Chicken Fricassee with Morels and Thyme

Its morel mushroom season again! Hip hip hooray!! I was looking for new recipes for our haul of mushrooms this year and came up with this good one. 

Of course, we still made several of Morel Asparagus and Goat Cheese Tarts because that tart is probably the best recipe ever for these mushrooms, but we were pleasantly surprised with this Fricassee. And I'll keep this in my back pocket for future morel seasons to come!


Another great option for morels is the Springtime Quiche, but we seemed to skip this quiche this spring. Maybe we'll come back to it next year. The Springtime Quiche is a good option when you have only a few morels to cook with, as it only uses 6 or 8 mushrooms. 

Fresh morels!

Serves 4
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 45 minutes
Adapted from Williams-Sonoma
http://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/chicken-fricassee-with-morel-mushrooms-and-thyme.html


Ingredients:
3/4 lb. fresh morel mushrooms, each halved lengthwise
1 chicken, about 3 1/2 lb.
1 1/2 tsp. kosher salt, plus more, to taste
1/2 tsp. freshly ground pepper, plus more, to taste
1 Tbs. sunflower oil
4 Tbs. butter
1/2 red onion, minced
1 1/2 Tbs. all-purpose flour
3/4 cup dry white wine
1 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
4 fresh thyme sprigs (dried works fine too)
1/2 cup crème fraîche
1 Tbs. minced fresh chives

Beet Caprese Salad

Every spring I start to crave Caprese Salad, but the tomatoes never ripen soon enough to satisfy this springtime craving. This year I found some gorgeous beets at the farmers market AND this awesome recipe for a Beet Caprese. It was simple, but delicious! And we had mint in the herb garden too! So we used mint instead of basil. Lets call it Caprese inspired....barely...but still delicious!

Roasted Beet Salad alla Caprese
Servings: about 4
adapted from: The Curvy Carrot

Rob and Hazel tasting my yummy salad!

Ingredients

For the beets:
4 medium beets, scrubbed, trimmed, and dried
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper, to taste

For the dressing:
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
Zest of one grapefruit
2 tablespoons grapefruit juice
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

For the salad:
2 balls (4 to 6 ounces each) buffalo mozzarella
Sea salt, to taste
1/4 cup fresh mint leaves, sliced thinly

Note: the original recipe called for basil, which I think would be delicious, but we didn't have any basil in the garden yet and the mint leaves have just started growing again, so we used mint instead.