Cooking
Fresh chanterelles are my favorite mushroom. Sure I enjoy porcini and I certainly wouldn't pass up a truffle white or black if it crossed my plate. But there is something about chanterelles that appeals to me the most. They are so very unique. First of all they are beautiful to look at, golden and trumpet shaped. Not a true gilled mushroom, the underside of the cap has rounded gill-like ridges or veins that branch irregularly so their texture when cooked is velvety and tender. They cook up like an oyster mushroom unlike common button mushrooms, which are often crumbly when raw or wet and juicy when cooked. Flavor-wise chanterelles are delicate and almost fruity tasting, nothing like the earthy meaty taste of a portabello for instance. Some have compared the scent of chanterelles to apricots. They smell and taste more like a flower then a mushroom.
Divine when prepared simply and served on their own, chanterelles combine well with almost every other kind of mushroom too. This past week I made a delicious woodsy stew of bacon, chicken, potatoes, onions, garlic, carrots, dried porcini mushrooms and fresh chanterelles. Buy and use them while they are in season in the fall and winter (or early spring depending upon what region of the country you live in) like other mushrooms they need moist earth to grow and flourish.
Here are some suggestions for using your fresh mushrooms:
*Saute in butter and garlic and serve on toast
*Serve as a garnish for grilled pork chops
*Saute and use as a filling for a French omelette
*Saute with chicken and make a cream sauce from the pan drippings
*Make a stew of mushrooms, onions, and chicken
*Bake in parchment with either a filet of fish or scallops
*Serve as a side dish with a mild vegetable such as pan cooked green beans
Enjoy!
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...
- Mushroom Barley Risotto: Hunger Challenge Recipe
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Cooking
All About Chanterelles
Fresh chanterelles are my favorite mushroom. Sure I enjoy porcini and I certainly wouldn't pass up a truffle white or black if it crossed my plate. But there is something about chanterelles that appeals to me the most. They are so very unique. First of all they are beautiful to look at, golden and trumpet shaped. Not a true gilled mushroom, the underside of the cap has rounded gill-like ridges or veins that branch irregularly so their texture when cooked is velvety and tender. They cook up like an oyster mushroom unlike common button mushrooms, which are often crumbly when raw or wet and juicy when cooked. Flavor-wise chanterelles are delicate and almost fruity tasting, nothing like the earthy meaty taste of a portabello for instance. Some have compared the scent of chanterelles to apricots. They smell and taste more like a flower then a mushroom.
Divine when prepared simply and served on their own, chanterelles combine well with almost every other kind of mushroom too. This past week I made a delicious woodsy stew of bacon, chicken, potatoes, onions, garlic, carrots, dried porcini mushrooms and fresh chanterelles. Buy and use them while they are in season in the fall and winter (or early spring depending upon what region of the country you live in) like other mushrooms they need moist earth to grow and flourish.
Here are some suggestions for using your fresh mushrooms:
*Saute in butter and garlic and serve on toast
*Serve as a garnish for grilled pork chops
*Saute and use as a filling for a French omelette
*Saute with chicken and make a cream sauce from the pan drippings
*Make a stew of mushrooms, onions, and chicken
*Bake in parchment with either a filet of fish or scallops
*Serve as a side dish with a mild vegetable such as pan cooked green beans
Enjoy!
- Mostly Vegetable Cookbooks
These books are focused on vegetables, but are not strictly vegetarian. They are each written by very accomplished food writers and great to keep or give ('tis the season after all). Rick Rodgers created 450 recipes for The Big Book...
- Walnut Mushroom Casserole Recipe
When I was growing up, my parents took me and my sister to all kinds of restaurants but rarely ones with "kid's menus." We regularly came into San Francisco to eat Chinese food, tried sushi long before it became popular, and celebrated birthdays...
- Hunger Challenge Chili Recipe
...
- Mushroom Barley Risotto: Hunger Challenge Recipe
This is a recipe I originally made for a friend who was allergic to just about everything. It's an adaptation of a Bon Appetit recipe. She liked it a lot and so it became a regular addition to my repertoire. It tastes a bit like mushroom barley soup...
- Portabello & Sausage French Bread Pizza: Recipe
Last week on the Epicurious blog Tanya Steel wrote about serving a Proscuitto and Taleggio macaroni and cheese to a friend who it turned out, preferred the blue boxed verson. When I was little I enjoyed that mac and cheese that comes in a box too. But...