We omitted parmesan cheese from this risotto.  We know that probably sounds like sacrilege…but the morels made us do it.  They’re so delicious – we wanted them to take center stage.

Drink Pairing: Chardonnay

Ingredients:                         Makes 4 Servings
4 tbsp of Unsalted Butter
1 1/2 quarts Vegetable Stock   (quantity can vary, so have a little extra on hand)
2 cups Vialone Nano Rice (could substitute other risotto rice, modifying stock quantity & cooking time)
½ cup White Wine
½lb Fresh Morel Mushrooms (could substitute reconstituted dried morels in a pinch)
1 tbsp minced Fresh Thyme Leaves
Salt & Pepper

Caramelized Onion Butter:          (you’ll have extra for other recipes)
2 1/2 Onions, peeled & thinly sliced
1/2lb of Unsalted Butter
3 large sprigs of Fresh Sage
Salt

Optional: Flat Leaf Parsley for Garnish

Directions:
1. Make the Onion Butter: Slowly caramelize the sliced onions.  Add them to a food processor with the 1/2lb of butter, sage, and salt to taste.  Process into a uniform butter & reserve in the fridge until you need it.

This step can be done a day or two ahead of time (even longer if you freeze the butter).

2. In a pot, warm the veggie stock.

3. Melt the plain butter in a wide frying pan.  Continue to cook it until it browns and emits a nutty aroma.

4. Add the rice and briefly toast it, stirring occasionally until it’s lightly browned.

5. Deglaze the pan with the white wine.

6. Add ladles of hot stock, stirring frequently…only adding more stock as the last infusion is absorbed (see how to make risotto for the full technique).

7. Once the rice is tender, remove the risotto from the stove and stir in the thyme and six tablespoons of the onion butter.

8. In a separate cast iron skillet or frying pan, melt 1 tbsp of the onion butter and add the morels.  Saute the morels until cooked through, then add them to the risotto (for a better presentation, hold some back and put them on top after plating).

9. Taste the risotto and add salt & pepper as necessary.  Serve garnished with flat leaf parsley if desired.

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There’s nothing boring about this bean salad – the ramps and morel mushrooms bring some of mother nature’s most amazing foraged flavors to what was once a humble side dish.

Drink Pairing: Pilsner

Ingredients:                                               Makes 6 Servings
1/2lb Fresh Morel Mushrooms, halved  (could substitute reconstituted dried morels in a pinch)
1 tbsp Unsalted Butter
1 bunch Wild Ramps, cleaned (how to clean ramps)
1 tsp Champagne Vinegar
2 cups Dried Beans (rice beans, marrow beans or giant Peruvian lima beans)
1 Bay Leaf
¼ cup Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese, very finely grated (microplaned)
Salt & Black Pepper

Directions:
1. Soak the beans overnight.

2. Move the beans to a pot in their soaking liquid (enough to cover by an inch of water).  Add a teaspoon of salt and the bay leaf.  Cook at a low simmer, gently stirring occasionally.

Note: if using multiple bean varieties, we recommend cooking them in separate pots (each with their own bay leaf) until each variety is tender for best texture.

3. After the beans have cooked for a while, add a pinch of additional salt. Add additional hot water as necessary to keep the beans submerged. Continue to simmer until tender.

4. Separate the ramp greens (tops) from the bottoms.  Finely mince the bottoms, cut the greens chiffonade (into thin strips).

5. Melt the butter in a frying pan over medium heat.

6. Add the ramp bottoms and sweat until translucent.

7. While the ramps are cooking, briefly dunk the morels in cool water to remove any sand or grit.

8. Add the morels to the ramps & continue to cook until they are tender.

9. Add the cooked, drained beans.  Cook until the beans are heated through, then add the ramp greens, champagne vinegar, salt & black pepper to taste.

10. Serve hot, cold, or at room temperature topped with the parmesan cheese.

Note: If you’d like to use a couple of different bean varieties for a blend of colors & sizes (as we have here), we recommend simmering each variety separately for the best texture.  That way you can take each off the heat when they’re ready.

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We’ve done braised rabbit dishes several times on the blog, but we keep finding new variations on this versatile meat – and each is very different from the last.  The flavors in this dish are deliciously simple – morels, butter, veggies, thyme and rabbit.

