By now, you will know that Soy and I love fresh produce. So the Capital Region Farmers Markets at Exhibition Park is one of our favourite places to get our food. The market prides itself on being a genuine farmers’ market, where the person who grew or produced the food sells them to the public. The produce comes from around the capital region, and beyond- the South Coast, for instance.  Soy and I love that we can get fresh produce and know exactly where they came from. Most of these growers are also very passionate about their product, and we’ve met many lovely people with interesting personalities at the market. We’re going to share some of these characters and their products over the next few weeks, and also share some recipes of the dishes we created with their quality produce.

First up, meet Noel, our ‘mushroom man’. Oh but he doesn’t sell any ordinary mushrooms- he sells only the exotic varieties, from enoki to wood’s ears. The story behind Noel’s mushroom production is amazing! He is a microbiologist, and grows his mushrooms in a disused rail tunnel that used to link Canberra and Sydney. The tunnel was built in 1866 and used until 1919, remaining unused until it became one of the first cultivated mushroom farms in Australia in the 1950s. Noel took over the farm in 1987, and aren’t we glad he did, since the mushrooms he brings to the markets are fat and fresh.

Noel’s mushrooms are beautifully sculptural- look at these shimejis! They would also happily belong in a sci-fi movie, I think.

And these are the first pink oyster mushrooms I’ve seen!

Though it is hard to tumble out of bed early on a Saturday morning (at least for me, it is!), the reward of a steaming hot cup of chai (more on chai in a later post!) and coming home to a breakfast cooked by Soy is enough of a motivation. This is what we did with our mixed packet of exotic mushrooms last weekend- and here are Soy‘s recipes. Oh, they are vegetarian too, specially dedicated to our vego readers- minus the rogue sausage that managed to sneak its way onto a plate!

Sautéed Mixed Mushrooms with herbs and shredded Italian parsley omelette

Italian parsley omelette

3 large eggs

2 tbsp milk

pinch of salt and pepper

1/4 cup of chopped Italian parsley leaves (save the stalks)

Whisk the eggs and milk together till frothy, then add Italian parsley and salt and pepper and whisk together.

Heat the pan till hot then oil the pan.

Pour a little of the omelette mixture into the pan so it forms a thin layer. Turn the heat down.

Allow the edges to set a little and the bottom to brown.

Flip omelette and cook for 30 secs.

Repeat till mixture is used up.

Stack omelettes on top of each other and roll them up. ‘Shred’ your omelette by slicing thinly.

Sautéed mixed mushrooms with herbs

200grams sliced mixed mushrooms (I used king brown, chestnut and golden enoki)

4 cloves chopped garlic

1 1/2 tsp dried mixed herbs

splash of white wine

salt and pepper to taste

chopped parsley stalks (remember those you saved?)

Using the same pan, heat it till it’s hot then add olive oil.

Add garlic and sauté till fragrant and slightly brown.

Add dried herbs and mushrooms, fry till fragrant for 2 mins.

Add white wine, fry till mushrooms are just soft.

Season your sauteed mushrooms to taste with salt and pepper, and mix in parsley stalks.

Serve up your delicious, nutritious mushroomy brekkie!

The beef sausage’s invasion on the perfect herbivore brekkie with sautéed mixed mushrooms, fried egg and sourdough bread

This is what we had for brekkie the next day. I used the same sautéed mushroom recipe above, but I added pink oyster mushrooms for colour. Initially I wanted to have poached eggs to go with the mushrooms… but frying an egg was so much quicker!

If you are in the Canberra region, you have to try these amazing mushrooms! Now we’ve shared Soy‘s yummy mushrooms recipes, tell us, what is your favourite mushroom dish?

Capital Region Farmers Market

www.capitalregionfarmersmarket.com.au

Every Saturday, 8am-11am

Exhibition Park

Li-Sun Exotic Mushrooms

li-sunexoticmushrooms.com.au

Tags: breakfast, capital region farmers markets, Fresh produce