Morel Mushroom Recipes

Morels and Steak

2010-09-14T17:13:00.001-07:00

1. Grill 16 oz., high-quality steak (e.g., porterhouse or better): 2 minutes on one side, 2 minutes on the other. (Soy sauce, garlic powder and pepper marinade optional). Done. Yes, xxx-rare IS the best steak you can get. No A1 or other atrocities allowed. Must use charcoal-fueled grill, no electric contraptions or rangetop cooking will do.
2. Sauté cleaned and lengthwise-sliced morels in large skillet with copious amounts of "real" butter. Margarine not acceptable. Only the real deal for this five-star meal. Sauté for a good 8-10 minutes. Save the juice to splash over the steak later.
3. In a separate pan, sauté those wonderful wild leeks (sliced) you found alongside your morel harvest using more "real" butter and a couple sprinkles of sugar to caramelize them. It's phenomenal. Trust me.
4. Steam fresh, springtime, locally grown asparagus for approximately 6 minutes or until bright green - do NOT overcook, lest they turn to mush. Top with (you guessed it) "real" butter.
5. Boil locally grown potatoes for 10-15 minutes (skins on), mash in mixing bowl with 1/2 & 1/2, MORE "real" butter, sour cream, a sprinkle of garlic powder, pepper and a handful of your remaining stock of wild leeks (minced). Whip using hand blender.
6. Place you glorious steak on your finest shroon-eatin' plate (I use one I painted myself and had glazed and fired). Don't forget to splash on some of that residual shroon juice.
7. Scatter the luscious morels and leeks all over the top of the steak. Don't be shy. Stack 'em high.
8. Gingerly and neatly position the scrumptious asparagus next to the steak (I prefer that all the heads point in the same direction and to stack them like lincoln logs -- I know, I need help).
9. Place a healthy-sized dollop of mashed potatoes between the steak and asparagus. No gravy allowed (kills the taste sensation of the morels) -- besides, they're spectacular just as they are, using this recipe.
10. Devour the entire ordeal (using salt at your discretion or, in my case, with little-to-no discretion), chasing with an ice-cold beer; collapse in a heap for 8-12 hours; load up your mesh onion bags; and head out again the next day for a repeat!!!
PS - In order to hunt successfully the next day, you must snap your walking stick in half and toss it into the woods as you leave as a sacrifice to the Mushroom Gods of the Woods. Otherwise you'll get skunked the next day. Trust me, they're watching you.

Morels with Cream

2010-09-14T17:12:00.002-07:00

Recipe:
About 15 fresh morels, rinsed well and cut in half lengthwise
1 large shallot, peeled and minced
1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
2 tbsp. olive oil
2 tbsp. unsalted butter
1/2 cup chicken stock
Truffle salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
3/4 cup heavy cream

Heat heavy pan over medium heat. Add olive oil, then shallots and garlic and saute briefly. Add butter and heat until melted. Add the morels, stirring and cooking until they begin to brown and release their moisture (about 5 minutes). Add chicken stock and cook for about 3 minutes. Stir. Add cream and continue heating on low until reduced and thickened slightly.
Serve over pasta (I used fresh linguine) or perhaps sauteed or poached chicken breasts.
Serves 4

Sautéed Morels with Cream...

2010-09-14T17:12:00.000-07:00

15-20 fresh morels or reconstituted dried, cut in half if large
1 large shallot chopped fine
1 large clove garlic chopped fine
2 TBS butter (best with unsalted)
2 TBS olive oil
3/4 cup chicken stock
1 cup heavy cream
salt & fresh ground pepper to taste

Put olive oil in heated pan over medium heat. Add garlic and shallots, stir and sauté until softened but not brown. Add butter until melted then add morels. Stir and cook until mushrooms start to brown, about 4 min. Add chicken stock and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add cream and cook on low until reduced and thickened. Classically served on toast, but the best on grilled New York Strip steaks.
Our recipe for grilled steaks
2 steaks of choice-we prefer New York Strips
4 TBS A-l or any bottled steak sauce
4 TBS Worcestershire
4 TBS Soy
1 large garlic clove crushed or diced
A few shakes of McCormick Montreal Steak seasoning (in the spice department)
a few dashes of Tabasco if desired
Mix all ingredients in ziplock bag, add steaks and marinate in refrigerator for at least an hour. Cook over hot grill to desired doneness. Remove and cover with foil for a few minutes, this insures a juicy steak! Plate up and serve with morel mushroom and cream sauce. Heaven!

