Jamie Oliver’s Time Travelling Breaded Mushrooms

Recently a friend of mine that I have known from public school asked me via Facebook if I had a recipe for breaded mushrooms. I did not, figuring that the only way to make them was deep frying them. Leave it to Jamie Oliver to come up with a baked version: Jamie Oliver’s Breaded Mushrooms with Aioli. I used panko breadcrumbs which gave them a fabulous additional crunch.

Last weekend was my high school reunion and I could not go, stuck in Nova Scotia and all. Catching up with people I used to know on Facebook and getting to taste those mushrooms took me all the way back to my days as an usher at Canada’s Wonderland. How I would love to get breaded mushrooms just outside the flume ride, my chin soaked in mushroom juice, my mouth burning from the hot oil. I think I was the only one who liked Barney’s Burgers (a la the Flintstones) next door and still thinks of those burgers fondly.

Jamie’s mushrooms are wonderful. No, they will never be as good as those deep fried mushrooms by the flume ride but they were close enough that I got to time travel back to happy days. My only suggestions may be to put some salt in the flour to help season them. I even made the aioli and it was fantastic! My first time successfully making aioli from scratch.

I can think of no more powerful tool for connecting to the past than food. I seem to be stuck in time here in my house in Nova Scotia. Not moving forward, blind to the future. I thought the only constant in life was change and yet I live in a time loop. My only escape seems to be, to go backwards. Connect with who I was through food to change my present. To figure out where I am going.

Makes me wonder where I will go next, back in time?