A Mushroom Fry Up from Kapusta

Today, my second cookbook KAPUSTA is out in Australia! To mark this occasion I am sharing a wonderful recipe from the book - a contribution from an Australian based food writer, Anastasia Zolotarev. This is a perfect dish for those going into autumn season 🤎🤎🤎

Mushroom and potato fry up 

I am so delighted to share this recipe from food writer, Anastasia Zolotarev, which revives so many beautiful mushroom memories of my own. Anastasia comes from a Belorussian-Ukrainain family, who immigrated to Australia when she was five. As a grownup, Anastasia was drawn to explore her rich Eastern European heritage through food. Similarly to my own childhood memories, hers are filled with beautiful settings of the woods where mushroom foraging was nothing short of a sacred family ritual, cherished and shared by many generations. Those moments, as Anastaisa puts it, simply ‘feel so good for the soul!’. This recipe is something that almost any Eastern European mushroom forager would cook following a trip to the woods. 

Serves 4 

1 onions, peeled and thinly sliced 

1 kg potato, peel and cut into matchsticks 

800g mushrooms (white or chestnut mushrooms), roughly chopped  

60-70g of butter

We will need to use two pans for this dish. 

In the first pan, melt 15g of butter on medium high heat, add the potatoes, spread evenly and cook undisturbed until the first golden crisp appears. Then using a broad spatula, flip the potatoes over and cook on the other side. Try to resist the urge to mix and cook for another 8-10 mins. 

Reduce heat to medium, add another 15g of butter and season with salt. Close the lid, and cook for another 20-30 mins. Stirring very gently and very occasionally.

In another pan, cook the onion on medium high heat for 10 mins in 15g of butter with a pinch of salt. Add the mushrooms with another 15g of butter and increase the heat to high. Cook for 8 mins until crispy and golden. Add salt and pepper and reduce the heat. Turn the pan off.

In the last 3 minutes of the potato cooking add everything into the potato pan. Gently stir. Add more pepper here and add more salt to taste. 

The dish is so good in its simplicity that it needs no further additions, but you could also serve it with a dollop of sour cream, freshly chopped parsley and a slice of dark rye bread.