Sweet and Salty Morels

2010-09-14T17:11:00.003-07:00

Put flour on morel mushrooms and place in frying pan.
Season to taste (I used garlic and pepper).
Pour Diet Coke in the frying pan.
Cook for 10-15 minutes.Serve with crackers.
The mushrooms are sweet from the pop, and eating them with crackers adds the salty taste. Yum!

Breaded Morels

2010-09-14T17:11:00.001-07:00

After cleaning and soaking in salt water, take a couple of eggs and whip together. Dip morels in egg, completely coating the morel, then roll in whole wheat flour and fry in bacon grease, butter also is very good too. Right after putting morels in frying pan, sprinkle to your taste with Lemon and Pepper and/or a good garlic seasoning, then fry until golden brown on both sides! Throw some on a couple slices of bread for one killer mushroom sandwich w/mayo if you like, or just eat with your dinner. Very good either way! Enjoy!

A Grandmother's Morel Recipe ...

2010-09-14T17:10:00.001-07:00

One (1) batch of Morels, halved, cleaned & soaked "a while" or overnight in salt water with a heavy plate weighing them down in the water, then rinsed well & drained at cooking time.
In a wide shallow bowl: 1 Country Egg mixed with 1/4 c. milk
In a thick paper bag: 2 c. cornmeal with 1 t. black pepper mixed in.
In a deep well-seasoned cast-iron skillet, melt bacon grease 1" deep. Get it good and hot but not smoking.
Now dip your mushrooms in the milk and let them soak a little while your grease is heating.
Pick a handful out of the bowl and shake them a little to get off some of the liquid excess then drop them in the bag of cornmeal.
Hold your hand on the bottom of the bag so it doesn't break, and gently shake.
Add more mushrooms, shaking gently after each addition. When they are all coated very well, start laying them in a single layer in the hot skillet.
Try to only turn them once, that way your coating stays on better.
Don't salt, bacon grease is salty. When golden, drain on paper.
Being lazy, I gently dump the coated morels in a colander set in a larger bowl. This lets the loose stuff fall off and if you need to touch up any bare spots your coating is right there.
My husband's family uses cracker crumbs and they made a production line out of it for extra family fun. It truly doesn't get any better than this, and if there aren't Morels in Heaven, I'm not sure I want to go there!

Bread Crumbs and Parmesan Cheese...

2010-09-14T17:09:00.003-07:00

Ingredients:
1 cup bread crumbs
1 tbs crushed black pepper
1 tbs crushed sea salt
3 tbs parmesan cheese, fine grated
3-4 thick slices medium cheddar
1 egg for eggwash
about 15-20 medium sized morels, washed and halfed
Preparation:
Mix all dry ingreedients in a shallow bowl. Warm healthy amount of butter in small frying pan. beat egg and place in seperate shallow bowl. Dip shrooms in eggwash and dredge into breadcrumb mixture, immeditely place into hot butter. Fry until crispy golden brown, then arrange shrooms on small cookie sheet, placing a 1/4 inch strip of cheddar in the middle of each one. Place into a preheated 375 degree oven for about 4-6 minutes, until cheese melts. Remove, let cool, and enjoy. Try with any of your favorite cheeses or spice up the breadcrums with some cayenne pepper and minced garlic.

Ritz Crackers and Parmesan Cheese...

2010-09-14T17:09:00.001-07:00

Ingredients:
One extra large egg, beaten.
One part each -Ritz crackers (crushed fine) and shaker style parmesan cheese.Mbr> Add fresh black pepper to taste.
Approximately 8 to 10, 2-3 inch morels (halved)
Unsalted Real Butter

Preparation:
Melt butter medium to high heat. Halve and wash the morels in cold water, use NO salt. Bathe them in the beaten egg, turning and making sure every nook and cranny is coated with egg. Sprinkle lightly with black pepper (optional-mix the black pepper with the dredge mixture). Dredge through the cheese and cracker mixture until coated well. Drop coated morels into the hot skillet with real unsalted butter, turn once and until golden brown.Serve hot -Enjoy the bounty. After tasting these I thought I'd died and gone to Heaven.

Crispy Crunchy Morels

2010-09-14T17:08:00.003-07:00

1. Melt 1 stick of butter in a heavy skillet
2. Use a rolling pin and crunch a bag of potato chips.
3. Dip mushrooms in butter and roll in crunched potato chips.
4. Fry till golden brown and top with a sprinkle of garlic salt.

