The other day, in a complete surprise, a friend dropped off some chanterelle mushrooms that they had foraged! Since I’d never tasted or worked with chanterelles before, he suggested that I sautee in butter and have with toast to get a feel for them. So, I did, and they were amazing! The flavour and texture is like no mushroom I’d had before, and now I feel the need to forage for them myself (after researching for potential toxic doppelgangers to make sure I’m picking the right ones, of course). Anyway, having a better idea of the ingredient after my trial taste, I decided to feature it with pork for dinner!
The original plan was to top the pork with a chanterelle cream sauce, but when we went to get the cream from the fridge, we realized we didn’t have any. However, since we still believe it would have been great, we will include the additional step to finish the pork that way as an “optional” step in our recipe below.
We served our pork with couscous and steamed broccoli. However, it would also go very well with mashed potatoes (try our Sneaky Mashed Potatoes) or wild rice.
Be sure to check out Part 2 of our Chanterelle Adventure too (Chanterelle and Veggie Pasta)!
Time: 25 Minutes
Ingredients:
- Boneless Pork Loin Chops
- Salt
- Chanterelles
- Ground Turmeric
- Optional if making the sauce: Heavy Cream
Method:
- Cut the very ends off your chanterelle stems, and rinse your mushrooms.
- Give your pork a quick salt sprinkle on the top and bottom.
- Heat a cast iron pan with some butter, and when the butter is melted, add your pork.
- Cook for about 5 minutes, and then flip, and cook for another 5 minutes.
- Immediately after the flip, add a little more butter to the pan, and then toss in your chanterelles to cook and soften.
- After the second 5 minutes, test your pork to make sure it’s reached an internal cooked temperature of at least 145 degrees F (for medium…165 degrees F for well done). Once your pork reaches your desired doneness, remove it from the pan, and plate it.
- Finish off your mushrooms:
- Sprinkle in some ground turmeric, sautee for another minute or two, and scoop your softened and golden brown mushrooms right atop your pork, or
- Optional if making the sauce: Remove your pork from your pan, turn the heat off, sprinkle in your ground turmeric, and whisk in your cream to combine with your chanterelles and turmeric. Then, pour this over your pork when you plate.
- Plate, devour, and enjoy!
Excellent combination. Since they’re practically the only mushroom whose season is in the summer (cultivated mushrooms excepted) it is worth trying them out with other seasonal vegetables and herbs: In Germany chanterelles are added to a more elegant version of Jägerschnitzel, often also made with veal, but very good with pork as well. I love to combine them with fresh peas and shallots. The Baltic republics and parts of western Russia love them with fresh dill. I make a side dish with roughly mashed potatoes (use small new potatoes and leave them in their jackets) wth a topping of chanterelles fried in butter. You may also fry some bacon, then add the chanterelles and finish with white wine and cream to serve with Austrian/Bavarian dumplings (Semmelknödel). Omit the bacon and you have a vegetarian meal.
That all sounds great! We made a pasta dish with the rest last night, and we are cooking planning to do more research and try foraging for ourselves.