It wasn't that long ago that I was pleased to participate in a Zoom event with Chef Chad Hyatt of the Bay Area, thanks to the very active Wild Rivers Mushroom Club. It was an amazingly entertaining session with Chad offering sound advise and concentrating on what he calls "weird" mushrooms.
In his introduction, Chad promised to steer away from the traditional, old fashioned mushroom recipes that we too often encounter in our cookbook collection. Instead his goal was to step up to a higher level, away from myth, into the atmosphere of science. How does something work? What is going on?
I am sure that my fellow audience members would agree that he did just that as he prepared 4 different "things" pretty much at the same time during his presentation. Ably assisted by his wife, Rosa (who is from Catalonia where they are "absolutely insane" about mushrooms), Chad detailed the science behind the preparation of the seviche served over boiled sweet potatoes, "creamless" cream of mushroom soup, black trumpet jam, and parfaits with candied mushrooms.
Yum, a tasty, "full meal" served up with great panache in less than a hour and a half!
Oh, I mustn't forget. You can order Chad's cookbook direct as I did and receive a speedy delivery. Even in the midst of the holiday shipping rush, I was cooking up a fungal feast from The Mushroom Hunter's Kitchen in time for Christmas dinner!
2 pounds chanterelles, cleaned and cut into 1/2" pieces
Salt
1/4 cup brandy
8 cups water
Leaves from 6 sprigs of thyme
Oil for cooking
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil to finish
Zest from 1 lemon
- Saute the mushrooms with the oil. Cook until lightly and evenly browned, and season with salt. Do not crowd the pan when doing the initial saute. If necessary, cook the mushrooms in batches and when the last batch is browned, combine them all back into the pan.
- Pour the brandy into the pan and scrape up the stuck on browned bits. When the brandy has almost completely reduced away, pour in the water, and bring up to a simmer. Add the thyme, a pinch of salt, and continue cooking until the liquid has reduced by about a quarter.
- Carefully transfer the contents of the pan and the lemon zest to a blender, and blend for a couple of minutes on high speed to get the puree very smooth.
- When the puree is very smooth, with the blender still running, slowly drizzle in all of the olive oil a little at a time to emulsify. When all of the olive oil is incorporated, taste the soup and adjust seasoning if necessary.