Speaking Tomorrow at Living in the New Economy

Hey everyone,

Just a quick heads up, I am speaking about my buisness idea tomorrow as one of the flash presenters at Living in the New Economy:
https://www.facebook.com/events/535925199827872/?directed_target_id=0
Check it out, should be an interesting, educational day. :)

Back to chanterelles tomorrow ;)

Happy Hunting

- Katy

Chanterellicious Part 5) Cream of Chanterelle soup

This is one of my favorite soup recipes; I took a cream of mushroom soup recipe and modified it slightly for my own uses. This recipe takes a little longer then the last but is still do-able on a weekday night.

Cream of Chanterelle Soup

-          4 cups chanterelles

-          1  medium onion chopped  

-          1 bulb garlic, chopped

-          2  tbs coconut oil  

-          2 tbs organic spelt flour

-          4-5  cups chicken broth  

-          1-2 cups homo milk

-          Dash of nutmeg

-          Salt and pepper to taste

So those above proportions may be a little off, as I have mentioned before I don’t measure ingredients I just estimate and taste, so I would recommend the same.

To start off dry sauté your chanterelles to remove any moisture, strain off liquid and set aside (this is your mushroom stock).

Combine roughly half of the chanterelles, onion, garlic, coconut oil, nutmeg and flour in a large soup pot on medium heat.

Sauté until onions are translucent and light brown.

Add chicken and mushroom stock and simmer 20 minutes.

Blend until all ingredients are completely disintegrated.

Add other half of chanterelles.

Simmer, adding salt and pepper to taste (possible more chicken stock at this point if flavor is too weak).

Add milk and simmer 10 minutes.

Serve with chopped parsley.

If the soup isn’t thick enough before milk is added combine more flour with water and stir until a fine paste then add to soup and boil. This will thicken it up.

This soup is perfect for an autumn meal and freezes well so is a great thing to make and store for a cold winter night as well.

Until next time, happy cooking.

Chanterellicious Part 4: Chanterelle and Puffball Fettuccini Alfredo

So this next recipe is a creation of mine. I am a pasta fanatic and a health freak, I know, not a good combination. I am always looking for new ways to remake old recipes to make them healthier but still delicious. This recipe uses coconut oil and spelt flour instead of the classic butter and white flour. You can substitute it for the classics if you so choose. This recipe really doesn’t take long so is great for a weekday night when you just need some good hearty pasta.

Chanterelle and Puffball Fettuccini Alfredo

-          2 tbs organic spelt flour

-          2 tbs organic coconut oil

-          1 cup milk

-          ½ bulb garlic

-          1-2 cups fresh chanterelles

-          ½ cup fresh puffballs

-          300g whole wheat fettuccini

-          1 cup shredded parmesan

-          Fresh parsley and basil leaves

Combine spelt flour and coconut milk over medium heat until well mixed, add milk slowly, stirring constantly as sauce thickens to desired consistency.

 In a separate skillet sauté chanterelles (dry sautéing beforehand if soggy), puffballs and garlic in oil until mushrooms appear cooked.

Combine sautéed mushrooms and garlic into white sauce, simmer 15 minutes to combine flavors

Serve over cooked fettuccini noodles.

Garnish with parmesan cheese, parsley, basil, and garlic bread.

And there you go, a rich, relatively healthy pasta recipe that will dazzle your dinner guests. I would recommend going light on the puffballs, they have a very strong mushroomy flavor and too many could overwhelm the dish.

Until next time, happy cooking.

- |Katy

Chanterellicious Part 3: Wild Mushroom and Butternut squash Risotto

So we are finally done with all the prep work and ready to make something delicious with our harvest. Here is a recipe from a good friend of mine. She cooked this up for us over a few glasses of red wine (I would recommend the wine, this recipe takes a while) after a long day of mushroom hunting using some of the days harvest. This was probably one of the best mushroom dishes I have ever had so it is certainly worth the time.

Wild Mushroom and Butternut squash Risotto

- 3 diced shallots
- 2 cups butternut squash cut into 1 in cubes
- 1 – 2 Tbsp butter
- 2 cups of wild mushrooms
- 2 – 3 bay leaves

- 1 cup Arborio rice
- ½ cup of white wine
- 5 cups of chicken broth
- 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- Salt and pepper to taste

In a separate pot keep the chicken broth warm on low heat

Dry sauté mushrooms if using very fresh mushrooms or delicate mushrooms with high water content such as Chanterelles and set aside

In a large pot, brown squash and pepper in butter for 5 – 10 minutes or until slightly caramelized

Add mushrooms (If using a softer variety that you dry sauté ahead of time, add the mushrooms a bit later) and shallots and fry until shallots sweat and start to become translucent

Add the rice and stir to coat with butter and add the wine and bay leaves. Let the wine deglaze for a few minutes, stirring constantly.

