Fried Morel Mushrooms Recipe

By Andrea Haas, Huntress View Founder

After a couple years of failed attempts, this year I was finally able to find some Morel Mushrooms! My husband and I found about 24 total this morning, just enough to fry up & have as a side for lunch or dinner. To say they were delicious is an understatement! There are a lot of morel recipes out there, but I wanted to share this simple recipe that we tried today & loved. -Andrea Haas

Ingredients

- About 10 morel mushrooms
- 1 egg
- 1/3 cup milk
- 1 sleeve of saltine crackers
- salt & pepper to taste

Instructions

Heat up some canola oil in a pan on medium heat. While the oil is heating prepare the mushrooms.

When you first bring the mushrooms home, soak them in salt water for about 10 minutes. This will wash away the dirt and draw out any bugs that may be in the mushrooms. Pat dry with a paper towel. 

Cut the mushrooms in half lengthwise. 

Whisk the egg & milk together in a small bowl. 

In a Ziploc baggie, crush a package of saltine crackers mixed with salt & pepper (can add as little or as much as you like). Put in a small bowl.

Dip a mushroom half in the egg/milk mixture & then coat in the crushed crackers. Place them in the hot oil & fry until they start to turn golden brown. Then flip then over to brown the other halves. It doesn't take long at all to cook the mushrooms so make sure you have a plate handy to set the mushrooms on once done. 

We found that about 10 mushrooms were plenty for just my husband and myself. But if you wish to make more at one time just double the recipe.

Storage

If you have any extra mushrooms that you want to save & cook later you can store them in the freezer. To store them, place the mushrooms on a cookie sheet so they are not touching & place in the freezer. Once frozen, place the mushrooms in an airtight container. Next time you want to cook them they will be ready to go!

Persimmon Bread Recipe

Photo courtesy of Daily Dish

Most know that deer love to eat persimmons, but have you ever tried one? If you've ever tried one before they are ripe you probably think cooking anything with persimmons sounds like a bad idea. But once they turn ripe they are sweet and are great to use for pies, breads, cakes and cookies. Once they turn a purple/gray color and get soft they are ready for picking (Usually after the first couple of frosts). 

This recipe is my pumpkin bread recipe, but I swapped the 15 oz can pumpkin for 15 oz of persimmon pulp. To me, ripe persimmons taste very similar and have the same consistency as a pumpkin. To get the pulp you will want to smash the persimmons into a bowl through a cone shaped collander, this way you don't get the skins or seeds in the pulp. We picked these and after smashing all of them through the collander we probably have about 4-5 cups of persimmon pulp. I put the pulp into zip-loc baggies, about 2 cups per baggie, and store them in the freezer until ready to use for cooking.

INGREDIENTS

• 3 cups sugar
• 1 cup cooking oil
• 4 eggs
• 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg
• 2/3 cup water
• 15 oz persimmon pulp

DIRECTIONS

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 2 loaf pans. 
• In an extra large mixing bowl, beat sugar and oil with electric mixer on medium speed. Add eggs & beat well; set sugar mixture aside
• In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon & nutmeg. Alternately add flour mixture & the water to sugar mixture, beating on low after each addition until just combined. 
• Beat in the persimmon pulp. 
• Spoon batter into pans
• Bake 55-65 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean
• Cool in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes. Wrap & store overnight before slicing (The recipe calls for this, but I never do this. I absolutely love warm bread right out of the oven!)

-Andrea Haas