Chicken of the Woods mushroom tempura

While we're on delicious recipes perfect for fungi, here's the one my lovely boyfriend whipped up last week (out of pure desperation, he'll admit, as there was absolutely nothing left in our cupboards, fridge, and the final thing in the freezer was a bag of Chicken of the Woods foraged in the summer) 

chicken of the woods mushroom tempura

It's salt and pepper Chicken of the Wood with watercress and green chilli soy dip. He assured me it was incredible and having been suspicious about the odd-looking fungi, is now a firm convert.

Main ingredients

500g of Chicken of the Woods

2 tablespoons of fish sauce

3 cups of vegetable oil

bunch of watercress

2 limes

Batter
2 and a half cups of rice flour

2 tablespoons of plain flour

1 tablespoon of corn flour

300ml of chilled water

Salt and Chilli seasoning

A tablespoon of sechuan peppercorns

A tablespoon of white peppercorns

A tablespoon of black peppercorns

And six tablespoons of sea salt

Green chilli dip

A third of a cup of soy sauce

One and a half tablespoons of sweet soy sauce

A table spoon of lemon juice (or rice vinegar)

Four chopped green chillis (deseeded) and a quarter of a teaspoon of ground white pepper

1. Make the salt and pepper seasoning first. The ingredients will make more then you need, but can be kept for at least two weeks. Dry roast all the ingredients until fragrant. Remove from the heat and ground using a pestel and mortar into a fine powder

2. Next prepare the chicken of the wood by cutting it into strips and frying gently in butter

3. Put the fish sauce on the chicken of the wood and put in fridge while preparing the rest

4. To make the soy dip, combine all the ingedients and set aside

5. For the batter, sift the flour into a bowl and slowly add the chilled water until you have a smooth consistency, with no lumps — you might not need to use all the water

6. Heat the oil in a wok to a high temperature and dip the chicken of the woods in the batter then put it in the hot oil (you may need to do this in two batches)

7. Once the mushroom is browned, remove and drain on paper towels and season with the salt and pepper mix

8. Garnish with limes and serve with watercress

It apparently took around 20 minutes to prepare and cook. I'm looking forward to him making it again so I can try it!