Cookery: they don't all work out

[redbird]

I bought some "chanterelle seconds" at the Union Square Greenmarket on Friday, from a vendor who explained that the label meant that they were less visually appealing, but that they'd be just fine. A splurge, but I felt entitled, for some obscure reason, so I did.

Today, I made lunch using them: cattitude was out, so it was a good time for mushroom's. Starting from the vendor's suggestion, I made something between an omelette and a fritatta, sauteeing the chanterelles first, then adding egg and scallion.

The result was edible, but that's about all I can say for it: I ate between half and two-thirds of it before abandoning the remainder in favor of cookies. Julian liked the egg well enough, but stalked away when offered a bit of mushroom.

I don't know whether the flaw was in the chanterelles (and that, in turn, might be that I kept them too long), or in what I did with them--I'd never cooked with chanterelles before, and I was out of olive oil so sauteed them in a mix of butter and peanut oil--or whether I just don't really like chanterelles. They wouldn't be the first mushrooms I dislike: I avoid enoki, and don't generally eat shiitake in restaurants because I dislike dried-and-reconstituted shiitake.

I recovered from this by baking two batches of cakelings, an orange-cinnamon-chocolate chip and a chocolate-ginger.