Chanterelles for Supper!

There are a couple varieties of mushrooms that grow wild in South Louisiana that are good for eating - Oyster Mushrooms and Chanterelles.  I've posted before several times about oyster mushrooms and today I'll show you chanterelles.  Chanterelles are my favorite!  They have a rich flavor and fleshy texture and nice aroma and are just outstanding.

A good friend of ours had just been out to his property and picked a paper bag full of them and graciously shared some with us.  They like to grow in thick leaves on the forest floor.  Once you find the spot that they are growing, you have a gold mine. Don't pull them.  Cut them off at the base and take precautions not to disturb the mycelium.  What we see as the mushroom is the 'fruit.'  The mycelium is the vegetative part or roots.  As long as you don't disturb the mycelium, you'll be able to harvest chanterelles year after year!

So first we wash them up to remove any dust or other debris.

A colander of chanterelles

After washing up the chanterelles, Tricia put a big dollop of butter in a heated cast iron skillet along withe some chopped onions, diced fresh garlic and the chanterelles and started that sauteing.  Benjamin doesn't even like mushrooms, but came in saying, "Mom, what are you cooking?  I could smell it from outside!  It smells great!"

Chanterelles sauted in butter

Today we're going to be serving our fresh picked chanterelles over homemade linguine made from kamut. Kamut is an ancient grain or wheat that makes good pasta.  It was brought to the United States by an airman in 1949 who brought them back from Portugal after another airman got the kamut from a trip to Egypt.  Russ ground a bunch of kamut into flour and he's rolling out the dough and then will run it through the pasta maker to make linguine.

Making Pasta

Then Tricia added some basil that we had picked and frozen from last year, some green onions, and some chopped up tomatoes right off the vine.  The colors are so nice and I wish you good smell this as it was cooking.

A skillet full of flavor!

Finally, at the very end we'll add some fresh cream:

Adding the cream

We've drained our pasta and it turned out great!

Homemade pasta!

Well, there's nothing to do but serve up a nice bowl of sauteed chanterelles and fresh garden vegetables with a side of sauteed yellow crookneck squash.  We'll shred a little Parmesan on top.

A meal made for a king!

We'll thank the Good Lord for His provisions of great, local, wholesome food and enjoy a wonderful meal and accompanying conversation.  Bon Apetit!  We tore that skillet up.  Sadly, there wasn't enough for me left over to pack for lunch the following day.