In Search of Svamp

The Swedish word for mushroom is svamp.  And I'm continually on a search for them as we take our walks in the nearby woods.  Earlier this month, I took the above pictures on one such walk.

After showing these cell phone pictures to a Swede, she said not one of them was edible --- especially the top red polka-dotted (makes me think of happy little gnomes!) one which is an Amanita muscaria (fly agaric) which, when ingested, will act on the central nervous system causing loss of coordination, agitation, nausea and sometimes even hallucinations.

No thanks!

Though I have seen chanterelle mushrooms in stores, I hoped to find some in the wild. No such luck --- and even if I did find one I would be worried about false identification and causing great harm to my body if I ate it.  So, I decided to go with a safer option of finding one/many in an outdoor market.

 There they are!  Right next to the lingonberries and blueberries! I bought a container full of these golden gems for 50 kronor which is about $6.00 US dollars.

Once home, the question was:  to wash or not to wash?  Google comes up with both as options.

I chose to give a quick dip/swish through cold water.

Also, thanks to a Google search, I learned to not drown the little mushrooms in butter when first cooking them.  Instead, dry saute because the 'shrooms ooze water as they cook, then add a little butter and cook a little longer.

 

Yum!

We had these as a side with burgers.

I asked one of our Swedish students how her family would serve the chanterelles and she said her favorite was eating them in a sauce on top of bread.  Recipe included: (using US measurements instead of metric)

 

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 pound fresh chanterelles
• 2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
• 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 cup vegetable stock
• ½ teaspoon finely chopped fresh rosemary
• 1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh thyme
• 1 tablespoon chopped flat leaf parsley
• 1 tablespoon cold butter
• ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
• Freshly ground pepper, to taste
• 4 slices toasted bread, for serving
• 4 tablespoons shaved Parmesan

Preparation

1. Heat your largest fry pan over medium-high heat, and when it is hot, add the olive oil. Once the olive oil is hot, add the chanterelles. Cook for 4 minutes without moving them around too much.
2. Add the sherry vinegar and the lemon juice and cook down until fully reduced. Add the stock and reduce by half (you are not exactly reducing so much as hydrating the mushrooms). Add the rosemary, thyme, parsley and butter. Stir with a wooden spoon to incorporate the butter. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Evenly spoon the chanterelles over the 4 pieces of toasted bread and garnish with shaved Parmesan.

  And now a question for you - actually two:

1. Have you ever found/bought chanterelles?

2.  If so, what have you made with them?