Chanterelle Mushroom

This is a great dish to serve on Sunday night when The Sopranos come on. It’s classy and understated. A good way to add more intense mushroom flavor is to throw the mushroom stems in with the chicken stock. Just be sure to brush the mushroom stems first for any loose dirt.

Here is a sumptuous side dish to accompany roast poultry, for the holidays or otherwise: sautéed mushrooms tossed with chestnuts, tender pearl onions, and thyme. Peeling chestnuts is a painstaking task. To save time, purchase vacuum-packed whole peeled chestnuts.

Living in the Pacific Northwest, with our bounty of berries, tree-ripened fruits, hazelnuts, and wild mushrooms, makes going to the farmers' market feel like a season-long treasure hunt. I'm especially rewarded when I stop at the mushroom forager's stand and see a basket chock-full of chanterelle mushrooms. At the peak of the season, I buy fresh chanterelles and use them as often as I can, as in this golden-hued mushroom gravy accompaniment to the holiday bird.

Editor's note: Serve this gravy with Diane Morgan's Juniper-Brined Roast Turkey This gravy can be made while the turkey roasts. If chanterelle mushrooms are not available, substitute other fresh wild mushrooms, use cremini mushrooms, or buy dried chanterelle mushrooms and soak them in warm water to rehydrate before adding to the gravy. If you are serving a few vegetarians for Thanksgiving, you could make an additional half-recipe of this gravy using a rich homemade or canned vegetable broth.

Pumpkin seeds are available at many supermarkets and at natural foods stores and Latin markets. The pumpkin seed oil can be found at specialty foods stores and at surfasonline.com.

This recipe was created by chef Mark Franz of Farallon restaurant in San Francisco. It's part of a special menu he created for Epicurious's Wine.Dine.Donate program.

Delicious when served hot, this pasta dish is made for the culinarily creative—feel free to use your favorite mushrooms for a recipe all your own.

This recipe provides the filling for Brioche Gaga.

Jonathan Waxman makes his polenta using stone-ground grits because he prefers their coarser texture. You will, too.

In a large menu, the salad is often served after a number of hearty dishes, so the portions are scaled down. For a smaller meal, this amount would serve 4 to 5 hearty salad eaters.

Fricasse De Girolles This makes a wonderful side dish to poultry or seafood, or a lovely dish all on its own.

At the restaurant the chef garnishes this dish with fresh seasonal flowers, chervil, and chives.

Offer a small salad of baby greens with a shallot and tarragon vinaigrette.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Use fresh button mushrooms if wild mushrooms are hard to get; you will still have delicious results. Yukon Gold potatoes have a pale yellow color and a buttery taste that adds to the richness of this dish.

Roasting the asparagus intensifies its flavor and is easy to do.

These bruschette from the cookbook Simple to Spectacular by Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Mark Bittman (Broadway Books), look both simple and beautiful. Each is topped with an array of mushrooms—shiitake, cremini, and chanterelle —that is set off by fresh tarragon. Active time: 30 min Start to finish: 45 min

"Recently I had dinner at Highlands Bar & Grill in Birmingham, Alabama. To say I was dazzled by the baked grits is not overstating the case," writes Mary Lane Stiglets of Jackson, Mississippi. "This divine and truly southern recipe should be printed in your magazine for all to enjoy."

Judy Rodgers is currently working on a cookbook from her Zuni Café in San Francisco. Grilling the mushrooms for this salad (which will appear in the new book) intensifies their flavor. Active time: 35 min Start to finish: 35 min