Morel season is upon us once again!

I’m not sure how excited that makes you but it literally makes me squirm in delight!

I have kept an eye out for these little beauties for a few seasons now. A couple of years back I decided to start taking baby steps toward becoming a reasonably competent mushroom hunter. It’s for sure something I aspire to be good at 😉

The obstacles I am facing are time and a places to hunt.

Time … well I probably don’t have to explain that one to most of you. We are all lacking in this area, LOL!

Places to hunt … I am surrounded by state and national parks. You can’t forage there 😦 And most other land here is privately owned.

Sooooooo … the morel mushroom might is sort of a reclusive forest dwelling creature to me!

And then …

I met a new friend at the gym.

AND …

Her significant other is a mushroom hunter!

Ahhhhhhhhh … Lady Luck has turned her smile upon me ❤ ❤ ❤

As if meeting a great friend (I really do like her a lot) and finding out that her significant other hunts mushrooms is not lucky enough, it just so happened that he returned from a morel hunting trip a short time after our meeting. Life is good!

I was able to pick up a pound of fresh morels at a great price, and trust me that made my day. Well, maybe my week. Probably, definitely my week 😉

I FINALLY had the chance to cook fresh morels.

I could touch them. Smell them. Sit quietly and admire them.

I could clean them. Chop them. Season and sauté them. I could stand with them as they cooked, soaking in the delightful aroma they emit as they simmer. Oh my! If only the net had a scratch & sniff feature … You would be in heaven right now!

How do you cook morel mushrooms, you ask?

I’m sure there are MANY ways to prepare these little beauties. But I kept it pretty simple. I wanted to really savor the taste of them the first time I ate them. I didn’t want them to be smothered in sauce or buried in seasonings.

So I put half a stick of butter in a large frying pan with about 3 large cloves of garlic, and threw in the whole pound of mushrooms. I covered them and let them simmer on a low setting for about 20 minutes.

Morels need to be cooked well or they can make you a bit sick. No one wants that! It works out though because they don’t get tough or rubbery when they are cooked for long periods of time 😉

After 20 minutes the pan was pretty full of liquid. Mushrooms always lose a great deal of water while cooking. I drained the water off and threw in just a bit of salt. Salt is a flavor enhancer and … well … as I’ve already said, I for sure wanted to REALLY TASTE these little beauties!

I cooked them with very minimal liquid. Like really hardly any at all, for another 5 minutes or so, and then I served them with roasted, organic bell pepper and onion and fresh, organic mild Italian sausage.

They were SERIOUSLY delicious! Now I know why everyone raves about them!

The experience left me with just one pretty serious issue …

Where, oh where, am I going to find a patch of fresh morel mushrooms to harvest next spring?

I’d love to hear about your thoughts on or experiences with morels! Leave them in the comments if you will 😉

And … connect with me on facebook and pinterest to stay abreast of any other happenings here at Bohemian Apothecarist.

As always, your presence is greatly appreciated. I adore that you are here. And I just know that we are going to have great fun together ❤

POSTSCRIPT:

This post was written while I was living in the PNW. Where I live now in northern Maine morels are not common. But I have heard they are sometimes found. I hope to be so lucky as to come across them here 😉