May-Catching the tail of the Morels

It all began with the Morel.  My friend Cory had been trying to get me to go Morel mushroom hunting with him for years and I had stubbornly said no because I don't like store bought, button mushrooms (the taste or the texture) and so I "knew" I wouldn't like Morels.  After finally trying one fried in butter, I had to call him up and apologize.

Morel mushrooms have a wonderful earthy and meaty taste to them.  They are fun to cook and they are also fun to find.

Unfortunately, by the time I realized my error, the season was ending.  There is a short window for morels and we were hunting them in May, which is definitely at the end.  We got a few good hunts in, but we found a lot of mushrooms that were more mush than shroom.

Cory swore me to secrecy as to where we went to hunt for these, but I can say that they liked to be around the base of low shrubs and required a lot of crawling around and careful looking.  May is also tick season and that was a bit unpleasant...

In terms of cooking them, we began by splitting them in half and cleaning out any bugs or dirt inside.  Then, I soaked them in salt water overnight to be sure that any tiny bugs were removed.  After that, I dried them on paper towels in the refrigerator.  Not enough to actually dry them, but just enough that they weren't going to rot.  After that, I seemed to have about 3-4 days to cook them before they turned color and weren't the same.

This year, I used two recipes:

1. Simply fried.  I dipped them in egg white, then flour, then fried them in butter with garlic.  They were delicious this way.

2.  I followed a recipe from The Great Morel website, pictured below:

I included the photo so that you can find the recipe amongst the many listed on the website.

I followed it as closely as I could.  It was amazing.  I sometimes getting full of myself as a cook, but I can honestly say that this was the best thing I have ever made.

ALSO, this recipe solves the too many morel problem because the morel sauce can be frozen.  Morels don't keep long and are hard to store (although one recipe on The Great Morel did suggest dehydrating them and then putting them in like chewing tobacco!).  I made extra sauce using this recipe and then froze it to be put on steaks at a later date.  I have tried it since (over fried chicken) and it was excellent.