Morels
I got a lucky break/generous gift yesterday. My neighbours were outside looking over their flowerbed, which they'd covered with wood chippings to deter weeds, and pointed out a number of black, honeycombed shapes growing among the daffodils.
"You think those are Morels?"
I looked closely. They certainly looked like the prized mushrooms.
"We're kind of afraid to try them - you're welcome to take them if you want. Just make sure you haven't got anything important to do for the next couple of days!"
I went and checked online mushroom guides, and found that there was only one fungus that could be mistaken for a Morel - and not easily. Next stop, a handful of big meaty mushrooms and a frying pan!
The procedure is pretty simple; clean off the mud, trim off all the nasty-looking bits and cut the Morels in half, then wash and briefly soak in salt water to kill off and remove any creepy-crawlies (those honeycomb cavities and the hollow inside make a great home for all kinds of bugs).
Then it's into the pan for five to ten minutes with a little butter (I overdid the butter a bit on the first batch, but no harm done). The taste is gorgeous, the flesh a little firmer and definitely more flavoursome than regular field mushrooms with a nutty undertaste. The first two I tried on their own, and later I put a couple more halves into a bacon sandwich. Philistine-a-licious.
Black Morels like these start to grow around this time in all sorts of places, particularly where there is a mixture of soil and rotting wood (the wood chips, I assume, carried the spores in this case). Yellow Morels start to come up a little later in the year. I had considered taking a few and trying to cultivate my own, but Morel growing guides I've found seem to indicate that this is very tricky and rather hit-and-miss. So if you find some of these tasty fungal treats in your area, make the most of them!
"You think those are Morels?"
I looked closely. They certainly looked like the prized mushrooms.
"We're kind of afraid to try them - you're welcome to take them if you want. Just make sure you haven't got anything important to do for the next couple of days!"
I went and checked online mushroom guides, and found that there was only one fungus that could be mistaken for a Morel - and not easily. Next stop, a handful of big meaty mushrooms and a frying pan!
The procedure is pretty simple; clean off the mud, trim off all the nasty-looking bits and cut the Morels in half, then wash and briefly soak in salt water to kill off and remove any creepy-crawlies (those honeycomb cavities and the hollow inside make a great home for all kinds of bugs).
Then it's into the pan for five to ten minutes with a little butter (I overdid the butter a bit on the first batch, but no harm done). The taste is gorgeous, the flesh a little firmer and definitely more flavoursome than regular field mushrooms with a nutty undertaste. The first two I tried on their own, and later I put a couple more halves into a bacon sandwich. Philistine-a-licious.
Black Morels like these start to grow around this time in all sorts of places, particularly where there is a mixture of soil and rotting wood (the wood chips, I assume, carried the spores in this case). Yellow Morels start to come up a little later in the year. I had considered taking a few and trying to cultivate my own, but Morel growing guides I've found seem to indicate that this is very tricky and rather hit-and-miss. So if you find some of these tasty fungal treats in your area, make the most of them!
Labels: black morels, Butter, Frying pan, Fungus, morels, Mushroom
posted by Mark at
20:00
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