and fry the slices lightly in a little butter. If you're serving anything else with these oil-poached eggs – bacon, toast, whatever – get those ready before or while you poach the eggs. This recipe concerns only the poached eggs. Pick two lavender sprigs and peel two garlic cloves. Press the cloves down with the flat side of a knife, but not too hard; just enough for the juices to be released. Pour the olive oil into a nonstick pan (preferably a medium-sized one, not overly large) and add the garlic cloves and lavender sprigs. Put the heat on medium and let the olive oil heat up. It should not be very hot. There will be a gentle bubbling in the pan, around the eggs, but if it is brisk, turn the heat down. Leave the eggs undisturbed until the whites are set. Spoon some oil over the yolks, just to set the film of albumen above the yellow. Lift the eggs onto plates, salt lightly, add the tomato slices, and garnish with lavender sprigs. DM Tony Jackman is twice winner of the Galliova Food Writer of the year award, in 2021 and 2023
