Golden Collection: what's new in restaurants with chanterelles
Chanterelles are one of those foods worth waiting for in summer. Moreover, this year the favorable weather with rains and hot days allows us to count on a good harvest of these mushrooms, and chefs turn them into the main characters of seasonal menus. Izvestia found out which interesting dishes with the orange delicacy can already be tried in Moscow projects.
The forest palette
Most often, restaurants use ordinary chanterelle, a familiar seasonal product with a dense texture and recognizable taste. But if you want to make the flavor of the dish deeper and richer, some chefs choose black chanterelle. It has a much more pronounced mushroom flavor and aroma, so even a small amount can noticeably change the nature of the dish.
Risotto with fried chanterelles and berry sauce
— Fresh black chanterelle is rare, so in gastronomy they usually work with dried chanterelle. After soaking, it restores its texture and at the same time retains its characteristic flavor," Andrey Zhdanov, brand chef of the Modus restaurant, told Izvestia. — For a gastronomic dinner or a dish designed for a prepared audience, the most interesting combination will be the common and black chanterelles. And for more understandable, classic dishes, an ordinary one is quite enough.
Our interlocutor notes that chanterelles go well with rice, pasta and various cereals, from bulgur and quinoa to ptitym. Cream products, sour cream, soft sauces, and caviar especially benefit here. The chef calls fried chanterelles with sour cream and pike caviar one of the successful combinations. Chanterelles also go well with seafood. Squid, scallop and shrimp are suitable for them. Texture balance is especially important in such combinations.: elastic mushrooms and shrimps are approximately in the same density range, but they give different flavors.
In a salad from the Modus special menu, fried chanterelles are combined with shrimps, fresh vegetables and herbs. The shrimp adds a light marine accent, but does not over-draw attention to itself, and the crispy vegetables support the texture of the mushrooms. All the ingredients are combined with the classic Vinaigrette sauce based on vinegar and mustard.
Salad with fried chanterelles, shrimp and vinaigrette sauce
Another interesting item from the Modus special menu is beef stroganoff made from marbled beef with chanterelles and mashed potatoes. As brand chef Zhdanov explains, many versions of this classic Russian dish use champignons, oyster mushrooms or porcini mushrooms, but he chose chanterelles for his interpretation because they have a denser texture and an expressive, but understandable mushroom taste. When fried, chanterelles retain their elasticity and add texture to the dish, which is often lacking in classic beef stroganoff.
When choosing chanterelles, it is also important to pay attention to their size. Small mushrooms are more dense and elastic, they retain their shape better when fried, therefore they are especially well suited for salads and dishes where they are served whole. Large chanterelles can be sliced and used in sauces, pasta, risotto or hot dishes.
Starring
The general trend of modern cuisine is minimal processing and maximum respect for the product itself. Therefore, chanterelles are increasingly becoming the main ingredient of a dish, rather than a simple addition to meat or a side dish.
Homemade pasta with beef tataki and chanterelles
"Chanterelles are not an ordinary mushroom for us, but a very flexible ingredient: they have a bright aroma, dense texture and natural sweetness, so they go equally well with creamy, meat and vegetable products," explained Roman Nurgaliev, chef of the Coperto restaurant. — By creating a new seasonal menu together with chef Alexey Volkov, we wanted to show a familiar seasonal product in a fresher, modern interpretation. All the dishes are designed so that the chanterelles do not get lost, but, on the contrary, gather around themselves the taste of the whole composition and add depth to it.
According to the chef, one of the best examples of this approach was homemade pasta with beef tataki and chanterelles. The dish is based on a contrast of flavors and textures: tender, almost half-cooked beef cooked using the tataki technique is combined with a rich meat flavor and a bright aroma of chanterelles. The Wellington chanterelle pie is built on the same principle. In it, the mushrooms give the dish a soft forest flavor, a light sweetness and the very depth of taste that makes the beef even more expressive. The result is not just a beautiful position on the menu, but a dish with character — festive and delicious.
Beef wellington with chanterelles
Speaking about cooking chanterelles, chef Nurgaliev advises not to overload the pan with them. If you put too many mushrooms, they will start stewing in their own juice instead of browning. Therefore, first you should heat the pan well so that excess moisture evaporates, then add vegetable or butter, and salt and pepper — only at the very end. Cooking chanterelles for too long is also not worth it: five to seven minutes is enough. If the mushrooms are overexposed, they become less fragrant and lose their elasticity.
