morels

Cheesy grits topped with a mix of spring vegetables sautéed with shallots in butter. A soft poached egg tops the whole mix.

Cheesy Grits With Spring Vegetables Recipe

Kosher salt

asparagus (green, white,

fava beans (unpeeled)

english peas

milk

water

grits

black pepper

cheddar cheese

Parmigiano-Reggiano

vegetable oil

mushrooms

shallot, finely minced (about 2 tablespoons)

lemon

chives

parsley leaves

tarragon leaves

kept

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and prepare an ice bath. Add asparagus to water and cook until bright green and tender-crisp, about 2 minutes. Transfer to ice bath until chilled. Drain and transfer to a paper towel-lined tray. Repeat with fava beans, snap peas, and English peas. Cafefully peel outer shells from each fava bean and discard. Set all vegetables aside.

Bring milk and water to a boil in a large saucepan over high heat. Whisking constantly, pour in the grits. Add 2 teaspoons kosher salt, reduce to a bare simmer, and cook, whisking every 2 to 3 minutes, until creamy and tender, about 25 minutes.

Remove saucepan from heat. Whisk in 4 tablespoons butter, cheddar, and parmesan cheese. Season to taste with plenty of black pepper and more salt as necessary. Add water or milk to thin to desired consistency if grits are too thick. Grits should be loose enough to spread out on a plate slowly. Cover pot and set aside.

Heat vegetable in a large skillet over high heat until smoking. Add mushrooms and cook, stirring and tossing occasionally, until well-browned on a few sides. Add shallot and cook, stirring constantly, until aromatic, about 30 seconds. Add blanched vegetables, remaining 2 tablespoons butter, lemon zest, lemon juice, and half of chives, tarragon, and parsley. Cook, tossing and stirring constantly, until any liquid in the pan is reduced to a saucy glaze. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Set aside off-heat.

Stir remaining herbs into grits, reserving a bit for garnish, then divide grits between four serving plates. Top with sautéed vegetables, then with a poached egg. Garnish with remaining herbs, season egg with salt and pepper, and serve immediately. 

This recipe is an adaptation of a dish the chef Angie Mar serves at the Beatrice Inn in Manhattan, the chicken crisped in a pan, then napped in a Madeira-laced cream sauce dotted with morels. Which sounds fancy and hard to make but isn't, really. Brown the chicken, and set it aside to rest. Cook the morels in the remaining fat — you could swap them out for another wild mushroom or even button mushrooms in a pinch — and then flash them with Cognac, which you'll find will come in handy again and again once you start cooking with it. (Try it on <a href="https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1017319-simple-steak-au-poivre">steak au poivre!</a>) Then build up a sauce with cream and a little butter and crème fraîche for gloss, get the chicken into it and add some fresh savory and tarragon at the end — or just one of those, or neither. Make the dish as you prefer or as you can. It's luxurious, every time.

Pan-Roasted Chicken In Cream Sauce

salt

olive oil

Cognac

chicken stock, homemade

heavy cream

Madeira wine

unsalted butter

crème fraîche or Greek-style yogurt

savory

tarragon

Pan-Roasted Chicken in Cream Sauce

Season the chicken parts aggressively with salt. Set a Dutch oven or large, high-sided sauté pan over high heat, and swirl the olive oil into it. When it is shimmering and about to smoke, turn the heat to medium high, and working in batches, add the chicken to the pan, skin-side down, setting the pieces aside to rest when they are golden and crisp on one side and just kissed by the heat on the other, approximately 30 minutes for all the meat.

Discard all but 2 tablespoons of fat in the pan, then return it to medium-high heat and add the mushrooms, tossing to coat them with fat. Cook, stirring often, until the mushrooms just begin to soften, approximately 3-4 minutes, then remove the pan from the heat. Add the Cognac, and carefully ignite it with a match, or simply cook it on very low heat until the alcohol has evaporated and the mushrooms are glossy.

Scrape the mushrooms to the sides of the pan, then add to it the chicken pieces, arranged in a single layer if possible. Pour 1 to 1 1/2 cups of chicken stock around the chicken. It should rise about halfway up each piece. Lower heat to medium, allow the mixture to come to a low simmer, then put a lid on the pan and allow the mixture to cook slowly until the meat has cooked through, approximately 15 minutes.

Remove the lid from the pan, and transfer the chicken pieces to a platter to rest. Turn the heat to medium high, and allow the chicken stock to reduce by 1/3, then add the heavy cream, and stir to incorporate. Let this mixture simmer for a minute or 2 until it starts to thicken, then add the Madeira, and swirl again to combine.

