This is another of the recipes I made in France. When I saw these glorious golden chanterelles on the market in L’Isle sur la Sorgue, I had no idea what I would do with them, but they just looked too delicious to pass by. I had brought my copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking to France (paperback!), as I thought it would be fun to cook something from it while I was there and so I looked to Child, Bertolle and Beck for inspiration.
When I packed the book, I was thinking along the lines of something a little more challenging, like a soufflé or quenelles, but the chanterelles needed very little doing to them. They called for something simple, yet elegant and I thought the light and delicate flavouring in the champignons a blanc would provide just that.
I think the champignons a blanc recipe is supposed to be an accompaniment to a main dish, because in the end I found that it was too bland for my purposes. I had decided to serve the mushrooms on crostini as a canapé, so I added a few extra ingredients to lift the flavour without overpowering the chanterelles. Still, better to have been light-handed with the additions at the start.
Using mini portobellos insteadI have tested the recipe again to check the measurements, but since I wasn’t able to get chanterelles, I went for mini portobellos instead. I was intending to write this up as a generic recipe for any type of mushroom, as in the original, but in testing it out I have realised that it was the chanterelles that made the dish worth repeating. If you can’t get chanterelles, then I would suggest that you use the recipe as an accompaniment, as originally intended, or add another dimension like some crumbled feta cheese on top if serving on crostini, otherwise you might find yourself feeling a little disappointed.
I have included the original recipe followed by my own, so that you can compare the two. The measurements for the shared ingredients are the same in each, except that I have provided the metric conversion in mine. If you are serving the mushrooms as an accompaniment to a main, it should serve four. As a canapé it serves up to eight depending how generous you are with the topping. It could also work well on fresh baguette, but I like the contrasting texture of the crispy crostini.
Champignons a blanc
Ingredients
Method
Trim and wash the mushrooms; cut as directed in your recipe, or as shown in the preceding illustrations. Bring the water, salt, lemon juice, and butter to the boil in the saucepan. Add the mushrooms and toss to cover them with the liquid. Cover and boil moderately fast, tossing frequently, for 5 minutes. Put aside until ready to use.
Chanterelles a blanc
Ingredients
To serve as a canapé on crostini
Method
Scrape off any dirt on the mushrooms with the end of a knife and trim the bottom of the stems if they look a little dry. If some of the mushrooms are larger than others, you may like to halve or quarter the larger ones.
Melt the butter over a low heat in a medium saucepan. Turn the heat up high and pour in the wine, allow it to bubble for a 30 seconds and then turn the heat back down. Add the mushrooms, lemon juice, Dijon, salt and pepper and cook until the mushrooms are soft and tender, this will take 3-4 minutes. When the mushrooms are ready, remove from the heat and add the parsley.
For the crostini
If serving as a canapé on crostini, cut the baguette into slices approximately 1cm thick. Brush each slice of bread on each side with a little olive oil and grill for a few minutes on each side or until golden.
Spoon the warm mushrooms onto the crostini and garnish each piece with a parsley leaf.