Freezing Chanterelles

After roasting and risotto-ing all those gorgeous mushrooms I was given, I still had two pounds of them remaining. At this point, I decided to squirrel the remainder away for a lonely, rainy, mushroom-less day. But how? After a little research on the Internets, I discovered the typical ways one would preserve most wild mushrooms don't necessarily work for chanterelles. Dehydrating, for instance. Upon rehydration, I read they refuse to plump back up and regain little of their amazing fresh flavor if they do. I landed upon a pretty simple method of saving these mushrooms: freezing them in water. It seems this method is pretty popular. I hope it works!

One thing I did discover was that chanterelles absorb quite a bit of water during the cleaning method - more than I expected. After weighing out and washing exactly a pound of mushrooms for our Thanksgiving (Two-Way Chanterelle and Pear Bread Stuffing), I reweighed them. My mushroom pile had gained almost 7.5 ounces of water weight!  

Even after spin-drying them, they only lost about an ounce of moisture. I wasn't too concerned, since they would ultimate be soaking in water anyway.

After washing the mushrooms, I coarsely chopped them, put them in a quart freezer bag, and filled it up with water until the mushrooms were covered.

You will want to get out as much air as possible, to dissuade freezer burn. I like to lay the bag flat with just a little crack open on one side, and then carefully push out of the air, while sealing the bag at the same time. Another trick that works is to leave just enough space for a straw to fit in the bag and then suck out all the air before sealing. You will probably also get a good slurp of mushroom water this way, to warn. I love freezing food in Ziploc bags - soups, stock, sauces, etc... - as they lay flat and puzzle nicely in the freezer. The bags also open easily if you need to access the entire frozen block of stuff.

To defrost the mushrooms, put the bag in a bowl of warm water until the mushrooms are soft. If you need them in a hurry, leave them bowl under a dripping faucet so the water will move around a bit and promote faster defrosting. Drain and let dry on a paper towel or colander and they are ready to use!

This is all theoretical, of course, as I've never actually frozen mushrooms before. I'll let you know if the stuffing comes out terrible - or scrumptious, as planned!