Forager’s Delight
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The Forager’s delight cocktail blends the flavors of mushroom vodka, amontillado sherry and an emulsified miso brown butter syrup to make an unforgettable cocktail. If you want to wow your friends at your next cocktail party, you must make this drink. Since this is a blended cocktail, you could easily scale up the ingredients to make a large batch.
I came across this mushroom vodka on a cold rainy March day at my local farmers market, and I’m so glad I did, because I haven’t seen it since! It’s made from a NY distillery located in the finger lakes. When i spoke with the gentleman who makes it, he said he was working on a mushroom gin as well. I was able to find them online and they offer a few other mushroom infused vodka, but since Hen of the Woods is my favorite mushroom, its the variety I went with.
I knew I wanted to do something really weird with it. A martini would be delicious, of course, but I really like the flavor of mushrooms cooked in butter, and a little miso for the extra umami boost. Then I remembered how delicious brown butter miso chocolate chip cookies were, and the idea kind of took shape from there. Instead of adding chocolate, which I don’t think would work with the flavor of mushroom, I opted for hazelnuts. Hazelnuts and mushrooms in butter actually work quite beautifully together.
You’ll need the following equipment:
I had always wanted to test out Dave Arnold’s cold butter syrup recipe, and this was the perfect opportunity. Of course I will be tweaking it a bit when it comes to the stabilizers. Since I already have gum arabic and xanthan gum on hand, I decided to use a 9:1 combination of them instead of purchasing Ticoloid210s which is what Dave uses to keep his emulsified. I’m also adding less sugar, because I find his syrup recipes to always be too sweet for me. The tweaking doesn’t end there- I am also using mushroom tea in place of water to bump up the mushroom flavor even more.
To make the mushroom tea, I’ll add about 8-10 slices of dried shiitake mushrooms to my tea pot, then cover them with about a cup and a half of hot water. These just need to steep for 20 minutes.
While The mushroom tea steeps, I’ll start on the hazelnut miso brown butter.
First I’ll crush a few hazelnuts in a dry pan for a few minutes. Then I will add in 30 grams of butter. Once the butter has belted and started to brown, I will add 1 tablespoon of white miso and using a rubber spatula, work the miso, brown butter and hazelnuts together and remove from the heat. Then I will strain out all the large particles from the melted butter.
Once 20 minutes have passed, I will strain the tea and add that to a container along with the melted butter and 0.675 grams of gum arabic and 0.075 grams of xanthan gum and blend using an immersion blender for a minute. Once the gums have been fully distributed, I will add in 40 grams of sugar and blend until the sugar has dissolved. I want this butter to chill in the fridge. Thanks to the stabilizing gums, it won’t solidify or split.
Once the syrup has chilled, we can build this cocktail. I’m choosing to blend this cocktail to ensure the butter syrup gets evenly distributed in the drink.
To my blender I’ll add 1 ounce of the hazelnut miso brown butter syrup, 1 ounce of amontillado sherry- which will accentuate the nuttiness of both the mushroom and the hazelnuts. Lastly, I’ll add 1.5 oz of the Hen of the Woods flavored Mushroom along with a cup of crushed ice. Crushed ice blends more evenly than cubed, which is why I prefer to use it in blended drinks. Ill blend this up for 20 seconds, and pour it into a pearl diver glass, then cover with crushed ice.
For the garnish, I made these really cute mushrooms made of hazelnut meringues.
This cocktail went over quite well with my mushroom loving husband. I think its safe to say I will be making this butter syrup again.
Ingredients:
1 oz Brown Butter Miso and Hazelnut Syrup*
Oloroso Sherry
Mushroom Vodka
1 Cup Crushed Ice
Method:
Blend all ingredients in a blender on high for 30 seconds.
Serve in a Pearl Diver glass and top with more crushed ice. Garnish with a hazelnut meringue mushroom.
Equipment:
Brown Butter Miso & Hazelnut Syrup*
0.675g Gum Arabic
0.075g Xanthan Gum
5-6 Dried Shiitake Mushrooms slices
30g Butter
1 tbsp White Miso
7-8 Hazelnuts
40g White Sugar
1 Cup Hot Water
Method:
1. Toast hazelnuts in a pan until slightly golden, add butter and cook until it begins to darken. turn off heat and add 1 tablespoon of miso. Strain the butter while still warm.
2. Combine 1 cup of boiling water with 6 pieces of dried shiitake mushrooms, let steep for 20 minutes.
3. Combine brown butter with 40 grams of sugar and 50 grams of mushroom tea and blend with an immersion blender. add xanthan gum and gum arabic and continue to blend for 1 minute. Let the butter syrup cool in the refrigerator before using.
