Yesterday my gf took the dogs walking in the woods adjacent to our home. When she came home, she had a single mushroom for me to ID; it was a golden chanterelle, Cantharellus cibarius, and she had found a huge patch. Maybe morels are better, I’m not certain.
I did a spore print of the initial specimen and we hiked to the spot with a mesh bag. We collected about two pounds, leaving about half untouched, and returned home. Last night I grilled some NY strips, made a mango and black bean salsa with jalapeño and cilantro from our garden, and we had chanterelles in a light rosemary and cream sauce.
Heh. We are very careful. A toxic look-alike that grows locally is the jack-o’-lantern mushroomOmphalotus olearius. The gills are a give away, such that you have to be totally ignorant to eat them.
Got hooked on them in Germany, where they are quite popular and can be found, in season, in most German food stores - but even then, they are a bit pricey.
They are quite difficult to find here in Las Vegas, and even when offered at a specialty shop here, it would probably be cheaper to buy 5 pounds of cocaine than a pound of Chanterelles.
Mushroom people have told me specifically not to dehydrate chanterelles; freezing though not ideal, is supposed to give better results. I have dehydrated mushrooms and used them later to make stock, sieving them out at the end.
Agreed - wholeheartedly - and Chanterelles are one of the better candidates for that - the branching/rejoining gill wrinkles are a very reliable diagnostic.
Well, damn. The mushrooms that we’ve had most success with and most confidence in are … hang on, checking on the English word for them … porcinis. I have a few secret spots that we check when the weather and season are right, and we’ve been nicely surprised by the bounty often enough to keep checking after lean years. Mmmm, slice 'em, sauté 'em, add some cream and a touch of alcohol to the pan and serve over hot fettucine – that’s what yum is!
Fairy Ring mushrooms (Marasmius oreades) are really good for preserving - very common (so not hard to gather more than you can possibly use) and they dry and rehydrate naturally with the weather anyway - so they’re a doddle to preserve - I just discard the stems and spread the caps out on a wire rack with a tray underneath - they dry out and fall through the holes.
Very underrated fungus, that one - IMO, in terms of flavour, it’s right up there with the cep.