Drink Pairing: Syrah

Ingredients:                         Makes 4 Servings
1 Rabbit Fryer
8 tbsp Unsalted Butter
¼ cup diced Leek
¼ cup diced Celery
¼ cup diced Carrot
¼ cup diced Onion
½ cup White Wine
1/2lb Fresh Morel Mushrooms (could substitute Dried Morels – no need to reconstitute ahead)
1 cup Chicken Stock
½ bunch Fresh Thyme
1 tbsp chopped Thyme leaves
1 tbsp chopped Flat Leaf Parsley Leaves
1/2lbPappardelle Pasta (we used Wheat Germ Pappardelle Pasta)
Sherry Vinegar

Directions:
1. Remove the legs from the rabbit (how to cut up a rabbit).  Reserve the saddle (or separated loins) for another rabbit recipe.

2. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

3. Melt four tablespoons of the butter in a Dutch oven or large pot.

4. Season the rabbit legs with salt & pepper and sear them on all sides in the melted butter.

5. Add the leek, celery, carrot and onion.  Brown them, then deglaze the pot with the white wine.

6. Cut any particularly large morels in half.  Check the morels for sand and briefly rinse them if necessary.  Add the morels to the pot along with the chicken stock and thyme.

7. Bring the chicken stock to a simmer, put a lid on the pot and move it to the oven to braise.  Braise until the rabbit is tender and the meat can be pulled apart (about 1 ½ hours).

8. Remove the pot from the oven and discard the thyme sprigs.  Remove the rabbit legs & reserve.

9. Put the pot on the stove and simmer to reduce the cooking liquid.  Once reduced enough to coat the back of a spoon, add the chopped thyme and chopped parsley.

10. Boil the pasta until al dente.  Drain & toss it with 3 tablespoons of butter, salt & pepper.

11. Just before serving, add the remaining tablespoon of butter and a couple drops of sherry vinegar to the braising liquid sauce.  Stir to combine.

12. Serve the rabbit legs atop the pasta, topped with the braising liquid & vegetables.

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1) Put the desired amount of dried mushrooms in a non-reactive bowl.

2) Pour boiling water over the dried mushrooms to cover.

3) Let sit for at least 20 minutes, or until the mushrooms are tender.

4) Strain the mushrooms and use in recipes that call for fresh mushrooms. Reserve the water as it serves as a flavorful base for making stock.

Note: Dried Wild Chanterelle Mushrooms reconstitute woody and tough. Accordingly, we only recommend dried chanterelles to be used in dishes that are to be pureed.

Related: How to Freeze, Can & Dehydrate Fresh Mushrooms

This is one of my ‘shroom standbys.  Easy and delicious.

Ingredients:  (Makes 4 Appetizer Servings)
1/2lb of  any variety of Fresh Mushrooms, chopped.  In the photo, we used Fresh Morel Mushrooms, which were fabulous
1 large Shallot, fine diced
Leaves from 2 sprigs of Fresh Thyme
1 splash Sherry Vinegar
1 tbsp of Unsalted Butter
Parmigiano Reggiano to taste
Truffle Oil (optional)
Fresh Baguette

Directions: 

1.  Add the butter to a saute pan (preferably cast iron).  Once it melts, add the shallots and saute them over medium heat until they lightly brown, stirring occasionally. 

2.  Add the mushrooms, thyme, salt and pepper and saute until the mushrooms have released their liquid.  

3.  Add the sherry vinegar and saute for a few minutes more. 

4.  Top slices of baguette with the mixture, move to a baking sheet in the oven and broil until the bread has crisped/toasted.

5.  If you have them on hand, grate Parmigiano Reggiano over the top and drizzle on a little truffle oil.

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How to Dehydrate Fresh Mushrooms
If you dry them, they will last for years and retain an intensified form of their intrinsic flavor and vital properties. The best way for most home chefs to dry fresh mushrooms is using an actual dehydrator machine, which dehydrates at a low temperature, better preserving mushrooms’ flavor.

In a pinch you can spread mushrooms on a sheet tray covered with parchment paper in your oven, and bake them at 140 degrees (as low as many ovens will go) until they’ve dried out.  However, this isn’t a perfect method because you’re likely to partially-bake your mushrooms while drying them. 

