Fresh Morels for Joy!

adminAll Recipes, General, Morel Mushroom Recipes 124 Comments

The random.org number generator has picked Joy (comment #58) as the lucky recipient of the fresh morel mushrooms!  Congratulations Joy!  She said she’d be featuring them as the star of a pasta dish, which is a great way to enjoy the tender texture and buttery flavor of fresh morels.

For those of you who aren’t Joy, don’t despair, we’ve got a new event starting right now where you could get a Pantry on Steroids sampler for a Mother’s Day gift (there’ll be no doubt who’s her favorite).

Enter here, (hurry! It’s a short one!), tell the rest of the family to put their names in the hat too, and cross your fingers for mom!

Comments 124

  1. I adore morels! I love to saute them in butter and pair them with fresh trout and fresh asparagus, with some nice crusty bread with of course … real butter.
    Thanks for the opportunity!!

  2. I have no idea. I’ve never had them before. But I’ve been reading about them from @herbfarm and several food bloggers, so it’d be fun to give them a spin.

  3. I’ve never cooked with morels, but I would enjoy seeing what kind of tasty dishes I could come up with.

  4. I love using all kinds of mushrooms in my cooking but morel is a mushrooms which I have NOT tried. This is a good opportunity to incorporate them in my cooking.

  5. I love using me some Morels in German food. I always have to use dried but I would love to use some fresh in cheesy Morel spaetzle with leek, and in gravy with venison schnitzel…heck maybe some on the side sautéed in bacon fat and a little apple cider….a giant mug of Hacker Pschorr to top it all off.

  6. Ooooh – 2 lbs! With that I could make some amazing pasta one night and some great grilled flatbread pizza another night. Mmmmm…

  7. Seared scallops over homemade linguini tossed with lardons, pecorino romano, sauteed morels, and EVOO; garnished with a chiffonade of ramps.

  8. Wow… with two pounds, I’d enjoy it by the half pound…

    0.5. Stuff with cheese and herbs (research for type required) and bake;
    1.0. Saute in butter, garlic and rosemary;
    1.5. Chop, fry briefly in olive oil with salt and pepper and toss with fresh angel hair;
    2.0. Slice thin, layer in a small bread pan with pasta, mozzarella and mellow marinara, and bake…

    …and then sit back and enjoy the wonderful pain of excessive indulgence.

  9. maybe saute them with some shallot and garlic, add some white wine and fresh rosemary and put it over a fat steak ORRRR saute them with garlic, anchovies and asparagus, toss it with some pasta, grape tomatoes, peas and some Parmesan ORRR put them in an omlette with gruyere. SO many possibilities. this is exciting!

  10. I have only had morels once…an omelet with a cream, sherry morel sauce. It was divine. I’d try to duplicate that at home. I would keep it very simple to let the morels special taste shine through. Thanks.

  11. My culinary fantasy is to be wandering the woods after a spring shower while camping and stumbling across a literal field of these tasty treats while just happening to have a method to carry pounds of them home with me.

    After cleaning them up, I’d love to fry them up with a nice beer based batter in a Dutch oven and enjoy their wonderful flavor while watching the sunset over the trees and river.

    Heaven.

  12. It’s a simple fantasy, one I put into reality every spring: fresh morels, sauteed in butter, sprinkled with salt. That is all. When it’s that good, it doesn’t need elaborate preparation.

  13. A morel fantasy for me would be a 5 or 7 course meal with each dish highlighting these fabulous highly prized mushrooms. With wines to match of course!

  14. I will make an amazing homemade pizza or pasta! Never had morels so will enjoy trying them on something new!

  15. My culinary fantasy would be to have Grant Achatz come over with a basket of morels, some jujubees, a melon, and a trout and whip me up something. 🙂

  16. I would make an omlette with some, sautee them in butter to serve with trout and/or make a sauce for lamb with the others. Mmm…I’m getting hungry!

  17. I’ve never cooked with morels (they aren’t available where I live in the boonies.) I want to try. Please select me!

  18. I’d love to go morel hunting myself, but in absence of that, cooking and eating them will suffice! I’ve been imagining a reinvented beef stroganoff — made with morels. Yum!

  19. I have not had a chance to eat morels for many years, and my fantasy would be a lovely dinner, starting with a salad garnished with sauteed morels, and featuring a morel bisque.

