- [Announcer] This program was funded in part by the forest at Duke, a retirement community in the heart of Durham, North Carolina.

With more than 350 residents, the Forest at Duke presents residents with ongoing opportunities to keep growing.

[gentle music] - Coming up on "The Key Ingredient," mushrooms have been around forever, but these tasty fungi are having a moment.

I'm going to show you a simple but impressive mushroom soup, and then classic buttery mushrooms on crunchy grilled bread.

We head into the woods to forage springtime morels, and then to the kitchen where my friend John Fleer and I use them in an Appalachian-inspired recipe you're gonna love.

That's next.

[gentle music continues] I'm Sheri Castle.

I write cookbooks.

I write for food magazines.

I cook, I teach, and I collect stories and my favorite stories are the ones behind our best loved home recipes.

That smells good.

You think bears are gonna come?

- Probably out here.

- Oh, that's awesome.

I will go out and explore from the ground up the best ingredients that go into some of our most beloved family recipes.

It's all about the food, the flavors, and finding the key ingredient.

[upbeat folk music] Delicious mushrooms can be farmed or foraged.

Natalie Dechiara and Luke Gilbert are expert foragers who are passionate about sharing their knowledge, stories, and excitement for the natural world.

Today, they are guiding me into the woods to search for morels, a prized springtime culinary delight.

[upbeat folk music continues] - Hey.

- Hey.

- The big day's here.

- Hey!

- How are you?

It is so good to see you.

- Great.

- So, good to see you.

- I'm thrilled.

I've been counting down the days to come look for mushrooms, but how did y'all get into this?

- Let's see.

I started foraging about 13 years ago, and I just wanted to know where my food came from.

- And so you had your own mushroom knowledge before you met, right?

- I did.

I had been foraging mushrooms, plants, fruits for about 10, 12 years.

- Yeah.

- So, you've done this before?

- Yes, but not with somebody like you.

Yeah, yeah.

- Okay.

So, I think beginner's luck still applies.

- So, into the woods?

- Into the woods we go.

- Let's go.

- Let's do it.

- All right.

[playful music] - [Sheri] So, have there always been mushrooms in the mountains?

- [Natalie] As long as time has existed, I do think there has been some form of mushrooms.

- So, do you have any idea how many varieties grow here in the Blue Ridge?

So, in the Blue Ridge Mountains, we have around 5,000 species that we've discovered.

- So, now, I've heard that you're supposed to kinda look going uphill.

It's easier to see 'em in profile.

Is there any truth to that?

- You are 100% right, Sheri.

That is the one thing I think people miss out on the most is that they try and look for morels when they are walking downhill, but morels typically are on the downside of fallen logs, branches, small shrubs, and herbs.

I think I see one right over there, actually.

- You're kidding me.

- No.

- I cannot believe you saw that that far away.

- [Luke] Well, they heard us talking about 'em and- - [Sheri] And they didn't run and hide?

- Right.

Thankfully, we were being quiet enough, but yeah, I see a trio.

- Holy Moses.

There it is.

And there's another one.

Okay, so how do you guys go about harvesting?

- If you wanna do the honors, I brought my little mushroom knife.

- Can I really?

- Yeah!

- [Sheri] All right.

So, literally, is it soft enough that I can just go down?

- [Luke] Just get some, 'cause there's a lot.

The whole stem is edible.

- There it went.

It just gave up.

Look at this baby.

It's beautiful.

- Give it a whiff.

[playful music] - Oh my goodness.

That's like all of earth, a little heaven, and four stars all in one thing, isn't it?

- Wait till they're cooked.

- I know and that's the thing about morels.

You gotta eat 'em cooked.

- Gotta cook 'em.

Morels are actually poisonous if you don't cook them.

- All right, so let's continue on the same contour from here and try and see if we can see the extent of this patch.

- Got it.

Tread lightly, look carefully.

[playful music continues] - Oh, here's one.

- Really?

Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh.

Yep, yep.

I think I see it.

Now, I've looked away and don't see what I was looking at anymore.

- I see that one by the log there.

- [Sheri] Yes, yes, yes.

Yes.

Yep.

- See 'em?

They're little.

They're little guys.

- Yep.

So, we've got what?

A dozen?

A good dozen?

Maybe even a baker's dozen.

That's pretty good for the time we've been out here.

- Yeah.

- So, let's mosey on back, because I wanna know what you do if you don't find any.

- We've always got a backup plan.

- [Luke] Always got a backup plan.

- Always got a plan.

[gentle music] Well, here comes the welcoming committee.

Hello, friends.

- Hey, y'all.

- [Natalie] Ava, Bessie.

- Who is this?

Hi, ya'll.

- These are our three little truffle hunters.

- I love you guys.

You look like lambs.

So, this must be your mushroom backup plan you were talking about.

