Morels! - Brady

Last weekend Kevin and I spent Saturday and Sunday with my parents in La Porte. Before we left, we decided to take a hike with the dog, and lo and behold my mom and dad each found big beautiful morels!

They very, very generously insisted that we take them home, and last night we made a semi-fancy dinner and fried them up.

Kevin let me do the honors, since I've learned from the best. (I'm looking at you Susie Jones and Max Sherman.)


First, you soak, rinse, and pat dry your mushrooms. I cut up the two big ones we had into smaller pieces to make cooking them more manageable and also decided to use the stems. (Some people don't like them, but I thought they were pretty awesome.) Then you dip them into a mixture of flour and salt.

At the same time you can get some butter going...plenty of butter. I added another pad this size between round 1 - cooking the stems and round 2 - the heads.

You put the morels in and let them fry over medium heat until they're brown. It's important to give them lots of room and flip them halfway through. It takes awhile.

After that, you scoop them out and pat them down with a paper towel to absorb the extra grease.

Finally, you should get your husband to make pasta with olive oil, cherry tomatoes, goat cheese, and oregano and open a nice bottle of red wine. 

Oh, and then after dinner also make him share his secret stash of Trader Joe's Oreos with you. (He actually made me CLOSE MY EYES so I wouldn't see where they were hidden!)

I think morels are one of the very best parts of living in the Midwest. Hope you found some yourself this spring.