Getting Wild: Chanterelle Mushrooms

By Scott Hall, Executive Chef, Bone-In Artisan BBQ on Wheels and Scott Hall Catering
June 28, 2013

You can find Scott Hall’s notorious Bone-In Artisan BBQ on Wheels food truck on national TV in the shows Eat St. and Man Fire Food or you can follow @artisanbbqtruck on Twitter for his next lunch stop at the Big Apple. Or you can hire his catering company to make your guests tear up with gratitude at your innovative, excellent taste in chefs. Your call.

Summer has come to South Carolina, and with it comes a panoply of amazing local produce. Wonderful tomatoes, corn, squash, watermelon, peaches, and cucumbers fill our grocery store carts, market baskets, and dinner plates.

Often overshadowed are the amazing local treasures from the fungi kingdom. Among others, we can find: oyster mushrooms, chicken of the woods, porcini, lobster mushrooms, cauliflower mushrooms, and my favorite, chanterelles.

Foraged = No Go in SC
Unfortunately, even though conditions allow for thriving wild mushroom populations, South Carolina remains among a handful of states which ban the serving or selling of wild foraged mushrooms.

Farmed = A-OK
Luckily, there are a few resources for those of us without the VERY necessary foraging training needed to procure our own wild mushrooms. Mushroom farms, such as Rebecca Farms, in Hemingway, SC, and Mushroom Mountain, in Liberty, SC, offer commercially grown, local varieties of mushrooms, and in many cases, can provide training for individuals looking to learn the skills needed to forage for themselves.

Grow Your Own
Many mushroom farms also sell kits of spores that you can cultivate yourself. [Ed. Note: You can also chat up the folks GnomeGrown Mushrooms at Soda City Market each Saturday morning on Main Street. Their oyster mushrooms are terrific.]

(Image credit for the pic of just mushrooms: EarthlyDelightsBlog.com)

One of my favorite things to serve as a reasonably light, and richly satisfying summer dinner is a wild mushroom & goat cheese tart over a very simple salad, in a bright, herbaceous vinaigrette.

I’m usually happiest with this dish when the mushrooms are chanterelle, the greens are baby arugula, and the vinaigrette is equal parts sherry vinegar & bacon fat, with a drop of Dijon, and a spoonful of honey.

Chanterelle & Goat Cheese Tart

1 tart or shallow pie crust (preferably homemade, blind baked, and in the ballpark of 9 inches)
1.5 to 2 lb. of chanterelle caps (reserve those woody but delicious stems for making mushroom stock)
1 small shallot (minced)
1.5 cups of goat cheese
2 tbsp. butter
2 egg yolks
2 tbsp. of fresh thyme leaves (preferably just stripped from the stems)
Salt & pepper to taste

1. Melt the butter in a hot cast iron pan. Add the minced shallot and sauté until translucent. Add the mushroom caps, coating them well in the hot shallot butter. Reduce heat to low and cook for about 8 or so minutes or until the caps begin to appear relatively tender. Generously season to taste with salt and pepper. Turn off heat and allow to cool.

2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the goat cheese and egg yolks, lightly seasoning with salt and pepper.

3. Spread the goat cheese mixture evenly into the tart crust. Shingle the softened mushroom caps over the entire surface of the tart. Sprinkle the top of the tart with the fresh thyme.

4. Bake the tart in the oven at about 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. Let cool before cutting.

One could also forgo the formality & presentation of the tart and simple sauté your mushrooms in a cast iron skillet, top with a mixture of bread crumbs & a hard, salty, cheese of your choice, roast in a hot oven and take straight to the dinner table as a delicious mushroom gratin.

Finely chopped mushrooms also make great add-ons to stuffings, omelets, compound butters, stir fries, soups, salads, and almost anything else you can think of.

Chanterelle-Thyme Liqueur
For the adventurous mixologist, try infusing vodka with chanterelles and fresh thyme for this wonderful if not unique homemade cordial.

1 pound very clean chanterelle mushrooms
750 ml bottle of decent vodka (no need to go top shelf)
1 bunch very clean thyme (ten sprigs)
1 cup honey

1. Fill a clean, 2-quart glass container with a tight fitting lid with the very clean Chanterelles, and the whole bunch of thyme.

2. Add vodka to the jar, and seal. Store jar away from direct sunlight for three days

3. After three days, strain the liquid through a metal sieve, discard the solids, and strain again through a coffee filter. Add the honey and stir well.

Try your newly infused chanterelle liqueur straight up in a cordial glass to whet the palate, or in this cocktail that I have been known to serve before a mushroom laden feast!

Cocktail: La Butineuse Français (The French Forager)

2 ounces chanterelle liqueur
2 ounces Lillet
.5 ounce lemon juice
3 dashes orange bitters
Shake all ingredients over ice, and strain into a cocktail glass

I can almost guarantee that your guests will have never had a cocktail featuring this most noble fungus.

 

This weekly food column is curated by Tracie Broom, who serves on the board at Slow Food Columbia (http://www.slowfoodcola.org), publishes The Yum Diary (http://www.yumdiary.com), and is a founding partner at Flock and Rally: Events + Communications for a Brave New South (http://www.flockandrally.com).

---

Sign up here to receive MidlandsLife weekly email magazine.