Pecorino or parmesan crusted crispy mushrooms with a creamy garlic dip, a la Jamie Oliver £1.03p per portion

I had parmesan encrusted mushrooms when Himself took me to Jamie's Italian at Bluewater to celebrate my 50th birthday.  I loved them so much I wanted to replicate them myself, here's my first attempt.

How I made mine.

Ingredients:

4 x large field mushrooms

Pecorino cheese (I used around 10gm) 

70gm breadcrumbs (I freeze the ends of bread and blitz them)

one teaspoon of oregano (dried from my garden last year)

S&P

2 large eggs

some flour for dusting

Sunflower or vegetable oil for frying

For the dressing:

2 tablespoons of mayonnaise

1 tablespoon of plain yogurt

1 clove of garlic

or, you can use ready made garlic mayo or soured cream, whatever you prefer

Cost analysis:

Pecorino (10gm)= £0.08p

4 large field mushrooms = £1.58

Breadcrumbs (from freezer left over ends) = £0.00

Origano (from last years garden) = £0.00

Flour = £0.01

S&P = £0.01

2 large eggs = £0.30

Oil (I cool, strain and reuse my oil so little used up) = £0.02

Mayonnaise = £0.04

Yoghurt = £0.02

Garlic (from garden) = £0.00 

Total cost £2.06 or £1.03 per portion

This provided a filling lunch for two hungry people but if you wanted to make it as a starter it would be much cheaper obviously as the main cost is the mushrooms.

Method:

I made up my dip first by crushing the garlic then mixing with the mayonnaise and yoghurt.

Then slice up the mushrooms into large slices and dust them all over lightly with flour.  Blitz the bread, oregano (if using) S&P, pecorino or parmesan in a food processor and place in a shallow dish.

The production line at the ready

Now for the messy bit, take your floured mushrooms and dip into the beaten egg, then coat with the pecorino crumbs, once they are all coated you can heat up about enough oil in a high sided frying pan to come about half way up the depth of your mushrooms.  Have some kitchen paper ready to receive the cooked mushrooms and when the oil is hot enough to fry a cube of dry bread to golden brown and crisp within one minute it's ready to go.  Carefully place the mushrooms into the oil using a slotted spoon or spatula and fry for around 2-3 minutes on each side until golden and crisp.    

Remove with a slotted spoon and place onto kitchen paper.  Serve immediately with your creamy garlic dip.