More Morels!

It's finally time for that Hoosier classic - morels!

And since morels are going for $37.99 a pound this year,

I rounded out the dish with Crimini mushrooms.

Morels are wild mushrooms*

that can be found growing in the woods in the spring time.

*Some would argue that morels are not truly mushrooms

as they do not have gills and spores. I fall within that camp.

I would argue that morels are a related fungus,

but are not mushrooms.

Morels are not to be eaten raw.

Unlike other mushrooms, morels should be cleaned in water,

as they are hollow and critters like to hide inside.

Unless you like to eat some unexpected protein 

with your morels,

you do need to rinse these delectable fungi before patting dry

and cooking.

 Heat one tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil and four tablespoons

unsalted butter in a non-stick pan over medium-high heat

before adding sliced Crimini mushrooms and the dried morel

mushrooms.

Spread out into an even layer and leave alone!

Allow the 'shrooms to caramelize before turning.

Once the mushrooms have turned a nice golden brown,

turn and then allow the second side to brown as well.

Remove from heat and finally salt and pepper.

Never salt mushrooms while they are cooking as that will

retard browning.

The finished dish.

Earthy, meaty, filling.

Too bad we can only afford this lovely treat once a year.

Spring Flings

Welcome,

and join me in a meandering tour of all things spring.

My bearded iris is blooming.

As is the Baptisia australis,

or False Indigo.






The chives are also in bloom.



Bonus, the blooms are edible.



Just remember to rinse them off first

to get rid of the little bug-wuggies.





My Little Kim lilac is in full bloom.



Lovely.

This columbine is also flowering.

One of my azaleas is happy to greet the spring.

This beauty is an English Rose,

created by David Austin.

Please meet Gertrude Jeckyll.

She is a highly fragrant rose

and a perfume industry has sprung up in England

to harness her heady scent.

Think old-world roses,

think a heavy, heavenly scent

and you just might come close to

imagining what this lovely lady smells like.

I really do wish you could smell this rose.

Unfortunately,

Gertrude Jeckyll is very prone to black spot

and is a somewhat weak grower.

But if you catch that scent,

then you are hooked.

This is the new bed by the new deck.

I placed several perennials in here,

including but not limited to,

yarrow, mallow, artimesia, peony,

garden phlox, echinacea, yada, yada, yada.

In the foreground is my new rose,

the Knockout (tm) Rose.

Some annual nigella (love-in-a-mist) have reseeded here also.

The dear husband is spreading mulch over newspaper.

The newspaper will help to block out the weeds

and will also eventually break down and feed the plants.

Very nice.

Thank you, dear husband.

These plants will take off now that they have been mulched.

This morning the storms rolled through.

At 8:45 AM it got so dark that the solar lights turned on.

Now, that is dark.

A little while later the seasonal stream that runs through

our neighbor's yard and ours filled with water.

A seasonal stream means that water only flows in it

during a heavy rain.

I went out after the rains and caught some of

of my flowers in bloom.

The foxglove is flowering.

Just don't mind the bindweed and the

locoweed.

I haven't gotten to this part of the garden yet.

One of my peonies is showing off.

Another Gertrude Jeckyll rose is blooming.

I really wish you could smell this rose.

And now on to another sure sign of spring

in Southern Indiana.

Morels!

I picked out four morels

from my local grocery store.

The sign on the bin read $59.99/lb.

And now you know why I only got four

and why I also purchased a package of Crimini mushrooms.

However,

after leaving the store,

I realized that the store had only charged me $37.99 a pound.

So, for these four morels, I paid $3.80 or 95 cents a piece.

Still a pricey proposition

but better than it could have been.

I shook out the morels and then rinsed them three times

until no more bug-wuggies washed out.

This was the first time I ever had bug-wuggies in the morels.

Go figure.

I wiped the Crimini mushrooms clean and cut them in half.

Then they sauteed in olive oil and butter over high heat

until browned.

Once they were nicely browned,

I seasoned them with freshly cracked black pepper and

sea salt.

Never salt mushrooms while they are cooking

or they will sweat and steam rather than saute.

The Foodie Boyfriend has found a new love.

These were good.

They were better than good.

They were great.

And that is why these elusive delicacies

cost up to sixty dollars a pound.