  20. I’ve never had morels – I keep seeing recipes using them and articles about the wonders of morel mushrooms, but I don’t think I’ve ever even seen them at the grocery stores or the public market. I’d love to try them in . . . something spring-like!

  21. I think I’d make a whiskey cream sauce with them to serve with grilled grass-fed steaks…or maybe a risotto…or maybe…

  22. My morel fantasy? Okay – I just received 24 beautiful little quail from Marx Foods.

    I defrost all of them.

    I make a beautiful little stuffing out of fresh morels, fine fresh bread crumbs, shallots and slivers of granny smith apples.

    I stuff the quail, pan sear them, deglaze the pan with apple brandy, thicken the sauce with cream and butter and a few more fresh morels and invite 12 of my closest friends for dinner.

    The fantasy? None of them can make it and I have to eat all of it (including the rest of the morels) all by myself.

    Linda Skelcy
    AKA The Good Cook

  23. OMG! I have soo many uses for these! First off, I’d love to make a morel-turbinado vanilla chocolate truffle, then a morel Alfredo for buckwheat pasta, and if I had any left, I’d love to make a morel-butter sauce for some smoked trout or Cornish hen. The recipes go straight to you!

  24. I’ve actually never tried morels before, but I have a cookbook with several recipes calling for them. I’d love to finally make those recipes!!

  25. I would love to make some chicken and morels with Madiera sauce! If anyone has ever seen the movie Amelie with Audrey Tatou, there is a scene where an old man is repainting Renoir’s Luncheon of the boating party. Amelie states “they look happy” and the old man says They should be!They’re eating hare with morels and waffles and jam for the kids”. Though I think that hare might be hard to come by, I have always wanted to make some sort of epic morel dish and have all the people I cook it for be that ecstatic! I am just learning to cook with different type of mushrooms and would love to win fresh morels!

  26. Oh boy…I would definitely splurge for a tenderloin…something I never buy due to price…but to pair it with the morels would be more than worth it! So probably some sort of grilled tenderloin with morel/butter/wine/garlic sauce!?

  27. I’d like to make a really earthy primavera – homemade tagliatelle, morels, peas, brown butter, and pecorino romano. I’d start off with bruschetta made with taleggio and a little garlic/morel spread. Great. Now I’m hungry.

  28. Mmmm, perhaps saute them in butter and wine and place them on a bed of homemade pasta topped with fresh herbs and veggies from the farmers market.

  29. My morel fantasy is simply just to try one. I’ve never ever eaten anything containing morels. They do look so lucious.

  30. Dear,
    Even though Morel mushroom tastes incredible with just butter, I would want to try making Morel-N-Onion, Cottage Cheese Crusted Tartlet and also maybe give an Indian spin on it–Make Mushroom Pilaf and pair it with Turkish Yogurt based Celery-root salad.

  31. WOW! this is awesome!! I would love to fold them into a lightly cooked omelete with farm fresh eggs.. Ohh!! thinking about it makes me happy! 🙂

  32. Ah, morels would be delicious sauteed in butter with a sprinkle of fresh thyme and a wee bit of garlic, then served on toasted baguette points. Yum!

  33. I would probably make a pasta where mushrooms is the star. That is such a great veggie. It could easily be subsituted for meat.

  34. My father and I mushroom hunt every year for these little beauties. Hands down my favorite way to enjoy these mushroom is lightly breaded and pan fried. It’s amazing!

  35. We used to forage for fresh morels when I lived in Michigan. We used them any number of ways and I’ve had them many ways since but my favorite was dipped lightly in flour and fried in butter. Simple, elegant and the full flavor of morels in your mouth. My dear mother certainly knew how to cook them!

  36. Only once have I ever had all the morel mushrooms I wanted at a single setting. I have been daydreamin about repeating that heavenly day ever since.

  37. I love to create a zippy morel mushroom risotto but would also like to try them in a cream sauce over pasta. Cheers!

  38. I have never had them fresh – and THAT would be my fantasy. I have always bought them dried, and reconstituted them for soups and sauces and stews and the flavour is so special that I actually investigated goint Morel hunting in British Columbia Canada a year after their horrible forest fires.
    YUM!

  39. I’ve never actually HAD morels. I think I’d have to have a party! Barbara Kingsolver has a recipe for morel asparagus bread pudding in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle that sounds really intriguing.

