In season: Valley Fire morel mushrooms from Lake County

Not much good can be said about last year's Valley fire in Lake County, which killed four people, burned more than 76,000 acres and destroyed 2,000 buildings. Except that morel mushrooms tend to pop up in burned-over land, and they are popping in Lake and Mendocino counties.

Which is why fresh morels are becoming available in our local stores. Produce team leader Chris McFadden at Whole Foods on Yulupa Avenue in Santa Rosa has had them since the last week in April. You should be able to find them at Oliver's stores as well. If you're in San Francisco, you'll also find them at Far West Fungi, shop number 34 in the Ferry Building on the Embarcadero.

We're talking fresh morels here. I'd advise you to avoid the dried version. Many of these come from far-off lands where they are dried over fires stoked with dried animal dung.

The reason morels are particularly abundant in areas that have burned, and in abandoned orchards where old trees are dying, is that morels are a mycorrhizal fungi that forms a symbiotic partnership with plants such as forest and orchard trees. When the trees (and other plants, like shrubs) are alive and healthy, their roots exude a sugary substance produced by photosynthesis in the leaves. The fungus, which has no chlorophyll and can't make its own sugar, colonizes the roots and uses the sweet sugar for food.

In return, the fungus spreads a mat of thin, string-like growths called hyphae far out into the soil, scavenging water and nutrients, especially phosphorus, which plants need in order to perform several critical life functions, but which tends to be in short supply in many soils. The hyphae transport the water and phosphorus back to the plant, which absorbs it through its roots. The fungus is so good at this task that fully 90 percent of the water and nutrients absorbed by a plant's roots is delivered to them by the fungus.

That symbiosis happens when the plants are healthy. The fungus has little reason to expend its energy on reproduction when it's living just fine on the roots of its host, so very few mushrooms are produced. But when a fire kills or damages the forest's trees and shrubs, or when an orchard's trees die away, the production of sugar on the roots stops.

Suddenly the fungus finds its source of food cut off. Then it's time to reproduce, and so it sends up fruiting bodies that we know as morel mushrooms. If we don't pick them, the mushrooms will send their spores on the wind, hoping to find a location where they can form that cozy relationship again.

The botanical name for the morel mushroom is Morchella esculenta. It is one of many species of mycorrhizal fungi, and an especially tasty one. That species name, “esculenta,” means fit to be eaten, with the additional idea that what is esculent is also delicious.

That's certainly true of this wonderful mushroom. Next time you find yourself in a forest, scoop up a handful of the decayed detritus on the forest floor and take a deep whiff. That clean, earthy smell is what morels can add to roasted meats, stews, sauces, gravies and fine cheese.

Having fresh morels in the fridge stimulates culinary creativity. I like to chop a couple into small bits and work them gently into ground beef to make mushroom burgers. You can't beat a morel and cheese omelet for breakfast, or make the following morel mushroom sauce, for which you will find many uses.

Cook chicken breasts, bake halibut, grill duck breasts or sauté veal cutlets pounded thin. Have them ready in a warm oven, awaiting this luscious sauce.

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Creamy Morel Mushroom Sauce

Serves 4

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

3 cups sliced morels (1 inch long or less)

¼ cup chopped scallions

1 tablespoon chopped parsley

¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg

¼ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

1 teaspoon sea salt

½ cup dry white wine

2 cups half and half

½ teaspoon Dijon mustard

In a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat, melt the butter until foaming stops, then add the mushrooms. Reduce heat to medium and sauté, stirring occasionally for 15 minutes, or until the morels are slightly crispy.

Add the onions, parsley, nutmeg, pepper and salt, and cook, stirring, for 3 minutes, until the onions are tender.

Turn heat to high and add the wine, stirring until the wine has almost evaporated and the sauce glazes the vegetables.

Reduce heat to medium-low, add the half and half and mustard, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sauce reduces and thickens, about 10 minutes.

Arrange meat or fish on a warm platter, and pour the hot sauce over them.

Jeff Cox is a Kenwood-based food and garden writer. Contact him at jeffcox@sonic.net.