When my stepmother Susan was here last week, we went mushroom hunting. It’s been an uncharacteristically wet summer, and we really cleaned up. We found this gorgeous big bolete, which was nearly entirely clean of maggots (not always the case with these big ones), as well as a bunch of smaller boletes. It was a good haul and we only had throw out one of these for being too maggoty.

But the big excitement, at least for me, was that we found nearly five pounds of Chanterelles. I love chanterelles and this was the first summer I’d paid enough attention to the tiny clues mushroom people drop, and managed to find out where they grow around here.

They take a little time to clean up, since they tend to grow very close to the ground, so they pick up a lot of lichen and pine needles. Some people say not to wash mushrooms, but I always do. There’s so much dirt and stuff to be cleaned off, and since I’m going to sauté them up anyhow, I don’t worry too much about picking up a little extra water. I’d rather that than a big old pine needle in my mouth.

Chanterelles need to be put up differently from the boletes. We sliced the boletes and arranged them on cake racks, as I usually do, but chanterelles don’t dry well. So the way to put up chanterelles is to sauté them in butter until they give up all their moisture, then freeze them. What could be more festive than this sight?

Chanterelles sautéing in butter? Yum. You have to cook them down for quite a while — they’ll go from that bright orange to a sort of dull ochre, and they give up a lot more moisture than you’d think.

Of course you can also put some aside, as we did, and make a nice dish of Chicken with Chanterelles and Cream:

• 1 chicken, cut up
• 1 pound chanterelles
• 2 shallots
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 small bunch thyme
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 1 cup cream

Salt and pepper the chicken and brown thoroughly on all sides. Remove from the pan and add the shallots and chanterelles. Sauté until the chanterelles have given up most of their moisture, then return the chicken to the pan, add the garlic, the thyme and the wine. Simmer over low heat or pop into a 325 degree oven for 20-30 minutes until the chicken is cooked through. Remove the chicken to a platter and keep warm. Add the cream to the pan, bring to a boil and cook until the sauce just thickens. Pour over the chicken and serve with rice or noodles.