Damien mixes: Mushrooms

© Damien Guichard

Another month another drink! After the recent floral and fruity iterations, Damien Guichard decided to take a 180-degree turn and return to more autumnal flavours.

When mushroom is mentioned in a cocktail, it can often be followed by an eyeroll or someone ironically calling you a mixologist. Yet we can take up the challenge and put something together that will be both interesting and actually delicious.So, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty of it all and make something tasty.

Some mushrooms such as shiitake albeit excellent for mixing tend to have a numbing property to them, which in this case I would like to steer clear from, which is why we are going to go for the common brown mushroom. The idea is to get the sweetness and nutty notes from our fungi rather than enhance its umami and savory potency. 

© Damien Guichard

Let’s go!

First of all, let’s start by slicing our mushrooms and weighing them, in my case, it will be 300g.

Next step we are going to dehydrate them to get rid of their natural moisture. Mushrooms are very porous and therefore retain a lot of humidity, which we will want to leave in this case.

Spread your mushroom slices evenly before roasting them at 195C for 10-12min, until they become dry and wrinkly but still soft.

For information, 300g of raw mushroom weighed in at 110g after being roasted.

Transfer the mushroom into a vacuum bag and add 500g of Ambre Vermouth, I am using Noilly Prat.

Vacuum and let it steep overnight, once that is done, you guessed it - strain through a coffee filter.

Now that we have our mushroom infusion let’s make a fun low-abv drink with it. 

Recipe for a "Strange Game"