Fried Parasol Mushrooms
In Slovenia, parasol mushrooms, or ‘marele’, are in season in the fall. The name comes from their shape: marela is a colloquial Slovenian word for umbrella, and dežnik, the root of their other name, dežnikarica, is the standard one.
I would always go mushroom picking with my parents or my grandparents. If we were lucky enough to find some parasol mushrooms, my mom always prepared them the same way. She removed the tough stems, cut the caps into pieces, and breaded them like a schnitzel: flour, then egg, then breadcrumbs. She fried them until golden and served them hot with fresh bread and tartar sauce.
Recipe
Ingredients:
6 parasol mushroom caps
60 g flour
3 eggs
½ teaspoon salt
80 g breadcrumbs
oil for frying
tartar sauce
Instructions:
Clean the mushroom caps and remove the stems. Cut them into pieces of whatever size you like.
Set out three plates: put the flour on the first, beat the eggs with the salt on the second, and pour the breadcrumbs onto the third.
Coat the mushroom pieces first in flour, then in egg, and finally in breadcrumbs.
Heat about 3 cm of frying oil in a pan. The oil is hot enough when small bubbles form around the handle of a wooden spoon dipped into it. Fry the mushrooms over medium heat for a few minutes on each side, until golden brown. If the oil is too hot, they will brown too quickly and the inside won't cook through properly.
Transfer the fried mushrooms to a paper towel to absorb the excess oil. Lay them out in a single layer so they stay crispy.
Serve them hot, with fresh bread and tartar sauce.