Continue cooking the sauce until it can enrobe the back of a spoon, approximately 2-3 minutes more, then stir in the butter, crème fraîche and chopped savory and stir to combine. Turn the heat off, add the tarragon, stir one more time and then return the chicken pieces to the pan. Spoon some sauce over the chicken, sprinkle with the parsley and serve.

Spaghetti with Morel Mushrooms and Miso Brown Butter Sauce, and simple delicious meal highlighting morel's special flavor.

Spaghetti with Morels and Miso Brown Butter Sauce

butter

C morels

rice

Cracked pepper

C Italian parsley

pecorino

oz pasta

In a medium sized pot, bring salted water to a boil for the pasta and cook spaghetti uncovered until al dente. For extra nuttiness,  toast your pasta first, placing it single layered on a sheet pan in a 375F oven for 15-20 minutes, or nicely browned. Then cook like normal.

In a medium sauté pan, sauté butter on Med Low or LOW heat until golden brown and aromatic and nutty smelling. Add garlic. Saute 1 minute. Add mushrooms. Saute on med low heat until tender, careful not to burn the butter. You may need to turn the heat down to low , and stir often. When the mushrooms are tender, add a splash of rice wine, Mirin, marsala wine or sherry. Let alcohol cook off reducing about 1 min. Add miso water. Cook for another min until reduced and most water is evaporated. Set aside.

You could stop here and spoon this over fish ( halibut, salmon, scallops) or Beef or Chicken.

Drain pasta. Place back in pasta pot. Stir mushrooms and browned butter into the pasta, coating the pasta. If too dry for your taste, and a splash of olive oil. Stir in fresh parsley, plate and serve with a light sprinkling of fresh grated pecorino and cracked pepper.

The cheese will add quite a bit of salt. So when tasting for salt, make sure you taste it with the cheese or it may come out too salty. Because the miso is salty, I actually added no salt besides what was in the pasta water.

This was delicious and allowed for the morels to be the star of the dish! Definitely use more morels if you can! :)

This miso brown butter sauce is so delicious!

Morels are expensive, but a few go a long way and there is nothing quite like them for flavor and texture -- chewy, meaty and that aroma, earthy and exotic. Even at $30 a pound, $7 or $8 seems well worth the price.

Pasta With Morels, Peas and Parmesan

Salt and black pepper

peas

morels,

pasta

Parmesan

Bring to a boil 2 pots of water, one small and one large, and salt both. Cook the peas for 1 minute in the small pot; drain and cool quickly by submerging in ice water.

Meanwhile, melt half the butter in a skillet. Cut the morels into 4 pieces each, the long way, and brown them lightly in the butter, seasoning them with salt and pepper.

Cook the pasta until it is nearly done. Just before draining, toss the peas and remaining butter with the morels and turn the heat to medium. Drain the pasta, reserving a little of the cooking water. Toss the pasta with the morels and peas, adding a little water if necessary to make the mixture saucy. Toss with the Parmesan and lots of black pepper and serve immediately.

A rich soup inspired by ponds and lakes made with duck stock, wild rice, wapato tubers and dried morels. It's fancy cream of wild rice and mushroom soup. 
Serves 2-4

Duck Soup with Wapato, Morels and Wild Rice

carrot,

celery,

oz yellow onion,

garlic, minced

duck fat

½ oz dried morels (preferably small ones *see note)

all purpose flour

wapato

Heaping cup of cooked parched wild rice

duck stock

ramp leaves

dried bee balm (optional)

Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper

Ramp leaf oil (to garnish (optional))

Rehydrate the morels in the stock for 15 minutes.

Agitate the morels by swishing them around to help remove any clinging dirt. Remove the morels, squeeze dry and reserve.

Ideally your morels are small enough to be in bite sized pieces whole, if they’re larger, cut them into large bite-sized pieces. Reserve the stock and rehydrated morels separately.

Dried morels

In a 3 quart or similar saucepot sweat the carrot, onion, celery and garlic on medium heat in the duck fat until translucent and completely cooked, about 10 minutes.

Season the vegetables with a good pinch of salt. Add the flour, stir to coat the vegetables and cook for a few minutes more.

Add the splash of sherry and cook for a minute to remove the alcohol.

Add the morel-infused stock, making sure to leave any grit that’s settled on the bottom behind, along with the wapato, wild rice, rehydrated morels, ramp leaves, bay leaf and bee balm if using, bring to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes on low heat or until the wapato is tender.

