How to cook morels: recipes. Morel mushrooms: beneficial properties, method of preparation

Peel the morels, rinse, and soak in cold water.

In the pan: Place the morels in boiling water and cook for minutes in fresh salted water without a lid.

In the steamer: Boil the morels after soaking for minutes, placing no more than 3 layers of mushrooms on the steamer tray.

How to cook morels

1. Clean morels from large forest debris, rinse under cold water in a colander and place in a saucepan.
2. Fill the morels with water so that they are completely submerged.
3. Rinse the morels again, placing the mushrooms in a colander.
4. Drain the water, add clean water and put on fire.
5. Salt the mushrooms, wait until they boil and reduce the heat.
6. After boiling, cook the mushrooms for 20 minutes.
7. Place the mushrooms in a colander - the morels are cooked and ready to eat.

Fkusnofacts

Tips for cooking morels
- Morels are conditionally edible mushrooms, so it is recommended to boil them twice before preparing dishes. The first time was in the water in which they were soaked. Morels must be salted first. The cooking time is 7 minutes from the moment of boiling. The resulting broth must be drained and each mushroom thoroughly rinsed under running water. Then put the clean mushrooms all together again in the pan, add cold water and put it back on the fire. Once the water boils, cook for about 20 minutes.

The morel cap is considered the most delicious morsel; it is valued for its high taste and pleasant aroma. The legs, on the contrary, are quite harsh, so they are usually removed before the second cooking.

In order to remove as much sticky sand as possible from the morels and get rid of snails and other unwanted inhabitants, it is recommended to first soak the mushrooms in a large saucepan of cold water for at least an hour. At the same time, they need to be placed in dishes with their legs up. This will not only better preserve the shape of the mushroom, but will also facilitate the process of removing insects.

Before frying, morels must be soaked and boiled. This is due to the fact that these mushrooms contain helvella acid, which is poisonous. When cooking mushrooms, this acid passes into water without being destroyed.

Store boiled morels in the refrigerator for no more than 3 days.

How to grow morels
If you wish, you can harvest morels from your summer cottage. The main thing is that apple trees grow on it. For sowing you will need mature morels - ordinary or conical. Freshly picked mushrooms must first be washed in a saucepan with cold water. The water should not be poured out, since fungal spores have gotten into it.

Exists two main ways growing morels in the garden - German and French. In the first case, morels need to be scattered under the apple trees, watered with water from under the mushrooms, and then dusted with ash. For the winter, the crops need to be well covered with leaves (for example, of the same apple tree) or straw. In the spring, as soon as the snow melts from the area, the cover must be removed, leaving only a few leaves to prevent the soil from drying out.

The second method is similar to the first, the only difference is that you need to sow the mycelium in previously prepared beds under the trees. Before covering, they must be loosened and scattered on top of the apple pulp (pomace, waste from apples during the canning process). If you follow agricultural practices, you can see the first mushrooms within two weeks after the snow melts.

Morels collect in April-May, these are spring mushrooms. Morels are considered conditionally edible mushrooms.
- Morels useful for health, contain vitamin A (responsible for bone growth and skin health, vision support), nicotinic acid (saturation of cells with oxygen and metabolism at the cellular level), as well as substances such as phosphorus (health of bones and teeth, transmission of genetic code) and calcium (tissue growth). It is recommended to use a decoction of morels for stomach disorders: 50 milliliters of a weak decoction 4 times a day before eating.

Since ancient times, morels have been used for vision problems - farsightedness, myopia and other eye diseases. Morel helps strengthen the eye muscle, reduces the risk of cataracts, and with long-term regular use (up to six months) brightens the lens of the eye.

Morels are also valued for their excellent antiviral properties. Thanks to their active substances, mushrooms strengthen the human immune system, which is especially important during a flu epidemic. In addition, morels are useful to eat to remove toxins from the body, cleanse the blood and lymph. It is recommended for women during breastfeeding if there is a lack of milk. It has been noted that morel infusions stimulate the functioning of the mammary glands.

The age of mushrooms can be determined by color. Young morels have a white or beige stem. A middle-aged mushroom has a slightly yellowish stem, while a very old one has a brown tint.

Morels appear in the spring, in April-May, immediately after the snow melts in the forest. The caps of morels are wrinkled and look like walnut kernels. These mushrooms grow in ravines, pine or mixed forests. Morels love to grow in groups on forest edges, clearings, and clearings. They can also be found in thickets and bushes. Burners are no exception. As a rule, large families of morels can be found in forest fire areas.

There are three types of morels: the common morel, the conical morel and the cap morel.

How to pickle morels

Products
Morel mushrooms - 1 kilogram
Salt - 1 teaspoon
Peppercorns - 30 peas
Bay leaf - 6 sheets
Citric acid - a third of a teaspoon
Vinegar 6% - 3 tablespoons
Cinnamon, cloves - to taste

How to pickle morels
Soak the morels, boil them, and pass through a colander. Boil the morels again in salted water for 10 minutes.
While the morels are cooking, prepare a marinade for pickling the morels: add salt and all the seasonings, citric acid to a saucepan with 2 cups of water. The marinade is simmered over low heat for half an hour, then cooled. and add vinegar.
Place the mushrooms in jars, pour in the marinade, close and store in a cool, dry place.

