Wild Mushroom mélange with Chèvre and cognac cream sauce

We've had such a wonderful time creating various recipes with an absolute plethora of gorgeous wild mushrooms on sale in the marché this year. The mushroom season generally runs from late August -November and you can find many different varieties in France due to some passionate mushroom hunters - as they mostly grow in the wild.

Here are two of our favorite recipes using wild mushrooms :

Wild mushroom with goats cheese and flambéed cognac - you can serve this as a starter or a side, as we often do with Pintade.

count on 2-4 mushrooms of each type using 3 different varieties (chanterelles, oysters, black trumpet and or button mushrooms) for a total of 6 - 8 mushrooms per person.

Sunflower oil and butter to sautée the mushrooms.

2 large Garlic cloves

2 sprigs of fresh rosemary

1 cup of fresh tangy goats cheese

1/2 cup whole cream

Finishing salt - fleur du sel de la Camargue

Freshly ground pepper

Start by heating 1 Tbs of sunflower oil and a teaspoon of butter in a large sautée pan on high heat - just before it reaches the smoke point - where the fat is dancing a bit in the pan ( 60 seconds or so ) add the mushrooms in batches so that they have a bit of space between them. Sear to brown them on 2 sides. Avoid the temptation to stir them - just let them brown and that means not touching them until they are browned on one side, then flip over to the other side. This take 3-4 minutes. Once you've flipped them add a clove of minced garlic. Once you finish browning two sides remove that batch to set aside on a plate while you continue to sear the next batch - lower the heat as necessary and add more oil and butter with each batch - avoiding burning the pan. After searing all your mushrooms in a few batches, the pan should be fairly brown, deglaze by adding the fresh goats cheese, the cream, and the rosemary. Now prépare to flambée the cognac. You need to heat the cognac in a ladle by setting it in the pan whilst your waiting for the goats cheese to melt, mixing in the cream and scrapping the brown bits off the bottom of the pan simultaneously. Once the cognac has warmed (30-60 seconds) add it slowly to the pan near the edge while tilting the pan rim down towards the flame in order to ignite. This tiares a bit of practice! Flambéing adds a very nice flavor and simultaneously burns off the alcohol.

Mix all the mushrooms back into this pan together and heat and stir into the sauce, serving right away - add salt and pepper to taste - also lovely with a sprinkle of freshly chopped parsley.

Wild mushroom sauce with Pintade - make the above recipe and add your pan juices form a roasted turkey, chicken or Pintade to the mix - this creates a rich sauce.

Wild Mushroom Tart - use the mushroom recipe as a tart filling - add a half cup more goats cheese and pre bake the tart crust for 15 min, fill with the mushroom mix and bake again for 20 more minutes.