Try buying them and you'll spend an exorbitant amount of money, whether fresh or dried. I've been hunting mushrooms most of my life and I've never purchased any! Some years we find a lot and others they seem to be elusive. These mushrooms are finicky about temperature and moisture and seem to appear overnight and are gone or dried up the next day.
Honestly, I've had the best luck at my house! As a kid, my dad and grandma took us all over the place and I can't ever remember finding more than a couple. Go figure, the best mushroom harvests would be right outside the door. We've found some big ones too! There are a few varieties of edible Morchella, but we usually only find the white ones, rather than the blacks that seem to hide in the woods and come out early.
Gathering mushrooms sometimes means waiting to mow the law, putting sticks in the grass to find them again later when they're a bit bigger and some years, getting poison ivy! Nonetheless, when we find them, we cook them up and have a feast! The feast might be a couple mushrooms or a couple trays of them!
Preparing them to eat is key. You've really got to get the bugs and dirt out. I halve them and soak overnight. Some people claim that soaking in milk or salt water works better, but I just use water. It's amazing how much sand is at the bottom of the bowl!
My grandma taught me how to cook them and honestly, she fried them like she fried everything else-in a ton of grease with lots of salt! She rolled the mushrooms in crushed saltine crackers. I think I just like the salty taste, but it turns out, the mushrooms taste good too! It's always scary to try a new cooking method when you don't have extra mushrooms hanging around. I think I'd cry if I burned them or screwed it up. A few years ago, I did take a chance on a different method of cooking!
My goal to was to get a little crunch, but still taste the mushroom. I attempted to bread with panko, oil and bake them! They turned out great! This year, I took it to the next level with my air fryer and it did not fail me! The air fried mushrooms were every bit as delicious. Once again, I rolled them in a panko breading, but added a dash of parmesan cheese and salt and pepper to taste. I air fried the mushrooms at 350 degrees for 5-7 minutes. I had some pretty little halves, so for bigger mushrooms, you might need to go longer.
I would love to be able to haul in a bigger load of morels and try a few new things, but I don't think this is going to be the year. Tell me how you prep your morels and what you might like to try if you had "extra".
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