Morel & Sautèed Spring Greens Napoleon with Morel Crespelle

A friend sent me a link to the Marx Foods website.  I happily perused the available list of fine foods the company has to offer, but stopped in my tracks when I read that Marx was sponsoring their 5th Annual Morel Recipe Challenge.  I’d never entered a recipe contest.  Sounded like a fun way to get those creative wheels turning.  And who cared if I didn’t win?  Free morels!  More if I did win.

I toyed with a few ideas over the past couple of weeks since my contest sample of morels arrived in the mail.

The rules of the contest required that the dish be baked.  Popovers?  No, I just did that with shrimp.  Savory morel profiteroles?  Sounded great, but the profiteroles would be baked, not the morel filling.  As I was harvesting the spring greens I was certain I wanted to use in the dish, I remembered a fellow blogger saying that his mother made lasagna using crepes.  Lasagna sounded too heavy for morels, but what about a Napoleon?  That spark of an idea was all I needed to hurry myself along and get my behind back in the house so I could push up my sleeves and commence flinging my gathered ingredients around, not that the pouring rain wasn’t a big enough motivation to get me moving.

For the greens I used dandelion, broadleaf plantain, onion greens, turnip micro-greens, baby kale, and violet greens.

Unable to bring myself to toss the beautiful mushroom infused water that was left from reconstituting the dried morels, I substituted it for milk in the crespelle batter.  Wow!  That took my usual crepes to a whole other level.  I made roasted herbed potatoes with bell peppers and onions to go with the Napoleon.  So nice with a big, hot cup of coffee to warm me on a rainy, chilly mountain morning!  So here it is, my Napoleon recipe and contest entry.  I loved it.  I hope the voters do too!  😉

Ingredients:

1 c. dried morels, re-hydrated with one cup boiling water

1 oz. grated parmesan cheese

12 morel crespelle

Sautèed Spring Greens

1 clove of garlic, minced

1 T extra virgin olive oil

1 T unsalted butter

1 T rendered bacon fat

8 c. spring greens

1/2 tsp. Himalayan pink salt

Freshly ground pepper

3 T minced chives

2 T fresh oregano, minced

2/3 c. sour cream

Sautèed Morels

3 T unsalted butter

1 T extra virgin olive oil

1 clove of garlic, minced

1 T spring onion greens

1 c. morels, in bite sized pieces

1/4 tsp. Himalayan pink salt

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Morel Crespelle

1 c. all-purpose flour

2 eggs, beaten

2 T melted unsalted butter

1/2 c. morel infused water, left from rehydrating dried morels

1/2 c. water

Pinch of Himalayan pink salt

More butter for cooking

Add the melted butter to the beaten eggs, whisking well to combine.  Beat in the flour and salt.

Whisk in the waters.

Beat well to incorporate the flour.

Heat a crepe pan over medium heat.  Melt a dollop of butter in pan.  Pour just enough crespelle batter into the bottom of the pan to coat.  Swirl with one hand as you pour with the other.  Cook for a couple of minutes, or until the crespelle is dry on the edges and releases from the pan.  Flip and cook for around 30 seconds on the second side.

Transfer to a dish.  Repeat until all the batter is used.  This recipe makes 12.

Method:

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

To prepare the greens, heat oil, butter, and bacon drippings in the bottom of a large sautè pan over medium to high heat.

Add the garlic to the pan to sweat, then the onion greens.

Let them cook a bit to release their flavor.  Toss in the remaining greens.

Cook, stirring, for a few minutes until the leaves wilt and soften and the stems tenderize.  Remove from heat.  Set aside

Prepare the mushrooms by placing a medium skillet over medium heat.  Add the butter and oil.

Saute’ the garlic in the oil.  Add the spring onion greens and cook a bit to release their flavor.

To the cooking aromatics, add the morels, salt, and pepper.  Saute’ for 5 to 8 minutes, reducing the heat to prevent scorching.

Cook thoroughly, as raw morels contain a certain level of toxicity.

Remove from heat and set aside.

Assembly:

Lay a crespelle in the bottom of a baking dish.  Sprinkle with a little grated parmesan.

Spoon on  a bit of morels.

Top with greens.

Add another layer of crespelle.  Repeat until all the ingredients are used.

Cover and bake 30 minutes.   Serve with a dollop of herbed cream.

I made a very tall, six layer Napoleon using a single crepe per layer to maximize the ingredients I had available.  The recipe instructions, utilizing all the crespelle, will make a shorter version and more portions.

Note:  Any greens can be used in this recipe.  It’s not a good idea to forage for wild edibles unless you’ve been educated on the subject by an expert who can properly identify edible foods in nature.   The information on nutrition and wild edibles in this post is not intended as advice for others. 

Remember that morel mushrooms must be thoroughly cooked.