Ingredient Spotlight: Morel Mushrooms

It's springtime, which to mushroom enthusiasts means morels! My local mycology club's email list has been abuzz with discussions about morel sightings and morel forays. These little honeycombed mushrooms are front page news these days in culinary circles.

Morels are a funny-looking mushroom. They have teardrop-shaped caps attached to a hollow stem. The caps are honeycomb-like and are comprised of a series of ridges and pits. Colors of morels can range from dark brown, black, gray, yellow, and tan. They are delicious whether eaten fresh or dried and then reconstituted.

Do not wash morels. Remove any visible dirt with a brush. Store in a paper bag in the refrigerator for up to a week. Morels should not be eaten raw and must be cooked. They do well sauteed in butter with salt and pepper. You can add a wine reduction or a cream sauce if you like; morels do well with either. Another common way to cook morels is to dip them in some beaten egg, then breadcrumbs, and then deep-fry them in oil. Some people on my mushroom club email list have said they enjoy stuffing them with cheese and baking them. Morels pair well with asparagus; try them in a cream sauce over some pasta! More morel recipes can be found here. Also, try them with some fiddlehead ferns and ramps, perhaps in a risotto?

If you can't find fresh morels at your local market or upscale grocer, both fresh and dried morels can be purchased online. The three top sources for fresh morels are:

• Pacific Rim Mushrooms
• Earthy Delights
• Marx Foods

(Image: Kathryn Hill)

Comments (6)

Morels! So tasty, and reasonably priced if you're only cooking for one or two.

The first (and so far only) time I cooked with (dried) morels (though being literally across the street from groceries, I can feel the urge to try again rising), I brushed off the dirt and dropped them into the butter... only to find before long that each little cone housed one little white worm. Big worms in big mushrooms, tiny worms in tiny mushrooms.

I wasn't even angry, because in retrospect they are perfectly shaped to be worm houses... but next time, I'll be sure to brush out the insides, too.

Hmmm, not sure about not washing morels - every time we hunt them, we always slice them in half (lengthwise) and soak them in the sink for a few hours with a bit of salt water to get the insects out. There are always slugs & ants & other 6-legged creatures that crawl out. (They know what is tasty, apparently!)

Morels need to be washed. Not only do they need to be washed, but we wash them 5 times at the restaurant. Dirt and sand gets trapped inside them, in addition to bugs and worms. Trust me. I've seen them. I wouldn't, however, leave them in water for hours. They're extremely delicate, and at $40/lb., you don't want to lose a whole batch.
Trim a tiny bit of the stem off, then cut them in half, exposing their interior. Then put them in a cold water bath. Drain the water. Repeat.

Asparagus, morels, butter, salt and pepper. Saute until you can no longer prevent yourself from eating them, straight from the pan.

Oh my god. I need morels now.

Also, I don't know if combining morels and alcohol is a good idea - the genus Morchella (which includes all the different species of morel) is actually toxic when combined with alcohol.

As a Midwesterner, my usual method of cooking them is to soak them in a salt bath to get out any bugs, trim them up, halve them, batter them, and fry them until golden brown and delicous. They're also great just sauteed with a bit of butter or used in a cream sauce or soup. Of course, I'm relatively spoiled - my family has always been able to find fresh ones on our own property, and the farmers' markets here often have them in the spring (although if you want them, you have to be early, and ready to pay on average $10/lb).

I'm so glad I wasn't the only one with buggy morels! I'll be sure to soak them in the future~