Chanterelles

– Girolles (in French) – Pfifferlinges (in German)  

It seems these pretty mushrooms are like a favorite child, they have a beautiful name in at least 3 languages I can think of. 

I had Pfifferlinges in cream at Lutter & Wegner with a dumpling, then I had them with halibut at the Adlon Kempinski and then when I walked into my local supermarket Rewe the other day there was an entire stand dedicated to them…  It’s Pfifferlinge season here in Berlin!  

Really?  I thought mushrooms were an autumn thing?  I looked it up in my Larousse Gastronomique and there it was, in black and white – chanterelles are in season from June to October.  

Don’t you just love that about food?  You walk around thinking you are the bee’s knee’s and that you know all there is to know on the subject and then…wham!  Chanterelle season catches you unawares.

I bought 200g.  What to do with them?  They had been served to me twice with a cream sauce so I wanted to try something new but not really too long-winded as I was preparing them for myself.  

Scrambled eggs.  That’s it.  Scrambled eggs with cream and chanterelle mushrooms.  My Larousse says that you have to cook them on a medium heat otherwise they toughen up.  I brushed the dirt off, put 2 knobs of butter into a pan and then the chanterelles with a sprinkling of Maldon salt and pepper.  I let that sweat for about 3 minutes then added about a tablespoon of white wine (I always think that mushrooms, any mushroom, needs that sour edge to counteract their inherent earthiness).  

Then in another pan I gently coaxed three eggs into big fat curds.  

I toasted two thick wedges of sour dough, drizzled the mushroom juice on top, followed by the scrambled eggs and finally the mushroom we are all here to read about – the chanterelles.