The taste of fried mushrooms, their incomparable aroma, is familiar to many almost from childhood, especially to people living in forest areas or who have the opportunity to go mushroom hunting every year. And this, believe me, is a very exciting activity that requires attentiveness and other skills. Bringing nutritious and healthy gifts of nature from which you can prepare a great variety of delicious dishes. Often the whole family, in full, so to speak, goes for mushrooms. So this pastime is very popular as an active recreation. Moreover, you spend the whole day in nature, in clean air, in the forest!
Chanterelles
Mushrooms sometimes live up to their popular name 100%! So the chanterelles are aptly and accurately named: their appearance really looks like the curled tails of the animal of the same name. In addition, this type of mushroom is one of the cleanest environmentally (of course, provided that they do not grow somewhere in an industrial zone or on a highway, but in natural conditions, in the forest). They do not absorb any harmful substances, as some other mushrooms do, on occasion replenishing their tissues with almost the entire periodic table from the soil and surrounding atmosphere.
Do you need to boil chanterelles before frying?
This question is directly related to the previous popular belief (we don’t know how scientifically confirmed it is, though). Do you need to boil chanterelles before frying? In fact, professional chefs recommend boiling any mushrooms, just in case, at least a little before the main preparation: baking, frying (sometimes even changing the water several times - for some types). This is done, again, for the purposes of human safety. After all, people have long known that these gifts of the forest are capable of being saturated with substances from the environment and the soils on which they grow. That is why it is not recommended to carry out mushroom hunting in places with poor ecology. Do you need to boil chanterelles before frying? It is difficult to give a definite answer. After all, traditionally for some types of mushrooms, which include champignons, porcini mushrooms, saffron milk caps, and chanterelles, additional heat treatment may not be carried out if the mushrooms are fresh, just picked.
Fried chanterelles
Do you need to boil chanterelles before frying? If you are really afraid of being poisoned by forest delicacies (and people constantly hear horror stories about how in some hot years even non-poisonous mushrooms acquire the signs and properties of poisonous ones), then to be on the safe side you can boil them, but you also need to do this wisely and without excessive extremism. Of course, you will not cause any harm to the mushrooms themselves, but their taste and attractive appearance may suffer.
How long to cook?
So, how long to cook chanterelles before frying (secrets of experienced cooks):
- Neither dried nor frozen, these mushrooms are boiled before frying - only fresh, recently picked ones.
- Before cooking, you should carefully sort out the chanterelles, inspecting them carefully. We leave them clean, without barrels, damage or stains. We cut out the rot.
- An important step is washing the mushrooms. Often, dirt, sand, and even insects can accumulate on forest mushrooms (especially under the caps). Therefore, it is necessary to wash them very, very carefully, literally each of the fungi, in running, without strong pressure, cool water. It is best to do this under an ordinary kitchen faucet. And also the secret of experienced housewives, who often have experience dealing with mushrooms: we fill a bowl with water at room temperature, pour the mushrooms collected in the forest into it and soak for several hours in a row. During this time, all the dirt that has dried on the forest inhabitants will become limp, and unnecessary organisms that have found shelter there will float to the surface. After soaking, drain the water, and wash the mushrooms in running water and clean them. And by the way, some people on the question of whether it is necessary to boil chanterelles before frying, at this stage already put an end to it, immediately sending the mushrooms to the frying pan. But you and I decided to move on.
- Therefore, we take a saucepan, put the already peeled mushrooms in it and fill it with water so that it covers them completely (there is approximately twice as much liquid as chanterelles). Add a whole onion and bay leaves to the pan. As soon as the water boils, cook over low heat for no more than 15-20 minutes, skimming off the foam with a slotted spoon.
- After cooking, place the mushrooms in a colander and rinse with cold water. Then you can fry the resulting semi-finished product.
However, it should still be noted that some people, when asked whether it is necessary to boil chanterelle mushrooms before frying, choose a negative answer, frying them immediately after washing, arguing that this way the taste and beneficial properties are better preserved when preparing the dish.
