Morels.

This weekend, Jason and I spent our time searching for morel mushroom patches.  We had the best luck finding them around the edges of old pastureland and under dried up bracken fern.  I had never been mushroom picking before so there was a learning curve on my end.  Jason and I would walk up to a patch and he would say "Oh! I see one! There's another!  I see 3 more!"  I would look and look and was just not able to see them.  We had to play the 'you're getting warmer' game until I was just about stepping on them before I found them.  Luckily I did not step on any!  He let me loose in a nice patch and I finally got the hang of it.  We ended up with a little under 3 1/2 pound of morels.  They were so photogenic, I ended up taking many pictures of them.

We knew we would not be able eat all of them up fresh and would have to dry them for future use. Jason's family would wash them, soak them in salt water and hang them in onion bags.  We decided to skip the salt, as these mushrooms were pretty clean and did not seem to have bugs in them.  Jason placed the morels in front of a box fan to dry them before we put them in the onion bags.  This trick actually worked very well at dehydrating them.  We read that they should be kept in an air tight container and kept in a very dark place.  We plan on keeping them in a mason jar in the pantry with the other canned goodness we have.



There are several ways in which people enjoy morels.  We experimented with a few quick sauteed and fried recipes.  My favorite was to saute them with butter and a little garlic.  Jason's favorite quick recipe was to shake the morels in a mixture of flour, Parmesan cheese and a pinch of salt and pepper and then fry them in butter. A friend of mine recommended a morel mushroom quiche with bacon and artichokes.  In my search for a quiche recipe I came across this website.  This is a blog called Closet Cooking, I highly recommend this blog. It has several recipes with fresh local ingredients that are delicious!  I have used this site for a wild leek pesto recipe as well. Here is the link. http://www.closetcooking.com/2009/05/asparagus-morel-and-ramp-quiche-with.html.

Asparagus, Morel and Ramp Quiche with Brown Rice Crust by Closet Cooking

(makes 6 servings)

Baked brown rice crust

Ingredients:
2 cups cooked brown rice
1/4 cup Gruyere (grated)
1 egg
4 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup Gruyere (grated)
1/2 pound morel mushrooms

quiche before it has been baked

1/2 pound asparagus (cut into 1-inch long pieces and steamed)
3 ramps (chopped)
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Mix the rice, cheese and egg in a bowl.
2. Press the rice mixture into a pie plate, about 1/4 inch thick.
3. Bake in a preheated 450F oven until the edges and bottom just start turning golden brown, about 5-7 minutes.

Golden brown quiche

4. Mix the eggs, milk, cheese, mushrooms, asparagus and ramps in a bowl and season with salt and pepper.
5. Pour the egg mixture into the pie crust.
6. Bake in a preheated 375F oven until golden brown and set in the center, about 30-35 minutes.

Deliciousness!

THIS RECIPE IS AMAZING!  I made it as exact as I could from local fresh eggs, our own asparagus (although we only had 1/4 lb. available), and fresh morels and wild leeks we picked.  I used both the leek bulbs and the green tops. I didn't have Gruyere cheese but did have white cheddar dill cheese curds.  This recipe turned out delicious making it with what we had. The brown rice crust added a lovely crunch and in my opinion would be much better than a regular flaky crust. 

To top off our weekend of morel gluttony, we had a dinner of bacon wrapped venison with a morel mushroom and Ramp sauce.  The venison was hunted here on our property and the potatoes are our last two from our root cellar. We were amazed that we were able to keep vegetables as long as we did in our cellar. They are topped of with our greenhouse chives too!  The green beans were canned from last years garden.

Grilled Bacon Wrapped Venison with Morel Mushroom and Wild Leek Sauce
The sauce was adapted from this recipe http://jdeq.typepad.com/jerrys_thoughts_musings_a/2010/04/venison-with-morel-sauce-and-ramps.html

Marinade 2 venison tenderloin filets overnight with 1/4 cup red wine and 1/4 cup soy sauce.  Wrap the venison with bacon, using a toothpick to hold the bacon in place. Grill to preferred temperature.

Sauce
1 lb morels, washed and cut in half
2-3 wild leeks, chopped bulbs and greens
2 Tbsp. butter
1 1/2 cup beef stock (if you soaked the leeks, use the mushroom water for the stock if you are using bouillon)
1/2 cup red wine
1 Tbsp. flour
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat the beef stock over high heat and cook down to about a half cup. Saute the morels in butter, add the leeks to just a little soft.  Stir in the flour with the butter, morels and leeks.Slowly add the red wine stirring well. Let the wine boil a bit until it looks like it is thickening.  Slowly add the beef stock to the pan, stirring constantly.  Serve the sauce over the venison and enjoy with a nice glass of red wine.