The best tasting fungus of them all By Larry Myhre
Reprinted from the Sioux City Journal
I’ll never forget stumbling into mushroom heaven.
It was nearly 40 years ago. I was hiking into a farm pond on a friend’s land in the Loess Hills southeast of town.
Suddenly on the forest floor I saw morel mushrooms, hundreds of them.
My eyes swept the area and I changed the hundreds estimate to thousands.
Fishing was forgotten. I went home and grabbed some paper grocery sacks and returned.
I filled them and that afternoon all of my friends had more morels than they could eat at one sitting.
I hunt morels every year, but I have never seen anything like that since.
Last year was very good for morels. Hopefully the same can be said for the spring of 2009.
It won’t be long, maybe a couple of weeks and morel lovers all across Siouxland will be stalking the woods looking for this tasty fungus.
The morels come out on the Missouri River bottom flats first in our area. A couple weeks later they begin emerging in the hills.
How to find them?
Good question. Some folks say look around dead elms or ash trees. But they will be where you find them, usually around dead or dying trees, but not always.
Most mushroom hunters carry mesh bags in which to place their morels. This allows spores to escape to the ground ensuring next year’s crop.
You’ll find two different colors, greys and yellows. Some folks say one tastes better than the other.
When you get your mushrooms home, wash them well and then cut them in half.
You may soon discover there are some pesky forest dwelling insect critters hiding in the mushroom holes.
Soak the halves in salt water for a couple of hours to take care of that problem. Refrigerate when you do.
If you are not going to eat them right away, drain excess water off of them, place them on a plate and cover with a wet paper towel and refrigerate.
One of the simplest ways to fix morel mushrooms is to cut them in half lengthwise, coat them in flour and saute them in butter or margarine in a frying pan. Salt and pepper to taste and I’ll bet you can’t eat just one.
If you like batter, another real simple recipe is to prepare the batter by cracking an egg or eggs (depending on how many mushrooms you are going to fry) and beat until blended. Place saltine crackers in a plastic bag and roll with a rolling pin to finely crush the crumbs (or put in a blender). Next, dip your mushroom halves in the eggs and then coat them real well in cracker crumbs and throw into the frying pan which has been pre-heated with butter. Saute them for about 5 minutes, turning as needed.
For everything you ever wanted to know about morels, visit: www.thegreatmorel.com