When wondering how long to cook chanterelles, you need to understand that these mushrooms do not always need pre-treatment. For example, if you plan to make soup, multi-ingredient pie filling, or fry products, cooking will only negatively affect their texture. When you need to prepare a component for a salad or cold appetizer, you cannot do without such heat treatment. It won't take much time. Regardless of the condition of the chanterelles, the duration of their cooking will be from 15 to 30 minutes. The main thing is not to forget about a number of nuances that have a significant impact on the quality of the final result.
Some useful facts about chanterelles and their processing
Like any mushrooms, chanterelles are distinguished by their specificity. In order not to waste a lot of time without getting the desired result, they need to be handled correctly.
Problems will not arise if you always understand the following points:
Tip: Despite their delicate texture and low calorie content, chanterelles belong to the group of foods that are considered heavy food for the body. Even if there are no digestive problems, these components should not be included in the menu too often.
- Today, you can increasingly find mushrooms grown artificially. Practice shows that in terms of health and taste characteristics they are significantly inferior to forest products.
- In order not to collect or unknowingly acquire false chanterelles, which are poisonous, you need to remember three distinctive features. False products have a brighter color, a hollow stem and a more regular round cap.
- While bright mushrooms do not tolerate soaking in water very well, being in a dairy environment only has a positive effect on them. If before cooking chanterelles, you soak them in milk for 1.5-2 hours, you can guarantee the absence of bitterness and obtain the most delicate texture of the component.
The benefits of properly prepared boiled chanterelles lie not only in their nutritional value. The component contains many vitamins and microelements necessary for the normal functioning of organs and systems. Considering the fact that the product stimulates the strengthening of bones, increasing the body's resistance and energy production, it is recommended for use by people of all ages.
How to cook chanterelles in a saucepan?
It is recommended to cut the chanterelles, cleared of debris and washed several times under running water, into quarters, running along the length of the stem. If the mushrooms are very large, chop them even more. Now you need to do the following:
- Place the preparations in a saucepan and fill with water. For 1 part product there should be 2 parts liquid. Place the container on the fire and bring to a boil.
- If the mushrooms are used for salad or immediately eaten, they can be salted. When you plan to cook them further, it is better to do without adding salt.
- Cook the product for about 20 minutes using medium heat. Periodically it is necessary to remove the foam; it is better not to cover the pan with a lid. If the ingredients are kept in boiling water for too long, they will have a rubbery texture.
- Place the finished products in a colander and wait for all the excess liquid to drain.
If you need to keep the mushrooms hot for some time, it is recommended to hang them directly in a colander over a pan of gently boiling water. True, you should not abuse this approach. The texture of the product may not deteriorate, but there will be little benefit left in it.
Features of using a multicooker and pressure cooker
Mushrooms are pre-processed regardless of how they are planned to be boiled. If for some reason you don’t want to resort to the traditional option of temperature exposure, you can try one of the following:
- In a slow cooker. Place fresh, defrosted or soaked ingredients in the multicooker bowl, fill with water in a ratio of 1 to 2. Add a little salt and close the lid. Cook the preparations on the “Baking” mode for 30 minutes. Unfortunately, this approach cannot remove foam, so the final product may have an unpleasant aftertaste. It is better to use a special basket for steaming ingredients. In this case, a little water is poured into the bowl of the device, the “Steam” mode is set, and the timer starts for 40 minutes.
- In a pressure cooker. Place the prepared mushrooms in the bowl of the device, add salt and spices. You can additionally add a little chopped onion and a pinch of citric acid for taste. Close the lid and set the timer for 15 minutes. The finished product remains to be thrown into a colander and further used for its intended purpose.
Some housewives cook chanterelles, and other mushrooms, in the microwave. The option is not very troublesome and quite fast, but you will have to select the exposure time yourself, depending on the volume of the product being processed and the power of the device.
How should you boil chanterelles for soup?
In this case, the components need to be prepared as usual. Despite the fact that some cooks add already boiled products to the finished soup, it is wiser to use the following approach:
- Place the chopped pieces in cold water. Bring them to almost readiness, boiling for 15 minutes. Drain the liquid and place the boiled product in a colander.