  40. I would make quite a few recipes with all of those morels, but the first thing I would do is to try them just coated with a little flour and sauteed in butter to satisfy my craving! Then I would pull out the recipes and decide which to make next. So many uses, so little time!

  41. Morels and Creamy Polenta

    1. Cook and cover polenta and keep warm over low heat.

    2. Heat 5 tbsp salted butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Once the butter is melted, add shallots and cook until soft, about 2 minutes. Add morels, salt, and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until golden brown, about 8 minutes.

    3. Splash the mushrooms with a few 1/4 cup of Planeta Bianco.

    4. Stir in 2 tablespoons butter and Parmesan into polenta and divide it among 4 bowls. If the polenta has become stiff, stir in warm milk a tablespoon at a time until the polenta becomes creamy again.

    5. Top the polenta with the morel mixture, shaved parmesean, and parsley. Serve hot.

  42. Hmmmmm! I love mushrooms, but I’ve never tried morels. If I won, I would have to look up an awesome recipe to cook them up.

  43. My morel culinary fantasy is to have the chance to try these wonderful mushrooms and cook with them for the first time ever! Yes…I am a true morel virgin. I would like to make a cream sauce or gravy of some sort for pasta…..allowing me to experience the full flavor with as little interference as possible

  44. I’ve never used morels but I would looove the opportunity! I think I would sautee them in butter and put in a pasta…or steak…or seafood…the possibilities are endless!

  45. Just the way my father always cooks them…cut in half, dredged in flour/paprika/S&P and then pan fried in liberal amounts of butter till crispy. Heavenly!

  46. My morel fantasy would be to be at a beautiful house in the south of France and walk out in the ancient woods with, oh, Jean Paul Belmondo. We would pick some morels, desport in the cool of the forest with a bottle of great champagne and then return and fry them over an outdoor grill with homemade hazelnut oil and a handful of fresh herbs from the garden with a splash of our wine and eat them with toasted fresh bread … then some more champagne for us…then.. well it is Jean Paul Belmondo!!

  47. I have never cooked with Morels. But I am already dreaming of different ways – maybe risotto, on a grilled flatbread, pizza. Boy, Can’t wait to cook with them. Thanks.

  48. I’ve never cooked with morel mushrooms before, but love cooking with mushrooms; and always love to try cooking with new ingredients.

  49. while i have seen delicious recipes that use them, i have never had morel mushrooms myself. would love to win to have the opportunity to try them.

  50. I have more than one choice to do with these lovely mushrooms:
    1- Chicken and Mushroom Nouelle in wine sauce, already posted on my blog.
    2- Mushroom Galettes and yummy and vegetarian pastries
    3- steak and mushroom strudel

  51. this year i would love to make a fresh pasta dish with sauteed morels. i’ve only found two morels this year, so i need some help!

  52. I would have to try them dipped in flour and fried because I hear thats the best way to try them. Then I would make a frittata!

  53. Morel mushrooms are the one thing I absolutely love (truly my favorite food) We have gone mushroom hunting multiple times a year every year of my life (even when 9 months pregnant I was happily out mushroom hunting) I love them in almost anything, but truly, the best is sauteed in butter, then over good homemade bread that has been toasted! YUMMY..:)

  54. I have never tried these mushrooms before, but I’m sure one of the dishes I would use these in would be a pasta cream dish.

  55. My culinary fantasy is to have fresh morels every day of the year (not the cultivated ones, either, as they are just not the same!). In my opinion, simple is best – sauteed in butter until crispy with a dash of salt. Heaven!!!

  56. Never had morels, bu I imagine a nicely seared rare steak with a morel cream sauce would be pretty tasty!

  57. I think I would try a recipe with pasta of course, or stuff them in ravioli, or eat them sauteed with salt, or in stuffed breads, or with vegetables, or a cheese and morels pie, or on a steak, in rice, with sausages, or a roast, with beans on on green eggs and ham. It’s endless what I could put them on, but you’d probably get bored, of reading a longer comment.

  58. I am the challenger on Iron Chef and the secret ingredient is Morels (I am trilled because they are so versatile) I make a creamy morel soup, wonderful roasted morel salad, morel ravioli, morel sliders, and finally a morel torte. The judges love it all, they are a hit and I win…….. Unfortunately the alarm clock goes off and it was all a dream but on the bright side I can still make my dishes thanks to Marx foods. And I can enjoy my dreams because you never know sometimes dreams do come true!