Using a ladle scoop about 1 cup of broth into the rice mixture and stir. Stir frequently (every 30 seconds or so) until the rice absorbs the broth enough for it to have a thick gravy-like consistency.

 Add a bit more broth and repeat until the rice is cooked and the risotto has a creamy consistency (you may or may not use all the broth). If you are using softer mushrooms and still haven’t added them, add them when you have mixed in about half the broth.

Remove from heat and stir in grated Parmesan. Add salt and additional pepper to taste.

Serve with freshly chopped parsley to garnish and the rest of your bottle of wine.

Hope that recipe makes sense for everyone, Sorry there are not more pictures, I was a little distracted with the chatting and red wine to snap anymore. My next few recipes will be a little more image friendly.

Until next time, happy cooking

- Katy

Chanterellicious Part 2 - Preparing and Storing

Alright, so let’s just get right back into our discussion about those lovely little orange forest dwellers.

Today I would like to talk about what to do once you have yourself a little basket full. Chanterelles are great mushrooms because they are usually free of maggots and store very well. I have left chanterelles in my fridge for up to two weeks and they have still been great to use.  If you want to keep them longer then that is also possible, although not in your fridge.

Let’s start off with what to do as soon as you get back. With a bit of luck while you were out gathering you had the foresight to carry a little brush with you and cleaned each mushroom before popping it into your basket. This is the best way to clean them if they are relatively dry when you are harvesting. If you brush them off well and cut, rather then pull, then your mushrooms are basically ready to eat as soon as you get home.

 ( The black stringy things are licorice fern root, we will touch on those in another post)

If you're more of an impulsive mushroom hunter who runs manic in the forest snatching up little orange caps and squirreling them, covered in debris, into bags or backpacks you will have a little more work to do. I really would recommend the brush and basket method, I have spent many a long nights washing or brushing dirty broken mushrooms into an edible state, occasionally giving up and deciding that pine nettles really don’t taste that bad.

If you have made the mistake of bringing home dirty mushrooms you can either brush or wash them.

Brushing will keep them dry and firm but will not get all the dirt off, which, once cooked, isn’t really an issue.

Washing them will get them very clean but chanterelles tend to suck up water like a sponge and if you try to cook them after this you will be disappointed to find mushroom mush instead of cute little mushroom slices.

I have a friend who swears by washing and them leaving out overnight, with a towel underneath, to dry up. Don’t leave them longer then a night out however or they may start to rot. Once they have sat out for a while (a few hours to overnight will work) place them in a paper bag in the fridge. They will slowly dry out this way over several days.

Photo courtesy of Tash

If you would like to use your soggy mushrooms right away (this method also works if you have gathered your mushrooms in the rain) I would recommend dry sautéing them before using them in whatever recipe.

Dry sautéing is something almost anyone who has a basic idea of the workings of a stove can accomplish. Simply cut your mushrooms into slices and throw in a pan on high heat with no oil. Stir the mushrooms occasionally and you will find they quickly release all the stored up water, filling the pan with a lovely mushroom stock (which you can collect and use in soup).  Drain the pan as it fills with water, keeping the water if you wish to use it and place the mushrooms back on the stove. They are done when they are no longer releasing water. Usually I find they are done after I drain water the first time.

You can see the liquid released by the mushrooms in this photo.

Here is the liquid collected from dry sautéing, I like to keep it to use as a mushroom stock in soups.

Once you have dry sautéed chanterelles you can freeze them for use later or use them in any recipe, including soups and they will keep their form. I always dry sauté my mushrooms before cooking with them even if they seem quite dry. If you find they are releasing no water then you can take them off the stove and use however you like.  The dry sauté and freeze method is how I usually store my chanterelles.

I also freeze young dry firm chanterelles(pictured above). If they are firm and dry enough they will hold their form when defrosting and can be cut up and used as normal whatever time of year you get to them. I have heard of drying and canning chanterelles but I have not experimented with this myself so can only recommend the dry sautéing and freezing or just freezing method.

These two methods are certainly the easiest quickest methods to preserving your autumn harvest in a form that can be easily used later on. To use simply defrost and toss them in whatever recipe you desire, chopping them up if they have been frozen whole and raw.

So that covers the basics of my methods of preparing and storing mushrooms. Next time we will start getting into what to do with these tasty caps you have so lovingly collected, prepared and stored.

