mushroom fairytales of early fall

On the markets of Paris, chanterelles are sold under the name girolles and both are quite different kinds of mushroom. The latter are firm and fleshy with thick stems, almost golden and snow-white on the inside, the former are softer, skinny guys, more on the brownish side and clearly less classy.

A nice pan of girolles counts among the great pleasures of this late summer/early fall season. I used a chunk of the excellent pancetta I drove home from Italy to spice up my dishes. Let me just add three basic rules that apply to practically every mushroom I know:

1. You have to pan-fry them twice: First, you add some salt and wait until they sweat all their water (it’s a lot and you don’t need it); only then, and after draining and cleaning the pan, you should go on with your preparation, whatever it is.
2. Always underestimating how much mushrooms shrink, you never buy enough.
3. All mushrooms love thyme.