Foraging Manchester: Morels

Editors Note - This article is part of a new series, Foraging Manchester, which will investigate all of the good stuff to eat growing around us. If you are not familiar with a plant (or fungus), consult an edible plant guide and/or an expert before you eat it. These articles are intended to introduce these edibles but not to be used as the sole source for identifying them. 

If you know nothing about wild mushrooms, you still have probably heard of a morel. They are common, delicious and best of all, fairly easy to identify as far as wild mushrooms go. And this spring has been an incredible spring for morels both in Manchester and all over Michigan.

This is a morel:

They can be tan, tan and brown, almost white or even yellow. Morels are always hollow on the inside and their caps are pitted. The only mushroom that commonly gets confused with morels is false morels. False morels have wrinkled caps, not pitted, and are not hollow but filled with a cottony substance. If you are not a seasoned morel identifier, do some reading. Two good places to start are HERE and HERE. And remember, if you are in doubt, at all, even a little bit...toss it. Eating a poisonous mushroom can make you very sick or kill you.

Morels usually grow in wooded areas, under trees but I’ve found them in a fire pit, on a path and one time under a hosta. Here in Manchester I’ve seen them in the uphill, wooded area of the Leonard Preserve, and this year I found 6 under a dead ash tree in a tiny strip of woods in our back yard.

So...what should you do with morels when you find them? Cook them. Raw morels contain small amounts of hydrazine which is destroyed through cooking. But before you cook them, you first have to clean them. You can wash morels under running water. Often morels have creepy crawlies hiding inside. Soaking morels in salt water briefly is a good way to encourage them to leave. After your morels are clean, slice them lengthwise. Be sure that that they are completely hollow.

This beauty was hiding a rather large slug.

Slicing lengthwise lets you double check that the morels are completely hollow and bug-free.

The traditional method of preparing morels and arguably the best is to sauté them in butter with salt. If they have been soaking for awhile they will have absorbed liquid that needs to be cooked out.

At first, a LOT of liquid will cook out of the mushrooms into the pan.

Keep sautéing until the liquid dries up. Then sauté some more.

They are done when they are golden brown.

At this point you can eat them! Or, use them in your favorite mushroom recipe. Morels are very rich and make a good substitute for meat as a flavoring agent in dishes. I made morel fried rice.

Morel Fried Rice

2 cups (uncooked) long grain rice

2-3 cups sliced morels sauted in butter

2 carrots sliced into matchsticks

1/4 cup chopped onion

3 cloves garlic, diced

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 cup pea pods

2 tablespoon sesame oil

1 Tablespoon olive oil

2 eggs

salt to taste

garlic chives cut into tiny pieces (optional)

1. Cook rice according to package directions. Set aside.

2. Crack the eggs into a bowl and beat until uniform. In the pan the morels were cooked in, add the olive oil and 1 tablespoon of the sesame oil. Heat until oil is hot. Add eggs to pan and spread eggs around by tipping pan until eggs are thinly and evenly distributed. As soon as they are cooked (which happens quickly) remove the egg. Slice the egg into strips and set aside.

3. Return pan to the stove and add the remaining sesame oil. Saute the onion and garlic until soft. Add carrots and pea pods and sauté for a few minutes. Add rice. Stir the whole time. Add soy sauce. Keep stirring until cooked. Remove from heat and stir in eggs, garlic chives and morels. Season with salt or more soy sauce if needed.

4. Enjoy!

Morel fried rice

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by Sara Swanson

Sara Swanson is an editor, writer and founder of the Manchester Mirror.