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Asparagus With Morels and Tarragon
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- Total Time
- About 1 hour
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- ¼ to ½ounce dried morels or porcinis, or a combination
- ¼cup ( ½ stick) butter
- ½cup chopped shallots
- 1pound fresh shiitake or white button mushrooms or a combination, cleaned, trimmed and sliced
- 1 to 1½pounds asparagus, trimmed, cut into 1½ -inch lengths
- ¼cup heavy cream
- 1teaspoon chopped fresh tarragon or 1 tablespoon chopped fresh chervil
- Salt
- pepper to taste
Preparation
- Step 1
Put morels, porcinis or both in a bowl with very hot water to cover; soak until soft, about 20 minutes. Drain morels and reserve soaking liquid. Cut morels in half; if porcinis are large, chop them roughly.
- Step 2
Melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat; when butter is hot and foam has subsided, add shallots and reconstituted and fresh mushrooms to pan. Cook until shallots soften and fresh mushrooms have released their liquid and it has cooked off, about 10 minutes.
- Step 3
Add asparagus and ½ cup reserved liquid to pan. Bring liquid to a boil, cover, reduce heat so mixture simmers, and continue cooking for another 2 to 4 minutes, or until asparagus is crisp-tender. Add cream and tarragon or chervil and continue cooking, uncovered, until sauce thickens slightly and asparagus is tender, about 4 minutes more. Season with salt and pepper and serve.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
Renee- soak in salt water for at least 6 hours, rinse well. Slicing in half lengthwise before soaking.
No matter how thoroughly I clean or soak morels, I always end up with grit in the finished dish. Does anyone have any tips to share for cleaning morels?
I was told by my mushroom seller to swirl them around in a large bowl of water at least five times, changing the water each time. Seemed to work fine.
I used all fresh mushrooms (it's the season) and started them in a bit of butter and white wine in a cast-iron cocotte. This has the effect of steaming the mushrooms. I added green wild asparagus (Italian) and the chervil and closed the pot again for a couple of minutes while another dish was finishing. The cocotte is perfect for serving.
Bittman does not mention that you must strain the mushroom soaking liquid - preferably with cheesecloth in a strainer (you may need to do twice) - otherwise it will be gritty and ruin this lovely dish.
Used Whole Foods mushrooms- fresh morels and myataki. Added a splash of white wine and a touch of chicken broth as others suggested, and substituted 2 percent milk for cream to save fat calories. Served over a few egg noodles, which absorbed the flavors very nicely. Will definitely make again as long as we can get fresh morels at Whole Foods, since we usually fail to find them ourselves.
Delish! Loved it.
Fresh morels from my neighbors, tarragon and asparagus from my garden. This dish smelled like Spring when I preparing it and tasted like it , too. It was really good!
Bittman does not mention that you must strain the mushroom soaking liquid - preferably with cheesecloth in a strainer (you may need to do twice) - otherwise it will be gritty and ruin this lovely dish.
A wonderful dish made with morels which I have access to in the Spring! We love it.
A wonderful dish made with fresh morels which I have access to in the Spring.
I used 1/4 pound of fresh morels, no dried mushrooms shiitakes. Used white wine instead of mushroom soaking liquid. Added more cream and lots of fresh tarragon. Also added smoked trout. Served over pasta. Fabulous.
It’s morel and asparagus season so I used all fresh morels, which was lovely although Cèpes would have been nice as well. I will try working in some dried morels to make the flavor a bit more robust next time, or perhaps a touch of chicken stock.
I eat a lot of mushrooms and a lot of asparagus. This was a fantastic recipe combining two of my favorite things (three, if you count the cream). The tarragon brought everything together in a perfect marriage of flavors. I used pioppino mushrooms in lieu of shiitake. I also supplemented a scant lb of asparagus with a couple ribs of celery cut in the same dimension as the asparagus.
A local farmers market had pounds of locally-grown fresh morels and asparagus this Spring and I used them all up on this dish, with handfuls of fresh tarragon out of my herb garden. It was absolutely heavenly.
Cook the pork less maybe 5 to 7 minutes. I would put a little less of the seasoning inside.
This was good. My sauce never thickened quite enough to satisfy me, though. It didn't stick to the asparagus very well. Not sure if it's the recipe's fault or my own. Maybe ¼ teaspoon of flour or starch would help.
What can we sub for the heavy cream that isn't dairy?
Renee- soak in salt water for at least 6 hours, rinse well. Slicing in half lengthwise before soaking.
No matter how thoroughly I clean or soak morels, I always end up with grit in the finished dish. Does anyone have any tips to share for cleaning morels?
I was told by my mushroom seller to swirl them around in a large bowl of water at least five times, changing the water each time. Seemed to work fine.
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