How to dry morels

Only fresh mushrooms with a good smell and elasticity are suitable for drying. Dry the morels whole, without cutting them. Clean the morels from forest debris and wipe with a damp cloth.
Place the mushrooms on a baking sheet covered with baking paper and dry at 70 degrees with the door open, turning the mushrooms regularly - they burn very quickly. Morels can be eaten only after 3 months of storage. Dried mushrooms should be stored in a dry place; moisture can spoil the mushrooms.
Ready-made dried morels are slightly bent, but do not crumble, dry and light to the touch.

Morel soup recipe

Products
Morels - 500 grams,
Rice - 300 grams,
Butter - 100 grams,
Chicken eggs - 2 pieces,
Salt and herbs - to taste

Making morel soup
Clean the morel caps from dirt, rinse, and cover with cold water. Change the water and rinse the morels 3 times, every 15 minutes. Cut the soaked morels into pieces, place them in salted boiling water and cook for 20 minutes. Cook rice in a separate pan. In another saucepan, boil the eggs and cut into pieces.
Add boiled rice and eggs to morel soup and stir. Add butter, finely chopped herbs and salt, leave for 5 minutes, serve with fresh white bread.

Morel sauce

Products
Morels - half a kilo
Butter - 60 grams for a thick sauce and 120 grams for a liquid consistency
Flour - 3 tablespoons
Sour cream - 0.5 cups
Garlic - 6 cloves
Onion - 1 small onion
Nutmeg - half a teaspoon
Salt and ground black pepper - to taste
Cream 10% or mushroom broth (you can use wild mushroom broth) 150 milliliters for a thick sauce and 400 milliliters for a liquid consistency
Parsley - a few sprigs for decoration

How to make morel sauce
1. Wash and dry the morels, chop finely.
2. Peel onions and garlic and chop very finely.
3. Place the butter in a warm frying pan and melt.
4. Add onion and garlic, fry for 7 minutes over medium heat until the onion is golden brown.
5. Add mushrooms, fry for 15 minutes until excess liquid evaporates, add salt and pepper.
6. Pour flour on top of the mushrooms, stir, pour in cream or broth.
7. Wait for the cream to boil and turn off the heat.

When serving, garnish the morel sauce with parsley.

How to cook morels - the first spring mushrooms? I present a recipe for morels in sour cream. First I’ll just say that morels are very clean mushrooms, they are never wormy. You can easily distinguish them from strings - poisonous mushrooms - by their shape: the strings have the shape of a cypress tree, with a cone-shaped crown, while the strings look like a wrinkled baked apple - round.

To prepare morels, you first need to wash them, cut them in half and soak them in water for 30 minutes. Then rinse again in salted water for 30 minutes, removing the foam.

Then sauté the onion, cut into rings, in butter and place the morels cut into small pieces. Salt, you can add 1 - 2 bay leaves to the frying pan. Simmer for 30 minutes.

5 minutes before the end of cooking, add 2 cloves of finely chopped garlic and 2 tablespoons of sour cream, mix well.

Serve, garnished with green onions.

Mushroom recipes

First, peel the mushrooms (morels, strings), and then leave them in cold water for about forty minutes. The fact is that a lot of earth and sand are packed into the folds, and when the mushrooms are “bathed”, the sand settles to the bottom of the basin.

Then catch the mushrooms in a colander and rinse them again under a strong stream of cold water, then boil the morels for 20 minutes, skimming off the foam, and cook the lines for the same 20 minutes, rinse, and then cook for another 10 minutes.

Rinse the boiled mushrooms with cold water, and then fry in a frying pan in butter, or even better, in ghee. Pour the fried mushrooms with heavy cream, in which a little flour has been loosened, simmer lightly until thickened, and then season with salt, sugar and white pepper to taste. You can eat these already prepared mushrooms (morels or strings) in a creamy sauce, but you can offer a more sophisticated recipe:

In a portioned frying pan or in a ceramic patch, greased with oil, you can place mugs of boiled potatoes on the bottom “scaled” and pour them in a creamy sauce. Sprinkle grated hard cheese on top and bake in the oven until golden brown.

Morel and stitch - May fungus - culinary portal - with photos, cake recipes, culinary recipes

27.04.2012

In May there is a reason to put on your rubber boots, grab a basket and head into the forest. On the edges and sun-drenched clearings you can find funny mushrooms with elongated, wrinkled caps. This morels.

Morel- conditionally edible mushroom. There is no need to be afraid of this, but you must remember to take precautions. Morels cannot be cooked without first boiling them. Eating raw mushrooms and using broth after boiling morels is prohibited. You can get poisoned! First, boil them in three times the volume of salted water for 20 minutes, drain the water, and rinse the mushrooms. After this, you can prepare any mushroom dishes from morels.

The secret to properly preparing morels is simple. Mushrooms must be thoroughly cleaned before cooking. Their “wrinkles” can contain a lot of sand, spruce needles and even snails. Pre-fill the morels with cold water for 5-10 minutes. Then rinse each one under running water and only then start cooking.