Forest and sea
Modern gastronomy is no longer limited to the usual combination of chanterelles with fried potatoes. Today, these seasonal mushrooms are becoming a full-fledged delicacy and are increasingly appearing in the company of cream cheeses, fresh herbs, legumes and fish. The delicate creaminess of strachatella, burrata, ricotta or camembert perfectly sets off the dense flesh of wild mushroom, mashed peas or green buckwheat add freshness and showiness to the serving, and white fish reveals the characteristic aroma of chanterelles from a new side.
Cod fillet with mashed potatoes and mushroom sauce with chanterelles
— In dishes with white fish, as in the case of our cod, chanterelles act as a bright accent, emphasizing the soft taste of the tender fillet, but not interrupting it, — says Anatoly Pak, chef of the Sausage Shop & Magadan restaurant. — Creamy sauce harmoniously combines the marine and forest scales, and mushrooms become a natural flavor enhancer.
According to the source, the fish for the dish is first fried until lightly browned. Chanterelles are separately cooked with onions in butter, then cream and a little truffle paste are added. The resulting sauce impregnates the cod, and the elastic mushrooms add an expressive texture to the dish. At the same time, it is the earthy and woody shades of chanterelles that create a contrast with the neutral taste of white fish, turning the usual fillet into a restaurant dish.
Chanterelles with sour cream, smoked chicken and pita
However, the result largely depends on the quality of the mushrooms themselves. Chef Pak recommends choosing dry, elastic medium-sized chanterelles with bright orange coloring. Crumbling, over-dried or slippery specimens, according to him, have already lost their juiciness and can spoil the taste of the dish. Young chanterelles do not require pre-boiling: it is enough to immediately put them in a dry hot frying pan, wait until excess moisture evaporates, then add butter or olive oil and fry quickly over high heat.
Italian accent
Italian cuisine in Russia has become one of the important conduits of seasonal products, and chanterelles are no exception here. In the Apennines, these mushrooms most often become part of pasta or risotto, but in Russian restaurants working with the Italian gastronomic tradition, they are used much more widely.
Confit duck leg with chanterelles, black pudding and prunes
"Our seasonal menu with chanterelles includes both classic pasta for Italian cuisine and a very Russian dish — fried potatoes with chanterelles," says Rodion Sadovsky, chef of the Italian bistro Avero Mio. — In addition, we cook duck leg confit with them with black pudding and prune sauce, as well as Murmansk halibut with cauliflower puree, chanterelles and onion demiglas.
According to the chef, the duck leg for this dish is baked in its own fat, and then brought to a crisp. Halibut is first fried, after which it is served with mashed cauliflower and onion demiglas, which simultaneously emphasizes the taste of chanterelles and sets off the taste of fish.
Salad with arugula, fried haloumi and chanterelles
Rodion Sadovsky calls roasting chanterelles with a little salt and garlic the simplest and most proven way to cook them. In his opinion, this method best preserves the rich taste of mushrooms and makes them a good addition to almost any meat dish. To better preserve the special taste of chanterelles, the chef recommends soaking them only briefly in water, otherwise they will absorb excess moisture and release a lot of juice during frying. As a result, instead of the characteristic fried taste, it will turn out to be rather boiled. Therefore, after a quick rinse and cleaning of chanterelles from foliage and soil, they must be thoroughly dried, and then immediately fried over high heat.
The Crunchy Union
Chanterelles are one of those seasonal products that go especially well with pastries. Bread, pizza and even custard cakes do not interrupt their delicate mushroom flavor, but, on the contrary, make it more expressive.
Eclairs with chanterelles
—The dough provides a neutral base and becomes the perfect backdrop for chanterelles," Danil Suslov, chef of the Technikum Bistro, told our publication. — In our bruschetta it's the crunch of bread, in pizza it's thin dough and cheese, and in eclair it's an unusual serving where the crispy shell is combined with a delicate mushroom filling. The most important thing is not to overload such dishes with bright ingredients: then it is the taste of chanterelles that remains the main thing.
Pizza with chanterelles and parmesan cheese
According to the expert, it is better to choose small or medium chanterelles for pizza — they are denser and more convenient to use. Before cooking, the mushrooms must be thoroughly cleaned and quickly fried in butter for two to three minutes to remove excess moisture. Only after that they should be spread on the pizza. The chef recommends using mozzarella, strachatella and parmesan for cheeses, and garlic, thyme and freshly ground pepper for spices. As Danil Suslov notes, chanterelles themselves have a fairly bright aroma, so they do not need a large number of additional ingredients.
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