Conference turris::cooks

 Having just had my first taste of a morel sauce saturday night, I've gotta
say I'm also very interested in this recipe. Particularly since morels have been
known to grow in the side yard... :-)

       
       For those who might have missed it in the base note, the morel
       sauce was served over horsemeat.
       
       --Mr Topaz

Re horsemeat, probable but not certain. "Cheval" is available and
eaten, but sometimes refers to a manner of preparing chopped beef,
rather than horsemeat.

Anyway, re 0, your recipe has the right ingredients, you just got it a
bit out of order. Here's the "standard" method for making a cream sauce:

Saute the mushrooms (and/or whatever else, like onions, shallots,
garlic) in the appropriate fat (butter, olive oil, etc). Add the flour
to make the roux. Add liquid (typically a combination of stock and a
wine or sherry) and simmer until reduced by approx 1/2. Reduce heat,
add dairy liquid, and bring to simmer again and stir until thickened.

If you're going to be roasting or frying meat and using the juices in
your sauce, this is usually done in the same pan before sauteeing the
mushrooms, so some of the fat for the saute/roux will come from this.
You may have to remove fat if you do this. If you find that you have to
remove fat, do this first, before sauteeing anything. It will be
impossible to remove the fat at any later point.

The main mistake you made was probably adding the roux (flour cooked in
fat) to the liquid mixture (and possibly over-cooking the dairy
liquid). If you need to add roux to a liquid to thicken it, the best
way is to prepare the roux in a little fat and add a small quantity of
non-dairy liquid to this. Then add this mixture to the larger volume of
liquid which is your sauce. But it's usually better to start with the
roux and add the rest of the liquids to it.

    Although I added the liquid to the roux, I am certain, as you
    suggested, I over cooked the dairy liquid.
    
    Shame, I'll just have to keep practising until I get it perfect :)
    
    Angus

    For anyone else who is/was wondering:
    
    a morel is "Any of various edible mushrooms of the genus Morchella
    and related genera, characterized by a brown spongelike cap."
    
    ed

chicken oysters with morels

sot-l'y-laisse aux morilles

Carefully wash 4-5 morels and split them lengthwise.  Dredge 6-8 chicken
oysters with flour and fry briskly in 25 g (2 tbs) butter in a shallow pan
together with 1 chopped shallot.  When golden brown, season with salt and
pepper and add the morels.  Cover the pan and cook gently for 7-8 minutes,
then add 1 dl (scant 1/2 cup) Sauvignon and finish the cooking with the lid
off.  (A little grated nutmeg will further improve the flavour.)  Add 1 tbs
double (heavy) cream and cook for another 10-12 minutes.  Serve in a hot
dish.

morel creams

Gateaux de morilles

Wash 250 g morels 6 or 7 times in water and vinegar. Peel and dice
150g courgettes (zucchini), season with salt and pepper and brown them
briskly in butter for 2 minutes.  Then brown the morels (seasoned with salt
and pepper) for 3 minutes in butter and add 2 tablespoons (3 tablesppons)
[sic, the latter seems to be accounting for an "english measurement"]
meat extract, half a shallot (finely chopped) 5 cl (1/4 cup) white wine a
and 4 cl (2 tablespoons, 3 tablespoons) [again, sic] brandy.  Remove the
morels from the pan and cut them into small pieces.  Wash and finely chop
100 g (4 oz, 1 cup) leeks and season with salt and pepper.  Cook slowly in
a covered pan for 10 minutes then allow to cool.  Dice 2 preserved duck
gizzards.

Mix the morels, courgettes and leeks in a salad bowl.  Add the diced
gizzards, 3 beaten eggs, and a dl (14 fl oz, 1 3/4 cups) double (heavy)
cream and season with salt and pepper.  Butters 6 oval dariole moulds, fill
them with the mixture and and cook in a moderate oven (180 C, 350F, gas 4)
in a bain-marie for 30 minutes.