Recipes with morels are present in almost all European cuisines, and are found both in country dishes and in masterpieces served to the tables of royalty. For example, the famous gourmet, the French king Louis XIV was very fond of morel sauce for meat and poultry: 10 mushrooms are stewed with 1 tbsp. l. flour in half a glass of white wine and heavy cream.

The morel has a twin brother - a mushroom. It also only grows in May. It differs in its cap: it is also wrinkled, but not elongated, like a morel, but looks like a twisted brain. Morels are more toxic in their raw form, so when picking mushrooms in the forest or buying them at the market, try not to mix them with morels. Many people recommend boiling the lines not once, but twice: rinse the mushrooms, boil for 10 minutes, drain the water, add fresh water and cook the lines for another 3 minutes, after which you can begin the main cooking.

Most avid mushroom pickers in Russia unanimously claim that morels are best fried in sour cream. And mushrooms acquire an absolutely incredible taste if they are cooked over a fire. To do this, you will need a stream (to wash the mushrooms and get water), a fire and a pot. Boil the morels, drain the water, wash the pot, rinse and chop the mushrooms. Pour vegetable oil into a kettle, put morels, fry them and, when the mushrooms are ready, pour in fat and bring to a boil, add salt and pepper to taste. According to reviews, only thick morel mushroom soup, also cooked over a fire, can compare with this dish.

Other articles on this topic:

Facts about mushrooms

Recipes for mushroom dishes on our website.

You can also discuss the topic of mushrooms on our forum!

Prepared based on materials from the publication "Shape Menu"

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How to properly cook the first mushrooms - morels - Egoza Women's Diary

In the Tver region, we started collecting morels in late April, and by mid-May they disappeared without a trace.

Photo of a morel growing under an apple tree.

The joy of a mushroom picker - the first mushrooms! Did you know that you don’t have to go into the forest to pick morels? For several years we collected morels in an apple orchard when we lived in the village of Burashevo, Tver Region. Mushrooms grew in open sunny places near apple trees and thorn bushes. It is interesting that every year a huge morel grew from under the foundation of the house, in the same place. It was he who was the first to notice, after which we opened our mushroom plantation.

The French consider morels a delicacy for their taste. This is indeed a very tasty mushroom, but do not forget that it is a conditionally edible mushroom, and in order not to be poisoned, it must be prepared correctly. There is no special trick to cooking, just remember that The first water in which morels are boiled must be drained, all toxic substances pass into it. Then the morels should be rinsed again and boiled in new clean water.

If you want to know what a morel looks like, I think these photos will help you.

The morel's cap is cone-shaped, has a fairly clear shape and this differs from the lines. Once you see a morel, you can’t confuse it with other mushrooms.

How to cook morels.

How to cook morels « how to cook. culinary recipes.

In the spring, a crowd of cars begins on the roads leading into the forest. What's the matter? It’s just that the first spring mushrooms – morels – have already emerged from the ground! They bring baskets, buckets, bags of mushrooms home and show off to their friends. But what to do with these mushrooms now? How to cook them?

One of the most common ways to prepare morels is to fry them in sour cream. Before cooking, mushrooms should be thoroughly washed and soaked in water for half an hour. Then they are washed again and boiled for another half hour in salted water. The resulting foam must be removed.

Then you need to fry the finely chopped onions, cut the morels into small pieces and put it all in a frying pan. Next, the mushrooms are salted and stewed for half an hour.

5 minutes before readiness, add sour cream to the mushrooms and stir.

Another simple and tasty dish made from morels is mushroom omelet. Mushrooms are washed, peeled and stewed in oil with parsley. The whites are separated from the yolks, which are mixed with flour and added to the mushrooms. Beat the egg whites and add them to the mixture as well. This mass is poured into a frying pan and baked in the oven until cooked. If desired, you can grate cheese on top of the omelette, and decorate the finished dish with herbs or ham.

Morel mushrooms:: culinary encyclopedia of mushrooms on kedem.ru

In the old days, these mushrooms were considered poisonous and deadly. And it’s not surprising - they look, I must say, not entirely edible. Many mushroom pickers consider them toadstools. Nevertheless, connoisseurs highly value them for their excellent taste and unique aroma. In America, at annual mycologist conventions, pancakes with these amazing mushrooms are always prepared for a gala dinner. We're talking about morels.

Morels are the first spring mushrooms. The caps of all types of morels are unevenly ribbed, wrinkled, spongy, resembling the kernels of peeled walnuts. In early spring, these mushrooms are found almost everywhere in pine and mixed forests, among bushes, in ravines, and on fireplaces. They grow singly, but sometimes densely. Morel mushrooms are collected immediately after they appear, since their growth is short-lived. Interestingly, morels do not like to grow in the same place. Even for botanists, it still remains a mystery how the morel mycelium crawls to another place or disappears altogether. In our country, there are three types of morels: real (ordinary), conical and capped morels.

