On a recent trip to Missouri, my brother-in-law shared a crop of morel mushrooms that he had gathered.  He also shared a few wild turkey breasts, but that is another story.

I had not had morel mushrooms prepared at home and, unless a restaurant foraged for them, I had not had wild morels.  This was quite a treat!

My husband prepared them as his family does:

Morels, washed twice and large ones cut in half lengthwise
Milk
Cornmeal
Flour
Salt and pepper
Ranch dressing or BBQ sauce, if desired, for dipping

In a large zip lock bag, add equal part meal and flour.  Start with 1/2 cup of each.  If you have lots of mushrooms, you may need to replenish.  Add a teaspoon of salt and pepper, or however much you feel comfortable with.  Shake around to mix.

In Teflon coated frying pan, cover the bottom in olive oil.  Heat the oil on medium temperature.

 

Soak the clean mushrooms in milk just long enough to get milk in all the nooks and crannies.  Remove mushrooms from the milk bowl and place in the bag.  Gently shake to coat the mushrooms.  Remove mushrooms and place on a plate or in a bowl.  Continue until all the mushrooms are covered in the meal four mixture.

Place several mushrooms in the bottom of the skillet without crowding.  Gently fry the mushrooms.  Turn every so often so that all sides are cooked.  Continue to fry until they are golden brown on all sides.   Remove the cooked batch and place another in the pan.

Cool on a baking sheet covered with paper towels.  Serve warm as a side or appetizer.  A dunk in Ranch Dressing is gilding the lily, but oh so delicious!  If you aren’t a Ranch person, try ketchup.

These would be fabulous resting on top of a salad dressed in Ranch.  My mouth is watering just to imagine!

I looked at the price of dried morel mushrooms on Walmart.com, which was $59.99 an ounce and on another site I saw fresh morels for $79.95  pound.  I had no idea!