When I was a kid we went mushroom hunting in the nearby woods (or timbers as we called them in central Illinois) every spring for morel mushrooms. It was a family affair. Each of us was armed with a paper bag and would walk around scanning the ground for these sponge-like fungus. A lucky day was finding twenty or so. Usually we came home with far less. Mom would bread and fry them and we all fought bitterly to get our fair share. I always strove for more than my fair share. I often had mushroom dreams when I was a child. I would be searching for them and come upon an open field with hundreds of gray and yellow shrooms of all sizes. I often had a similar dream about money. I would be searching for violets or four leaf clovers in a ditch and it would literally be filled with change.....nickels, dimes, quarters and half dollars.
Just to understand how rare these are mushrooms are...they only started to make an appearance in grocery stores just a few years back...maybe ten or so. Every once in a while I treat myself to a few but the taste can never compare to the ones from the timbers of Illinois. On Thursday evening I was in Wegman's and noticed that they looked especially fresh and big. Also they were only $36.99 per pound. I'm almost certain that they usually retail for around $55.00 per pound. I bought $5.00 worth and on Friday I made myself this mushroom salad. I floured them and fried them in olive oil. Then I placed them on a bed of spinach with zesty greens (arugula)and baby romas. A splash of lite rice vinegar completed my salad. It was heaven.
1 comment:
Oh, God, yes! For $36.99 I would have uncontrollably taken the whole damn pound. Once about 10 years ago, Safeway had some morels. Every year AJ's has a few but they already look like they are close to dried and they are something like 100 or more a lb. Your salad looks heavenly.
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