The morel is real. This mushroom reaches a height of 15 cm. Its cap is rounded-spherical, gray-brown or brown, coarsely honeycombed, very uneven. The edge of the cap fuses with the stem. The leg is yellowish or whitish, widened downward, often notched. The entire mushroom is hollow, the flesh is waxy, brittle, thin, with a pleasant aroma and taste. It is found in spring from April (in warm spring even from March) in floodplain forests, under alder, aspen, and poplar.

The morel is conical. It is similar to a real morel, but differs in the shape and color of the cap. The cap is up to 3 cm in diameter, elongated-conical, gray-brown, black-brown, gray-green, fused with the stem at the edges. The surface of the cap is ribbed-cellular, with more elongated diamond-shaped cells, separated from each other by partitions painted in a darker color. The leg is up to 4.5 cm long, 1.5-3 cm thick, white or yellowish, cylindrical, hollow inside. The flesh is waxy, brittle, whitish, without much taste or smell. The conical morel grows in April-May on humus soil in mixed or coniferous forests, sometimes in clearings, clearings, and along roads.

Morel hat. The cap of this mushroom is connected to the stem only at the top, sits on it like a hat - hence the name. Its size is 2-3 cm in diameter, the color is brown, sometimes yellow, the surface is tortuous-folded, wrinkled. The mushroom stem is long, up to 15 cm, cylindrical, slightly widened towards the base, hollow, white or cream-colored, covered with small scales or grains. The pulp is waxy, tender, brittle, the aroma and taste are pleasant. The morel cap appears in April-May in deciduous and mixed forests, more often in lowlands.

Morels can be grown in the garden or vegetable garden. Mushroom pickers noticed one peculiarity: in forests, these mushrooms grow well next to wild apple trees - where there is carrion. Since the middle of the 19th century, morels have been grown in Germany and France. According to the German method, the collected morels are cut into pieces, scattered in the garden under the apple trees and watered with water left over from washing the mushrooms - it contains spores. The sowing areas are covered with ash and covered with leaves and straw. And in the spring they harvest! The French method differs from the German one in that mushrooms are planted in ordinary garden beds, and in the fall the planting sites are covered with a layer of apple pomace left over from making juices and jam. The Americans have followed the beaten path - they grow morel mushrooms on a special substrate indoors, just as they grow champignons. As you can see, there are many options. But, in any case, for some reason the industrial production of morels has not yet been established.

Cleaning morels is a whole science. Pour clean cold water into a basin or bucket. Thoroughly clean the mushroom stems from sand and soil, cutting off the stems if necessary, without sparing, otherwise the sand, which cannot be washed completely, will hopelessly ruin the dish. Carefully examining the inside of the cap, remove the snails. Leave the peeled mushrooms in the water for a couple of hours, stirring occasionally. Even if you miss a snail or two, they will crawl away. Transfer the soaked morels to another bowl of water, removing them with both hands. Rinse, stirring, again and transfer to clean water again. Repeat this operation until there is no sediment. After this, the mushrooms must be boiled, preferably in two waters, for 10-20 minutes. Drain the broth; it is not used. Morels can be used to prepare many dishes, both simple and sophisticated.

Peel young morel mushrooms, rinse, boil whole, skimming off the foam. Place the mushrooms in a colander and rinse well with cold water. Cut into small pieces, place in a clay pot, filling it 2/3 full. Separately, beat 2 with a small amount of cream, add salt to taste, pour the mixture over the mushrooms and stir. Bake in the oven over medium heat for 25-30 minutes. Serve with a piece of butter and grated cheese. In the story by S.N. Terpigorev's "Morels" of this dish is described so tasty that it makes your mouth water.

French cuisine has morel soup. This dish has a delicate taste and subtle aroma. Lightly fry the boiled morels with finely chopped onion, pour in the meat broth, add white wine and boil for 30 minutes. Strain the broth, grind the mushrooms with butter, boiled yolks and cream, mix with the broth and serve, seasoned with lemon juice and nutmeg.

Alternatively, you can cook soup with morels and rice: Put pre-cooked and finely chopped mushrooms into salted boiling water, then boiled rice, butter, mashed with eggs, and dill. This is a dish from Uzbek cuisine.

For sauce lovers - recipe morel sauce: Grind flour in butter, dilute in meat broth, boil until thickened. Finely chop the prepared morels and fry with onions. Add sour cream and mushrooms to the sauce and boil. Add nutmeg, lemon juice and herbs to taste to the finished sauce. Serve with veal, fish and potato cutlets.

chicken soup with stuffed morels" src="http://www.russianfood.com/photo/articles/2012/04/20120416-smorchki_7.jpg" />In the book by E. Molokhovets “A Gift for Young Housewives” there is an exquisite recipe chicken soup with stuffed morels. You won’t prepare such a dish for every day, but you can surprise your guests.

Ingredients:

750 g chicken (1/2 carcass),

20 large morels,

½ glass of cream,

20 g dry white wine,

1 tbsp. l. butter,

1 tbsp. l. wheat flour,

salt, nutmeg to taste.

