Puffball Nuggets & Upcycled Puffball Ketchup

Recipe by Luke Jefford

Breaded puffballs aren’t anything new. Most likely thee most popular way of consuming them. For good reason, they are crunchy on the outside and marshmallow like on the inside. It’s is a great contrast in the mouth.

Giant puffy’s aren’t known for their flavour. But, with a bit of kitchen wizardry they can be turned into something more flavourful.

It’s generally considered that you should peel the skin off of puffballs, as the taste of the outside isn’t as desirable as their soft inside. We saw this as hugely wasteful! Instead we’ve essentially ‘squared’ the fungi with a knife, skin attached. And, used that ‘waste’ to create a lovely ketchup to dip your puffugetts in to. Also it pleases Luke’s OCD that the nuggets are more uniform in shape. Bloody chefs.

The nuggets can be frozen and cooked at a later date, so need to eat them all at once.

If you wanted to make this fully vegan, use some maple syrup in place of eggs.

Ingredients

Puffball Nuggets

• 500g Puffball cut into whatever shape you like.

• 200g Plain Flour with 2 Tbsp Smoked Paprika mixed in and 1 teaspoon of table salt.

• 200g Breadcrumbs (Panko are best in our opinion).

• 10 Eggs

Puffball Ketchup

• 500g Puffball trimmings

• 1 Large onion (Diced)

• 1 Tbsp Garlic Puree (or some fresh garlic)

• 600g Cider Vinegar

• 300g Caster Sugar

• 300g Brown Sugar

• 2 Tsp Agar-agar

• 1 Tsp Ginger

• 1/2 Tsp Ground Clove

• 1/2 Tsp Nutmeg

• Salt to taste (when finished)

Method

Nuggets…

Step 1

Start by removing any dirt from the fungi as best you can. Cut the outer layers off of the mushroom off to create a giant square. Reserve these outer pieces for the ketchup.

Step 2

Meanwhile, cut the mushroom into whatever shape you want. We went for rectangles.

Step 3

Breadcrumb the fungi by tossing in flour, then eggs (or maple syrup) and then breadcrumbs. Pop your nuggets in the fridge until your ketchup is ready.

Ketchup…

Step 1

Sweat down your onions and garlic in a little oil until they are starting to brown.

Step 2

Add in all remaining ingredients, except the mushrooms and cook on a medium heat for 30 minutes until reduced by a quarter.

Step 3

We chose to BBQ our mushrooms over an open flame. But, you could also pan fry them in a dry pan or dry roast them in the oven until they are starting to brown. Once done, add them to your ketchup mixture.

Step 4

Cook for a further 30 minutes on a low heat and then blend into a paste. Pop in the fridge covered by some cling film to stop an undesirable crust from forming.

Bringing it all together…

Fry your mushrooms in your weapon of choice. We prefered deep fried at 160c. But, you could always shallow fry or pop in the air fryer. The latter would require less effort as the mushroom do tend to float in the fryer. But, the oil saturation in deep frying was just too much to resist in this case.