Asheville Mushroom Club

There are many good chanterelle recipes in the cookbook, and it was difficult to decide on only one. I chose Chicken Saute with Chanterelles because it's easy, delicious, and has some suggestions for variations that make it adaptable to any occasion.

Ginger

Chicken Saute with Chanterelles ( Margot Eld, Cooking with the Asheville Mushroom Club, p. 78)

6 chicken breasts, skinned
1 lb. fresh chanterelles, cleaned and sliced
1 onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 c. chicken stock
1/4 c. dry white wine or bourbon
1 c. heavy cream
1/4 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
1 1/2 T. butter
1 1/2 T. olive oil
salt to taste

Brown the chicken breasts in the butter and olive oil. Remove from pan. Saute the onion, garlic and chanterelles until the onion is translucent, but has not begun to brown. Deglaze the pan with the wine or bourbon. Add the stock, nutmeg, and reserved chiicken. Cover the pan and cook over medium low heat for 10 - 15 minutes until the chicken is done, but not overcooked. Remove the chicken to a heated platter, turn the heat to high, and reduce the sauce to about 1/2 - 1/4 cup. Add salt to taste. Then add the cream; bring to a boil, and reduce the sauce to the desired consistency. Pour the chanterelle sauce over the chicken and serve.

Variations: Reduce the sauce lightly and serve with fresh fettuccine and lots of black pepper, accompanied by a Sauvignon Blanc. When using bourbon instead of white wine, reduce the sauce until it is very thick and serve with rice or a mixture of white and wild rice, accompanied by a medium bodied Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot. Serves 6.

These recipes is featured in "Cooking with
the Asheville Mushroom Club" cook book on
page 78.

Club members have collected hundreds of recipes featuring local
and cultivated mushrooms to create a unique specialty cookbook.

Purchase your copy at club meetings for $10 or by ordering from Ken McGill, PO Box 182, Campobello, SC 29322 for $14.95.

Each month we'll be highlighting one mushroom that can be found in WNC during that current month. This is in an attempt to help members or guests learn our local mushrooms. It will also be noted whether the mushroom is edible, ill advised, or poisonous.

Cantharellus cibarius the golden chanterelle

The time is upon us for the coming of the golden chanterelle, perhaps the most prized of the edible wild mushrooms. Search the moist forests for the egg yolk yellow caps growing on the forest floor (not on wood). The cap has a wavy inrolled margin with a depressed center. The odor is from subtle nothingness to fragrant apricot. This chanterelle appears to have gills, but a brief look through a hand lens will show them to be blunt rounded ridges rather than knife blade-like gills.

Make sure you know the poisonous Jack O’lantern, make a mistake here and you’ll have a gastric upset that you’ll remember the rest of you life. The Jack O’lantern grows on wood (sometimes buried roots) in clusters (although I have seen single caps).

You mat also encounter C. latericius (smooth chanterelle) and C. odoratus (fragrant chanterelle). Both are choice edibles as well. These are the large chanterelles of our area. There are many species of smaller chanterelles, but most (with a few exceptions) are not known edibles.

Go out with experienced folks and learn the chanterelles. They can fruit in large quantities and often enough can be found to preserve for a later date. I find two methods of preservation acceptable:

1) duxelles, finely chopped, sautéed in butter and frozen
2) or much more preferable, pressure canned (I have eaten 2 year old canned chanterelles that were as good as fresh). Clean, chop and steam until well wilted. Pack loosely into sterile pint or ½ pint jars. Add a tiny pinch of salt and the steaming liquid and/or water. Screw on the lids, but not too tightly and process @ 10 pounds pressure for 10 minutes.

Try this for your mid winter depression: Thaw a package of frozen spinach, open a pint of canned chanterelles and chop a shallot. Sauté in good olive oil with a pinch of salt and pepper and some freshly grated nutmeg. Toss with your favorite pasta that you were thoughtful enough to have prepared ahead of time. Grate on some of your favorite hard cheese, pour a glass of wine and remember it won’t be long until chanterelle time again.

Steve

Steve Peek, field mycologist and long standing member of the Asheville Mushroom Club