Preparation:

Boil the chicken, remove the skin and separate the meat from the bones. Pass the meat through a meat grinder, add butter, eggs, wine, flour, salt and nutmeg to the minced meat. Mix the whole mass thoroughly so that it is not too liquid. Peel the mushrooms, cut off the roots, rinse thoroughly and dry. Carefully fill the caps with the prepared minced meat, place them in a saucepan, pour in chicken broth and cook until tender. Afterwards, drain the broth, strain, season with flour sauté, boil and pour in the cream mixed with the yolks. Bring the broth almost to a boil, stirring continuously, but do not boil, otherwise the yolks will curdle. Serve, placing 3-4 mushrooms in plates, pour in broth.

Morels stewed with sour cream can be served as a separate dish, or can be an excellent filling for pies. The following filling is also prepared from morels: finely chop the lamb, morels, onions and cilantro and fry in boiling fat until the moisture evaporates, add salt and pepper.

Morels are not pickled or salted, but they are dried. Dried morels absorb moisture very well, so they should be kept in a dry place in paper bags or cardboard boxes. It is important to avoid sudden changes in temperature, otherwise the mushrooms may become damp and moldy. Mushroom powder is also prepared from dried morels. This powder is a powerful flavoring agent for a wide variety of dishes. It is used as a seasoning for soups, sauces, vegetable, fish and meat dishes.

Bon appetit and good luck hunting morel mushrooms!

Larisa Shuftaykina

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Morels in cream. recipe with photo, we will tell you how to cook!

First of all, thanks for the recipe. I will express two opinions. First: you don’t have to cook morels at all, there’s no point in it. Then they will not decrease significantly. Why cook? It has long been known that helvelic acid does not exist in nature. Morels can accumulate gyromitin, which is a dangerous toxin. But it cannot be eliminated by any cooking... And the sad thing is that the amount of gyromitin can change from mushroom to mushroom, regardless of environmental, weather and other conditions, in an absolutely unpredictable way. This is a matter of luck for the mushroom picker, although I would not dramatize it. For those interested, here, for example: http://floranimal.ru/pages/flora/s/5242.html. Therefore, in several northern European countries there is criminal liability for the sale of morels IF their consumption by the buyer results in death. Secondly, I didn’t have to buy morels, but I collected enough of them in the Mikhnevo area along the Paveletskaya road. And I’ve never had one in the sand, and in general, in my life, I clean any mushroom only in the forest and immediately after I find it. So, thoroughly washing mushrooms has never been a problem for me, although I am very grateful to the author for how carefully and carefully she described it. Therefore, I did not cut the mushrooms, but placed them whole, with the cuts facing up, in a clay pot, having previously greased the outside of each one with butter. In general, the recipe describes all the necessary components very correctly.

The neck of the pot is closed either with a lid or with bread cut to the inside size and the morels are baked, they turn out incredibly tasty. There is no point in baking them for a long time; they, like most mushrooms, can be eaten raw. There was a delicious smell, it began to gurgle - take out the pot and go ahead with toast! Such are the things.

Morel - beneficial properties, use and preparation - calorie content, what are the benefits and harms of the morel product, cook - [email protected]

Morels (Morchella)

Description

In nature, there are three types of morels: edible or ordinary (Morchella esculenta), conical (Morchella conica) and morel cap or cap (Verpa bohemica Schroet). The morel cap grows up to 15 cm in height and up to 10 cm in diameter, the shape is ovoid and round with uneven cells similar to a honeycomb. The color range of the caps is from ocher-yellow to light brown. The leg is up to 5 cm thick, smooth, hollow, slightly widened at the bottom, can be whitish or yellow-brown. The pulp is brittle, waxy-white, with an aromatic mushroom smell.

History and distribution

Morels are one of the most ancient mushrooms; the first mention of them is contained in the works of the ancient Greek scientist Theophrastus, who lived in the 4th century BC. e. In Ancient Rome, morels were considered a delicacy, so servants were not allowed to cook them, and they were served at the table in elegant dishes. In many countries around the world, morels are treated with great respect; for example, in America they were given the status of “kings of mushrooms.” Since the middle of the 19th century, the Germans and French have been growing morels in old gardens and parks under apple trees. In Russia (as well as in the vast expanses of the former USSR), morels grow everywhere, appearing in the forests very first - in late April - early May. These mushrooms prefer broad-leaved and mixed forests; they love forest edges and mossy ditches, clearings and field edges, old fires and wastelands. In the south of Russia they can sometimes be found in vegetable gardens, front gardens and even on lawns. However, it has been noticed that morels do not really like to grow in the same place, but botanists cannot explain how the morel mycelium “moves” to another place, or even disappears completely without a trace.

Application

In Russia, morels are considered conditionally edible, and according to taste they belong to the third category of mushrooms, although in Europe they are considered gourmet mushrooms. Before eating, morels must be boiled, the broth drained, and only then can they be added to soup, fried, or stewed. Morels are very tasty stewed or in sauces. For example, morels stewed with sour cream can be served as a separate dish, and can also be used as a filling for pies. Morels are not pickled or salted, but they are dried. Morels can be used for food only three months after drying. Keep in mind that dried morels absorb moisture, so they need to be stored in paper bags or cardboard boxes in a dry place, otherwise they may become damp and moldy. You can make mushroom powder from dried morels, which will be an excellent natural flavoring (seasoning) for various dishes.

