In the continuing theme of mushrooms: CHANTERELLES.

I had never had these before. Ok, I know I've had various wild mushroom businesses at restaurants from time to time, but I had never bought them before. This time they were on ludicrous sale. In conclusion, I am cheap and chanterelles are expensive.

Anyway, I bought them. I let them sit in the refrigerator for several days while I thought about what to do with them, and what would complement them best, and when the perfect time would be, and hey, did we have any champagne?

Yeah. I love mushrooms.

John hates mushrooms.

We have a basic, fundamental difference in pizza orders.

(Not that pizza was a candidate for these, but we Did have that frozen pizza a while ago and I Could have put the chanterelles on my part had that pizza been worthy. Ok, now I desperately want a real homemade pizza with all the wild mushrooms I can handle. Maybe that will happen in the future. In the meantime, gah!)

John does not mind cooking mushrooms, however, which helped a few nights ago when he proceeded to cook the chanterelles for me.


Sautéed ridiculous chanterelles

bag of chanterelles/wild mushroom of choice
a shallot
butter
parsley
white wine/dry vermouth
toast to eat it with

Peel and mince up a shallot, maybe two. It depends on how many mushrooms you have. Clearly we want the mushrooms to dominate here.

Melt a big lump of butter in a sauté pan. You can use olive oil; it will still be good, but it won't have those severe dairy qualities. Add the shallots and cook slowly until softened.

While they're cooking, examine your chanterelles. Do you want to cut them up? Do you want to leave them whole? I want mine whole, but you can clearly cut them into chunks or whatever. Make sure to get rid of any dirt or grit on them, and cut off any particularly tough stems.

Toss the mushrooms into the shallots, add some torn parsley and a little salt, and cook slowly. After five minutes or so, when the mushrooms are about halfway done, add a half glass or so of white wine. You can also use dry vermouth. Stir it all up and continue to cook; John put the whole business under lid so as not to lose the precious juices, but it will work whichever way.

Toast some bread. I had rye. Sourdough would also clearly be an excellent plan. You want something seriously grainy and aromatic to stand up to these.

When the mushrooms are done, pour them into a bowl with toast on the side. Or you can pour them directly over the toast.

Now eat them. Eat them!

Alternate forkfuls of mushroom with toast or pile said mushroom on bits of toast.

Mushrooms make me very happy.