Around Her Table

Spring in Missouri brings out a special breed of hunter.  The mushroom hunter.  Doug covers miles and miles looking for morels every year at this time.  They are like gold.

I have several stories about morels, but my favorite involves my grandmother on my mom’s side.  I’ve written about her in several posts. She lived most of her life in Missouri.  She was really part gypsy, never staying in one place for very long.  In April of 2004, her health was  terrible.  She suffered from something called “Multiple System Atrophy” which is really an evil disease.  The last few months of her life she was in and out of the hospital and nursing facilities.  She had for the most part quit eating except for really small morsels of food like chocolate chips.  Sorry, but I had to set the stage.  So, my mom and I were with her and my mom asked her “Can I bring you anything to eat Mom?”.   My grandmother replied “I’d like some fried mushrooms“.

So, my mom went to the store and bought a variety of mushrooms, fried them, and took them up to the nursing home.  They were still warm. My mom asked her how they were and my grandmother said “Well, these are really not the “kind” of mushrooms I wanted”.

My husband took this as a challenge and headed into the woods and exited with a bag of morels.  So, we fried those and took them to my grandmother.  She was so happy.  She ate the entire plate full.  She lived only a few more weeks, passing away on my birthday – May 7th, 2004.  That was the last time she had Missouri morels and it makes me so happy every time I think of her eating those and smiling at my husband.

I’m kinda nuts when it comes to eating morels.  There is always that lingering thought of …………what if that only looked like a morel.

For more information on Missouri Morels, please visit the Missouri Department of Conservation.  Even morels should never be eaten raw.  There are toxins that the cooking process releases.  There are “false morels” which are poisonous.  Please study before you head into the woods.

Morels are a culinary delight.  You see them featured in recipes from French Provencal to Southern Cooking.  I think they are really wonderful just rolled in flour and sautéed in butter with salt and pepper.  Be sure to cut them in half and wash them first.  Allow them to dry on paper towels in your refrigerator.

These are some I cooked last night when we had our friends Patrick and Elizabeth over for dinner.

The night before I had made some pork chops with a morel sauce.  Doug loved this.  If you like the flavor of stroganoff, you will like this sauce.

Pork Chops with Morel Sauce

4 Bone-In Pork Chops – trimmed of fat

flour

2 Cups Morels – Chopped

1/2 C Sour Cream

1 1/2 C White Wine

Salt & Pepper

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Pre-heat skillet (I used a cast iron skillet).  Use a small piece of the trimmed fat from a pork chop to grease the pan.

Lightly dust the pork chops with flour and sear until brown on each side.  Remove the piece of pork fat if you used it.

Add the wine, cover and simmer for 1 hour.

Remove the pork and set it on a plate.

Add the mushrooms to the pan and cook until soft.

When the morels are cooked, add the sour cream, and stir.

Sauce your chops!

I served this with oven roasted potatoes.

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Here is my parting story on morels for the day.  My husband took Kate on a 2 hour hike this week and they did not find a single mushroom.  Later that evening when they were in our yard, they found 2.  Kate says to Doug “Why did we walk for 2 hours if these grow in our yard?”

I love her.

Tags: cooking, dinner, false morels, food, Missouri, missouri department of conservation, morels, mushroom recipes, pork chops, sauce, stroganoff