Composition and properties

Morels contain 3% nitrogenous substances, 1% sugar and many aromatic substances. In addition, they contain a polysaccharide conventionally called FD4. Morels strengthen the eye muscles, preventing clouding of the eye lens.

Interesting fact

In the USA, at the banquet that is held to mark the opening of the annual congress of American mycologists (mushroom specialists), boiled morels are always on the menu.

How long to cook morels

Before cooking, morels need to be peeled, rinsed and soaked in cold water for at least 1 hour, and then boiled in salted water for 20-25 minutes.

Calories and morels

The calorie content of morels is 22.7 kcal.

Nutritional value of morels: proteins - 2.9 g, fats - 0.4 g, carbohydrates - 2 g

Finally, the beautiful spring has arrived and you can safely open a new forest season. The first gifts of the forest are already beginning to appear, with which we can diversify our daily meals and snacks.

This forest product contains a lot of biologically active agents: vitamins (A, PP, C, B1, B2, D) and minerals - calcium, ash, phosphorus (especially), potassium. The special medicinal properties of morels are ensured by the presence in their structure of the FD4 polysaccharide and its derivatives, which can literally restore vision!

How can we use these not very beautiful, but very useful for the human body, mushrooms?

Archaeological scientists found a scroll called “Mushroom”, which contained recipes for preparing mushrooms, for what diseases and how they should be used as medicine. We were talking specifically about morels, which have been used by healers to treat eye diseases for centuries. These gifts of the forest cope well with age-related farsightedness, cataracts and myopia.

But it’s true that for a person of that time this was an important problem! At that time, glasses had not yet been invented, and vision was needed for survival. For example, in ancient times, abbots of monasteries regularly took morel tinctures and strongly recommended that monks and novices do so.

Like everything that healed in ancient centuries, in our time morels also found their way onto the “laboratory table”. It turned out that ancient knowledge was confirmed, and this type of mushroom really has healing properties! A group of substances was found in them that strengthen not only the eye muscles, but also directly affect the lens of the eye, which prevents it from becoming cloudy.

Nowadays, preparations have already been created based on the bioactive components found in morels. They have already been tested in ophthalmology clinics and conclusions can already be drawn: in 60% of patients, vision has improved by 20-30%, and the risk of cataracts has decreased to 20%.

Tincture of morel caps is used for rubbing for joint diseases and rheumatism.
A decoction of these mushrooms is considered an excellent tonic and health-improving agent. The decoction has a beneficial effect on the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract and increases a person’s appetite.

How to prepare a decoction of morel mushrooms? One tablespoon of dry or fresh mushrooms should be poured with a glass of water and boiled for half an hour. Then we let the broth brew for four hours, and then we just filter it. The finished decoction should be taken 4 times a day (ten minutes before meals, 50 ml).

Features of processing technology

Morels are mushrooms, the preparation of which is ensured by special technology, and also require pre-processing. They should not only be healthy and tasty, but also safe! Please note that these mushrooms cannot be used for cooking raw or fried - without long-term heat treatment. Also, morels usually contain a lot of sand, insects often hide in them, and therefore you need to be able to properly clean them and prepare them for use.

Primary processing

The first thing you need to do is carefully remove your catch from the basket and place them one by one in a large bowl in which you will then boil them. Mushroom specimens should be placed with their legs up and filled with cold water. Water will help them get rid of sand and insects that have gotten inside. Salt the morels that have stood a little in the water and put them on the fire.

As a rule, all mushrooms need to be boiled twice, but this especially applies to morels! The first time you need to cook them for five to ten minutes after the water boils. Then drain the hot water and rinse the mushrooms with cold water. At this stage you get rid of as much sand as possible. After this, you need to begin the most important work - sorting the mushrooms, which after boiling no longer crumble.

Sorting and second boiling

At this stage, the crop must be carefully examined and all debris in the form of leaves, insects, needles and twigs removed. It is better not to use the legs for food; separate them and then throw them away. Before boiling again, each mushroom must be washed in clean warm or cold water, thereby you will finally get rid of the remaining sand. Carefully peeled mushrooms should be salted and boiled a second time (boil them for 15-20 minutes after the water boils).

Strain the boiled mushrooms through a colander and rinse them with cold water several times to completely wash away all the sand. After this, the product is ready for further cooking. You can make soup, fry them, add them to a salad, stuff them into something, or make mushroom sauce.

How to cook morel mushrooms

Now let's seehow to cook morel mushroomsso that your dish will be remembered in conversations for years to come! To prepare this dish we will need:

Beef fillet (you can use chicken fillet) – 250 grams
Morel mushrooms – up to 10 pieces
Onion – 1 head
Carrot
Potatoes – 3-4 tubers
Butter
2 eggs and 3 yolks separately
Cream – 3 tablespoons
Salt, pepper, nutmeg (and other seasonings) - to your taste

Let's start cooking:

Pour hot water over the already prepared mushrooms and let them cook under the lid, making sure to add salt.
While cooking the mushrooms, peel and chop the potatoes and add them to the broth.
Cut the carrots and onions into strips or any convenient pieces and fry. After roasting well, add the contents of the frying pan to the broth.
We process the fillet using a meat grinder (in a separate bowl) and add finely chopped onion, salt, pepper (you can also add other spices to your taste) and mix thoroughly.
We form meatballs from the minced meat and place them in a pan with broth.
Cook for 10 minutes. Turn off the stove and let the soup brew for 15-20 minutes.
When serving, sprinkle with herbs.

