I've been in Napa learning about bread at Bouchon Bakery and hope to post about later this week—bread is endlessly fascinating, infinitely complex, and to dive deeper into the craft with a baker, Matthew McDonald, who has been working with yeasted doughs pretty much his whole life, is one of the happier circumstances of a freelance life—but I hate to leave home. In anticipation of being away, I made lunch for Donna so we could have a few focused moments together before I left. With morels on my mind and a quick preparation required, I put together a simple speedy lunch to feature the mushroom: scrambled eggs with chives, morels with a simple cream sauce (recipe in this post) and an arugula salad dressed with lemon and extra virgin olive oil.
I didn't ask Donna to photograph it but she loved the sight of it and the light by the window was just right so grabbed her camera and with three clicks of the shutter it was done. Time for lunch. And of course, with this simple meal some toasted baguette from On the Rise Bakery, the perfect background crunch for a lunch featuring morels, and a presage to the philosophical discussions I'd be having with Matt about the search for the perfect baguette.
More on this and the Bouchon Bakery Cookbook later this week.
If you liked this post on Morels, check out these other links:
- Earthly Delights carries dried morels, such as the ones above, and many other delectables.
- Read my post on the best garlic.
- Interesting facts and stories about mushrooms from Cornell University's mushroom blog.
© 2011 Michael Ruhlman. Photo © 2011 Donna Turner-Ruhlman. All rights reserved
Barbara | Creative Culinary
I've only had fresh morels and I've had them so seldom they have sort of a mythical place in my mind.
But I remember the first time. A honeymoon on Mackinac Island and foraging for our own. Seems we hit that part of Michigan at the perfect time and it helped that my new husband had spent years driving from Indiana to Michigan with his family to forage for morels so I wasn't scared to death of eating a wild mushroom
I could have eaten them for breakfast, lunch and dinner..wait, maybe we did for a couple of days...but what I will never forget, especially now that they are so popular and expensive? On our way home, we stopped at an A&W Rootbeer stand for lunch and what was on the menu? Fried local morels. That's how prolific they were there!
YC
Thanks for the inspiration Michael. I just came home for lunch and was trying to figure out what the have for lunch quickly. I read your post and decided to take the last of my shallots and the blue trumpet mushrooms I had from the farmer's market and make an omelet. I used the last of my pullet eggs too...beautiful little cute eggs with brilliant orange yolks! I like my omelets runny to sop up with bread but alas no bread in the house. But I washed a side of tender mixed salads greens (from CSA) and just put a squeeze of meyer lemon (yes, meyer lemons DO grow in ohio!!!!) and OO, S&P. That's it! Earthy, flavorful, healthy, low carb, gluten and dairy free...one small skillet and one cutting board. Back to work I go!!
ruhlman
that's the way to do it!
Cali
While I love mushrooms, I really don't get the fascination with morels. I've always found them too chewy, usually kind of gritty and rather unpleasant to eat. Also, there isn't enough washing in the world to make me feel secure that all those little holes aren't full of bugs. Call me old-fashioned, but I just can't abide insects in my food. I swear, when you described cutting into one and watching the worms wriggle I nearly wretched into my circular file! So what's with the obsession? Is it just because they are seasonal?
Mantonat
For every food item that someone loves, there's someone else who finds that food unpleasant, gross, overrated or in other ways questionable.
The obsession is that they taste really freakin' good (to some of us) and they only come around once a year for a very short time, so they are something to look forward to. Reading through the comments in the original post, it's great that there are so many stories of the family tradition of gathering and eating morels. It's no wonder that they evoke childhood memories, since the opportunity to eat morels is so limited.
Sarah Galvin (All Our Fingers in the Pie)
I keep saving my morels rather than enjoying them. I bought my dried morels in Paris and have been a hoarder. This is encouragement!
Jesse Coleman
Eggs look amazing. I've tried both the low and super slow method for scrambled eggs, and one I saw Angry McScreamson (Gordon Ramsay) do on his cooking show- med-high heat, eggs in a saucepan, he would stir constantly and drop in nibs of cold butter throughout, until the curds just came together. I can never seem to get the lovely sauced, small curds right with either method. Any tips?
ruhlman
yes, cook them in a double boiler, or hold a pan in boiling water and cook them in a little butter. plate them while still liquidy they keep cooking.