Recipes / Sides
Braaied mushrooms with garlic butter
Large brown mushrooms grilled gill side up over medium coals, with garlic and parsley butter melting into each cap.
- Prep
- 10 min
- On the fire
- 12 min
- Serves
- 4
Ingredients
Garlic butter
Method
Cooking on gas?
- Preheat with the burners on high and the lid closed for 10 minutes, then turn them down to medium so the lid thermometer settles at 175 to 200°C (350 to 400°F). Brush the grates clean and oil them.
- Cook with the lid open and use the recipe times as a guide.
- Wipe the mushrooms clean with damp paper towel. Do not wash them, or they soak up water and steam instead of browning.
- Twist out the stalks and chop them finely.
- Mash the butter with the chopped stalks, garlic, parsley, lemon zest, salt and pepper.
- Brush the rounded tops of the mushrooms with the oil.
- Lay the mushrooms on the grid over medium coals, gill side up. Cook for 4 minutes until the tops are marked and starting to soften.
- Spoon the garlic butter into the cups, dividing it evenly. Cook for another 6 to 8 minutes, without turning, until the butter has melted and the juices bubble.
- If the bottoms char before the mushrooms are soft, move them to a cooler part of the grid.
- Scatter the cheese over the mushrooms for the last 2 minutes, if using. Lift them off carefully so the butter stays in the cups.
Done when: the mushrooms have softened and shrunk a little, the butter has melted into the cups, and the juices are bubbling at the edges.
Tips
- Never turn the mushrooms once the butter is in. It runs into the coals and causes flare-ups.
- Close the lid of a kettle braai, or rest a sheet of foil loosely over the mushrooms, so the tops melt the butter faster.
- Make the garlic butter a day ahead and keep it in the fridge. Take it out an hour before so it is soft enough to spoon.
Mushrooms cooked whole on the grid have become a regular side at South African braais, often served next to steak or on a roll for the guests who do not eat meat. The cup shape of a large brown mushroom holds the butter and juices, so the fire does the work. They go well with braai garlic bread, which can share the same garlic butter.