Meeting morels

Odd as it may seem, old as I may be, I had never cooked a morel mushroom until yesterday. That's despite the fact that these exotic forest delicacies are apparently profuse in Oregon woods and are ripe for the picking. Two problems. Didn't know where to find them, and am married to a man who's fungi phobic. Why bother? It would be like traipsing to the woods to harvest a Christmas tree with no place of honor for it in the home.
Thanks to friend and fungi lover Dr. Mike Amaranthus, PK was included in a spring morel hunt in the forests shadowed by Mt. McLoughlin, southern Oregon's most prominent peak and site of frequent mushroom sweeps by the Ammo clan. Success!

According to Ammo, as he is affectionately known, there are 25 morels in this photo, which he took. Right. It takes a trained eye. So PK returned home with a jog in his step and a bunch of grimy looking shrooms in his mesh bag. Here's what they looked like, absolutely fresh. Not more than a day emerged from the fragrant forest duff, according to Ammo.

Most are considered "black" with a "blond' or two thrown in. PK was convinced this paltry amount  was sufficient for two meals. That was his mushroom aversion speaking. I could see maybe one meal just for me, despite my morel inexperience. I rushed to Google to see what the hell to do with them, starting with cleaning.

Directions ran from "never, ever get them wet - just clean with a soft brush — all the way to "soak them overnight in salt water to drive out the insects and worms." We went the middle road with a quick rinse in a sieve and then a shake to scare out critters, which we did not notice, if they were present. I chopped them coarsely, and sauteed dry, as friend Gail suggested. They released a copious amount of fragrant liquid.  Our first morel-centric dinner went something like this.

RECIPE - STEAK & MORELS
Saute coarsely chopped morels in a dry pan until liquid releases. Remove morels from pan.
In another pan, quickly saute in butter thinly sliced steak. Season with salt and pepper and remove from pan. For two people I used about a half a pound of top sirloin.
Add more butter to the pan and pour in mushroom juice. Careful not to get any of those bugs or pieces of grit in the pan! Reduce mushroom liquid by half.
Add a slosh of dry sherry and a couple cloves of minced garlic to  the mushroom juice. Cook a couple minutes til fragrant. Mix in a couple tablespoons of sour cream. When well blended, add the cooked mushrooms and the steak until warmed.
Serve over steamed rice or noodles, or if you're a carb nut like me, a pile of cooked spinach.
It was DELICIOUS!
I'm now a morel fan and I think I'm not the only one in the homestead.