Chanterelle and Roasted Garlic Butter Noodles

Simple and delicious Chinese wheat noodles with the umami of soy, roasted garlic and flavorful chanterelle mushrooms.

Chanterelle and Roasted Garlic Butter Noodles

By Sue Lau | Palatable Pastime

Chanterelle and roasted garlic butter noodles is a recipe that came about when I unexpectedly came across some chanterelle mushrooms at the market last autumn and grabbed them up. I hadn’t really had any thought about them but knew I wanted them (chanterelles are delicious!) but figured I would find something to do with them.

And since they weren’t planned I didn’t have a lot of extras to put with them. But I had remembered seeing Andrea’s post about this kind of noodle with mushrooms.

I was lucky enough to have some roasted garlic from that day. I roast up several heads of that off and on and generally keep a stash in the freezer so when I want it I don’t have to take the extra time. In doing so, I might end up with more of a mash or paste, but that works a lot. But this I hadn’t yet frozen, so it was a real treat to toss it in.

I also added some scallion for color and a little taste. I almost always have those on hand for use in something, even if it’s just tossed salad.

Happily I had some fresh wheat noodles (lo mein) as well, but you could use dried. I also keep a stash of dried noodles. But when I go to the local Asian market (CAM in Evendale Ohio) I am always tempted by their huge selection. Their refrigerated case of noodles is probably 10 feet long- as long as the meat counter in many stores. So they have plenty to choose from and I stock up.

You know for years I had been buying some fresh noodles at Meijer stores, especially when I lived up in Dayton, far from a better selection. It was just a few weeks ago I wanted to run up to the one nearby to grab a pack, since I was working on another sesame noodle salad, but to my dismay, they had stopped carrying those. And I can imagine for some of you, finding fresh Chinese noodles is going to be hard, and possibly even hard to find the best kind of dried ones. But you know, it is perfectly okay to use something like dried spaghetti in this, even if the noodles are more polished. They will still be wheat noodles.

Other kinds of noodles, like rice vermicelli, probably aren’t the best choice here. And neither is something like instant soup ramen. Although I think buckwheat soba noodles might be nice.

Anyway, back to Andrea’s version of this recipe- I really like the butter in this. It adds great flavor without having to add a lot of other things. And this would be vegan if not for the fish sauce- so if you are vegan or vegetarian and want this, you will know what you want to put in it instead. Maybe soy sauce. But if you can have fish sauce it is very good.

And as a very simple “almost vegan” but definitely meatless meal, it made a very nice supper for Bill and I. The chanterelles do take the place of the meat, and believe me, you don’t really want to pop chicken over the top of these. You want the flavor of the mushrooms to really stand out. And they do. So I do hope you enjoy as much as I did! And be sure to click on over to Andrea’s page for other ideas as well.

~Sue

Chanterelle and Roasted Garlic Butter Noodles

Servings: 2
Time: 20mins
Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients:

9 ounces fresh Chinese style wheat noodles (Lo Mein)
1 tablespoon tamari or soy sauce
1 tablespoon fish sauce
4 tablespoons butter
8 ounces chanterelle mushrooms, sliced
1 head roasted garlic, cloves separated and skin removed
3 scallions, chopped

Method:

Cook noodles according to package directions and drain without rinsing, and reserving 1/2 cup of the pasta cooking water.
Stir cooking water together with the tamari and fish sauce; set aside.
Heat the butter in a wok skillet and add the mushrooms.
Cook until softened, 1-2 minutes.
Add the cooking liquid mixture and bring to a boil.
Add the scallion and garlic and then the pasta, tossing to mix and cooking until the sauce thickens/evaporates.
Serve immediately.

From the kitchen of patablepastime.com