Chanterelles

You find them at moss level, among the pines. Firm, apricot-yellow. In Latvia they are called gailenes. It is a product we love to cook as soon as it arrives.

Here they grow almost everywhere once it is warm and humid. Mushroom picking is part of Latvian life. Families go at the weekend, compare buckets, and learn quickly how to recognise a true chanterelle. In France the smallest are often left to grow. Here it is the opposite. The tiny ones are the ones we want. Firmer, tighter, more fragrant. Almost hidden in the moss.

We leave early. Sometimes we come home with almost nothing, sometimes the bucket overflows. We sort at the house and keep those that still smell of woodland. The perfume is clean, a little fruity, a little peppery.

Sometimes we also come across a bolete. Latvian woods hold many kinds, ceps and others. Satan’s bolete we leave. Pale cap, red pores, a thick red stem. The flesh blues if you touch it. It is not the mushroom that usually kills here, but it makes you very sick. The ceps we know are not deadly. The deadly ones in the forest belong to other families, and we do not play with those. We only take home what we know by heart. And first, gailenes.

That speaks to us, who cook here. The product comes from the forest next door. No crate under film, no long road. In August and September, when the season is good, they go on the menu without looking further.

At Jumel.s we work as much as possible with organic, seasonal produce and with people we know. Farms, fishermen, hunters. Chanterelles belong there.

We brush them more than we wash them. A little beurre noisette, a shallot, flat-leaf parsley. Or only the pan and salt. Then with an egg, chicken, a light sauce, fresh pasta. Too much cream and you no longer taste the mushroom. This year part of the pick also goes into a ravioli filling, frozen so we can serve fresh ravioli on the Christmas menu.

We also dry some. In jars, so we have gailenes all year. In winter they come back in a sauce, an omelette, ravioli.

We will also cook them as quiche, a French classic with a Latvian forest product. On 5 September we prepare it at Lantes Manor.

When we come to cook in your home, we bring what the season gives. Right now, it is them.