For the sauce, add 2 small chopped shallots to 1.5 dl (2/3 cup) white wine
and boil down to reduce.  Add 5 tbs (6 tbs) crushed tomatoes, then reduce
a little more.  Enrich the sauce with 30 g (2 tbs) butter and season with
salt and pepper.  Cover the bottom of a serving dish with sauce.  Turn out
the creams into the dish and sprinkle with fresh mint.

morels � la cr�me

Clean 250 g morels.  Wash them briskly in cold water and dry them
thoroughly.  Leave them whole if they are small, cut them up if they are
large.  Put the morels in a shallow frying pan with 1 tbs butter, 1 tsp
lemon juice, 1 tsp chopped shallots, salt and pepper.  Braise for 5
minutes, then cover with very hot cream and and reduce until the sauce has
thickened.  Just before serving add 1 tbs fresh cream and some chopped
parsely.

Morels in herb sauce.

SAUCE AROMATIQUE AUX MORILLES

Put into a saucepan a pinch of rosemary, sage thyme and basil, a quarter of
a bay leaf, a clove, a little coarsely ground pepper, and a little ground
nutmeg.  Add a shredded onion and a ladle of good consomm� and simmer for a
few minutes, then strain through course muslin (cheesecloth).  Add about 30
cleaned morels to the strained liquid and bring it to the boil, pour in
some thick allemande sauce, and reduce.  Just before serving, add a little
chicken stock, a little fine butter, some lemon juice and 1 tablespoon
chopped and blanched chervil.

Allemande sauce:

Prepare some velout�; pour half of it into a saucepan with an equal
quantity of good chicken consomm� containing some mushroom skins and stalks
but no salt.  Place the pan on a high heat and stir with a wooden spoon
until it boils.  Then cover the pan and simmer gently for about an hour to
reduce the sauce; skim off the fat and return it to a high heat stirring
with the wooden spoon so that it does not stick to the pan.  When the sauce
is thoroughtly reduced and well thickened, it should leave a fairly thick
covering on the surface of the spoon.  When poured it should make a coating
similar to that of redcurrant jelly at its final stage of cooking.  Remove
the saucepan from the heat and make a liaison of 4 egg yolks mixed with 2
tablespoons cream.  Put this through a seive and add a knob of unslated
butter the size of a small egg, cut up into small pieces.  Pour this a
little at a time into the velout�, taking care to stir with the wooden
spoon to thicken as the liaison blends in.  When completely thickened,
place the allemande on a moderate heat, stirring all the time, and as soon
as it has begun to bubble slightly remove from the heat and add a dash of
grated nutmeg.  When well blended put it through a sieve.

Basic Velout� sauce:

For 2.5 Litres stir 2.75 litres white stock made with veal or chicken
into a pale blond roux made with 150g butter and 150g flour.  Blend well
together.  Bring to the boil, stirring with a wooden sppoon until the
first bubbles appear.  Cook the velout� very slowly for 30 minutes,
skimming frequently.  Strain through a cloth.  Stir until it is completely
cold.  Velout� may be prepared either in advance or just before it is
required.

White stock

Bone a 1.5 lb shoulder of veal and 2 1/4 lb knuckle of veal, then tie
them together with a string.  Crush the bones.  Place the bones, meat,
and 2 1/4 lb chicken giblets or carcasses in a saucepan, add 3 1/4 qts
water, bring to a boil and skim.  Add 1 1/2 cups sliced carrots, 1 cup
onions, 3/4 cup leeks (white part only), 3/4 cup celery and a bouquet
garni.  Season, simmer gently 3 1/2 hours. Skim off the fat and put
throught a very fine strainer or muslin (cheesecloth).

Chicken white stock.

As above but add a small chick (which can be used afterwards for making
croquettes) or double the quantity of giblets.

    	I was making a mushroom consomme the other day and had a terrible
    	time trying to locate dried morels in the Metro-West (of Boston)
    	area. Every place I asked didn't have them or worse (and most
    	usually) didn't even know what morels were. Where do you have luck
    	finding them (and other hard to find cooking items)?

    	-Erik

    Did you try Idylwilde Farms?
    
