Morel goodness
I first ate morel mushrooms this year and asked myself why it took me so long to try them! I had them at Corduroy with the scallops. They're so good! And expensive. Each time I go to the market and see them on sale for $40 per pound, I cringe. Not just for the price but for fear I'd not cook or use them to their best potential. I was hesitant to make it a costly experiment. Jim, however, was fearless.
After dropping me off at work yesterday, he headed to Wegmans. His main reason for going was to find something yummy to fix me for dinner that night. You see, I cooked dinner every night last week because his schedule was crazy. Usually it's a shared effort but not this week and he wanted to thank me for working so hard every night to cook. *Pause while everyone says "awwwww"*
The seafood department had several very tempting delights. He narrowed his options to the fresh Wahoo or the dry scallops. At $10 per pound the dry scallops were a deal so he picked up some of those. To quote him, "They were as big as a kittens head" and extremely delicious! He pan seared them then made a pan sauce with white wine, capers, lime juice and the remnants of the olive oil left in the pan. Sides of rosemary oven roasted potatoes and some garlic sauteed green beans rounded out the meal. Oh, and some fresh French bread to soak up the sauce. mmmmmmmm It was wonderful. The scallops were meaty, sweet and tender.
But back to the morels. While he was meandering around the store, he picked up some sirloin steaks, veal demi glace sauce and a pack of dried morel mushrooms among many other things. He was not only planning to fix me dinner Saturday night but tonight as well. Called me spoiled. The trade off works out like this.......5 nights of so - so dinners (Humble, ain't I?) for two slendidly prepared meals. I can handle that. 
He reconstituted the morels in a cup of boiling water. He let them sit for about 20 minutes then placed them and the water back into the pot and added some of the demi glace sauce. Then he cooked the liquid down to about half. After pan searing the steaks he served them with the morel mushroom sauce. A nice ear of corn each and a salad and we had dinner. We also had a nice bottle of Mulderbosch Faithful Hound. The morels acted like little sponges, holding the sauce within their little selves. Each time you speared one with your fork a little sauce would squeeze out. And a nice slice of French bread stood by ready to sop it up. Poor Sophie sat on the floor looking up at me patiently waiting to lick the plate but unfortunately, I sopped everything up. We did have a treat for her though. While trimming the steak, Jim saved a few small bites of steak just for her. I cut them up in to teeny pieces and put them on my plate then set it down for her to enjoy. The plate was spotless in no time.
Tomorrow we're fixing pizza, a joint effort dinner. Then on Thursday my brother flies up from Knoxville, TN. He and I are going to take a cooking class at Galileo this Saturday. It's going to be a five course meal featuring lobster. We're gonna have a blast. And hopefully lots of pictures to post. Til then........
posted by Barbara | 9:38 PM
6 Comments:
I love morels! I put money aside and then I buy a big bag of the dried ones. It's so nice to pull them out and use them. They taste fabulous in scrambled eggs. Lovely meal you had!
LOL, Barbara, I did a dyslexic reading of your title and thought you were blogging about moral goodness! Did a double take, "Wo! that's different!" and then discovered the real title. I would have been interested in what you would say about moral goodness, but I wasn't disappointed with this post by any means! *grin* Your dinner looks fab. How lucky you are to have a husband who enjoys cooking, and you don't seem to mind sharing the chores!
When I was a kid in south western Wisconsin, we were always Morel hunting...lots of work for some pretty good money. A friend of mine found the best way to find; trip over a log, fall on her face and look from side to side, she usually found a couple handfuls.
All that said, I've never eaten them and generally afraid of mushrooms...only recently tried one again after years of staying away. Your meal looks great though.
And I need to pick up some scallops again. It's been too long.
Sher: I think I'm going to start doing the same thing. Save up and buy a bagful of dried ones to keep on hand. Now that I saw how easy they were to work with. Scrambled eggs, huh....sounds good!
Pat: I thought the same thing when I came up with the title for this post. 'How many people would read it as moral.....and be confused, especially those who read my blog....
Scott: I know that people can find morels here in Fairfax County but they keep their favorite hunting grounds a closely guarded secret. And I can see why. You should really try mushrooms more often, each variety has a distinctly different flavor and texture.
Oh where, oh where have my morals gone...Er, I mean morels !! LOL
Looks great. We gonna try then when in scrambled egs when I'm up there? Naa, just kidding.
Scott: Portabella mushrooms are the steak of mushrooms. Season and grill them whole and put on a bun like a burger, slice and grill and top a burger or steak. YUM.
That reminds me I need to buy some and feast....too bad the wife won't touch them. That means MORE FOR ME !!!
Looks like a delicious meal -- wine, red meat and morels. The fact that you didn't have to cook it makes it that much better.
P.S. Love your pictures -- what do you take them with? They're so crisp.
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