How to Cook Morel Mushrooms

Morel mushrooms are some of the tastiest fungi when cooked properly. While they may be difficult to find, the powerful medicinal benefits they offer to our bodies make them a sought after mushroom dish.

Choosing The Perfect Morel

One of the most important things to realize with a Morel is that they often soften and rot very quickly. This is especially true for larger, more mature Morels. The best course of action for cooking a Morel is to find them fresh, firm, and dry. Definitely avoid Morels that are spongy, soft, shriveled, or wet.

If you have no clue on where to source your Morels from, you can purchase these from Premium Wild Dried Canadian Morel Mushrooms By Golden Tea Leaf Co

A general rule of thumb is to try and source the smaller Morels. The lack of maturity usually preserves them better, making them more firm and robust. However, if you can actually find a large Morel that is in good shape, by all means, grab it.

Items You Need to Cook a Morel

While there are a variety of Morel recipes out there, it’s important to have all the items required for the cooking process. Below are the basic things you would need to create a Morel culinary dish.

• Medium to Large Sauté Pan
• Sharpened French Knife
• Olive oil
• Butter
• Herbs: Garlic, Onions, Chives
• Spices: Salt, Pepper, Oregano

These are the basic foundation of items you’ll need to make a tasty Morel dish.

How to Prepare a Morel

Unlike other species of mushroom, the Morel requires some careful observation before cutting them up and preparing to cook.

The first step for cooking Morels is to carefully clean and rinse them. During this process, you need to be alert for wormholes, bugs, and dirt. One of the best ways to do this is to use a pastry brush and gently massage it into the holes. As you are removing any debris from the mushroom, you’ll easily spot any bugs or worms.

The amount of time this cleaning process can take depends heavily on whether you’ve foraged your own Morel mushrooms or bought them from a store. The store bought Morels have usually been pre-washed already, which makes your prepping process that much easier. However, there are certain benefits from foraging your own Morel mushrooms.

Wild foraged Morels are usually fresher than any of the ones you can find at your local grocery store. In addition, picking them yourself will save you a ton of money too. Morels are quite expensive in stores due to their medicinal value.

Finally, once you have properly cleaned and rinsed your Morel it’s time to begin cutting them.

How to Properly Cut Morels

The first step is to take your sharpened French knife and chop off the hard stems of the Morel. Carefully take your knife and cut as close as you can to the body of the mushroom to chop off the stem. Once you have successfully chopped off all the stems, you want to cut the morels in half the long way. Then, again cut them into quarters.

How to Cook Morels

Now we have reached the cooking process for your Morels. First, take your sauté pan and place it on the stovetop on high heat. Once the pan gets nice and hot, add some olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan.

Once the pan is good and hot, add the Morels to the pan and begin to stir them around. At this stage, you want to make sure the outside of the Morels are coated with the olive oil.

After the mushrooms are coated well, reduce the heat in the pan to medium-low. You want to keep a watchful eye on them for several minutes and be sure to stir occasionally to make sure they don’t burn.

When the Morels begin to turn a nice golden brown color, it’s time to begin adding the flavor.  Add in your garlic, onions, chives, and a few tablespoons of your choice of butter. Then let simmer for 5-10 minutes until the herbs have begin to brown and the butter has completely melted. Be sure that all the contents of the pan has been coated properly before taking them off the heat.

From this point, your dish is complete and you have successfully cooked Morel mushrooms. You can eat this dish alone or add it as a side to any meal you choose. You’ll find that these mushrooms not only taste good, but that you are giving your body some medicinal value as well.

Conclusion

Learning how to cook Morel mushrooms is not a difficult process. You’ll find it takes more time to properly source and prepare them, than to actually cook them. Once you have got this recipe down, you can play around with the ingredients to reach your desire flavor to accompany any dish you want.

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