Mushroom and Nutmeg Fillo Wrap. With Lemon Dill Spheres and Blueberry Puree

This is a really zesty, fresh tasting dish thats perfect with a glass of chilled white wine. The flavours compliment each other beautifully. Sharp lemon dill sauce and the sweet and tart blueberry puree cut through the richness of the buttery, indulgent, Fillo wrapped mushrooms with nutmeg. Then the texture contrasts on the plate add excitement and playfulness, with crispy fillo pastry, cooked mushrooms, and spheres of lemon dill sauce that burst into liquid in your mouth. It’s a dish with real impact and is, I hope, both delicious and kind of fun.

Serves 4

For the Fillo Wraps

700g mixed mushrooms -– I use a mixture of Portobello, Closed cap and Chestnut mushrooms. 3 cloves garlic 4 Shallots Tablespoon fresh chopped oregano Zest and juice of one lemon
Half a glass of white wine
50g butter, plus a little for frying
One and a half whole nutmeg, freshly grated
A small pot of melted butter
8 Sheets Fresh Fillo Pastry cut to 20cm squares

First fry the chopped shallots and garlic with a tablespoon of butter and a little olive oil for about a minute.

Roughly chop the mushrooms and add them to the hot pan to fry for a couple of minutes before pouring in half a glass of white wine for the last minute of cooking until the mushrooms are just done.

Drain the liquid from the cooked mushrooms and transfer them to a bowl. Now add 50g butter, a tablespoon of fresh chopped oregano, the zest and juice of one lemon and the grated nutmeg into the bowl and mix together well.

Place half the mushrooms in a blender and blitz to a rough mix then roughly chop the left over mushrooms before recombining them together with the blended mix. Add salt and pepper to taste and a touch more butter if necessary to hold the mix together. Chill the mixture for a couple of hours in the fridge before using. It should become a moldable consistency that will hold its shape when pressed into small balls.

Now cut several sheets of fresh Fillo pastry to 20 Cm squares. For each fillo package brush one sheet lightly with melted butter then place another sheet on top of the first and again gently brush this with a little melted butter.

Take a generous tablespoon of the chilled mushroom mixture and shape it into a ball and place this in the centre of the double-layered fillo square. Then lift up the corners of the square and bring them together above the mushroom mix, pinching in any loose pastry at the top. Twist the bundle to make a small closed package containing the mushroom filling. Brush the outside of these little fillo pastry bundles with a touch more melted butter and now these can either be cooked straight away or reserved in the fridge.

When ready to cook them place the filled fillo packages on a baking sheet on the middle shelf of the oven at 220C for 10 to 15 minute until golden brown and crisp.
Serve them piping hot

Blueberry Puree –

250g Fresh Blueberries
Juice of one Lemon
Pinch of salt
2g Xanthan Gum

Blend the fresh Blueberries, lemon juice, and small pinch of salt in a tall container with a hand blender till smooth. Pass this mixture through a sieve. Now Blend in the Xanthan Gum and pour into a squeezy bottle, reserve in the fridge until ready to use.

For the Lemon Dill Spheres –

Juice of one lemon 50ml white wine (dry) A good handful fresh Dill chopped
300ml Single cream Seasoning (salt and course black pepper)

Sodium Alginate Bath –
5g Sodium Alginate
1 Litre Water

This is a criminally easy and quick sauce to make, but its lovely - fresh, delicate, sharp and moreish.
First prepare your sodium alginate solution by blending 5g of sodium alginate (available from www.Modernist-Chef.com) into one litre of cold water in a large mixing bowl. Leave this to settle in the fridge for thirty minutes before using.

Now for the sauce heat the lemon juice and white wine in a pan till boiling, then simmer and reduce for two to three minutes.
Add the cream, and chopped Dill and simply bring to a gentle simmer for a couple more minutes, while stirring, to thicken the sauce a little, Season to taste.

Next chill the sauce then drop small spoonfuls of it into the sodium alginate solution using a ‘dropping spoon’, and leave for one minute to react, before refreshing the orbs in cold fresh water.

The small, calcium rich, orbs will react with the sodium alginate and a thin film will form around them so that they hold their shape but will burst to liquid in you mouth.

To serve - Heat the orbs by placing them in a saucepan of cold water and gently bringing this up to just below a simmer (about 80 to 85C, keep it at this temperature for around two minutes to heat through). Remove the spheres carefully with a slotted spoon just as your ready to serve the dish.

Putting it together –
Place one of the fillo packages in the centre of the plate with circles of the blueberry puree around it. Finally place three of the hot lemon dill spheres around the plate (putting each of them ontop of one of the circles of blueberry puree helps to keep the spheres from sliding about on the plate).

Enjoy x

Sodium Alginate is available from

www.Modernist-Chef.com