Morel Mushroom

Tis the season...  The season that I look forward to all year. Morel Mushroom Season.  Those delectable little mushrooms that, with a little time and effort, you can pick out in nature. Or if you are super lucky, like my aunt, they grow in your yard... in town!  Yeah.. she is just to cool! 

I have been a morel girl for as long as I can remember.  I remember "hunting" them with my parents probably starting about 4 years old. We would head out to the woods every spring. Some elderly neighbors also let us hunt in their woods.  We would bring 'em home, Mom would clean them, then fry them up.  This was a yearly event.  Years later, living in the cities, I had better things to do with my time (yeah right). But, my parents still went out to the state parks that were nearby, and fought the hundreds of other city dwellers, and found the morels. 

Now that I am living back in the sticks, I have plenty of land to for hunt them. I am learning the spots here that produce better than others.

To buy these lil' guys in the store, it is insanely expensive.  For a package of dried morels, the price is around $20 for a small ounce package.  The website I just checked for current pricing was $39 for 2 ounces dried! Ouch! I can pick a pound easy, most years,
in one hike through the woods.  This year is going to be a little more challenging with the
dry weather we have been having. 

The standard way of cooking Morel's is to slice them in half. Dip into an egg wash. Roll in crushed cracker crumbs, then fry in obscene amounts of butter.  In searching for other recipes to use them in, I found that they eat them using similar cooking methods in Turkey.

They were featured on this Turkish Blog last year.

I made it out yesterday for my second hunt of the season, and they are growing. Hopefully the biggest and best morels of the season yet to come. 

Thanks to Pinterest, I have lots of new recipes I can't wait to try them in!