Cherie Metcale recipes: Skillet mushrooms; chicken and avocado salad; panna cotta with blackberry compote

Herby skillet mushrooms with lemon, feta and pine nuts. Photo / Melanie Jenkins (Flash Studios)

In an edited extract from her recent cookbook, Together, Tauranga-based chef Cherie Metcalfe offers three recipes perfect for a summer feast

Herby skillet mushrooms with lemon, feta and pine nuts

SERVES 4

This humble side dish will take only 10 minutes to throw together. Sizzled and served in the same pan, the tender mushrooms go perfectly alongside any beef dish. You can also serve them on ciabatta toast for breakfast, or simply toss them through cooked spaghetti and pasta water for a complete meal.

2 Tbsp confit garlic in oil

6 portobello mushrooms, thickly sliced

8 button mushrooms, quartered

4 tsp butter

Zest and juice of 1 lemon

1 tsp ground salt (I use Pepper & Me Man Grind*)

2 Tbsp pine nuts

¼ cup fresh thyme

100g enoki mushrooms

60g feta or any soft cheese

¹⁄₃ cup fresh basil

Chilli oil or hot sauce (I use Sesh Oil**), to taste, optional

Heat garlic and its oil in a large pan on medium heat. Add portobello and button mushrooms, butter and lemon zest. Give them a wee stir, then squeeze in lemon juice and season well with salt. Stir in pine nuts and cook for a further few minutes.

When mushrooms are soft and tender, add thyme and enoki mushrooms and stir through gently.

Crumble feta or soft cheese on top of the mushrooms, then cover the pan for about a minute, just enough to soften the cheese and give the enoki a little steam.

Remove from heat and garnish with basil. I also add a drizzle of Sichuan oil, but I do that to everything I eat, so I’ll leave that one up to you.

* The product you will see most of in this book, Man Grind is our number-one seller, and a staple in so many households. Its base of chunky rock salt is spiked with lemon pepper, herbs, garlic, a touch of chilli and some crushed bay leaves for a savoury note. If you don’t have Man Grind yet but would like to get stuck into my recipes, simply replace it with whatever salt you have on hand.

** Sesh Oil has fast become one of Pepper & Me’s top products. The oil is simmered with cinnamon, star anise, cardamom, spring onions, ginger, garlic, cumin, fennel and sizzling Sichuan pepper, then deeply infused with chilli. It’s spicy but also fragrant and delightful. Superb on scrambled eggs, or added to any noodle or rice meal. Substitute with any chilli oil or hot sauce.

Cos, chicken and avocado with whipped feta. Photo / Melanie Jenkins (Flash Studios)

Cos, chicken and avocado with whipped feta

SERVES 4

This is my current absolute favourite salad — although, to be fair, I’ve been using whipped feta on most things. It’s so handy to have in the fridge to use as a dip, dressing or spread.

300g cooked chicken, shredded

150g bag baby cos leaves, or 2 heads baby cos

Flesh of 1 avocado, diced

½ cup cherry tomatoes, halved

½ red onion, finely sliced

¹⁄₃ cup kalamata olives

Fresh basil or Italian parsley, to serve

Pepper & Me’s Pepper On Me seasoning (our special pepper blend of pink, green, black and white pepper with a little coriander and garlic. Simply replace this with any fresh cracked pepper), to taste

WHIPPED FETA

200g creamy feta

1 cup Greek-style yoghurt

2 Tbsp confit garlic

2 Tbsp lemon juice

Pepper On Me seasoning or fresh cracked pepper, to taste

To make whipped feta, whizz all ingredients in a blender or with a stick blender until super smooth. Add a splash of olive oil if it feels too thick to blend.

Transfer ½ cup whipped feta to a bowl, add chicken and toss to coat.

Build your salad on to a platter in layers. Start with half the baby cos leaves, then spoon over half the dressed chicken. Add half the avocado, tomatoes, onion and olives and a little whipped feta. Repeat with remaining ingredients.

Garnish with basil or parsley, another drizzle of whipped feta and some seasoning. Any remaining whipped feta will last up to 10 days in the fridge.

Panna cotta with blackberry compote and honeycomb. Photo / Melanie Jenkins (Flash Studios)

Panna cotta with blackberry compote and honeycomb

SERVES 6

These little panna cotta moulds are so simple to make but you can dress them up to be gorgeous. They are best prepared the day before, so ideal if you want to have a low-stress dinner party dessert ready to pull out of the fridge. Fresh blackberries can be hard to find and expensive so I’ve just used frozen, but if you stumble across fresh they’d be even more amazing. A lovely cold dessert for a hot day.

1½ cups milk

1½ cups cream

3 Tbsp caster sugar

1 vanilla bean, split lengthways

4 sheets gelatine

Honeycomb, to serve

Fresh mint, to serve (optional)

BLACKBERRY COMPOTE

300g frozen blackberries

1 tsp ground Pepper & Me Bakers Blend*

1 Tbsp honey

Combine milk and cream in a pot on low-to-medium heat. Add sugar and vanilla bean and stir gently to combine and let the sugar dissolve.

While milk mixture is simmering, pop gelatine leaves in cold water and leave to soften for 5 minutes.

Remove milk mixture from heat. Lift softened gelatine leaves out of the water and add to milk mixture. Whisk to dissolve, then pour through a sieve into a jug to strain out any bits.

Grease 6 moulds, cups, teacups or whatever you like. Divide mixture evenly between them. Pop in the fridge to set for at least 8 hours or ideally overnight.

To make blackberry compote, place blackberries, Bakers Blend and honey in a small pot and gently stir on very low heat for 5 minutes until a nice saucy compote has formed. Pop in a container in the fridge until ready to serve.

When ready to serve, slip a knife down the side of the moulds and turn each panna cotta out on to a plate, or if using a cute wee cup, just serve in the cup. Garnish with compote, a teaspoon-size lump of honeycomb and fresh mint, if desired.

* This sweet spiced salt is half sugar and half rock salt with whole spices, such as cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, vanilla and star anise, and needs to be used in a grinder. I use it in any baking where salt is required, on top of blueberry muffins and banana loaf, in porridge and on popcorn. It’s also fun to season savoury dishes with it — the sweet/savoury combo is like no other. If you don’t have it, substitute half salt, half sugar and ground spices to your taste.

Together: Food For Sharing by Cherie Metcalfe, photography by Melanie Jenkins (Flash Studios), published by Allen & Unwin NZ, RRP. $45.

Recipes extracted from Together: Food For Sharing by Cherie Metcalfe, photography by Melanie Jenkins (Allen & Unwin NZ, $45)