My local Whole Foods store sells loose mushrooms, and also premium packaged mushrooms. I always look for king boletes and morels among the packaged mushrooms, but I’d never seen morels until this morning. The brand is FarWestMushroms. Pricey at $17 for 6 ounces, but I was happy to pay it. Morels are difficult to cultivate.

I’ll probably sauté them in butter and EVOO.

They go well with steak and in mushroom soups.

I was in Central IL early May looking. We were 7+ days late, also no recent moisture. We only found a few past prime.

quote:

Originally posted by mutedblade:
Best way is fried...Here's a recipe

Got any good recipes for chanterelles? I have dozens of these in my yard, but no morels!

Can't remember where I stole this from but you can make your own cream of mushroom soup with fresh chanterelle mushrooms for the deepest, richest, woodiest flavor.

Prep Time
5 minutes

Cook Time
15 minutes

Total Time
20 minutes

Ingredients
4 cups chopped chanterelles
1 stick butter
1/2 cup flour
2 cups vegetable stock
1 cup cream
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon white pepper


Instructions
Melt the butter in a large non-stick skillet. Cook mushrooms over medium heat for 5-10 minutes, or until soft. Sprinkle flour over the mushrooms, and stir to combine until all the lumps are gone. Add the vegetable stock, cream, and seasonings. Stir and reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer until thickened. Once thickened, remove from heat and let cool.

Thanks, mutedblade!

That sounds great - I will have to try it. I have a crop of about 70 fat chanterelles in my side yard that I plan on freezing for future use. I now have a recipe for frying them, along with your recipe for mushroom soup. I should be in "shroom" heaven! (Note: The wife says I could be in Heaven pretty quick if I have misidentified them, but my cousin helped to identify and I have already tried the fried ones, so I think I'm good! )

Never heard of Boletes mushrooms until last week. I saw a whole bunch of mushrooms I have never seen before growing in mulch I had put down. I used an identification app and it said they were Boletes. However, there are edible and hallucinogenic kinds of Boletes. I broke one open and it turned blue meaning it was the hallucinogenic kind. From what I read, this variety causes you to see little happy people jumping and dancing around. Maybe this is where the Smurfs came from….lol.

The other name for king boletes is porcini. Very tasty and gives a nice earthy umami to sauces. I used to use anchovy/fish sauce for that, but have since gone to porcinis instead. I've found a few around here, but not many. Morels are much easier to find.

A morel cream sauce is fantastic and everyone should experience such goodness over a proper steak.

This is my go-to recipe