Mushrooms on Toast

Brush the mushrooms clean, or wipe them with a damp cloth, rather than washing them under the tap. A mushroom is largely water already, and any it takes on has to boil off in the pan before browning can start.

Tear the large mushrooms into thick pieces and halve the small ones, keeping everything to roughly the same size so it cooks at the same rate.

Cut them thicker than looks right. They lose more than half their volume in the pan, and thin slices shrivel to leathery scraps.

Set a wide heavy frying pan over high heat for 2-3 minutes, until a flick of water skitters across it and vanishes.

Add the oil and swirl it across the base.

Lay the mushrooms in a single layer, with bare metal showing between the pieces.

Work in two batches if they will not fit with that much room around them. Mushrooms release a great deal of water as they heat, and a crowded pan cannot let it evaporate — the temperature drops below browning and they steam themselves grey and squeaky instead of colouring.

Leave them alone for 3-4 minutes, until the undersides are deep brown and they lift off the base without sticking.

Toast the bread on both sides while that first side browns. A close-crumbed loaf such as the everyday white tin loaf in this collection takes the weight, where a thin or very open slice collapses under them.

Turn the mushrooms and cook for a further 2-3 minutes, until they are browned on the second side and shrunken.

Season with the fine salt now rather than earlier. Salt draws the water straight out of a raw mushroom, and a pan salted at the start floods and poaches.

Turn the heat down to medium.

Add the butter, garlic and thyme leaves.

Cook for 60-90 seconds, spooning the foaming butter over the mushrooms, until the garlic is pale gold and smells sweet. It burns in seconds at this stage, and burnt garlic is bitter right through the dish.

Take the pan off the heat and stir in the lemon juice, scraping up anything stuck to the base.

Season with the ground peppercorns.

Pile the mushrooms onto the toast.

Spoon the butter left in the pan over them.

Scatter over the parsley and a pinch of flaky salt.

Eat it straight away, since the toast starts softening under the mushrooms from the moment they land.

The silky miso mushroom ramen in this collection sears its mushrooms on the same principle, in a hot pan with room around each piece.