  59. I love mushroom sauteed in butter and add garlic annd fresh tarragon and a little white wine.

  60. Sauteed lightly in butter and a light white wine, then served with some risotto, steamed asparagus and perhaps some roasted chicken.

    The fantasy part would be that I’d never run out of morels, of course. ; )

    I’ve got two packages of dried morels in the pantry, but they just don’t compare to fresh. *sigh*

  61. I would create a necklace of 2 pounds worth of morels and drape them over my pee-pee to prove what a morel kind of guy I am.

  62. I see these morels next to a slice of organic tofu-not any tofu, Dearies. No, one that has been cured in a light soy with aromatics like garlic, rosemary and thyme. Some black and red pepper would be in there too along with some aged vinegar.
    The grilled slices would lay above garlic mashed potatoes ladled with a bit of a morel & cabernet red wine sauce. On the side would be a crisp, fresh salad. Some of those pickled ramps below would be in it, as there acidity and texture would certainly finish this dish off nicely…

  63. Fresh Jersey cow cream, unpasteurized, thin sliced wild garlic bulbs, Spanish saffron and chopped morel mushrooms in a sauce for either Balmain bugs or Scottish Western Isles deep diver scallops, pan seared in fresh cream butter, garnished with chopped rue and Champagne grapes. Both served on the halfshell.

  64. I had some wonderful morel mushrooms at Joes in Reading Pa. many years ago with my Wife and her parents. I still savor the pleasure of those tasty morsels to this day. That was about 25 year ago or maybe a bit more. They overpowered the fact that they had period furniture in the entrance.

  65. i have very little experience with cooking morels. SO, i would consult with some of my chef friends and come up with something scrumptous!

  66. I love morels!!!!!! My wife sautes them in butter, cooks them in truffle oil, marsala wine, olive oil, includes them in stroganoff, pizza, quiche, omelets, etc. They are wonderful!

  67. I have never actually tried a Morel, so I guess first would be to sauté them in just a bit of butter to get an idea of their flavor profile. From there, a new fantasy will be born.

  68. There are a number of things I would do with two pounds of these delicious fungi! I would definitely make some secret recipe chef’s butter with them small diced, adding in to some sweet cream butter with shallot, fresh herbs and spices. Then I would be able to enjoy them for months from the freezer!

    With the rest, I would probably make a dish or two at a potluck dinner and share with my chef friends here in Houston. Most likely simply prepared to accentuate the true flavor of the Morels. I would try them on a wheat crust thin pizza with garlic oil, fresh herbs,spices, and a mild cheese like a hard Manchego.

    I would use what little I had left to add over some grass fed beef from one of the local markets I support. Again, not wanting to override the mushrooms, I would lightly sear them in oil and seasonings with thyme flowers, then roast in the oven to increase the depth of flavor. Then I would serve the beef(most likely ribeyes(grilled), with a red wine demi glace and the oven-roasted Morels on top…mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

  69. My morel culinary fantasy is just HAVING SOME. We usually find some every year, but this year was not a good one in my area for morels. We coat them in a light batter and fry them up in butter and sprinkle salt and pepper on top before devouring them.

    Oh I hope I win! My husband will be thrilled.

  70. I’d keep it simple in order to focus on the flavor of the mushrooms. A simple pasta dish (morels, herbs, olive oil) or an omelette would be amazing!

  71. To be honest, I would not know how to use these beauties. They seem like such a treat that I would want to make something special, but at the same time, I would want to taste the flavor fully. I might just sautee them for the first recipe and then go more adventurous with others. Definitely make a quiche with them too.

  72. I want them so I can make a special dinner for my wife on our 45th anniversary. The onlyh oh ter ingredient I’m sure of so far is champagne! I’d make them a couple of ways, but simple is good, just saute in butter.

  73. There is no better mushroom!! I don’t need anything with my Morel mushrooms besides butter and garlic. I enjoy the flavor of the mushrooms without adding them into a recipe.

  74. Although I have enjoyed morels in a restaurant, I have yet to cook with them myself. 2 lbs would be enough to try several different recipes and techniques, allowing me to become “morel” familiar with them as an ingredient and star of a dish.

  75. I have no idea, which is why this is a great opportunity to try. I might put them in pasta with a creamy white sauce. I’ll figure it out lol

  76. I have never tasted Morels before and I know I would enjoy not only the flavor but cooking with them.

    Pick me…Pick me…Pick me! 🙂

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