Some people look to groundhogs for reassurance that spring is coming. Others turn to weather forecasters, or glance up at the trees to see if they’re budding. Not me. Every year I wait for my mushroom supplier to bring me fresh morels – that’s my first sign of spring.
This year, the good news – or bad news, if you’re a skier – is that the morels came early. I got my first batch two weeks ago, which is about as early as I can remember receiving them. Admittedly, the morels I’m getting now are from Oregon, which is not in Canada, where it has been known to snow in April. So if some readers prefer to wait a while before putting their winter coats away, I understand. In the meantime, though, I suggest searching out fresh morels at your local specialty foods store or market for a taste, at least, of spring.
The first thing you’ll notice when you find some is that they’re not cheap, costing about the same per pound as top-quality beef tenderloin. There’s a good reason for this: Unlike cattle, morels are not farmed. They grow in the wild, and have to be tracked down and picked by hand.
Unless you know where to look, even the fact that morels have a distinctive appearance (their caps consisting of ridges and pits that resemble a honeycomb) isn’t much help. Hence the existence of “morel hunters,” individuals whose experience in foraging has taught them the most likely locations to look every year. And although these individuals may share general tips for finding the mushrooms – such as looking in the vicinity of dead and dying elm trees or old apple orchards, or in areas where there was a forest fire the previous year – don’t expect them to share any actual locations. Morel hunters are very territorial.
My advice, anyway, is to leave the search to the professionals because of the risk involved: Morels have to be distinguished from “false morels,” which bear a resemblance but contain a toxin.
As far as “true” morels go, there is some dispute about the number of species in the genus, and even a lack of agreement about how to name them. However, the three most frequently encountered species are commonly called yellow, white and black morels.
The ones I’m using now are early black ones, and these are my favourite because they have a slightly more intense, earthy flavour. They are also the ones I recommend for the recipe below, although any type of morel would work well. (And if you can’t find them, feel free to try this recipe with whatever fresh wild mushrooms you can find.)
But first, a word about washing morels. This is necessary because the pits of their honeycomb-like caps tend to trap grit. Fill a bowl with warm water, put the morels in and swish them about briefly before taking them out and refilling the bowl. It usually takes three or four rinses before there’s no more grit in the water.
What you want to avoid is letting the morels soak for too long, as this will affect their slightly crunchy texture, which is part of their appeal. Giving your morels a post-rinse spin in a salad spinner helps in this regard.
Preserve morels’ crunchy texture by cooking out excess moisture.
Egg with Fresh Morels on Toasted Brioche
This dish makes for a delicious breakfast, lunch or light dinner. If you’re watching your diet, feel free to substitute a green salad for the brioche. If you’re not, bacon makes a great accompaniment. My favourite eggs to use for it are blue eggs from Araucana chickens, but they’re not easy to find; organic free-range eggs are a good option.
Ingredients:
One slice of brioche or egg bread
2 tablespoons salted butter
One egg
3 tablespoons olive oil
A good handful of fresh morel mushrooms, cleaned
A small handful of flat-leaf parsley, cleaned and chopped
Method:
Lightly toast the brioche. If toasting in advance, keep the bread warm in a low oven.
In a small frying pan, heat one tablespoon of butter over medium-low heat. When the butter has just melted, add the egg. Adjust the heat if necessary so the egg white doesn’t end up crispy. A soft-textured egg white with a runny yolk is ideal for this dish.
When the egg is cooked, place it on top of the brioche and pour the excess melted butter from the pan over top.
While the egg is cooking, heat the olive oil over high heat in a larger frying pan.
When the oil is hot, but not smoking, add the morels. Don’t stir them for the first 25 seconds so any excess moisture can cook out and allow a bit of a crust to form on their edges. Once this has happened, begin stirring them gently. Total cooking time for the mushrooms will be 1 1/2 to 2 minutes.
When the morels are almost done, add the remaining tablespoon of salted butter to the pan and stir it through the morels.
Take the pan off the heat, mix the chopped parsley into the morels, and gently pour them over the egg.
Serves 1.
Beppi's wine matches
Dry sparkling wine is the top choice here. Eggs will mutilate most still wines, especially reds. But champagne and other dry bubblies work. It’s the classic brunch wine, after all.
The earthy morels and rich, buttery topping, though, open the field to another good candidate – white Burgundy, such as Meursault. More affordable alternatives to the latter include lightly oaked chardonnay from Chile, New Zealand or Canada.
