Mushrooms are the seasonal stars of these creative and varied dishes by Martin Nordin, from his book Mushrooms.

Mushrooms! Glorious mushrooms! Oh, how I love mushrooms! That might sound like a silly line from a children’s song of the 70s, but that’s really how I feel. This book is about cooking mushrooms. Because it’s true – I love mushrooms. In all their forms. And I have done so for as long as I can remember.

In recent years, I have been particularly inspired by the cuisines of Asia – Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Thailand and Taiwan – largely due to their techniques and thinking around balancing flavours and textures. Of course, I am also fascinated by Nordic cookery as a whole, with a particular penchant for the dairy heartlands of southern Sweden and the county of my childhood, Skåne, which is where all my memories of my mother’s and my grandmothers’ food are set. As I grew up, I developed an interest in French and Italian food thanks to restaurant visits, and later when my passion grew further, thanks to cookery shows and books, they were joined by the rest of the world.

However, Asia is perhaps just ahead of the pack, meaning that I often end up with a mix of everything and a little too much soy sauce. I’ve also chosen to make all the recipes in this book completely plant-based, so if you are a vegan then you can get cracking, too. If you want to substitute a nut butter or milk for dairy-based milk or cream, or if you prefer to use regular butter instead of oil, then that’s fine. After all, the inspirations for several of these dishes would have originally used dairy. You’re the head chef in your own kitchen – it’s up to you! I just hope that I can inspire you to create some new flavour memories!