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 Marvelous morels make mighty good munching 
#13955217 - 02/13/11 12:27 PM (2 years, 3 months ago) |
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Morel season will be here before you know it.  ...
Marvelous morels make mighty good munching
February 13, 2011 - ArkansasOnline.com
 ARKANSAS — There aren’t many kinds of foods that people would drive more than a hundred miles to find, then search for all day. The morel mushroom is one of those foods.
To a mushroom hunter, finding a morel is like striking gold. Both are valuable and hard to find, and hunters won’t tell anybody else where they found the prize. That’s why it’s good to go with somebody who knows where morels might be, somebody who enjoys seeing other people discover the joy of finding the delicacy.
We found such a person in Jay Justice, president of the Arkansas Mycological Society, who enjoys taking people on forays in the woods and helping them learn about all the wonders of the fungus kingdom.
We met with Jay and other mushroom hunters last year to find black morels in the Ozark-St. Francis National Forest. It was one of those foggy mornings when tiny little spider webs glistened with dew in grasses and cedars, and you couldn’t see as far as a half block.
We carried baskets containing paper bags or wax-paper bags to transport our morels. Plastic bags degrade the mushrooms.
Spreading out through the woods, we walked slowly and stared at the ground. Leaves covered the forest floor, and it was hard to see mushrooms among all the leaf litter. It gave me a chance to appreciate the blooming wildflowers: pussy toes, rue anemone, spring beauties and bluets.
Through the fog, I saw a fellow hunter squatting next to a fallen log, and he was picking up something. Was he harvesting a morel? More hopeful now, I stared harder at the ground, and suddenly a black morel conjured itself up at my feet! I reached down and plucked it, a beautiful specimen. Jay had told us that if we found one, to keep looking in that same area to find more. I did, and found two others. I felt like an excited little kid finding Easter eggs. And I thought, “Well, this is easy.” Little did I know how wrong I was.
We spent two hours searching the area before meeting back at the cars for lunch. The fog had lifted. We compared notes and looked in each other’s baskets. While I had found only three black morels, most had found none. The hunter whose technique consisted of squatting and staring intently had found a dozen.
After lunch, we caravanned to another likely spot in the forest. However, a previous ice storm had left a lot of fallen logs, which, along with greenbriers and poison ivy, made it difficult to walk. Picking our way carefully down the hill through logs, rocks, holes and vines, we searched for another two hours with no luck.
Walking back on a logging trail, we saw teeming new life in several deep puddles: clumps of Fowler’s toad eggs, frog eggs with hundreds of tiny tadpoles, and salamander eggs.
By the time we returned to our car, most of the other hunters had already gone home. Conditions just weren’t perfect for morels this day. But maybe next week the rains will come, followed by sunny days and warm nights, and maybe more morels will pop up. One thing is certain, though: Hopeful morel hunters will continue to look. And when they find a good place, they won’t tell anyone exactly where that was. And they will eat their hard-earned morels, savoring every delicious bite.
How to prepare morels
Always cook morels, discarding any with decay. Cut them in half vertically first and wash thoroughly, or better yet, soak in salt water to remove possible insects and springtails. If this is your first time eating a morel, eat just a small amount and wait 24 hours before eating it again, to make sure you don’t have an allergic reaction. Some experts also advise against having alcoholic beverages when eating wild mushrooms.
My favorite way to cook morels is simply to chop and sauté them in real butter for a few minutes, stirring and seasoning with a pinch of salt, not disguising their texture and rich flavor.
To extend a tiny harvest, you can chop and sauté the mushrooms in butter or olive oil, then add eggs, scrambling them. Morels are also delicious in an omelet. Sauté the mushrooms with chopped onions and green or red peppers; then add the eggs, cooking as you would any omelet.
I have prepared morels as an appetizer. Sauté chopped morels in olive oil, add a large clove of chopped elephant garlic (a mild garlic), asparagus tips and a sprinkle of your favorite herbs, stirring constantly for a few minutes, just until tender. Serve the mixture on top of crackers spread with cream cheese; they look colorful and are delicious.
One of our fellow hunters said his favorite way to prepare morels is to sauté them in olive oil, add a little garlic (and then discard that), and just before serving, toss in some parsley and lemon zest.
Morels are delicious breaded and fried, stewed, baked, creamed or stuffed. Add them to pizza or pasta, serve them in puff pastry with cream, or add them to vegetables, gravies, cream sauces, roasts, steaks, fish or chicken. Let your imagination be your guide.
Identifying morels
Morels are found only in early spring, most commonly beneath ash trees, sycamores, cottonwoods, dead or dying elms, tulip trees or in old neglected apple orchards. Once I even found one on our lawn beneath a persimmon tree.
Morels have honeycomb caps on top of white or cream-colored hollow stems. There are at least three kinds of morels in Arkansas: black, yellow and half-free morels. Black morels have darker ridges than the yellow, and their pits (which give them their honeycomb appearance) are more vertically aligned. The yellow’s pits appear more randomly placed, more honeycombed. The half-free morel is similar, except the stalk is attached to the middle of the cap, with part of the cap hanging free. All three varieties are edible and valued for their flavor; however, most of the literature suggests that the yellow morel is the best for eating, and the half-free is the least favorite. Avoid the sometimes poisonous false morel, Gyromitra carolinia, which has a reddish brain-like cap. Never eat any mushroom when in doubt as to its identity.
For photos and descriptions, check mushroom guides or Internet sites such as www.mushroomexpert.com/mdcp/results_legend.html and mdc.mo.gov/nathis/mushrooms/mushroom.
If it’s too late in the season to find morels where you live, search out areas that have ash trees, neglected orchards, dead elms or other likely habitats, and be ready to look next spring as soon as wildflowers bloom. When you find a good place, you can look there year after year and probably find some morels. It’s your own personal gold mine.
For more information about morels and other mushrooms, contact the Arkansas Mycological Society at justice@aristotle.net.
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