Marvelous, Magical Morels

I am going to clue you into a little secret here. Morels are big news in Southern Indiana. Come each May, the Morel Hunters run amok. Now these people mean business. Don't even think of trying to follow one of these dedicated Morel Hunters to their preferred hunting grounds. Why, stories have been told of shot gun-wielding property owners standing guard over these precious plots.

I was so very happy to see that my local, upscale Kroger had a bin of morels. I have to say that I did have to pick carefully through the bin, but given that these beauties were priced at $49.99 (yes, you read that correctly) a pound, I can see why they might be in danger of going bad.

Botany lesson for the day: morels are fungi, but are not mushrooms as they have no gills and spores.

Please note that morels should never be eaten raw as they contain a poisonous toxin and even cooked morels can affect sensitive individuals. Still hungry? Good. Your patience (and bravery) will be rewarded.

Now, I purchased eight morels, or 0.14 pounds (or 2-1/8 oz.). This translated to $7.00 for these elusive fungi. But hey, nothing is too good for my dear readers.

All right, I need to have food to go along with these delectable morels. I don't know why. I was told that once, so I have to believe that that is true.

Once again, I just grabbed a bunch of ingredients out of the pantry and fridge to come up with a marinade. What can I say? Unlike some pedigreed chefs, I really don't see the need to get all uptight about the ingredients or percentages in a marinade.

So, here we have:

red pepper flakes

black pepper

whiskey

a decent mid-grade balsamic vinegar (remember, the farther you are from the end process, the lesser quality the balsamic vinegar can be)

honey

whole grain mustard

flank steak

As is normal for me, I played mad scientist and added marinade ingredients until I was satisfied with the flavor combinations. I look for a balance of flavor, of sweet/tartness, of yin and yang. This balance will vary, depending upon the cycle of the moon, of my moods and whether my favorite guy is currently leading the points race in NASCAR.

Once I was happy with the balance of flavors, I poured the marinade in with the flank steak and sealed that in a bag. This then sat in the fridge for a few hours.




Since we needed a balanced meal, I decided to make a variation of my Bacon, Broccoli and Craisin Salad. This time out I substituted carrots for the craisins. Sounds reasonable to me, right? C for C?

Ah, and now we move on to the good stuff. I melted one tablespoon of unsalted butter and one tablespoon extra virgin olive oil in a non-stick pan. I added the dry (shaken, but not stirred - and please do not rinse your mushrooms or fungi!) morels to the pan. These sauteed for a few minutes before being removed to a serving dish. At this point I added a sprinkling of a delicate French Sea Salt to the morels.

Viola, dinner is served.

The delicate, earthy morels needed nothing more than butter, olive oil and sea salt to bring out their sensuous, woodsy goodness.

Even something as simple as changing out an ingredient made a noticeable difference in this dish.

The marinade for the flank steak was pure inspiration. Even my discriminating foodie daughter was left raving about this dish.

I only wish that

1) morel season was longer

and that

2) I could actually afford for morel season to be longer.

If you ever have the chance to try morels, please do. You will be amazed. And if some one else is paying, that is even better.

Grocery Hi-Jinx

I had the mis-fortune to shop at our local Hydrogenated, Corper-anated, Discombobulated WalMart this week. Now, you must understand this: I consider any unfortunate visit to Wally World, where I don't physically attack the mindless idiots surrounding me to be a rather unfortunate success, and at best a somewhat dubious adventure.

Er, anyway, this past week I had to go to WallyWorld and ended up buying both non-food and food items. And I have to admit that I ended up with a very friendly and talkative cashier. And then I went home and began unpacking.

I was almost laughing when I began to unwrap my purchaces. And then, finally, in utter disbelief, I began to count the plastic bags. 1 - 2 - 3 ----25! And then I checked my receipt. 45 items and - 25 bags.

Now I do recall the snickers that threatened to erupt when the diligent, if not compulsive, cashier bravely separated the packaged ground beef from the packaged ground pork (that was immediately, intimately acquaintanted with each other when I arrived home and made them into a meatloaf.

Now, fast forward this to another grocery store. Unfortunately, it seems that they will not be stocking morel mushrooms this year as no one (but me?!) bought them last year. As these rare mushrooms cost $39.99 a pound last year, and are expected to cost $49.99 a pound this year, I guess I should understand. But, hey! I have a blog and have a responsibility to my readers! And, eating a wonderfully cooked morel is a marvelous experience. Hmmph. Well, I will keep you posted on my successes (or not) on obtaining such mid-west delicacies. Oh yeah. I'm ticked, I'm ticked.