An AHH, HAA Moment

There are times in life when something comes along to make you wonder why. Why hadn’t I thought of this before, why hadn’t I heard of this, why hadn’t I thought of it???

I had one of those thoughts recently, it was one of those niggling little snippets of a conversation that had been rolling around in my noggin for several days. Now when I say a couple of days, that is a big fib. When I think back it wasn’t  just a couple of days ago when this all started, it has been more than a month since it was when Chanterelle season had begun to heat up. I was sharing some of the bounty with my Monday morning classmates when V. asked if I had ever had them pickled.

I said no I hadn’t, then went on to say that I had baked, stewed, marinated, dehydrated, froze, casseroled and souped. I have served them whole when roasted, sliced into mushroom steaks and grilled, broiled with marinara sauce and Parmesan for my own version of Parmigiana. I have made them with butter sauce and linguine, in spaghetti dinners, and as a side dish for nearly every occasion, but hadn’t tried pickling. It had never occurred to me and I couldn’t picture anything but the tiniest of buttons being firm enough to go through the cooking and pickling process without turning to mush. The subject was dropped when class was over and everyone took their little baggie of shared mushrooms home.

Thinking back on the conversation, I thought I should have asked for more information about the pickling process and was going to follow up during the next class but my friend V. was not there that day. So I sent a text. Ahh Haa, I said to myself, that was much easier than I thought, when V. sent a link to click. But my Ahh Haa was short lived because I was busy on the farm so I sent the link to one of my other friends who had canned some mushrooms for me earlier (by the way, Thank You S. for your time, effort and canning ability).

A few more days go by and S. says that she would have shared the pickled mushrooms with me but she ate them all. No biggie, I thought to myself and picked her a another bucketful to practice her kitchen craft. ( I should have had an Ahh Haa moment with this statement, but the conversation didn’t seem to ring any mental bells).

It was about this time when the weather turned winter-like. So I picked the last of the mushrooms of the forest before our very cold week of low 20 degree weather destroyed the mushroom crop, and stowed away enough to fill the vegetable bin in the fridge. Days went by and time was running out since my refrigerated mushrooms would not last through the time I will be away from the farm. I did not want to dehydrate any more because my pantry is full, all the little baggies filled with the saute and freeze cubes are more than enough for several winters, and we had been having mushrooms in most meals with still some left.

I broke down and went in search of that pickle recipe through the myriad of texts, I got the link for a website and realized that all one needs to do to find the answer for oneself is to type pickled Chanterelle mushrooms into the search bar and that exact information comes up, recipes and all for several versions!

Ahh Haa I said to myself, this looks pretty darn good and there are many recipes to chose from! Not willing to make things too easy for myself, I came up with my own recipe and it is DELICIOUS! Why had I not done this before? Why did I have to wait until the very last moment to try something new? How come I don’t have a fridge full of mushrooms to make batches and batches of deliciousness? Anyway, since I do not necessarily follow directions, I came up with my own recipe.

Ahh Haa Pickled Chanterelle Mushrooms

In large Dutch Oven or stockpot:

1-1/2 cups Apple Cider Vinegar (I use Bragg’s)

1-1/2 cups Rice Vinegar (I did not have unseasoned so I did not add salt to recipe since there is some already in vinegar)

2-3 Tablespoons of honey

1 Tablespoon of fresh ginger, mashed fine (I cheated and used Spice World Squeeze Ginger)

2 Tablespoons pickling spice (I put the spice in tea infusers while cooking so I didn’t have a bunch of little floaties in with the mushrooms)

Heat all ingredients to boiling while the mushrooms are being dry sauted.

The term dry saute just means no oil or fat, heat mushrooms quickly until they begin to release their moisture (just a few minutes). The mushrooms will not yet be cooked through at this stage.

The process will not be ‘dry’ at all. Transfer the mushrooms with all the released moisture into the boiling vinegar mix, (the moisture that came out of the mushrooms is very flavorful and adds body to the pickles that plain water would not) into the boiling vinegar mix, stir while boiling for 5 minuted before using slotted spoon to take to divide cooked mushrooms into jars.

Cover mushrooms with the hot brine before putting on lids. Can be left in fridge in this stage for several weeks, or they can be water bath canned for 15 minutes.

I also had a few florets of Cauliflower mushroom left from my one and only special harvest. Since I had enough brine in the stockpot, I did up enough for fresh pickled eating. I can hardly wait to find my next Cauliflower!

The 11 inch saute pan I always reach for is this non-stick Ecolution brand. Click on pic for more information. By clicking, I will get credit for directing customers to the affiliate site. You can shop as you normally do and I may make a small commission if you do purchase anything without a cost to you. Prime and special codes still work with my link and you do not have to purchase any item that I promote. Thank you