- While the remaining ingredients are being processed, you need to prepare the broth for the soup, for example, from a bouillon cube.
- Finely chop the carrots and onions, sauté in vegetable oil, add the mushrooms and simmer for another 5 minutes.
- Place the potatoes cut into small cubes and the prepared mushroom fry into the prepared broth. We cook all this until the potatoes are ready, i.e. approximately 10 minutes.
The soup prepared in this way will have a mild mushroom aroma. All components will cook evenly, providing the dish with a pleasant texture.
The nuances of boiling frozen and dried chanterelles
In this case, everything is very simple, the frozen and dried components only need to be brought to a standard state and can be boiled. If fresh food has been frozen for some reason (which is not recommended), first place it in the refrigerator for several hours, then finish defrosting at room temperature. The components are washed several times and boiled exclusively in a sweet solution, because... bitterness will most likely be present.
With dried preparations everything is much simpler. They should only be soaked for 2-3 hours, after which we change the water and begin boiling the products. It is enough to keep them in boiling water for 20 minutes after boiling to bring them to readiness.
Each product has beneficial properties and contraindications, we recommend that you read the article about
Chanterelles are ideal mushrooms for beginner cooks. Immediately after purchase or collection, they can wait in the refrigerator for up to 3 days without any consequences: they do not get wet, do not sour, and do not lose their shape. In addition, chanterelles are not wormy, and there is no need to clean them, i.e. pre-treatment is minimal. Just a charm, not a product! And how delicious they look on a plate! No matter what you cook with them, in the dish they always come out appetizingly neat, bright and unusually aromatic. I am of the opinion (as are many cooks) that mushrooms should be boiled before further cooking (unless the recipe specifies otherwise). This is done not only to reduce the time of further preparation, but also just in case, for safety reasons, so to speak - boiling will get rid of any infection. In general, today on the menu: chanterelle mushrooms. How to cook, how long to cook, whether they need to be soaked before cooking - we’ll talk about all this now.
Ingredients:
- chanterelles,
- water for cooking mushrooms,
- salt at the rate of 1 tsp. for 1.5 liters of water,
- a pinch of citric acid.
I intentionally did not indicate their quantity in the ingredients, since you can cook all the mushrooms you have at once. The main thing is that the cooking pot is spacious enough.
Rules for preparing delicious chanterelles
1. Prepare the chanterelles for cooking.
It doesn’t matter how you got the chanterelles (bought in a supermarket, at the market, or collected with your own hands in the forest), first of all, we clean the mushrooms from leaves, twigs and other dry debris, and cut off the bottom of the stem. This, in fact, completes the cleaning process.
There is no need to soak the chanterelles before cooking; just rinse the mushrooms thoroughly with running water. Although some chefs still prefer to soak the chanterelles in cold water for 1-1.5 hours, believing that this way they turn out more tender. During the washing process, the largest specimens can (but not necessarily) be cut into pieces.
2. Boil the mushrooms.
We put a pan of water on the stove, add some salt, literally throw in a pinch of citric acid (so that the chanterelles retain their bright, appetizing color) and let it boil. Then immerse the washed mushrooms in boiling water. When cooking, chanterelles (like all mushrooms) boil down significantly, so water can be poured so as to hide the mushrooms by about an inch.
Cook the mushrooms at maximum heat for 20 minutes. When cooking, leave the lid slightly open so that the boiling water does not escape and stain the stove.
When boiling, be sure to skim off the foam. If you plan to serve boiled mushrooms immediately, then during cooking you can add spices and herbs to the water to taste.
If you forgot to notice the cooking time, you can determine the degree of readiness of the mushrooms by looking into the saucepan: the finished mushrooms will completely sink to the bottom. Next, place them in a colander, rinse with cold running water and let it drain.
3. What to do next with the chanterelles.
Now boiled chanterelles can be served immediately (with butter, herbs, sour cream), fried with potatoes or baked, put into soup, canned or frozen for future use. To freeze, place the mushrooms in plastic containers or plastic bags, calculating the number of mushrooms so that each container contains one serving. Important: before freezing, try to rid the mushrooms of liquid as much as possible.
