Going mushroom hunting

This year, if it rains, we expect a good year for chanterelles, which is what we generally call mushrooms in Menorca, although the chanterelle is the most prized and gives the popular generic name to the act of going mushroom hunting when we go to the pine forests and marinas to look for mushrooms in autumn and early winter.

In Menorca we have two types of chanterelles, Lactarius vinosus and Lactarius deliciosus, depending on whether they are myrtle or heather.

There are also thistle mushrooms and chanterelles (Cantharellus pallens), which is personally one of the best mushrooms to accompany meats, to make sauces and also as an ingredient in autumn rice dishes.

One of the best experiences for many Menorcans is to go to the forest early in the morning with their baskets and go looking for these mushrooms, which we will then clean and cook in different ways when we get home.

We can grill them or fry them with olive oil and season them with garlic and parsley and a pinch of salt and another of sweet paprika and, if we want, a little crumbled sobrasada. We will also make winter rice dishes such as pork tenderloin with chanterelles and mushrooms.

They will be ingredients for winter Mallorcan soups and for brothy rice with meat and spices (arròs brut), two dishes from the Mallorcan recipe book, which we also cook in Menorca.

Autumn mushrooms pair well with game birds such as thrushes and quails, as well as with rabbit with onions and chanterelles or veal tongue with chanterelles, among other dishes from our mycological cookbook.