Morel mushrooms, the method of preparation of which we will now consider, with this technology retain their aroma and beneficial properties, only being enriched with the taste of vegetables.

For the dish we need:

Fresh morels – 250 grams
Cauliflower (you can also use white cabbage or Chinese cabbage) – 250 grams
Carrots – 250 grams
Radish (can be white) – 250 grams
Butter (or margarine) – 1.5 tbsp. spoons
Water (you can use broth) – 200 ml
Dill – to taste
Chives - for sprinkling
Salt, pepper, spices - to taste
Flour – 1 tbsp. spoon

Let's look at the step-by-step preparation of the dish:

After preliminary preparation of the mushrooms (boil them twice, thoroughly wash and sort them), chop them finely.
We clean all the vegetables. Carefully cut into small pieces (or medium, as you like).
Heat water (or broth) in a saucepan.
After boiling, add some salt and throw in the chopped vegetables.
Halfway through cooking, add mushrooms to the broth and cook them with vegetables for 10-15 minutes.
Mix flour with heated butter until smooth, combine with the contents of the pan and add salt, sugar, pepper and spices. Bring to a boil and turn off.
Place in a deep dish and sprinkle with onions and herbs.

Stewed morels with vegetables will go perfectly with boiled potatoes, rice or fried meat instead of a side dish.

To prepare sauce for a large family or a company of 6 people, we need:

Morels – 450 grams
Shallot - half
Veal broth (you can use any other) – 450 ml
Butter meat - 3 tbsp. spoons
Balsamic vinegar - to taste
Dry red wine (or any to your taste) – 350 ml
Salt, pepper, sugar, spices - to taste

Cooking method:

Boil 50-70 ml of water in a small container, add sugar and stir a little. Continue stirring until you get caramel!
Carefully remove the pan from the stove, add vinegar and return the container to the stove. Bring to a boil again and, stirring, dissolve the caramel (this will take us about 3 minutes).
Heat the oil in a deep saucepan. Fry morels in it (about 5 minutes). Almost all mushroom juices should evaporate. Place them in another container.
Fry the shallots in the oil used for frying the mushrooms until golden brown. Add wine and evaporate it by half. Pour in the broth and let the ingredients combine for a few minutes. Remove the bowl from the stove and mix its contents with the caramel.
Add salt and pepper to the sauce. Put the morels there and stir. You can also add lemon juice or vinegar to adjust the taste. Bring the entire mixture to a boil and pour into a sauce boat.

This delicious sauce is perfect for meat dishes.

Dear friends, I hope that now you have no questions left about how to cook morel mushrooms so that everyone present at the table praises your skills and the very next trip to the forest turns into a real hunt for health!

Morels are the first spring mushrooms. They appear on forest edges, in city parks, and shaded apple orchards as soon as the sun warms up and the snow melts. They are distinguished from the inedible lines that come out at the same time by wrinkled conical caps of brown-brown color, similar to a honeycomb.

Morels contain small amounts of toxic substances, which evaporate when dried and fall into the water when cooked.

How to cook morels - preparatory period

These unusual-looking mushrooms are rich in protein, vitamins, microelements, sugars, and fiber. Morels are considered conditionally edible, but when properly prepared they are tasty boiled, fried, or baked.

Sort out the collected morels, clean them of soil, rotted leaves, and insects stuck in their caps.
Place the mushrooms in a bowl of cold water for an hour, then rinse them thoroughly.
Place clean morels in a pan of water. Cook for 30 minutes. Drain the mushrooms in a colander and rinse.

Attention: pour out the broth!

The mushroom preparation is ready, you can start cooking.

How to make morel soup

Warning: all the recipes below use boiled mushrooms.

For soup prepare: 300 gr. mushrooms, five potatoes, one onion, 1/3 cup of millet, a bunch of parsley, salt and pepper to taste.

Pour one and a half liters of water into the pan, bring to a boil and add the chopped mushrooms.
Cook for 5 minutes, add chopped onion. Leave on low heat for a quarter of an hour.
Dip millet and chopped potatoes into the brew and cook for another 15 minutes. Try it, if the millet is boiled, add salt and pepper and the soup is ready.

Let the dish brew for 10 minutes. Serve with sour cream and finely chopped herbs.

How to cook fried morels with sour cream

The easiest way to cook morels is to fry them in a white sauce. All you need is a kilogram of mushrooms, a glass of sour cream, an onion, spices as desired.

Cut mushrooms and onions into pieces.
Fry the onion in vegetable oil until yellow, add mushrooms, simmer for three minutes. Add some salt.
Add sour cream to the resulting mixture, stir, cover the frying pan with a lid. Simmer for five minutes.

The resulting deliciousness will serve both as a main dish and as a side dish for rice, pearl barley, and pasta.