Build the soup

Finally, stir in the cream, taste and adjust the seasoning for salt and a little fresh ground black pepper until it tastes good to you.

Judge the consistency of the soup. If it looks a little loose, add a little more wild rice, if it looks too thick, add a bit of stock. The soup will thicken over time as it sits.

Finishing

Stir in the cooked duck or other meat, heat through and serve garnished with the ramp oil if using. It’ll be better the next day after the wild rice has had a chance to absorb liquid and transfer its flavor to the soup.

Serving

If you're looking for the best way to cook morels, these Pan Fried Morel Mushrooms are everything. Freshly picked morels cleansed and dredged in seasoned flour and pan fried in butter until crispy and golden brown. There is nothing better. Disclaimer: please make sure to read up morel mushrooms before foraging and cooking. NEVER eat any mushroom you aren't 100% certain it's safe to consume. 

Pan Fried Morel Mushrooms

salt (I used sea salt)

all-purpose flour

sea salt

garlic powder

onion powder

paprika (for serving)

Fill a large bowl filled 3/4 of the way with warm (not hot) water and stir in 1 tablespoon fine salt (I used sea salt) until dissolved.

Place the morels into the salt water mixture and press to submerge. Place 3 to 4 layers of paper towel over top and gently press until absorbed. This will keep the mushrooms submerged. Refrigerate for 2 to 12 hours or overnight. I like to agitate the mushrooms every once in a while.

Pick mushrooms out of the water and place onto a cutting board. Trim the rough edges of the stems and cut in half.

Fill another bowl with the same salt water solution and add the mushroom halves. Cover with paper towel and soak for another hour or so.

Take the mushrooms out of the water and place onto a clean kitchen towel to drain a bit.

In a large (gallon size) re-sealable bag, combine the flour, garlic and onion powder, salt and pepper. Add 5 to 6 mushrooms at a time, seal and gently toss to coat. Carefully shake off any excess flour and place onto a rimmed baking sheet, keep them from touching.

Melt 1 stick of butter in a deep-sided, 10-inch skillet over medium heat. Once hot, place a portion of the morels, cut side facing down, into the hot butter. Cook 6 to 7 minutes (depending on their size) or until golden brown. Use a fork or small spatula to carefully turn the mushrooms, cooking for an additional 5 to 6 more minute. Transfer the fried morel to a paper towel lined plate and repeat this process with the remaining mushrooms, adding more butter as needed. Note that the remaining batches may take less time to fry up, so watch carefully.

Dust with paprika before serving warm.

Matt Abe will be cooking this delicious asparagus dish at The Staff Canteen Live at Hotelympia 2018.

Jérôme Galis asparagus, wild garlic, confit egg yolk, morels

For the asparagus spears:

XL calibre asparagus

chicken stock

Salt

For the asparagus purée:

Asparagus trim

spinach

For the wild garlic oil:

young wild garlic leaves

grapeseed oil

For the confit egg yolks:

pasteurised liquid egg yolks

smoked water

For the RGR compound butter:

soft unsalted butter

garlic,

parsley, chopped

button mushrooms, finely diced

shallots, finely diced

Dijon mustard

Salt and pepper

For the braised morels:

small morels, prepped and washed

RGR compound butter

vin juane

For the croutons:

pain de mie

clarified butter

garlic

thyme

Garnishes:

croutons

garlic flowers

wild garlic capers

chickweed shoots

mustard frills

asparagus

Take the asparagus and remove the spurs. Wash the spears in cold water and place on a towel to dry. Trim the spears to 12cm length, set the spears aside for later. Reserve the trim for the purée.

Take the trim and finely slice until you reach the tough woody base. Heat a heavy based pan on medium to high heat. Sauté the sliced trim in a little olive oil and salt for 10 seconds with the lid on. Add a dash of chicken stock to create steam and cook until tender. Once cooked add a small handful of baby spinach and lightly sweat. Transfer to a blender and blend quickly on high for 1 minute until a smooth purée is achieved. Adjust seasoning, pass through a fine sieve and cool quickly over an ice bath.

Place all ingredients into a thermomix and blend on full power for 1 min. Reduce the speed to 6 and apply the temperature setting to 75°C. This temperature will set the chlorophyl and keep the oil a vibrant green colour. Once the temperature is reached, transfer the oil into a bowl and set over an ice bath. Stir to speed up cooling. Once cool, strain through fine sieve and muslin cloth. Store oil in an airtight container in the fridge.

