Chanterelle Mushrooms

The color orange is everywhere. Roadside stands all over Michigan are displaying rows and rows of pumpkins ranging from fist-sized pikers to giant behemoths that fill a wheelbarrow. Kids have carved faces in them and placed them on half of the porches in Michigan, and acres of them dot the landscape at area cider mills. Trees are ablaze in orange and mothers everywhere are patiently mixing up batches of orange frosting to spread on cookies and cakes.

For discriminating gourmands, orange means more than frosting, pumpkins, and the spectacular colors of the October forests. This year’s crop of chanterelle mushrooms is the best in many years. These wonderfully flavorful mushrooms come in everything from a pale yellow to apricot to pumpkin orange. This is a substantial mushroom, with a texture that’s tender but not delicate. It tends to hold its shape when cooked in sauces and soups. Its flavor has been described as nutty, and faintly reminiscent of apricots. This is a versatile mushroom, so beloved by the culinary set that one of London’s finest and most famous restaurants was named after it. It lends itself equally well to sauces, stuffings, soufflés, omelets, side dishes, soups, and stews. To make my point, I’ve assembled recipes for chanterelle custard, chanterelle soufflé, and chicken breasts stuffed with chanterelle dressing. Because the flavors complement one another, the custard is at its finest when served with the arugula salad. I don’t recommend “separating” them.

Chanterelles lend themselves to very cold white wines. Though it may be (for all I know) a contradiction of everything your sommelier has ever told you, I chill my white wines in the freezer for ten or 15 minutes before serving them. Then I’m careful to pour just enough wine in each glass to keep it from warming much before it can be consumed. The bottle is stored in a wine bucket with plenty of ic