How to cook baked morels with potatoes

A great casserole is made from the simplest ingredients.

Peel seven large potatoes, cut into thin slices, and 1 kg of morels into slices.
Place potatoes and mushrooms in layers on a greased baking sheet.
Grate 150 gr. cheese, mix with sour cream and mayonnaise - three tablespoons each. Add a pinch of white pepper. Spread the resulting mass onto the morels.
Bake in the oven at 180º for half an hour.

The finished dish goes well with a salad of fresh vegetables.

How to cook morels in dough

Make these mushroom crunches from caps. The most important thing in the recipe is the correct batter.

Mix one egg, 100 ml of milk, and enough flour in a bowl so that the dough resembles thick sour cream. Add a little salt, pepper, turmeric, grated ginger.
Place the mushrooms coated in batter into a saucepan with heated deep fat. Fry until golden brown. Place mushroom balls on a paper towel to remove excess fat.

Place the fried lumps in a heap on a dessert plate, garnish with dill or thread onto kebab skewers and serve with mustard sauce. The snack is good both hot and cold, and is an irreplaceable thing for home gatherings in front of the TV.

How to cook morel julienne

Prepare: 300 gr. mushrooms, one and a half glasses of cream, onion, 3 cloves of garlic, cheese - 100 gr. Take two tablespoons of butter and flour, various herbs - to taste.

Fry the mushrooms in oil for five minutes. Add chopped onion and a spoonful of butter. Warm up for three minutes.
Pour flour into the cream, stir, add juice from the pan. Add some salt. Pour the mixture over the roast. Simmer for another 5 minutes.
Rub the cocotte bowls with crushed garlic, put the mushroom filling in them, and sprinkle with grated cheese on top. Bake in an oven preheated to 200º for 20 minutes.

As you can see, any mushroom dish, even the most simple one, turns out to be almost a delicacy. Therefore, do not waste time, and with the onset of the morel season, prepare and treat your relatives and friends with your culinary creations.

These mushrooms grow mainly in temperate forests and appear immediately after the snow melts. They got their name due to their appearance (the porous, shrunken cap, covered with deep wrinkles, looks rather unsightly). Over time, the concentration of toxic substances in morels increases, so only young fresh (or dried) mushrooms are used for food. Depending on the shape of the caps, there are several types of morels. However, from a gastronomic point of view they are all the same. In some countries, these mushrooms are cultivated, in others, on the contrary, they are considered inedible.

Before you cook morels for the first time, you need to carefully study several recipes so that the dish does not turn out to be poisonous. Despite the fact that these low-calorie and very delicate-tasting mushrooms are quite often eaten, cases of poisoning with them are also not uncommon.

How to properly cook morel mushrooms

There are many recipes that contain this ingredient. Moreover, mushrooms are used both as the main component and as an addition (to add piquancy to a meat dish, for example). Before preparing morels, you need to boil them in salted water for 15-20 minutes, in this case most of the toxic substances will come out of them. Sometimes they are used in dried form. In this case, the mushrooms are soaked for several hours in salt water.

Morels in white wine

It's simple, but could very well be saved for a special evening. And in order not to spoil it, before cooking the morels, you need to sort them well, rinse and boil them. For half a kilo of mushrooms take 100 ml of white wine (it must be good), 2 egg yolks, 30 grams of butter, salt and ground pepper to taste.

Place chopped mushrooms in a dry, heated frying pan and fry them, stirring, until the liquid has completely evaporated. After the frying pan becomes dry again, salt and pepper its contents, add half the oil and pour in the wine. The mushrooms are stewed for about 10 minutes, after which the remaining oil is added to them, the yolks are beaten in, mixed and removed from the heat. The dish can be served with a side dish of potatoes or used as a sauce for meat, an omelette dressing or a topping for pancakes.

How to cook morels in sour cream

This is a fairly simple recipe, but the dish turns out tender and very tasty. For half a kilo of fresh mushrooms, take a glass of sour cream, a little flour and salt, hard cheese to taste, vegetable oil and herbs (dill or parsley). Pre-washed and peeled morels are boiled in salted water for 15 minutes. They are then thoroughly washed under the tap and left to drain. Then they are cut into several pieces, salted and fried in oil, sprinkled with flour at the end. Add sour cream to the frying pan, simmer for several minutes, sprinkle with cheese and herbs and remove from heat. Mushrooms are served with any side dish, such as mashed potatoes or pasta.

Morel pilaf

Among other dishes that are prepared from morels, there is even a recipe for half a kilo of mushrooms: a glass of rice, 60 grams of lamb fat, salt, spices for pilaf, 2 carrots, 1/3 stick of butter. Before preparing morels according to this recipe, you should sort them out, cut off the stems; large ones can be divided into 2-3 parts. Then they are boiled in salted water for 5 minutes and drained in a colander.

Chopped lard is fried in butter (then taken out), mushrooms are fried in the resulting fat, then carrots, cut into strips, are added there, salted, spices are added, washed rice is laid out and hot water is poured in (it should be 2 cm higher than the rice). The pilaf is simmered without stirring over low heat until cooked.