Preheat a water bath to 68°C. Place the yolks into a vacuum pouch and seal. Place into water bath for 25-30 minutes till a thick consistency is achieved. Once cooked, remove the yolks from the pouch and place into a mixing bowl. Season yolks with salt and smoked water (using smoked water allows for greater control). Set aside in a squeeze bottle.

Sweat off the mushrooms, shallots and garlic until tender. Season and allow to cool to room temperature. Once cool, combine all ingredients together and season. Wrap in cling film and store in the fridge.

Take a small heavy-based pan and gently warm. Add the olive oil, butter and morels to the pan, lightly season. Cook with a lid for 10 seconds and then deglaze the pan with half the vin juane and the stock. Bring to the boil and gently braise for 6-8 minutes until tender. By this time they should have created a lovely glaze, adjust seasoning and add a splash of wine to refresh. Keep warm.

Slice the pain de mie on a slicer 4mm thick. Using a small round cutter cut out discs from the bread slices. Heat the clarified butter, thyme and garlic until aromatic. Brush the bread discs with the butter and season. Place on greaseproof paper and cover with another sheet. Place between two heavy baking sheets and bake till golden brown at 180°C.

Preheat a large heavy based lidded sauté pan. On a high heat, add a little olive oil, the prepped asparagus spears and a pinch salt and seal the asparagus to lock in the flavour and colour. Add a little chicken stock and cook with the lid on using the combustion technique. If stock evaporates add a little more until the asparagus is tender - around 8-10 minutes. Remove the spears from the pan and place on a towel to drain. While the asparagus are cooking, gently reheat the purée and lightly blanch the asparagus ribbons for 2 seconds, set aside and glaze with garlic oil and salt.

To make the sauce, add a little butter and wild garlic oil to the pan juices and create an emulsion. Adjust seasoning and add a little vin juane to bring some acidity to the sauce.

To arrange the dish, make two swipes of puree on the plate place the asparagus on the diagonal together all slightly offset from one another. Dot the egg yolks around the plate and arrange the shavings, croutons, garlic capers, leaves and flowers. Serve the sauce on the side.

There are three distinct things going on with this recipe, and you don't need to do all of them to enjoy this dish. For example, I really like the slow-simmered rabbit like this, but you could cook it another way and it would still be nice. You can also sub in chicken or turkey or pheasant or quail. And you can certainly use store-bough gnocchi or pasta if you don't want to make it by hand. If you do want to make this dish as written, it's a weekend type meal if you do it all at once. But you can work in stages.  You can salt down the rabbit, rinse it, dry it and keep in the fridge up to a week ahead. Or you can go through with cooking it, pull the meat from the bones and have that stored in the fridge for up to a week. You can make the gnocchi up to a month or two before and freeze them. And you can blanch the fiddleheads (or other green thing) up to a day or two ahead and they will still be good.

Rabbit with Morels and Nettle-Ricotta Gnocchi

kosher salt ((about

rabbit,

bay leaf

ricotta cheese

parmesan

nutmeg

flour

garlic cloves, (sliced thin)

fiddleheads, (fava beans, fresh peas or asparagus)

Lemon juice ((optional))

Toss the rabbit with the salt so all the pieces are well coated. Set aside in the fridge for 3 hours, while you make the gnocchi and such.

Boil the nettles, parsley or spinach is a large pot of salty water: Boil nettles and spinach 2 minutes, parsley only 1 minute. Plunge into a big bowl of ice water, drain and squeeze to remove excess water. You want the greens to be damp, though.  While you have the water boiling, boil the fiddleheads or whatever spring vegetable you're using: Boil fiddleheads 3 minutes, favas, peas or asparagus 2 minutes. Shock in the ice water, pat dry and set aside for now. Turn the heat off the water.

Chop the nettles, then put them in a food processor with the salt, the egg and half the ricotta cheese. Blitz this for about 30 seconds to 1 minute. You want the fibers of the nettles to be well broken down. Put the contents of the food processor into a large bowl and add the rest of the ricotta, the parmesan cheese and the nutmeg. Stir in the flour bit by bit until you have a loose dough that you can just barely roll into a log. If you are not familiar with making gnocchi, you will need more than 1 cup. Put a towel over the dough as you make the gnocchi.

