Gebackene Champignons

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Deep heavy-bottomed pot or deep-fryer
• •Kitchen thermometer
• •Slotted spoon or spider strainer
• •Wire cooling rack
• •Three shallow bowls for breading station

Instructions

1. 1

   Prepare the mushrooms

   Clean the mushrooms with a dry brush or a lightly damp cloth. Do not wash them under running water. Mushrooms are little sponges and if they absorb water, the breading will slide off in the pan and you'll be left standing there wondering what went wrong. Trim the very end of each stem but leave the stems attached. You want whole mushrooms, not caps. The stem gives you something to hold when you eat them and it keeps the mushroom's shape intact during frying. Pat them completely dry with kitchen paper.

   Choose mushrooms that are firm and tightly closed, with no dark gills showing underneath the cap. Open, flat mushrooms have too much moisture and won't fry cleanly.
2. 2

   Make the tartare sauce

   Stir together the mayonnaise, chopped cornichons, capers, parsley, mustard, and lemon juice. Season with salt and a little white pepper. Taste it. The sauce should be sharp and tangy, a proper counterpoint to the rich fried mushrooms. If it tastes bland, add more cornichon or a second squeeze of lemon. Cover and refrigerate until serving. It's better after thirty minutes in the fridge, when the flavors have had time to settle into each other.

   Some Austrian cooks add a clove of finely grated garlic to the sauce. If you love garlic, go ahead. If you're serving these at a dinner party, let your guests decide for themselves.
3. 3

   Set up the breading station

   Line up three shallow bowls. Flour in the first, seasoned with a good pinch of salt and pepper. Beaten eggs in the second. Fine breadcrumbs in the third. This is the Wiener Panier, the same three-step breading used for Schnitzel, and the order matters. The flour creates a dry surface for the egg to cling to. The egg acts as glue for the breadcrumbs. Skip a step and the whole coating falls apart in the oil.

   Use Semmelbrösel, the fine dry breadcrumbs made from stale Semmeln (Austrian bread rolls), if you can find them. They fry up lighter and crispier than the coarse breadcrumbs sold in most supermarkets. If you can't find them, blitz regular dry breadcrumbs in a food processor until fine.
4. 4

   Bread the mushrooms

   Take each mushroom and roll it in the flour, shaking off the excess. Then dip it into the beaten egg, letting any extra drip away. Finally, roll it gently through the breadcrumbs, turning to coat evenly. Press the crumbs on lightly with your fingertips but don't pack them tight. You want a coating that will puff and lift away from the mushroom in the hot oil, not a compressed shell that clings and goes heavy. Set the breaded mushrooms on a wire rack as you go. They can sit for up to twenty minutes before frying, which actually helps the coating set.

5. 5

   Heat the oil

   Pour the oil into a deep, heavy-bottomed pot or a deep-fryer and heat it to 170°C (340°F). Use a thermometer. Guessing the temperature is how people end up with greasy, pale mushrooms or burnt ones. The oil needs to be deep enough that the mushrooms can float freely. If they sit on the bottom of the pot, the underside goes flat and you lose that beautiful all-around golden crust.

   170°C is slightly lower than you'd use for Schnitzel. Mushrooms are smaller and denser, and the breading browns faster at high heat before the inside has a chance to cook through. A little patience here gives you a better result.
6. 6

   Fry until golden

   Lower the mushrooms into the hot oil in batches of six or seven. Don't crowd the pot. Too many mushrooms at once drops the oil temperature and you end up with soggy, oil-logged breading instead of crisp. Fry for three to four minutes, turning them gently with a slotted spoon if they don't roll on their own. When the crust is an even, deep golden brown all over and the surface looks dry and crisp, lift them out and drain on kitchen paper. Season with a light sprinkle of fine salt while they're still hot. The salt sticks better on a hot surface.

   Let the oil come back to 170°C between batches. This takes a minute or two. Rushing the next batch in while the oil is recovering is the most common mistake.
7. 7

   Serve immediately

   Pile the fried mushrooms onto a wooden board or a warm plate lined with a paper napkin. Tuck lemon wedges around the edges and set the tartare sauce alongside in a small bowl. Serve while the crust is still crackling. These wait for nobody. The moment they cool, the trapped moisture inside the mushroom softens the breading, and you lose that shattering first bite. Get them to the table fast. Mahlzeit!

Chef Tips

• •Buy your mushrooms the day you make this. Fresh, firm mushrooms with tightly closed caps are the difference between a crisp result and a soggy one. If the gills are showing underneath, the mushroom has too much moisture and the breading won't hold.
• •One hand for dry ingredients, one hand for wet. Use your left hand for flour and breadcrumbs, your right hand for egg. Otherwise you end up with enormous lumpy gloves of breading on your fingers and nothing on the mushrooms. Gretel always said this is the only real technique in Austrian breading: managing your hands.
• •If you want to be truly Austrian about it, serve these with a cold Achterl of Grüner Veltliner. The wine's crisp acidity cuts right through the richness of the fried breading. That combination is why Heuriger food exists.
• •Leftover tartare sauce keeps in the fridge for three days and goes beautifully with cold cuts, boiled eggs, or spread on dark bread. Don't throw it away.

Advance Preparation

• •The tartare sauce can be made a day ahead and refrigerated. The flavor improves overnight as the cornichons and capers season the mayonnaise.
• •Mushrooms can be breaded up to twenty minutes before frying. Set them on a wire rack so the coating doesn't go soggy on the bottom. Do not bread them further ahead than that, or the moisture from the mushrooms will work through the flour layer.
• •Gebackene Champignons cannot be reheated successfully. Fry them and eat them. That's the deal.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 220g)