Mushrooms are neither plants nor animals, and identify in their own kingdom named fungi. They include the familiar mushroom-forming species, plus the yeasts, molds, smuts, and rusts.

Invited last night to a friends house and he served one of my favourite mushrooms Morilles, as known as Morel in English, a mushroom harvested in April and May.

Difficult to farm, mostly foraged and harvested from where they naturally grow, I prefer French black or even the yellow Morel but given they are both costly. The black are often substitutes and harvested in China, Turkey, and Canada harvest you find them mostly dry.

But be careful, some are very funky and given its essential to re-hydrate morel mushroom, at the same time the challenge is to remove any unpleasant odours by soaking in stages and using some boiling water. But you get what you pay right?

If fresh morel you can use a salty solution to remove any bugs before enjoying them. But most dry mushrooms are concentrated in taste, so if the taste is musty, you eat the must, and not the natural characteristics of the mushroom Morel.

The Morel of the story is don’t buy cheap, or you will taste cheap.

PS: try to prepare mushrooms in a closed cup after heating them for 90 sec at 500 Watt in a microwave oven and then add them to the skillet.

PS2: It takes 25kg of fresh mushrooms and seven hours to make just 1kg of concentrate.