The autumn mushroom season poses a question for avid mushroom pickers about which mushrooms are best to seal in jars and which to freeze. But the most pressing problem is how to do all this, especially since not everyone likes to tinker with mushrooms. The process is very labor-intensive. So, one of the questions that worries all lovers of delicious mushrooms is: “Can chanterelles be frozen?” Not only is it possible, but it is necessary!
Preparation
First of all, the mushrooms need to be sorted for worms, mold, etc. Although many mushroom pickers say that this type of mushroom does not need a thorough examination, this must be done. Is it possible to freeze old and wrinkled chanterelles? No, that doesn't make any sense. It is better to immediately fry such a product with potatoes. But fresh mushrooms need to be cleaned of natural debris. All leaves, twigs and sticks are thrown away. Keep in mind right away that mushrooms need to be frozen in the first 24 hours after picking, and provided that they need to be kept at a low temperature all this time. For example, in the refrigerator. Before harvesting chanterelles, rinse them thoroughly under running water. Under the cap, due to its ribbing, up to 80% of all possible forest dirt accumulates. After washing, place the chanterelles on cheesecloth or a waffle towel to dry. When freezing, there is no need for excess moisture!
Freezing, method No. 1
Dry young mushrooms can be immediately placed in containers and placed in the freezer. without pre-cooking? Yes, yes, yes and yes again! But exclusively young people. Do you doubt the age of mushrooms? Then it’s better to boil it so it doesn’t become bitter later. By the way, can this be avoided if salt is added to dry mushrooms along with the liquid? It is necessary if you want to cook soup or stew from them later.
Freezing, method No. 2
Boiled mushrooms do not need to be dried! They can be cooled in the room together with the water in which they were boiled, and then placed in the freezer. This preparation will be a good basis for mushroom soup in winter. They need to be defrosted only at normal temperature, not in the microwave or water.
Freezing, method No. 3
Many, fearing for the condition of the mushrooms (so many people get poisoned later!), boil them first. And this is also correct. During boiling, be sure to remove the foam, add salt to the water, and ensure that the product is well cooked. 20-25 minutes of active boiling is enough for the mushrooms to fully cook. Then they need to be thoroughly dried on a towel, put into bags and put in the low-temperature compartment of the refrigerator.
Frozen chanterelles can be stored for 3-5 months. Of these, dishes always begin with defrosting the product naturally. Soup, stew, vegetables with chanterelles - there are a lot of options, choose to your taste! Remember, if there was pre-cooking, the mushrooms are stored slightly less. Is it possible to freeze chanterelles for a longer period? Not recommended, they lose their taste and become bitter.
Alexander Gushchin
I can’t vouch for the taste, but it will be hot :)
Content
Working with mushrooms for novice housewives seems very difficult, especially when it comes to fresh products. Questions arise regarding the duration of storage in the freezer and heat treatment - or lack thereof. Is it possible to freeze chanterelles for the winter so that they do not taste bitter and retain all their beneficial properties?
How to freeze mushrooms for the winter
If you are thinking about harvesting chanterelles, you need to start by studying the general rules for freezing mushrooms. Professionals advise taking into account that:
- To preserve a raw product, process it as quickly as possible, and not after a week of storage. It is best to collect and immediately start working with mushrooms. This way the preparation will be tastier and safer.
- Before any processing, all mushrooms must be washed and then sorted. Soak for an hour and a half, rinse, examine in order to select spoiled or damaged ones. It is better to fry or boil broken ones before freezing, but whole ones can be left raw.
- After washing, the mushrooms need to be dried well so that the moisture they absorb does not later turn into ice.
- You should not soak the product for a long time - pour it in and clean it immediately.
- Drying is long, it can take 4-5 hours, but it cannot be neglected.
- For long-term storage, the product can be salted before freezing.
- Large mushrooms must be cut into thick slices.
If you don’t know how to freeze chanterelles for the winter, use these instructions:
- Sort through, remove debris, and fill with cold water for a couple of minutes.
- Rinse, carefully cleaning the back of the cap. Drain into a colander.
- After drying, divide the product into 2 groups according to the integrity of the mushrooms.