Best Recipe

2010-09-14T17:08:00.001-07:00

~ Lightly wash and slice mushrooms lengthwise in half. Presoak in Salted water. (Preferably overnight). This helps to neutralize the acid…to avoid "digestive" issues.
~ Preheat app 1/3" of cooking oil in a 10" cast iron skillet over medium high heat. Prepare paper towels to drain excess oil from cooked mushrooms.
~ Rinse & Drain mushrooms well in a large colander.
~ Empty (2) inner packages of Saltine crackers into a 1-Gallon Ziploc Bag. Crush with a rolling pin to a fine crumbly consistency.
~ Add 1 C Flour, 1/2 Tbsp Lowry's seasoning salt, and 1 tsp each of Pepper and Paprika. Shake together and place in a shallow pan or casserole bowl.
~ In a small bowl, whip 3 eggs. Add app 1/3 C water, 1/2 tsp of Lowry's & Pepper...Mix well.
~ With one hand, dip mushrooms into egg-wash, allowing excess to drip off. Toss into cracker mix.
~ With other hand, immediately toss more cracker mix on top to cover entire mushroom. Shake off excess to avoid scorching in pan.
~ Place into heated oil…split-side down. Continue until pan is full.
~ Cook until lightly golden. Turn over w/tongs and cook other side until golden brown. Flip them back over for a bit to allow excess oil from underside to drain better.
~ Place onto paper towels…split side down. May salt lightly, but NOT necessary. Don't want to bury the mushroom flavor…Good idea to taste-test first.
~ Continue until all mushrooms are cooked…May need to fend off eager consumers.
Get plenty of rest to be ready to hunt for more the next day!! Bon Appettit!

Morels with CornFlakes

2010-09-14T17:07:00.001-07:00

Ingredients: 2-3 eggs (depending on batch), butter, salt, Kellogg's Corn Flake Crumbs (not the cereal, but the Crumbs.)
Whisk eggs in bowl until well mixed.
Fill another bowl with the Corn Flake Crumbs.
Add a pinch of salt if desired. (I prefer Kosher salt for more flavor, but use less.)
Dip morels into egg mixture
Lightly coat both sides of morel with Kellogg's Corn Flake Crumbs.
Fry in lots of butter and flip when light brown.
Add more butter as necessary until done. Delicious!

Morels in Wine Sauce

2010-09-14T17:06:00.003-07:00

Gently sautè scallions and/or garlic with rehydrated morels, in a combination of oil and butter, until morels are lightly browned and have absorbed the butter and oil. Remove the morels and deglaze pan with white wine. Reduce by half, then return morels with freshly chopped parsley. Simmer a few more minutes. Serve on toast with freshly ground pepper.
To rehydrate, simply place in warm water or cooking liquid for one hour until plump.

Morel Mushroom Sauce

2010-09-14T17:06:00.001-07:00

Sautee in a few tablespoons hot butter 'til done: 4 each of: Boneless chicken breasts, butterflied or Walleye filets, Pheasant breast or Veal cutlets, pounded thin. Keep warm and ladle sauce over, using heated plates-BON APPETIT!!!
Preparation
In a 12" non-stick skillet, heat 3 Tbs. butter (no substitute) over med.-high heat until foaming. Add 3 Cups small gray morels, or larger morels cut into slices no more than 1" long. Sautee, stirring occassionally, for 15-20 min. until slightly crispy. Add 1/4 C. thinly sliced green onion tops, 1/2 Tbs. dried parsley, 1/4 tsp. nutmeg, 1/4 tsp. pepper, 1 tsp. Lawrey's salt, and cook for a few min. Turn heat to higher and add 1/2 C. dry white wine and reduce to almost a glaze. Turn heat to med. and add 2 C. whipping cream and 1/2 tsp. Dijon mustard. Reduce slightly over slow boil until thickened- about 10-12 min. Serve.
Recipe for 4 persons. To make these really grand dishes, add 20-24 nice-sized boiled shrimp to sauce before serving.

Morel Fondue

2010-09-02T19:43:00.000-07:00

MOREL FONDUE

Cut French or Italian bread into 1 X 1 X 3/4 inch pieces
Sauté: in butter; morels halved (lengthwise) or coarsely chopped; salt (or garlic salt) to taste, either:

1/2 lb. fresh morels OR

1 - 3 oz. dried morels (re-hydrate before use)

Grate:

1 lb. cheese (preferably un pasteurized)

Place in pan (you may rub sides with fresh garlic first):

2 cups dry white wine

Heat wine until just below boil, stirring constantly and vigorously with a wooden spoon:

	Add cheese a little bit at a time
	Add morels a small portion at a time
	May be seasoned to taste with pepper & nutmeg

When all the cheese and morels have been added transfer to a fondue pan over low heat.
Use Fondue fork to dip cubes of bread into Fondue. Enjoy.