Cut off 1/4 of the dough and roll it into a log about 1/2 inch thick on a work surface that you've dusted with flour. Cut off little pillows from the log. Carefully pick up each pillow -- this is a gnoccho -- and roll it off the tines of a fork held upside down to give it little ridges; you can skip this step if you are very new at gnocchi. Repeat with the rest of the dough. Set the finished gnocchi in the fridge for now.

When the rabbit has brined for 3 hours, rinse it off and pat it dry. Find a medium pot that will just barely fit the rabbit and submerge the pieces in the broth. Add the sprig of thyme. If the broth doesn't cover the rabbit, add a little water. Cover the pot and simmer the rabbit until it starts to fall off the bone, about 90 minutes. When the rabbit is ready, pick the meat off the bones and coat in the walnut oil. Set aside.

To finish the dish, get the blanching water hot again and keep it at a simmer. Put the morels in a large saute pan and set the heat to high. Soon the morels will steam and sizzle and give up their water. When they do, salt them. When most of the water is gone, add the walnut oil and saute the morels until they start to brown on the edges, about 3 to 6 minutes. Add the rabbit and the garlic -- and now's the time to start boiling your gnocchi. When the gnocchi go into the boiling water, add the fiddleheads to the pan with the morels. Saute just to get everything hot.

When the gnocchi are ready, add them to the pan with everything else, toss to combine and add salt and black pepper to taste. Add the lemon juice if you want and serve at once.

Campanelle with Mushrooms and Roasted Garlic

Diamond Crystal brand kosher salt

lb Flour + Water campanelle pasta

thyme sprigs, leaves picked

dinosaur kale, stems removed and leaves roughly chopped

white wine

vegetable stock

tbsp butter

½ tbsp sherry vinegar

tbsp kosher salt

oz Parmigiano Reggiano, finely grated

Roasting the garlic is definitely a recipe step that you’ll want to do ahead, as it’s the longest cook time of the entire process. To roast the garlic, cut the top ¼ of the garlic heads to expose the tops of the cloves. Drizzle with 3 tablespoons of the olive oil and wrap securely in aluminum foil. Bake at 350°F for 60-75 minutes (check the garlic cloves by unraveling the foil pack during the last 20 minutes of cooking. The garlic cloves should be caramelized, light brown, and tender). Allow to cool before using.

To cook the pasta, bring 4 quarts of water to a boil in a 6-quart stock pot. Add ¼ cup of Diamond Crystal brand kosher salt to the water and make sure it remains at a constant boil over high heat. Drop the pasta into the salted water and stir to prevent the pasta from sticking to the bottom. Stir the pot often to ensure the individual noodles are constantly moving and cook evenly. For this dish, we are going to slightly undercook our pasta in the boiling water, as it will see an additional minute or two of cooking in its pan sauce. At 2 minutes before the estimated cook time on the box, begin checking for doneness. Once the pasta is slightly undercooked, reserve 1/4 cup of the pasta water.

For the pan sauce, heat a 12-inch diameter, high-sided sauté pan over medium heat. Add ½ cup of olive oil and allow the oil to heat slightly. Add chopped mushrooms and allow to caramelize (don’t be tempted to stir too early here; you really want to get good caramelization before disturbing the mushrooms). Add the picked leaves of thyme and season the mushrooms with a generous pinch of salt and continue to sauté the mushrooms until they have good color on all sides. Add kale leaves, season again with a pinch of salt, and deglaze with white wine. Stir and cook until the wine reduces by half. Add cream and vegetable stock and bring the pan sauce to a simmer. Squeeze the roasted garlic cloves from the roasted heads and stir into the sauce. Add the pasta to the pan sauce along with 1/4 cup of the pasta water. Add butter and cook until the sauce reduces to a consistency that coats the campanelle. Remove the pan from the heat and season with sherry vinegar and salt. Plate and garnish with freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano.

Top 10 morels recipes from across the web

The most viewed morels recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engine

Top Tags

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Spaghetti with Morels and Miso Brow...

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Top 10 morels recipes from across the web

The most viewed morels recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engineic_arrow_forward_48px

Top Tags

Cheesy Grits With Spring Vegetables...

Pan-Roasted Chicken In Cream Sauce

Spaghetti with Morels and Miso Brow...

Spaghetti with Morels and Miso Brow...

Pasta With Morels, Peas and Parmesa...

Duck Soup with Wapato, Morels and W...

Pan Fried Morel Mushrooms

Jérôme Galis asparagus, wild garlic...

Rabbit with Morels and Nettle-Ricot...

Campanelle with Mushrooms and Roast...

The most viewed morels recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engine