Until then, happy hunting!

- Katy

Chanterellicious Part 1 - Identification and Collection

Alright guys so the next few posts will be a mini series following everyone's favorite common wild mushroom, the Chanterelle (Cantharellus cibarius)! Today's post will cover chanterelle identification and habitat while the next few posts will cover preparation, storage, and recipes.

So let’s just get right into it. Here is a chanterelle:

Things to take note of are the peachy orange colours (although white chanterelles are also common in the pacific northwest) the wavy margins of the cap and the thick fold-like, forked gills which run down the stipe (stem). Other mushrooms can have forked gills but the blunt fold like quality of the gills is specific to members of the chanterelle family.  The smell is also a good ID characteristic, it should smell fruity and earthy. Many people describe the smell as apricot like.

This next picture is a white chanterelle(Cantharellus subalbidus), also edible and delicious. I find white chanterelles tend to be a bit larger and thicker then the normal orange chanterelles. This picture, while not the best photograph does show the blunt fold like gills.

This next picture is also a species from the chanterelle family, the Scaly chanterelle (Gomphus floccosus). This species causes gastrointestical distress but will not kill you or cause any permanent damage. It is very easy to tell apart from the normal chanterelle.

The most distinctive characteristic of this mushroom is its scaly bright orange cap. A true chanterelle can have the occasional scale on its cap, but not many. The Scaly chanterelle is usually bright orange on top and off-white underneath, whereas your normal chanterelle is more uniformly coloured. The Scaly chanterelle is also usually larger and firmer than the true chanterelle. It is funnel shaped with a dip in the centre of the cap and a less wavy margin. The mushrooms on either side of my hand are also smaller Scaly chanterelles.

Here is another troublesome look-a-like. This is the aptly named false chanterelle. The first time I came upon one of these I thought it was some sort of weird chanterelle looking mushroom but definitely not the same species. It is easy to tell that it is not a chanterelle because while its gills can be forked it has true, blade like gills. I find this mushroom is also daintier then the true chanterelle.

When combing the forest it is easy to go after one of these thinking you have struck chanterelle gold, only to be disappointed when you flip over the cap and find true gills, not blunt folds staring you down. This mushroom is often found growing on dead wood or soil rich in decaying wood, whereas a  true Chanterelles only grows on the ground where they form mycorrhizal (symbiotic) connections with nearby trees.

Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hygrophoropsis_aurantiaca.jpg

This photo is not one of mine, but I felt it necessary to show a better image of the blade like gills this mushroom has (my photo was too blurry). You may also notice the stipe is usually thinner and the gills don’t run as far down the stipe. These mushrooms will also cause gastrointestinal distress but will not kill you or cause permanent damage.

So let’s get into habitat. Now I have heard you can find chanterelles growing just about anywhere there are trees it can form a relationship with, but in my experience I have found they like a very specific (but luckily common) habitat here in the Pacific Northwest.  I usually find chanterelles growing beneath evergreen (commonly Douglas fir) trees with mossy forest floors and usually near or directly under Salal bushes. The best habitats are in open forestland but this is more for your benefit then the mushroom’s. I have found Chanterelles growing in huge Salal thickets, but who really wants to gather them out of such thick (usually wet) places. Here they are growing in the perfect habitat, open mossy forest under salal and douglas fir trees.

 

 

The white chanterelle can be a little more tricky as it likes to hide under the moss. Usually all you see is a little dot of white poking up through the moss.

If you gently pull back the moss often you will find a lot more then you bargained for. I have found up to 20 white chanterelles from a single easy to miss white spot poking up through the moss. Just be sure if you use this technique to place the moss back as you found it and give it a little push to cement it back to the forest floor.  

This patch yielded about 10 chanterelles, although I forgot to take a picture after harvesting them all.

 

Two things to be aware of before we finish here is that if you decide to go chanterelle hunting please note that chanterelles will often bloom in the same spot year after year, so once you have found a patch remember where it is and you could be eating well for years to come. Secondly if you cut instead of pull chanterelles when you harvest them then you can come back to the same spot multiple times in a season to re-harvest. Once the base of the stipe (where it gets fuzzy with bits of debris growing into it) is pulled from the ground that mushroom will not regrow until the next year so I would recommend always cutting, even if you have no plans to revisit a site, as a common courtesy to your fellow mushroom hunters.

In closing I would like to remind everyone to be careful when gathering wild mushrooms, while most mushrooms will do no more then give you a stomach-ache some can kill you and therefore you should always double check your harvest with an expert before consuming it.

Until next time! Happy Hunting

- Katy