cream of chanterelle soup

It was a real hunter gatherer kind of day which started in the wee dark hours of the morning, as my partner set off for his first ever bow hunt,  I was in bed dreaming of venison meals to come. Mid morning the hunters came back empty handed, but luckily our mushroom hunting afternoon was totally successful!

Today was our local fall mushroom class and forest foraging, and just like last year it was wonderful! There is so much about mycology to learn and taste! Last year we were flush with pine mushrooms, and this year we came home with a huge basket of chanterelles. At the end of the foraging session we enjoyed a tail gate mushroom and wine tasting… which got my taste buds fired up! I came home and cleaned and trimmed a whack of these beautiful shrooms, while deciding what kind of meals to build around them. For tonight I settled on cream of chanterelle soup, and it turned out divine and rich, and meaty with mounds of thick cut mushrooms throughout. After sharing some fungi and making this big old pot of soup we still  have enough mushrooms for a few more meals!

It is one thing to forage through your garden and pick your dinner, one of my favourite things in fact to do, but the hunt of forest walking and foraging is a whole different level of rewarding and deliciousness!

Cream of Chanterelle Soup:

In a large soup pot start by frying in olive oil (about 1/4 cup of it):

I large yellow onion diced fine

3 cloves of garlic minced

about 8 cups of sliced chanterelles

Cook these all down for about 15 minutes at which time they will be golden brown and have reduced by nearly half and your house will smell divine.

Season with S+P

1 bay leaf

heavy pinch of fresh minced herbs; thyme, rosemary, and parsley

mix and add:

3 cups boiling water

2 cups of milk

2 tbsp soy sauce or Braggs

2 tbsp worcestershire sauce

reduce heat and let slowly simmer for about an hour

In a small bowl put 2 tbsp potato flour and stir/ wisk really well into about 2 cups of boiling water, remove lumps and add thickener into soup.

Allow soup to cook for another 15 minutes, then remove bay leaf, finish with a sprinkle of more fresh herbs and serve.

Chantrelles & Moma Cows

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The garden is finally frosting and getting ready for a long winters rest. I have lots of work to do to clean up the beds and do some due diligence work to keep spring couch grass at bay. The garlic is getting planted tomorrow in a deep dark bed of soil from my first Kootenay compost pile! Currently I am drowning in grapes so I am going to attempt a batch of grape juice tomorrow, I had hoped to dry some and make raisins except the grapes I am flush with right now are seeded and after removing seeds from a few I decided juice would be more fun to make.

While I write this I am drinking the most delicious cup of tea ever, made with creamy delicious milk from the glowing mommy cow you see above. It doesn’t get much closer to your local food source than a gift of fresh milk 😉

Last night I whipped up a small batch of yellow pickled beets, which are sure to be my last pickles of the year.I couldn’t resist buying 10 lbs from a no spray farm we visited in Chilliwak last week, they were $2 a bag! I really love the recipe I am using for pickling beets which includes vinegar, apple cider vinegar, honey and cinnamon sticks, yum!

Mia came home from school today with a lovely little selection of Chanterelle mushrooms, as her class did a mushroom walk with the same biologist who taught our excursion 2 weeks ago.  So I did an Asian inspired stir fry of Chanterelles with tofu and pumpkin seeds on a bed of brown basmati rice for dinner tonight that was pretty divine if I do say so. (recipe below)