I've had an abundance of chanterelles recently and decided to share what I've been doing with them.
Cooking chanterelles is easy, I start by tearing them into evenly sized strips (they're stringy like chicken) and throwing them in a saucepan by themselves to boil off all the water. (Adding a bit of water at the start to cover the bottom of the pan lets you start it on high heat without burning them)
While the water boils off I start making Mexican yellow rice to serve on the side. I don't have fancy ingredients like saffron but turmeric, cumin, garlic, oregano, and a chicken stock cube gets the job done for me.
When the chanterelles are ready I add a bit of oil with onions and poblano peppers cut into strips, and season with cayenne pepper, cumin, garlic, and paprika (salt and pepper to taste). Cook that on high heat and stir until the texture of the veggies is just right. I stop stirring and let it burn a little while melting some cheese on top at the end.
And here is the result:
You can get some tortillas or just eat it as-is, it's delicious either way. Goes well with salsa or hot sauce. I've made this probably 5 or 6 times in the past month because I keep finding more chanterelles and I will never get bored of it.
Still would love to hear some more ideas on how to cook chanterelles, because I will probably find even more soon lol.
I wish I could learn mushroom recognition. This is so cool and it comes with tasty consequences. I will one day but for now, I'll keep focusing on trees which as the big advantages to allow foraging the heart of busy cities.
Me too! Although I have a tiny bit of experience with some easy foraging in Sweden. Chanterelles are a great starting point! They look distinctive, and pretty mich the only thing to confuse them with are "false chanterelles" which taste boring but aren't toxic.
Although, please fact check anything someone (like me) on the internet tells you about mushrooms before foraging and eating anything!
In North America it's possible to mistake the poisonous eastern jack-o'lantern mushroom for chanterelles because their gills are small. Fresh eastern jack-o'lantern gills glow green in the dark though, so as long as you know that fact it's pretty easy to tell them apart.