Morels in Cream on Brioche (Page 66)

RECIPE #981

• Date: Monday, April 20, 2009 -- 7pm
• Location: Bloomington, IN
• Kitchen: My Apartment
• Dining Companion: Matty
• Recipe Rating: A-
  

I made this recipe because I had made homemade brioche the day before and I wanted to use it for this dish! Now normally I am a stickler for getting exactly the ingredients The Book indicates. If I can't find them, I don't make the recipe. In this case, though, I cheated. And not in a subtle, it-probably-doesn't-really-matter sort of way. I cheated big time. I didn't mean to. The grocery store where I shop usually has dried morels (which The Book lists as an acceptable substitute for fresh morels in this recipe), but when I got there, no morels to be found. I had already made the brioche though, and I knew this would be much, much better with yummy homemade brioche than with store-bought brioche. So I figured I would just substitute some other mushrooms. Big mistake. That's not to say that it was bad -- it certainly wasn't. But the whole time I was eating it I was thinking, "This would be so much better with morels." Oh well. Live and learn. This recipe was pretty simple. I cooked my fake morels in butter for a while, then added some flour, then some hot cream. I simmered until the mushrooms were tender then seasoned with salt and white pepper. I served the mushroom mixture over triangles of toasted brioche. The result: yum! I mean, how can you go wrong really? Yummy brioche topped with mushrooms cooked in a whole lot of cream. It certainly wasn't going to be bad. But it is the sort of thing where the better the mushrooms are, the better the dish will be! So I should have used better mushrooms. Even with my crappy mushrooms though, it was tasty. I'll try it again someday with morels.

The recipe is here.

It's that time of year -- the semester (and the whole academic year!) is drawing to a close. This is the last week of classes and I have just two lectures left. I am definitely experiencing a tiny bit of end-of-the-semester slump. Semesters are long. By week 13 or 14 I think most people feel the need for a little break. I went to a seminar talk this afternoon and attendance was about half of what it usually is -- I think everyone is just a little burnt out! Overall though, this year has just flown by for me. September feels like a couple weeks ago, and it's crazy to think that the summer is almost here. After this last week of classes I just have to grade my students' take-home finals and then I don't have any teaching obligations again until the end of August. Last year I spent the summer in Boston, leaving Indiana just a couple days after classes ended. So although I have lived in Bloomington for a couple years now, I have never been here over the summer. I am looking forward to spending some time here in the summer months! (Of course, since I seem to already have trips planned to Wyoming/Utah/Colorado, Germany, Wisconsin, Ohio, and Norway, maybe I won't be spending much time here after all! And if the house we are trying to buy in East Lansing works out, maybe we will be spending time there to...) In any event, I will be in Bloomington for most of May -- working on my research and getting ready for the wedding. It should be a nice month!