Foraged Chanterelle Tartlets
Chanterelles are a great mushroom to forage for beginners, and appear in abundance across Scotland.
For most people, the wet weather we’ve been having has come as an unwelcome respite from the glorious sunshine of earlier in the year - however, for keen foragers across Scotland, it brings the potential for bountiful harvests of Mushrooms.
Wild Mushrooms have been gathered for centuries across the UK, and foraging has remained a popular practice in Europe, where seasonal harvests of specific varieties - Porcini & Morels in particular - can command prices ranging into the £100’s per kilo. There is a revival of mushroom foraging in the UK, and with it’s many accessible woodlands and ideal growing climate, Scotland is particularly well suited for the amateur forager.
One of the first gluts of mushrooms are Chanterelles - a wonderful species for beginners to forage, as they have only one look-alike and can be readily distinguished from them. They are a beautiful yellow/orange trumpet that rises from the forest floor, and so can be quite easy to spot if you’re in the right place!
Chanterelles are relatively bug-resistant and don’t normally play host to flies or maggots (which are the unfortunate bane of Porcini and many other fleshy mushrooms!), don’t go mouldy, and so can last for a very long time before you pick them! They occur in great swathes across the forest floor, in patches that will reappear year after year. As such, one of the most dangerous parts of Chanterelle foraging is encountering an irate fellow forager, loathing that you have discovered one of their hidden locations!
Chanterelles can be found in a variety of woodlands across Scotland.
As with all foraging, a degree of caution must be taken nonetheless. Click here for an excellent guide on how to identify and forage for Chanterelles successfully and safely.
In addition, you must be a responsible forager if you want to have a sustainable harvest in future years - tread lightly, do not pick immature mushrooms, and don’t take more than you need.
Once you’ve harvested your mushrooms, do take the time to clean them very diligently - they will often have grit/pine needles/loose soil hiding in the crevices and folds. If you’re cooking them immediately, you can rinse them in water and use a damp cloth to brush them - but if you want to clean them for later consumption, avoid using water and just use a fine paintbrush or paper towel, to wipe them clean. Once they’ve gotten wet, they do go slimy quicker so it’s best to store them in layers of paper towel/newspaper, in a cardboard box in the fridge.
These individual tartlets make a lovely light lunch, served with some fresh salads - or would be well suited as a starter for a dinner party.
Foraged Chanterelle Tartlets Recipe
This tartlet is a super simple way to enjoy the fruits of your foraging - the chanterelles pair beautifully with the crisp pastry and sweet onions. If you wanted to make your own puff or rough puff pastry, you absolutely could - but for ease, bought puff pastry will do just fine.
If you can’t find your own Chanterelles, we do have them in stock at the Farm Shop when they are in season (from early July-Late September). Please do ring ahead to check for availability!
The tart bases, caramelised onions and chanterelles can all be prepared up to 5 days in advance, and assembled and reheated from cold.
This recipe would also work very nicely with Chestnut or White mushrooms, which we always have in stock at the farm shop. We suggest using Cullisse Rapeseed Oil for this recipe, which is grown in Scotland, and can be found in the farm shop alongside all the other ingredients for this recipe, apart from the Puff Pastry.
If you’d like to make one large tart instead (which is easier!), just skip step 6, and score the edges of the whole sheet of pastry instead as instructed.
Makes 6 tartlets or 1 large tart. Serves 6 for lunch, when served with salads.
INGREDIENTS
For the Chanterelles
80ml rapeseed oil
600g chanterelle mushrooms, well cleaned
6 sprigs of fresh thyme
1 Small bunch chives
Salt & pepper to taste
For the Caramelised Onions
4 large white onions
80ml rapeseed oil
For the Pastry Bases
1 sheet readymade Puff Pastry, 35x23cm approx
To finish
1 handful parsley
METHOD
To begin, peel and finely slice the white onions. In a medium pan, heat the rapeseed oil and add the onions. Cook over a medium heat for 15-20 minutes, until soft and golden brown. Ensure you stir regularly so that the onions don’t catch! Season with salt, and transfer to a container. Remove your puff pastry from the fridge to soften slightly.
Now prepare your mushrooms. You can chop them, but I prefer to use my fingers to tear them into bite sized pieces.
In the same pan, heat the remaining rapeseed oil and fry the mushrooms in batches, until they are soft and golden. Don’t overload the pan, as you’ll end up boiling the mushrooms in their own juices instead. Remove the cooked mushrooms to a mixing bowl.
Meanwhile, finely chop the thyme leaves and chives, and add them to the mixing bowl. Stir to combine with the mushrooms, and season well with salt and pepper.
Preheat your oven to 200C (Fan 180C, Gas Mk5). Line a rimmed baking tray with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper.
Using a sharp knife, divide your pastry into half lengthwise, and then cut each strip into 3 even squares approximately 10cm square. Using the back of a butterknife, score (but do not cut through!) a 5mm margin around the border of the pastry. Take a fork, and poke lots of holes in the resulting square centre, and transfer carefully to the baking sheet.
Bake for 6-7 minutes, until golden brown and puffed. Remove from the oven, and use a fork to press down the centre, working your way to the border - this will make a nice recessed area in the centre of the tartlet.
Fill this recessed area with 1-2 spoonfuls of the caramelised onions, and top with 2-3 spoonfuls of chanterelles. Try and mound them nicely, to give the tart a bit of height.
Return the tartlets to the oven for 3-4 minutes to warm everything through, and transfer carefully to your serving plates. Garnish with some finely chopped parsley, and serve.