    If you're willing to venture in to the city, I'd be willing to be
    Barsamian's or Cardullo's would have them.
    
    D!

    	Idylwilde Farms was the one place people suggested. Unfortunately
    	the day I needed morels, Idylwilde was closed. I'll have to drop by
    	there some day. 

    	_Easier_ moving into the city? No way, not for me, too many
    	worries and hassles in the city. _Marlboro_ was city enough 
    	for me. :-) And it seems rural supermarkets are catering more 
    	to gourmet and international needs lately, which is really nice 
    	to see (was my biggest complaint). To each hir own, but this
	boy is much happier out here in rural farmland. This year
    	we'll even attempt to grow our own veggies and herbs... fun! 	
   
    	-Erik [from the "Green Acres" household :-)]

    Many thanks to NOVA::FISHER (sorry don't know your first name) for
    taking the time to type in all the recipes. As I've just raided my
    local Safeway store in Bracknell and bought two packets of dried
    Morels, I shall have to try out the recipes.
    
    In the meantime I have been experimenting with creating a Morel sauce
    and have discovered two things. First a neat way to create such a sauce
    and second, my 16 month old son loves Morels.
    
    Here's the recipe. It is designed to make best use of brown leavings,
    such as fried steak leavings.
    
    Ingredients all approximate and to taste:
    
    8 oz    Rump Steak   (250g)  I've done this successfully with pork
    6-8     Morels
    1 cup   Milk         (125 ml?)
    1       Shallot, finely chopped
    1 oz    butter       (30g)
    1 oz    flour        (30g)
    1/2 pt  Chicken stock  (in the UK I found 1/2 a Knorr stock cube to be
                            excellent. Don't use OXO)
            salt and pepper to taste
    
    About ten minutes before frying steak: Boil stock add Morels, simmer
    
    About five minutes before frying steak: melt butter, gently saute
    shallots, do not allow to brown.
    
    Start frying steak in heavy pan, preferrably cast iron to get a decent
    amount of leavings. Add flour to butter/shallots and make a roux. Then
    gradually add stock/Morel mixture to make thick sauce. Allow to simmer away.
    
    When steak is fried till it is slightly underdone, remove steak to a
    plate and dump morel sauce mixture into frying pan. Stir and scrape up
    leavings from bottom of pan. Finally, add milk, adjust seasoning and   
    gently simmer for a minute. Serve.
    
    Notes. Use cream for a richer sauce.
    
           I used two largish shallots once. They overpowered the sauce.
    
           I've found this method of cooking the sauce a relaxed and
    unhurried procedure. The morels are thoroughly cooked with their
    flavour imparted to the stock. I didn't have a disaster making the
    roux, as the pan was not too hot after cooking the steak and I wasn't
    hurried by the knowledge that a cooked steak was either getting cold or
    being cooked on a hot plate. Finally, the milk didn't impart a boild
    flavour to the sauce.
    
           I reckon I'll still have to practice away until I've absolutely
    perfected the sauce. I think after I get through about 20 packets or so
    of dried morels I'll get half way decent at it 8-) 8-) What a hardship
    :) :) :)
    
    Angus

    I made a Morel Sauce this weekend using dried Morels; previously I had
    used whole morels preserved in brine. The differences were subtle but
    noticable.
    
    The first thing to watch out for is the 'power' of dried mushrooms.
    Written on the Morel box are words to the effect that the dried Morels
    have 40% more flavour than fresh Morels. I can readily confirm this.
    
    In addition to the Morels themselves having a more pronounced flavour,
    they also impart a great deal more flavour and colour to the water used
    to hydrated them. This results in a more strongly flavoured sauce
    (though not overpowering) with a rich brown/golden colour.
    
    Once they had hydrated (about 20 minutes in tepid water) I cooked the
    Morels in the water they had been hydrating in, along with half a Knorr
    chicken stock cube. Had I had proper chicken stock, then I would have
    hydrated the Morels in the chicken stock before proceeding as usual.
    
    All in all I was very pleased with the dry Morels. My next step is to
    try out some dried Ceps.
    
    Angus