Chanterelles en Persillade
One of the main reasons I love autumn is its bounty of vegetables and fruit at the market. Even looking at the colours of everything that is in season right now makes me want to hole up in a kitchen for weeks and just cook with these beautiful ingredients.
Between pumpkins in all shapes and sizes, mushrooms, tomatoes, stone fruit I can barely keep up to buy and taste everything that is available right now.
…it doesn’t mean that I won’t keep trying. I keep coming back from the market with the most diverse bags full of produce ready to be cooked with. One of my favourites? Chanterelle mushrooms, these elusive fungi - their season only lasts a few weeks. I was in München at the weekend and was cursing myself for not being able to buy kilograms of these - thankfully though upon my return in Switzerland they did also have them available and I was able to stock up.
As these are mushrooms with quite a strong flavour, I love keeping it very simple when I cook them and one of my favourite ways to do so is to sauté them in a simple persillade the French word for a parsley sauce of sorts. I make mine with butter, lemon and garlic and add it at the very end, hitting the hot mushrooms with this little flavour bomb.
I served this with creamy polenta, perfect for catching all the delicious juices, as well as a quick and simple red cabbage salad. The colours look incredible and the taste is simply gorgeous. An amazing way to enjoy everything that autumn has to offer.
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Ingredients (serves 2, generously)
For the persillade
500g (1 lb) mushrooms, thoroughly cleaned and halved if too big - I used chanterelles here
1 knob (50g or 1/2 stick) butter
zest of one lemon
1 garlic clove
1 bunch flat leaf parsley, leaves only
1/4 tsp pepper
For the creamy polenta
1 ear corn, shucked
1 tbsp butter
pinch of salt, black pepper
1/2 cup polenta
2 cups water
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
For the red cabbage salad
1/2 of a small red cabbage, cored
juice of 1/2 lemon
3 tbsp olive oil
flaky salt, to taste
handful of toasted walnuts, optional
To finish
1 ball burrata cheese
extra virgin olive oil
Start by making the polenta. In a medium pot, melt together the butter and corn. Cook until the butter browns around the corn. Add 2 cups water. Bring to a low boil, then whisk in the polenta, stirring until the polenta is soft and thick, about 3-5 minutes. Stir in the parmesan and season with salt and pepper. Turn the heat off, cover the pot, and let the polenta sit for 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, prepare the persillade butter. In the bowl of a food processor add the butter, garlic, parsley and lemon zest. Pulse until a thick, green paste forms. Set aside.
Cook the mushrooms. Heat a tablespoon of oil in a large pan. Add the mushrooms. Season with salt and pepper. Let cook, stirring occasionally until they release their water and said water evaporates. They will subsequently start browning and smell fantastic. At this point, you may want to add about a tbsp of oil or butter, to keep the process going.
When mushrooms are cooked turn off the heat and add the parsley butter to the pan. Stir until well combined.
Make the salad. Thinly slice the cabbage and add to a large bowl. Add lemon juice, flaky salt and olive oil and massage the salad with your hands. This step is really important as it will make the cabbage way more pleasant to eat and not remain tough. Sprinkle with the walnuts, if using.
To serve, divide the polenta between plates. Top with the chanterelle persillade and the burrata cheese. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with flaky sea salt and enjoy!