12 BEST Chanterelle Mushroom Recipes | MasalaHerb.com (2024)

FAQs

What is the best way to prepare chanterelles? ›

You pan-fry them in a dry skillet for a bit before introducing butter, along with garlic if you wish, to finish the mushrooms and provide a soft, velvety mouthfeel with just a bit of crunch around the edges. Eat the chanterelles by themselves, in an omelet, or just spooned over a good steak.

Their firm texture and strong earthiness go well with herbs like sage, rosemary, tarragon, and thyme. They are good in stews with rich stocks and go very well with roasted corn and with mild, creamy goat cheese.

Chanterelles have forked ridges (not true gills) that are light in color and kind of rubbery to the touch. False Chanterelles have forked orange gills that can be separated (they move when stroked and are deeper than those of true Chanterelles).

Chanterelles do especially well in mild, damp summers. This means they thrive in West Scotland, where they seldom have a “bad year” – though some years are certainly even more prolific than others. They usually start to appear around mid June in Scotland.

In these instances, I'll soak them in a large bowl of water, swish them around with my hands, and let the dirt come to the surface. I then pour the water out and repeat the process. Finally, if needed, I'll transfer them to a colander and run fresh water through to make sure they're thoroughly clean.

The ideal season for foraging chanterelles is from late spring to early autumn, depending on the region's climate. They flourish best after rainfall when the ground is moist and the temperatures are mild. While searching for chanterelles, it's essential to be cautious and ensure that you're picking the right mushroom.

They're prized for their delicate flavor. Both the stems and caps are edible. Nutritionally, chanterelle mushrooms are high in fiber, and contain vitamin B and D–and some trace minerals, as well.

Chanterelle mushrooms are an excellent source of polysaccharides like chitin and chitosan. These two compounds help to protect your cells from damage and stimulate your immune system to produce more cells. They're also known to help reduce inflammation and lower the risk of developing certain cancers.

In California, chanterelles often form these relationships with oak trees. Some of my friends have closely guarded ultra-secret woodlands where they find this most delicious of mushrooms year after year. What they're really guarding so jealously is a productive symbiosis.

Edibility. The false chanterelle is considered poisonous, and may cause serious digestive problems. Among other toxins, it contains high levels of the sugar alcohol arabitol. The mushroom was sometimes described as edible (though not tasty) until 1999.

Why is chanterelle so expensive? ›

The main reason for chanterelles' $224-per-pound price is that they're infamously difficult to cultivate. They mostly grow in the wild, meaning they must be foraged, and they require a period of heavy rainfall in a coniferous forest, followed by several days of continuous heat and high humidity.

How do you know that you're in possession of Rainbow Chanterelles, rather than another gold-toned chanterelle? According to the literature, Rainbows are distinguished by bright orange veins or false gills. Their caps are a duller color than the Pacific Goldens and often exhibit a pinkish bloom near the edge.

Refrigerate: You can store raw chanterelles in the refrigerator. Places the mushrooms in a paper bag or in a bowl loosely covered with a paper towel to let them breathe. They will last up to ten days in the refrigerator. If the chanterelles turn slimy, discard them.

Fall Season

In California, autumn is the ideal season for mushroom hunting. Some of the most sought-after mushrooms, like chanterelles, porcini, and candy caps, are available from September through November. The Sierra Nevada foothills or the seashore are some of the finest places to search for these mushrooms.

After you clean chanterelles (we've found using a toothbrush is the easiest way to get the dirt and grime off), you can cook them straight away or dry them in a dehydrator for later use. If you want to store mushrooms, keep them in the refrigerator in a paper—not plastic—bag.

Our recommendation? Pull chanterelle mushrooms from the ground when harvesting, but cut and remove the dirt-covered bases BEFORE you put them in your harvest basked in order to reduce the amount of time you have to clean your mushrooms when you get home.

Cleaning Chanterelles and Similar Mushrooms

Start cleaning your mushrooms hours before you use them and you'll have clean dry mushrooms when you're ready to cook. You can even do this the day before. Clean chanterelles require just a little brushing, but from some habitats they're dirty and must be washed.

There's a time and place for cutting up chanterelles, and I'll get to that, but for the most part, if I'm serving them at a restaurant, or at home, I leave them whole. My dream meal of chanterelles is filled with the small and medium-sized buttons, the first ones of the season.