MUSHROOM AND GINGER BROTH

Prep time: 1 hour 30 minutes (plus 24 hours soaking time) Cook time: 25 minutes

Serves 4

There are plenty of Asian mushrooms being farmed in the UK now, and when our native wild mushrooms aren’t growing, they’re perfect broth material. You don’t have to do the dumplings, but I often stare at what’s in the strainer after making the stock and think ‘I can’t throw that in the compost.’ You can find gyoza wrappers online.

INGREDIENTS

For the stock

– 200g button mushrooms, washed if necessary and sliced – 3-4 dried shiitake,

soaked for 24 hours

– 1 medium onion,

roughly chopped

– 4 cloves of garlic,

peeled and sliced

– 1 litre vegetable stock

To serve

– 12 gyoza wrappers – 120-150g Asian mushrooms, such as shiitake or king oyster – 30g root ginger, scraped and finely shredded (use the skin in the stock)

– 1-2 red or green chillies, trimmed and thinly sliced, seeds and all

– 3-4 spring onions, trimmed and thinly sliced at an angle

– a small handful of

coriander, chopped

METHOD

Put all the stock ingredients into a saucepan with the soaking water, bring to the boil and simmer very gently for an hour.

Strain through a fine sieve into a pan, leave the strained ingredients to cool on a plate then finely chop them.

Put them into a pan on a low heat and cook gently, stirring every so often until the mix is dry, then season and transfer to a plate to cool.

To make the dumplings, lay out the gyoza wrappers and brush the edges with cold water. Place a teaspoon of the chopped mushrooms in the centre and fold over. Press the edges firmly with your fingers to seal.

Bring the broth to a simmer and season, cut the mushrooms up and add to the broth with the shredded ginger and continue simmering for 5 minutes, until tender.

Add the chillies and dumplings and simmer for another 5 minutes, then stir in the spring onions and coriander and serve.