No kidding! And it was growing under the arbor vitae next to my porch, about three feet from my house!
The Morel In Its Native Habitat
I lost no time cutting it and cooking it for dinner. Well, OK, I did make sure to check in the book that it actually was a morel – it’s been years since the last one popped up – but there was positive ID and it became a main component of our dinner.
Morel With Quarter For Scale
And since the pokeweed is finally appearing, we had a truly seasonal dish of noodles with morels, pokeweed, Vidalia onion (left a little crunchy for contrast), and Parmesan cheese. The morel was earthy and delicious, with lots of umami.
Morel, Poke, Noodles
The pokeweed, first of the season, was mild enough not to overwhelm the other flavors. An excellent supper!
I thought it would be a good time to try seasoning the noodle water in a new way. At the Fancy Food Show, I picked up a sample of Numi Savory Tea. This is a new line for the Numi company – a vegetarian alternative to bullion and caffeinated hot beverages. I thought it might be used as a flavoring agent in cooking, and it did impart a subtle flavor to the noodles when I dropped a Fennel Spice teabag in the boiling water. I can imagine other uses for these teabags, such as a substitute for chicken stock in creamed vegetable soups.
Numi Tea (from numitea.com)
They are blends of different vegetables, spices, and decaffeinated tea, and contain all organic ingredients. I look forward to trying other varieties, like Carrot Curry and Tomato Mint, but not the Broccoli Cilantro – those are two of my least favorite flavors!
