Creamy Morel Mushroom Sauce

NorthwestGal's Note:

This is my (and DH's) all-time favorite recipe. We usually reserve this delectable mushroom sauce for special occasions, because it is by far the VERY BEST mushroom sauce ever! I got the recipe from my brother-in-law who traveled quite a bit for his job as an aerospace engineer. While in Micronesia during one of his business trips, he ordered grilled steak that was served with a creamy morel mushroom sauce. One bite, and he was completely hooked (which was my experience as well). And it then became his personal mission in life to duplicate that recipe. After trying various versions, he eventually came up with this recipe, and he passed it on to me (some begging and groveling was involved). I'm posting it here with his approval. Thanks, Jimmy!

• Total Time: 35 mins
• Prep Time: 20 mins
• Cook Time: 15 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

• 2 ounces morels (dehydrated mushrooms)
• 1 cup red wine
• 2 shallots , finely minced
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 -2 tablespoon beef base (I use Better-Than-Bouillon Beef Base, but you can use any condensed beef paste of your choosing)
• black pepper , to taste

Directions:

1. Soak the dried morel mushrooms in the red wine just long enough to rehydrate them, about 20-30 minutes is usually sufficient. (I use a plastic container with a lid for this step. That way, I can tilt the container occasionally or shake it around a bit, to be sure all the mushrooms are adequately rehydrating.).
2. After the mushrooms are rehydrated, place them in a colander and rinse with cool water to remove any grit from the mushrooms. Leave the colander in the sink to allow the excess water to drain from the colander.
3. Finely mince the rehydrated mushrooms; set aside.
4. In a large skillet, saute the minced shallots in butter just until they are clear, about 3-4 minutes. Add the minced mushrooms and beef base, and stir well. While stirring, add the cream and pepper, continuing to stir constantly until the sauce is thickened.
5. Spoon the sauce over grilled steaks (especially New York or Sirloin), veal, lamb, grilled chicken breasts, or pasta.
6. NOTE: For the wine, it doesn't really matter what kind of red wine you use. The wine is just to rehydrate the mushrooms, not to really flavor the sauce. So feel free to use whatever red wine you have on hand. I have used a lot of different red wines for this sauce, and they all seem to work just fine. But I probably use merlot and cabernet the most. But if a different variety of red wine is your favorite, then by all means use it. That way, if you use a wine you actually enjoy drinking, then it's more likely you'll enjoy using it in this recipe.

Reviews

[paololorenzi]

Great sauce over a well seared rib eye. I added some sauted baby portobello mushrooms to help stretch the morels. I also used water instead of wine to soak the dried mushrooms and then added the soaking liquid back to the sauce (careful not to get any grit at the bottom) along with the wine.

[Chef #1163587]

We had fresh morels so I used about 2 1/2 oz, cut in half (preferred more chunky to minced), otherwise followed recipe (even bought the same beef base). First batch we thought was a little too salty (likely due to the beef base as no other salt had been added). The next couple of times we reduced the beef base to just under 1 tablespoon. This is an awesome mushroom sauce. We used the recipe tonight with baby bellas and shitake mushrooms and it was not quite as great, but still very good. Thank you for sharing your recipe! It will be a regular in our frequent steak eating home!

[bluemoon downunder]

WOW! :) If you love mushrooms, this is a MUST-TRY recipe. I re-hydrated my mushrooms with merlot, confess to having added some minced garlic and a sprinkling of thyme to the shallots but otherwise followed the recipe exactly and wouldn't want to change a thing. We SO enjoyed this with grilled lamb chops. Thank you so much, NorthwestGal (and Jimmy), for sharing such a fabulous recipe. I'll be making this often. Made for PRMR.