My First Chanterelle Hunt Yields Freezer Gold

Somewhere in the Pacific Northwest on a beautiful Friday afternoon before Halloween weekend, I went on my first hunt for chanterelles. Tall Douglas Firs filtering the sunlight and a thick, wet tangle of undergrowth made for tough-going at times.












After climbing over fallen trees and inching my way down a ravine, I found a small clearing dotted with clover and a vein of chanterelles. I had entered chanterelle paradise! Suddenly, mushrooms were everywhere.












Several hours later, our bags filled with chanterelles, my guides and benefactors, Anna and Phil, helped me to celebrate back at the car.












After setting aside some for tonight's soup, I began preparing chanterelles for freezing. While I was able to brush away most of the Douglas Fir needles and leaf debris in the woods, I obviously still had a little cleaning to do. Now that the mushroom were drier, the remaining debris came off easily.












I rinsed away with water only the most stubborn dirt. Chanterelles are delicate and don't hold up well to washing. If you take care to cut them a little above ground level, you won't have much dirt to deal with at this stage of preparation.












The sauteeing recipe for freezing that Anna and Phil recommended called for dicing up some onions and garlic.












I discovered that shredding chanterelles lengthwise was a lot like shredding cooked chicken.













After heating a large frying pan, I began dry sauteeing a batch of chanterelles. This means that the chanterelles, which are filled with their own water, sweated enough liquid to begin sauteeing.












When the chanterelles stopped sweating, I added butter, olive oil, diced garlic, and diced onions.












I sauteed the chanterelles until the onions were translucent and most of the liquid had cooked away. As our house filled with a wonderful aroma, I continued to cook the chanterelles in small batches and set them aside to cool down.













When all the chanterelles had been sauteed and had time to cool down, I packaged one-cup quantities of the them in Ziplock baggies. My chanterelles were now ready to freeze.
I look forward to bringing out a bag at a time for pasta dishes and soups this winter!