- Large, undamaged mushrooms are laid out on a flat surface, covered with film, and put in the freezer. After a few hours, they are poured into a bag.
- Specimens that are broken or have lost their attractive appearance are boiled or fried, cooled and packaged in plastic containers.
Is it possible to freeze fresh chanterelles?
We love this mushroom very much because it rarely harbors worms, and after drying and crushing it can save you from helminthiasis. Most housewives make jarred preparations: pickle or salt, because they do not understand how to freeze chanterelle mushrooms for the winter and whether this can be done without boiling them first. Professionals assure that the fresh product is not dangerous if you remember important points:
- It is advisable to process chanterelles within 18 hours. It is best to collect them in the morning and cook them in the afternoon, since the shelf life of fresh mushrooms is only a day; at the same time, they are becoming less and less safe every hour.
- If a break is required between the time of collection and the start of work, pour the mushrooms into a saucepan and place in the refrigerator. Do not keep them warm under any circumstances.
Boiled chanterelles for the winter
The most reliable way to prepare the product is freezing after preliminary boiling. This way it will not change the taste during storage. Most housewives like this algorithm because of the subsequent time savings: all that remains is to defrost the mushrooms, fry or stew for a few minutes, and you can eat. Follow these tips:
- You can boil chanterelles for storing for the winter according to any recipe, except those that create broth: you need to preserve the taste and aroma inside the mushroom, and not give it to water.
- If chanterelles go into soup in winter, you can freeze them with liquid in an airtight container.
How long should you cook mushrooms?
According to professionals, the period of stay of chanterelles in hot water should not exceed 20 minutes if you are going to freeze them after that. Taking into account defrosting and additional heat treatment of the workpiece, the total cooking time will increase, so the mushrooms may become tasteless or “rubbery” in consistency. How to freeze chanterelles for the winter by boiling them:
- The classic method is short heat treatment: hold in boiling water for 5 minutes. Chop the mushrooms first so they cook faster.
- For broths and stewing, the product is cooked at high power for longer - 10-12 minutes, adding salt to the water.
- After cooking, be sure to get rid of moisture if the mushrooms do not go into soup.
Frozen fried chanterelles
This is the best way to obtain a finished product under time pressure. Some housewives make a classic semi-finished product according to their favorite recipe, but professionals advise resorting to the standard scheme:
- The chanterelles are washed, placed on a towel, and dried for about an hour.
- Heat a frying pan with oil, fry the chopped pieces until the moisture leaves them. The approximate duration of this stage is 15-20 minutes.
- The fried chanterelles are cooled, then removed into bags/containers.
How long can frozen mushrooms be stored in the freezer?
The length of time during which chanterelles will be safe for your health depends on the method of freezing them (raw, fried, stewed) and storage conditions:
- The maximum shelf life of fresh chanterelles in the freezer is a year.
- The boiled product can be stored for 3 months.
- It is advisable to freeze fried mushrooms only for a month (they will not survive until winter).
Extending these periods reduces the nutritional value of the product, although WHO states that if the temperature is kept below -20 degrees, the mushrooms have an unlimited lifespan. Most housewives store them until next summer. However, please note that:
- Defrosting is done through the bottom shelf of the refrigerator, even if you want to boil or fry the product.
- Repeated changes in temperature conditions are not allowed, as well as preparing dishes based on chanterelles for future use - they must be eaten on the same day.
- It is advisable to make the preparations in portions: this will make it easier to use them later.
Why do chanterelles taste bitter after freezing?
A change in the taste of a product during winter storage is not a common occurrence, but with regard to mushrooms such a problem is not excluded. According to professionals, the reason lies in a violation of technology. Knowing how to properly freeze chanterelles for the winter so that they do not change their taste, you will preserve the beneficial properties of the product. Here are the instructions:
- Do not soak the mushrooms before processing - just rinse and dry.
- Use young, dense specimens.
- Boil lightly: fill with cold water, boil, add salt. The boil should remain for a quarter of an hour, after which dry and package them in containers or bags.
- Do not store the product for longer than 3 months - after the expiration date, the taste begins to deteriorate.
