The Queen of Wild Mushrooms

Holly A. Heyser

I consider the chanterelle to be the queen of wild mushrooms, consort to the king of all mushrooms, the porcini. Chanterelles are the light to porcini's dark—pheasant, not beef. White wine, not red. Porcini are muscle, chanterelles finesse.

Here in California, our chanties are only just now arriving with the winter rains, but they should keep at it until at least March. They are going gangbusters in the Pacific Northwest right now, though. Once our Western season ends, all you need to do is wait a couple months and they'll start popping again in the East. Chanterelles are like that: They are always fruiting somewhere in the world. Although we think of chanties as a North American-European mushroom, it also common in Asia, and is even found in some parts of Africa.

I haven't yet gotten out this season to check for chanterelles—I suspect we'll need at least one more rain to bring them out in the Coastal Range—but I wanted to get in on the Pacific Northwest's bonanza, so I scored some chanties from my friends at Earthy Delights. Opening the box I caught a whiff of that lovely apricot-ish aroma and gazed at the glow of golden chanterelles. My old friends.

Over the years I've cooked chanterelles six ways to Sunday, and, finally, I think I'm getting to know them as an ingredient.

For starters, chanterelles are firm, fibrous, and generally free of bugs. Their texture lets you slice them easily, or even pull them apart from top to stem. This means you can make chanterelle chips.

To make chanty chips, slice the mushrooms as thin as you can on a mandoline, then paint them with melted butter or oil, sprinkle with salt, and broil. Keep an eye on them or they will burn. Take them out of the broiler and let them dry in a warm oven or a dehydrator until crisp.

Hank Shaw

When you dry chanterelles their fibrousness gets more pronounced, and the mushrooms get chewy. So chewy that they will need to be cooked an awful long time to avoid that "Hey! I'm gnawing on shoe leather!" feeling you get from a lot of dried mushrooms.

Dried chanterelles keep their flavor and aroma, however, which makes them worth drying nonetheless. Either use them in soups, braises, or other long-cooking methods, or do what professional forager Connie Green does in her new book, The Wild Table—she infuses vodka with dried chanties.

Is this not the coolest thing? The chanterelles were in the jar only a few hours when Holly took this picture—check out that color! Green infuses her mushrooms in the vodka for only one week, after which you strain the liquor through cheesecloth and bottle.

There are some flavor compounds in chanterelles that are alcohol-soluble, so this method makes sense. It is also why you really want to add a little booze to your chanterelles when you cook them in other ways. Cooking is about extracting flavor, and not everything is water-soluble.

Holly A. Heyser

Can't vouch for the flavor of this vodka yet because I haven't yet tried it. But I have high hopes. It smells pretty boozy, yet that apricot-like aroma is still coming through. Will keep you posted...

Obviously the single best way to eat chanterelles is to sauté them in butter. Yes, you can use other fats or oils, but, other than duck fat, I've not yet found another lipid that brings out the flavor of chanterelles quite as well. Again, there are a whole set of flavor compounds in chanties that are fat-soluble, so you will want to extract them with something. My experience says to stick with butter.

What else goes well with chanterelles? Over the years I've come up with a list of chanty-friendly foods, supplemented by some other items listed in that great cooking guide, The Flavor Bible.

• Butter, duck fat, or olive oil
    • Chicken, turkey, pheasant, partridge, quail
    • Wild boar, rabbit, or lean pork
    • Firm white fish, such as halibut or shark
    • Winter squash, potatoes, and sweet potatoes
    • Light stocks such as chicken, pheasant, rabbit
    • White wine, vermouth, gin, dry sherry
    • Cream, crème fraiche and cheese, especially dry cheeses
    • Bay leaves, thyme, parsley, garlic, chives, saffron

Chanterelles and cream are a natural, and the best expression of that I've come up with was my version of Auguste Escoffier's Velouté Agnès Sorel, a cream of chanterelle soup. It is, as I have said before, sex in a bowl.

But here's the thing: If you scale back the amount of liquid in the soup you can make a chanterelle puree that is very much like the best mashed potatoes you've ever eaten. It is what the roulades of turkey are sitting on in the picture at the top of this post.

The make chanterelle puree, you dry-sauté chanterelles, then add butter and salt, a little thyme, shallots, and one garlic clove. Let this cook until everything is soft. Move it all to a food processor and add just a little stock, maybe a quarter cup. Buzz this well. It should still be pretty gunky. Loosen it with heavy cream and puree. Taste for salt and, if you want to get fancy, push it through a fine-mesh sieve. Absolutely heavenly.

This puree is not just a substitute for mashed potatoes. Use it as a ravioli or pierogi filling, or to stuff pasta shells or French crepes.

Holly A. Heyser

What if you have too many chanterelles? I know, it may sound crazy, but if you are a forager, you can easily come home with five to 10 pounds on a good trip. Chanterelles store well in the fridge—I've done up to 10 days—but there is a limit. First, distribute some to your friends; they will love you forever. Second, dry a couple of jars worth. With the leftovers, you can pickle them.

Pickled mushrooms? You bet. They are a part of the classic Italian antipasti plate, and are a mainstay of appetizer trays in Eastern Europe. Pickled chanterelles keep their texture and flavor, but soak up the sweetened vinegar and spices to make a dramatic addition to the pickle plate.

The key is to cook the mushrooms before you soak them in vinegar. My pickled chanterelle recipe calls for dry-sautéing the mushrooms. Then add the pickling liquid, let that boil, and then jar the shrooms.

Works like a charm. So, about that fancy dish that led this post. Well, I decided to put everything together into one plate. The base is my chanterelle puree. Sitting next to it are balls of butternut squash cut with a melon baller and cooked sous-vide. Atop the chanty puree are roulades of wild turkey breast, also cooked sous-vide with a little Oregon truffle oil. The chanterelle chips are on the turkey. Arranged around it all are chanterelles sautéed in butter with a little lemon (a quick pickle of sorts), plus crispy-fried wild turkey skin chicharones. A little fleur de sel rounds everything out.

What do you think?

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More Chanterelle Recipes:

• My Chanterelle Stuffing, with pine nuts
    • White Chanterelles with Chicken, from Fat of the Land
    • Chickpeas with Chanterelles and Truffles, from Matt Wright
    • Tempura Chanterelles with Soba Noodles, from No Recipes