Cast Iron Steak + Wild Morel Mushrooms

Here in Minnesota, morel mushrooms are a pretty big deal.  Typically you’ll spend hours hiking the woods hunting for them just to get your onion sack full, if you’re lucky, and the season for harvesting them is really short.  But I didn’t have to trek around the woods to find these lovely morels.  We were lucky enough to find a dozen of them just a few yards from our back door right under my brother’s tree house. (Ok, I didn’t actually find them… my dad did.)  Just to emphasize how lucky we were to find these things, they can sell for up to hundreds of dollars a pound when they’re dried!  Not gonna lie, they’re pretty ugly… but they’re definitely tasty!

Because these morels were wild, they do require a little extra prep work.  Be sure to rinse them off really good first and get all of the bugs out of them… I won’t even tell you what kinds of creatures I found in these ones.  Next, halve them length-wise and set them to soak in a bowl of cold, salted water.  Everyone has a different opinion about how long to soak them for; I’d say the longer, the better.

As far as the steak goes, I just went with a simple marinade and a rib-eye.  The marinade is super easy to whip up and really easy to make changes to.  I used thyme because I had some in my herb garden, but rosemary or tarragon would also be good!  I used a rib-eye because it was on sale (and pretty), but you can use any cut that you have on hand!

 

Steak with Shallots, Thyme, + Wild Morel Mushrooms

Servings: 4 / Cook time: 45-60 min

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• 2-3 lbs of rib-eye steaks
• 8-10 prepared morel mushrooms
• 1 small red onion or shallot
• 2 TB butter
• 1/2 cup red wine vinegar (to deglaze pan)

Marinade:

• 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
• 1/4 olive oil
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1/2 TB black pepper
• 3-4 small sprigs of thyme
• 1 shallot, sliced
• 1 clove garlic, minced

For the marinade, whisk together all ingredients.  Place steak in a ziploc bag and add marinade.  Let steak marinade for 3-6 hours.

Heat skillet to a medium temperature.  Once the skillet is hot, add the steak and cook for about 8-10 minutes on each side.  When steak is cooked to desired doneness, remove it from the pan and place it in a warmed oven to keep warm.  Add butter, onion/shallot, and morels to the pan and saute until mushrooms are browned and soft.  Next, remove mushrooms and use the red wine vinegar to deglaze the pan.  Let simmer for 1-2 minutes, and then add the mushrooms back into the pan.  Serve over steak and finish with fresh thyme.