Such A Fungi

So, we went to the farmer's market, which was very pleasant, as usual, but a little short on produce, it being early in the season and all. Pretty much all there was was asparagus and... morels. Hmmm.

So I bought a quarter pound of morels. It seemed like the thing to do, and they're cheaper at the market than any other possible place. I had no idea what to do with them, of course. The morel-selling guy was only slightly helpful, so we decided to go for a simple preparation.

First revelation: they're hollow! Big ones are probably good for stuffing. The biggest ones I saw at the market were about apple-sized.

They sauteéd up nicely in butter, and were smelling pretty darn good. And:

Voila! Rotiserried chicken, wild rice, and farmer's market morels and asparagus. A meal fit for a king! The king of Wisconsin, anyway. Morels, it turns out, are very tasty mushrooms. I sort of see what the big deal is, although I'm not entirely sure it was worth the $12 a quarter pound. Apparently you can't cultivate the little suckers - you have to go out into the woods and look for them. The season is pretty much over, so I expect my morel-cooking adventures are over for the year. We'll see how brave I am next year. Maybe I'll get crazy and put the rice inside the mushrooms!