Voluptuous Morels

Great big freshly foraged morels greeted shoppers at three Pike Place Market stands last week. The wild mushroom season is on. As beautiful as they were, I chose mine from Foraged and Found Edibles at University Farmers Market because I know Jeremy Faber, the owner, chief forager and steady supplier to many of Seattle’s best chefs. A CIA certified chef himself as well as an incurable mountain man, Jeremy and his cohorts who forage with him know all of their products and answer questions.

I was early (big surprise when it’s the first day of fresh morels) and was alone at the stall, so I carefully selected and admired the firmness and larger than average size of the 2½ pounds I bought.  They were gorgeous.

When another customer appeared and asked about cleaning morels I listened in because I rarely do more than rinse them lightly and cut into a few to look for worms.

The forager told her to soak morels in room temperature water for about 10 minutes, drain them over a sink using the basket of a lettuce spinner, then spin them thoroughly in the spinner and lightly roll them up in a clean kitchen towel for about 30 minutes. “The spinner takes away the water and any specs of dirt that weren’t soaked out. The towel absorbs the rest of the moisture leaving the mushrooms almost as dry as they were before they went into the water.”

Morels in Lettuce Spinner

I could hardly wait to get home to try it. I have no idea whether mine had any specs of dirt; they certainly looked clean. His process worked and the towel time did take away the moisture left after spinning.

Cleaned Morel, dry and ready to cook

Soaking and spinning does not remove enough grit from morels grown in sandy soil to make them tolerable to eat.  The forager’s advice for those: “We stay away from them. There are plenty of forest grown morels around here.”

Northwest morels should be around for several more weeks. A few porcini are showing up too, so stand by for some recipes.