Morel mushrooms

Three days in the French countryside and I come back with at least 4 blog’s worth of material!

So I think I’ll start from the very beginning and that would be my father’s excitement at finding about 10 morels (crazy looking mushrooms) under one of his trees. It is the season for this kind of mushroom in France at the moment. Ok, they aren’t truffles but they are still quite a sort after kind. ‘Mushroom pickers’ go off to their secret spots in search of them and in no circumstance do they share their locations. Well that’s how it is in my village.

Mushrooms are a fantastic ingredient to adding flavour to the simplest of things, from sauces to omelettes. My parent’s neighbours have chickens and so we went and bought 12 eggs to make an omelette, to which we added the mushrooms. Now these eggs are nothing like supermarket eggs! The yolk is bright orange and so full of flavour; you really see the difference between a chicken running about the countryside and one that’s cooped up in a cage.

How to make an omelette

When making an omelette I’d say you need about 2/3 eggs per person, butter and anything you fancy adding to it. You also need a very good, non-stick pan. If it’s not non-stick your omelette will end up looking like scrambled eggs.

 So, in a bowl crack your eggs and whisk (do not add any milk). Butter your pan, put on heat and add your ingredients (in this case mushrooms),once they are cooked add your eggs.

 Now, there are two cooking techniques that I know of for the perfect omelette; the French way and the Spanish way. Your omelettes will look quite different depending on which technique you use but they will both give you a perfect omelette.

The French way: Once the side of the omelette on the pan starts to cook fold the omelette in half (so it becomes a half circle) and let it continue to cook for a while. The heat of the folded omelette will cook the inside.

The Spanish way: Once the side of the omelette on the pan is cooked take a plate, put it onto the pan and tip the pan so that the omelette is on the plate. Then slide the omelette from the plate back onto the pan so that the uncooked side is face down.

Serve with a side salad, and there you have it, a healthy and cheap meal.

Caution
Please do not go picking any mushrooms unless you are absolutely sure that they are edible.

Mel