How to Prepare Fresh Mushrooms For Drying:
For thinner, smaller varieties like chanterelles, black trumpet mushrooms, and hedgehog mushrooms, you can simply lightly rinse , pat dry, and dehydrate them whole. If you find any particularly large or thick examples you may want to halve them first so they’re similar in size to the others.

Thicker, meatier mushrooms like lobster mushrooms, portabellos, porcinis, and shitakes should be sliced before drying. We recommend slices that are about 1/4″ thick.

How to Dry Mushrooms in a Dehydrator:
Start your mushrooms out in a dehydrator set very low (80-90 degrees) for the first few hours, then turn the heat up to 120-125 degrees. You shouldn’t need to use any special tray liners, the basic plastic grates work just fine. It could take anywhere from four to eleven hours to dehydrate your mushrooms. We can’t really give you a better estimate than that, because it can vary quite a bit depending on their moisture content, how much you’re drying, and your ambient humidity. A good rule of thumb is to check them every hour or so until they’re starting to dry out, then switch to checking every half hour. They’re done when they’re completely dried out and hard.

Once you’ve established a baseline for your dehydrator, mushroom type & area, you likely won’t need to check as often in the future. If during your checks you notice some of the smaller mushrooms have finished drying ahead of the larger ones, go ahead and remove the dried mushrooms from the trays early, leaving them in can damage their quality.

Store your dried mushrooms in an air-tight container in a cool, dry cupboard.  Read How to Rehydrate Dried Mushrooms for tips on making them soft again.  

Note: Chanterelles often reconstitute woody, so we prefer to puree them for delicious soups and sauces rather than serving them as whole mushrooms.

How to Freeze Fresh Mushrooms

1. Most varieties you can simply brush off the clinging dirt, but for mushrooms with a lot of nooks and crannies, you might want to give them a gentle rinse, and then carefully dry them as thoroughly as possible.

2. Whether to cut your mushrooms into smaller pieces depends on the size of the mushrooms and your future plans for them. In general, when freezing something the smaller the pieces the better…but if you need them whole or in larger pieces you can freeze them that way.

3. Put a sheet pan in your freezer until it’s good and cold.

4. Place the mushrooms/pieces on the sheet pan in a single layer so they don’t touch each other. Freeze them solid, uncovered.

5. For storage, move the frozen mushrooms to a freezer bag or (even better) a vacuum pack bag. Get as much air out as possible, seal, and keep them frozen until you’re ready to use them.

6. Only thaw mushrooms when you’re ready to use them, as refreezing can damage their flavor/texture.

Note: You can also partially cook (sauté) fresh mushrooms in oil and then freeze them, which will save cooking time later on.

For more info, read How to Freeze Better at Home.

How to Can Fresh Mushrooms
Lastly there is canning mushrooms in oil. Cook down mushrooms in oil and place inside a mason jar, the heat should seal the jar. Keep refrigerated for up to two months!

If anyone has other techniques, please add them in a comment below, or link to your content.

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Drink Pairings: Mimosa or Bloody Mary

Ingredients:                       (Makes 4-6 Servings)
10 Eggs
2 Leeks
1 cup Fresh Morel Mushrooms
1/2 cup Gruyere Cheese, grated
2 cloves Garlic, minced (plus extra for morels if desired)
1 tbsp Fresh Tarragon, minced
Unsalted Butter
Salt

Directions:
1. Preheat your oven to 375.

2. Saute the morels in butter (Butter Sautéed Morels Recipe).

3. Remove the top and bottom of the leeks, slice the remaining portion in half down the side. Wash the exposed inner layers to remove any in-grown dirt.

4. Slice the leeks into very thin strips (about 1 ½” long).

5. Melt 1 ½ tbsp butter in a frying pan and add the leeks. Sweat the leeks until they become tender and translucent (the heat should be low enough that they don’t brown at all).

6. Once the leeks have cooked, remove them from the pan.

7. Saute the garlic in the pan. Once it’s softened, put it in a bowl with the leeks.

8. Put the eggs and a healthy pinch of salt to a blender. Blend on high until the eggs have dramatically increased in volume (1 1/2 minutes or so). They should be so full of air that they’re almost white.

