Asparagus With Morels and Tarragon
Updated Dec. 13, 2022

- Total Time
- About 1 hour
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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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
Comments
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.
Green beens work too! Asparagus is $5 a bunch right now. And, it didn't look good, to boot. They were delicious and kept a nice crunch.
So good! I LOVE morels.
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.
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