It’s morel mushroom season…mmmm! April showers bring May flowers AND a piece of mushroom heaven. Nothing is better than the thought of flourishing fungi, right? In fact, it is such an exciting time that people travel from afar to partake in a morel mushroom hunt through orchards and forests just to have a taste of the sponge-hatted shroom. Talk about a mushroom with some serious admirers.
The morel is king of the mushroom community offering an earthy, nutty flavor with a meaty texture that makes wild mushroom hunters and cooks giddy with joy. The caps usually begin to appear in April throughout the US and shroomers (aka mushroom hunters) come ready to dig around for the edible fungus because they have yet to be successfully grown in a commercial setting. Besides being a fun outdoor activity, finders of the coveted morel mushroom save some serious money on their mushroom eating habits. Just 2 ounces of the honeycomb shroom can be sold in the range of $25 to $50 and may be difficult to find in stores in the fresh form.
Mushrooms used to be a food that landed in the extreme yuck category for me, but luckily I changed my ways so that I can enjoy the pleasures of this mushroom with mystique. Found in an array of colors from black to tan or yellow, the hollow mushroom is low in calories, high in protein and full of vitamins and minerals. A nutritious cup of morels holds a punch of potassium, phosphorus and calcium with a healthy supply of vitamin D.
Hunting the beauties down is the hard part. The easy part is cooking them up. The distinctive flavor is valued by chefs around the world making every dish that includes the morel a delicacy. So when you do get your hands on the rare woodsy mushroom, consider these drool-worthy recipes:
- Stay simple and gently sauté the conical topped mushroom with a bit of butter, pepper and salt. Delightful!
- Get fancy with this ricotta gnocchi with fresh peas and morel mushrooms.
- For the cooler spring day, make a delicious bowl of morel mushroom soup.
- A classic way of preparing the prized mushroom is to fry them up!
- Enjoy morel mushrooms as a sauce and pair with your protein of choice like chicken or turkey tenderloin or serve on top of pasta.
A mushroom is just a mushroom until you try a morel.
Have you ever gone mushroom hunting? What would you make with your morel mushrooms? Share your thoughts in the comments section please!
Feature image courtesy of grongar via Flickr (CC BY 3.0)
Photo 2 courtesy of prossing via sxc.hu
why must you tease me with fun food that I cant find living in the middle of freaking nowhere?! haha these look so cute! little shroomy sponges! Mushrooms are practically a food group for me — love them so!
You can get them dried year round even in the middle of nowhere! I am sure of it. But really, they are so adorable if you had them you might not want to eat ’em:)
I’ve never foraged but have always wanted to, and a woman I met at a local Whole Foods just started a holistic wellness business that includes treks out to forage!
Luckily, I just have to make my way to my weekly Farmers Market, as we just got a mushroom guy (http://www.lafunghi.com/ if you want to check him out), and he carries every variety under the sun!
I get so scared of trying new things sometimes though that I usually stick to my weekly bag of brown Crimini, but with your encouragement, I’m going to try the simple sautee with butter, salt and pepper trick!
A mushroom man! You are so good at eating locally and finding all the freshest produce.
I love Morels and have several dishes I make with them. They are so great in a sauce and have such a rich, gourmet flavor. We really should dine together sometime!
Oh yummy! I’m actually thinking of launching some sort of weekly bite challenge where people post a dish that includes one of my featured foods. Sounds like one of your morel mushroom dishes would fit the bill! 🙂
My family totally goes mushroom hunting here in Washington. She share the morels with me too 🙂
How fun and lucky that sharing happens! I can’t even imagine eating them straight from the ground. Thank you so much for stopping by BSW Heather!