9. Put 1 tsp oil (olive or canola) and 1tbsp butter in a small cast iron skillet.  Melt the butter, then remove from the heat.

10. Build a layer of leeks, tarragon, garlic, gruyere and morels in the pan.

11. Add some of the tarragon to the eggs and pour a layer of the egg mixture over the morel mixture in the pan.

12. Put the skillet over a burner set to medium low heat and cover the eggs with more leek, tarragon, garlic, gruyere and morels.

13. Pour the rest of the eggs (or as much as will go in to your pan without overflowing) in over the morels.

14. Continue to cook until the top starts to bubble slightly, then move to the oven to bake.

15. When the top has set and a knife inserted into the fritatta reveals that it is cooked but still soft, switch to the broiler and brown the top (you can top with additional gruyere before doing so if desired).

16. Serve.

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This soup is rich, earthy, and creamy.  The paprika isn’t enough to make the soup spicy, but just to add a pleasant warmth which, coupled with acidity of the lemon juice & sherry vinegar, helps keep the soup balanced

Ingredients: (Makes 10 servings)
1 oz. Dried Wild Mushrooms Mix, reconstituted with soaking water reserved (you could substitute any dried wild mushrooms except chanterelles)
4 Tbs. Butter  
4 Tbs. Flour
2 ½ cups Water or Stock
4 cups Milk
2 cups Chopped Onion
1 Tbs. Fresh Lemon Juice
1 cup Sour Cream
4 tsp Paprika
2 tsp Dill Weed
2 tsp Salt
1 tbsp Sherry Vinegar

Instructions: 
1.  In a medium saucepan, lightly sauté the onions in butter until translucent, add the flour and cook, while stirring, for 2-3 minutes.

2.  Slowly whisk in mushrooms and their soaking water and cook over medium heat until thickened.

3.  Add milk and paprika and simmer another 2 or 3 minutes.

4.  Whisk in 1/2 cup of the sour cream, then add the remaining ingredients.

5.  Serve garnished with a dollop of sour cream.

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Incredients:
2 tbsp Butter
2 tbsp Olive Oil
1 Clove Garlic, crushed with the skin-on
Few Sprigs Fresh Thyme
Fresh Morel Mushrooms

Directions:
1. Melt the butter in a frying pan with the olive oil, the thyme and crushed garlic clove.

2. Once the oil is hot and the butter has melted, add the morels, taking care not to crowd the pan.

3. Cook the morels until golden brown (or darker if black/grey) gently turning them occasionally so they cook evenly.  Add salt to taste.

4. Remove the cooked morels and serve or add to other recipes. If desired you can continue to cook more batches of morels in the same pan, adding more oil and butter as needed.

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Seared Salmon with Morel Balsamic “Beurre Rouge”

Less acidic than a vinaigrette with a hint of bite from the vinegar and lemon, this sauce compliments salmon beautifully. It adds richness to lighter salmon and brightens up heavier salmon varieties. The fruity/musky balsamic flavor blends into a delicious earthy finish from the morels.

Drink Pairings: Red Burgundy or Sangiovese from Italy (perhaps Chianti)

Ingredients:                 (Makes 4 Servings)
16oz Salmon Fillets (we used pink salmon fillets)
1 Large Shallot, finely minced
1 cup Aged Balsamic Vinegar
1 tsp Lemon Juice, freshly squeezed
1 ½ cups Fresh Morel Mushrooms
Unsalted Butter
Olive Oil

Directions:
1. Saute the morels in butter (Butter Sautéed Morels Recipe). Slice them into disks.

2. In a separate pan, sweat the shallot in oil until translucent.

3. Pour in the balsamic vinegar, simmer to reduce its volume by half.

4. Add the cooked morel slices, lemon juice and 5 tbsp of butter.  Stir the butter in slowly over low heat, adding it in pieces rather than all at once. 

5. If the balsamic mixture has gotten too sweet, add a little more lemon juice to brighten it up.  Place the sauce on the back of your stove (off the burners, but still warm), until you’re ready to serve it.

6. Cut the salmon into individual servings and pan sear them (How to Pan Sear Fish).

7. Serve the salmon with some of the “beurre rouge” drizzled over the top. Make sure each plate gets some of the morel pieces.

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Salmon Recipes
Fish Fillet Recipes