Foraging to feasting: A small primer on field to food for this spring of morels
It’s been most memorable spring for morel mushrooms around Chicago outdoors. Some readers found found their first; some, their biggest. I found my biggest Friday. At more than 5 inches, it anchored a feast.
A morel mushroom, longer than 5 inches, is the biggest one ever found by Dale Bowman.
Dale bBowman/Sun-Times
Gretchen Steele, a photographer/wild woman from far southern Illinois, suggested a crab-stuffed recipe, which I tweaked to what I had.
First, I hit my surest spot for wild asparagus. Somebody had cut ahead of me, but I found a couple good stalks.
Cut wild asparagus arranged on a dandelion.
Dale Bowman/Sun-Times
Back home, I browned bread crumbs in butter and garlic, then added drained clams. Meanwhile I toasted garlic bread points. In the butter/garlic pan, I added chopped asparagus, then drizzled in clam juice.
I stuffed the halved cleaned morel to overflowing with the clam/breading mix, then browned it under the broiler. While it rested, I cut organic early greens and spinach, which I planted the first day in March warm enough to cut two rows into thawing soil.
An early-afternoon glass of merlot completed the feast. The garlic-bread points worked perfectly at catching every last crumb.
Below I included photos of the morel and wild asparagus in the field to show what you have to sense as much as see to find.
Even a 5-inch morel mushroom may be hard to see in the field.
Dale Bowman/Sun-Times
It is not easy to spot the growing wild asparagus in the field, let alone the previously cut stalks; both are in this photo.
Dale Bowman/Sun-Times