I am a mushroom lover 🍄 Fourteen years ago, when I first moved to Austria, I came across chanterelles at the local market. I gave them a try and was instantly captivated by their flavor. From then on, I often bought them at the market, cooked them, and found myself sighing with delight over how delicious they were.
In Austria they are called Eierschwammerl, while in Germany they are known as Pfifferlinge. In Japanese they are called anzutake (literally “apricot mushroom”), but I had never even heard of them when I lived in Japan.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantharellus_cibarius
Since they cannot be cultivated indoors, you only find them in season, often sold with bits of moss or soil still clinging to them. Some Germans are avid mushroom foragers. A gardening friend of mine goes out to pick chanterelles, and when I asked to join, he smiled and said, “The locations are secret!”
Chanterelles have a wonderfully concentrated forestry umami flavor, and the classic way to enjoy them here is in a loose cream sauce. They are often served with hearty noodles, the southern German Spätzle, or dumplings. For me, that’s a fully satisfying vegetarian meal, but when I was out with my more flexible-eating partner, he ordered pork fillet steak on the side.
The other day, at a post-project dinner, I ordered pasta with chanterelles. I was so busy eating—“so good, so good!”—that I completely forgot to take a photo.
You also find chanterelles at the market stalls. My child and I were talking about how we wanted to eat as many as possible, so we bought a big batch at Tuesday’s market. When I asked how we should cook them, the answer was: “Onigiri!” So we sautéed them in garlic butter, finished with soy sauce—a classic Japanese mushroom seasoning—and tucked them inside rice balls. Of course, they were delicious! They disappeared so fast I didn’t even get a photo. Here’s a plate I made with a small portion I had set aside: Okra soup topped with chanterelles!
I also made the classic: chanterelles in cream sauce with pasta. Since I wanted thick, chewy noodles to hold the sauce, I made the pasta from scratch. The sauce itself is simple: sauté onion and garlic with your favorite herbs, butter, salt, and pepper, then add the chanterelles. Deglaze with white wine, let it steam, then finish with cream and adjust the seasoning. Unlike a béchamel, you don’t add flour for thickening, so there’s no worry about lumps—it’s wonderfully straightforward.
The sauce is easy, but cleaning chanterelles is quite a task. My partner and I chatted while carefully brushing off moss and dust with a pastry brush. It takes time, but truth be told, I rather enjoy this fiddly work 😉
And voilà! I topped the pasta with some cute zucchini we had just harvested from the garden.
If you come across chanterelles, I wholeheartedly recommend trying them. And soon porcini mushrooms will also come into season—another delight to look forward to. Ah, the world holds more deliciousness than one lifetime could ever taste ☺️
Have a nice and tasty weekend everyone!
ドイツで今が旬のアンズタケ愛を書きました。日本語部分はnoteに投稿しましたので、覗いてみてください 🍄 あーそれにしても世界にはなんでこんなにもおいしいものがたくさんあるんだろう。この世にいるうちにどんどん堪能したいです。