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

FAQs

What is the best way to eat 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.

Clean chanterelles require just a little brushing, but from some habitats they're dirty and must be washed. Forget all that nonsense about never washing mushrooms because the flavor will wash away.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Chanterelles keep best in the refrigerator in a sealed plastic container. Use paper towels to prevent the mushrooms from touching plastic. Change the paper towels when they become wet from condensation. The total time you can store chanterelles varies, depending on the condition of the mushrooms when they were picked.

You can enjoy them raw or cooked, though most people prefer the flavor and texture of cooked chanterelle mushrooms. Dried chanterelle mushrooms can also be rehydrated by steeping them in hot water until they are soft. Chanterelle mushrooms make a great addition to your pasta sauces, pizzas, stuffings, or risottos.

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).

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.

Why are chanterelles 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.

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.

If you want to store mushrooms, keep them in the refrigerator in a paper—not plastic—bag. Chanterelles store longer than most mushrooms—up to ten days. Or, you can give them a quick saute in butter until they release their moisture and freeze them for up to a year.

They are difficult to digest and can cause issues for those with sensitive stomachs. ... should not be eaten daily. Chanterelles can store heavy metals such as cadmium, lead and mercury, which can damage organs like the liver and kidney in large doses.

Chanterelles are highly prized for their flavor, which is often described as a mix of fruity, nutty, and peppery notes with a mild and delicate aroma. They have a meaty texture that can hold up well in cooking.