Here in central PA, recent rains have had some good effects. The woods are full of mushrooms, including good quantities of chanterelles.
I scored a whole mess of black trumpet chanterelles today - probably about a pound. I plan to dry them.
Anyone have some good recipe recommendations?
Pizza? Or am I a Philistine?
Decades ago, my grocery clerk (at the time) sister brought home a pound container of mushies one half day past expiration date. I look at Dad, he looks at me, Are we hungry? I ask. We sautéed the living hell outta those fungi (with butter) and I don’t know what kept us from stabbing each other with fork. They were damn good. Really hit the spot.
This is always the best thing to do with chanterelles, so far as I’m concerned. Whenever I gather the golden ones around here, I just sauté them in butter and freeze whatever I don’t use immediately (usually trailed enticingly over a good grilled rare steak). They keep well for a few months doing this and vacuum sealed.
Mmmm
I’m not a big fan of Cream of Mushroom soup, but I betcha they’d be fantastic. Plus, you could use it in tuna casserole.
Beef Stroganov, with lots of garlic and sour cream.
I like the cut of your jib.
Attack of the mushroom people:
Risotto. The answer is always risotto.
I confess I’m not really familiar with chanterelles – my mushroom of choice is usually cremini (brown mushrooms) and sometimes portobello or shiitake. Portobello is great with steak but IMHO has to be marinated and grilled. The others can be sauteed.
What I wanted to contribute here is that even better than sauteeing mushrooms in butter is sauteeing them in Provencal garlic butter. Small button cremini mushrooms sauteed whole in garlic butter are terrific with spaghetti. Or with steak or roast beef. Or, for that matter, terrific with almost anything!
Larger mushrooms do well on the grill. For that purpose I marinate them in a mix of a particular vinaigrette style of Japanese salad dressing and teriyaki sauce. That same marinade, incidentally, also works well for grilled shrimp and scallops.
Black trumpets are my 100% favorite thing to find in the woods–and when I find them when I don’t have a way to keep or cook them, it is among the great tragedies of life. For folks who haven’t tried them, their flavor is difficult to describe. I’ve heard them called the Poor Man’s Truffle. For myself, the best way I can describe it is that their flavor is the essence of forest: they taste like if you meet a woodland fairy and they fed you a delicacy that would bind you to their grove forever. Deep, earthy joy.
My wife hates cream soups. Otherwise, I’d make cream of mushroom soup with them: it’s a perfect way to showcase their flavor. As it is, we eat them sauteed on toast, which is plenty good. Typing this up, I’m thinking that a mushroom alfredo made from black trumpets would be sublime. You want them to be the star of the dish: while their flavor is impossibly deep, it would easily be overwhelmed by anything acidic or spicy.
Thanks to all for some fine suggestions.
After some overnight rain we went back to the woods and searched for a good while, eventually discovering a true “mother lode”. So I now have an almost unreasonable quantity (will amount to perhaps half a pound when dried) of Black Trumpets, plus a decent helping of the yellow-orange variety.
I am ridiculously jealous. Enjoy!
You have described them perfectly, IMHO. And I agree with how you respect their rare and subtle flavors. They are best prepared as divas, not the back-up chorus.
Lucky you, @3AxisCtrl! Enjoy!
As much as I love garlic butter, I was amazed by how good mushrooms sauteed in EVOO with garlic taste the first time I tried them. The trick is to cook them slowly for a long while over fairly low heat. The mushrooms gradually assume an almost nutty, sweet taste as they absorb the natural sugars from the oil and garlic,
Mushrooms deep-fried in EVOO are good too. 