- Yes, we grow shiitake mushrooms on logs and these first started to come out about a week ago and they just were itty bitty little buttons.

- So, how do you get them to grow on the log?

Are they volunteering or are you making this happen?

- A little bit of both.

Sheri.

We started to inoculate our own logs and these are inoculated ourselves by drilling holes and force-inoculating with a saw dust spawn.

- So, now, these have got the gills on 'em, but do you have to cut them like we were doing with the morels or is it- - Let me show you how I like to do it.

- Okay.

- Because the knife is okay, but with the shiitake, if you just grab it on the stem and give it a nice little twist... - [Sheri] Like opening a doorknob.

- Yep, exactly.

They just twist right off.

- So, this is amazing.

I can see this in my future and I thank y'all so much for taking me through the best walk in the woods I've had in a long time.

- Anytime, Sheri.

You're welcome to come back and show us up again.

- [laughs] Remember my beginner's luck.

I'll have to bring another newbie with me to keep the beginner's luck.

No, this is great.

All right.

I thank you.

Until next time.

- Thanks, Sheri.

- See y'all.

- Thank you, Sheri.

[gentle music] - People often ask me what is my favorite thing to cook?

And of course, I can't answer that question, but I can say I never get tired of making pots of soup, particularly mushroom soup, and particularly this mushroom soup.

I think it is one of the most delicious soups that I make.

[gentle jazz music] I am gonna start with a mushroom topping that I'm gonna put in the oven.

When I make this soup, I try to get as many different kinds of mushrooms as I can find.

I'm gonna start with my shiitakes and you'll notice that I am keeping these mushrooms in pretty big pieces.

Now I have some good old creminis, which are sometimes called baby portobellos.

Do this one.

I want these in chunky bite-sized pieces.

This one's called a Maitake and you can just shred it.

It's almost like pulling cheese apart.

Lion's mane, one of the most impressive mushrooms.

Look at this one.

Look at this color.

This is called a blue oyster mushroom and this assists a yellow foot.

Sometimes it looks like these have come out of a crayon box.

I just love how these look.

[gentle jazz music] So, now that I have my beautiful medley of mushrooms, I'm gonna put a little bit of seasoning.

The first thing is some soy sauce.

I think soy sauce is a great addition to mushrooms.

Gonna take a tiny bit of oil, a few good grinds of black pepper, and some salt.

When you add salt to mushrooms matters and for this high temperature roasting, the salt is gonna make them release their juices in the way that I want.

It won't turn them soupy.

Then take my little baking sheet here, which I've lined with parchment, and I'm just gonna pour it right on there, spread 'em out into an even layer, because mushrooms need some room, and then I've got fresh thyme sprigs and I'm just gonna tuck them down between the mushrooms, and already, we have our topping nearly made.

It's gonna go in the oven to roast while I start working on the next part of the soup.

[gentle jazz music continues] The next kind of mushroom I'm preparing for my soup are dried mushrooms, in particular, dried porcinis.

So, what I'm gonna do is I'm going to rehydrate these and I'm gonna let these sit for about 20 minutes.

So, after 20 minutes, look what happened.

They turned back into these beautiful, more moist little pieces.

So, I'm gonna strain this.

All I have here is a good paper coffee filter, and I'm gonna put my mushrooms in here and I'm gonna let it drain.

I am so excited to show you how I assemble this soup.

I'm gonna start with some good old butter.

Put it in my pan, and then I'm going to put in an onion, a diced onion.

I'm gonna put in a great big pinch of salt.

Now, I'm gonna add some garlic, too.

I'm gonna stir as I go.

Next comes more of those gorgeous mushrooms and I'm gonna add another pinch of salt to encourage them to release their delicious juices and if you season as you go, it all adds up to what you want in the end.

I'm gonna show you guys a great trick.

Sometimes when I'm building flavor in a savory soup like this, I add a little bit of tomato paste, double concentrate tomato paste, not so much for the tomato flavor, but for the beautiful richness and Umami that it brings.

Now, you'll notice I have made myself a little clearing in my mushrooms here and I'm gonna take that last little dab of butter that I set aside, put it in the pot, and let it melt.

I'm gonna add that tomato paste and what I'm gonna do, so I'm gonna add it to that little clearing I have made and I'm gonna let that butter and that tomato paste sizzle together and once that sizzle gets going, I'm going to quickly coat everything in the pot with that caramelized sizzling tomato paste.

I often put wine in mushroom soups and my favorite pairing with mushrooms is Madeira and I'm going to pour my Madeira into my pot and as the alcohol cooks away, it is releasing even more flavor from these mushrooms and these onions.

I am going to put some flour into this to lightly thicken the soup and I'm going to add paprika.

So, let me give this a good stir, [soft music] and now, we're gonna add some chicken stock.

I have a little bit more soy sauce, and then we have our strained mushroom stock, and then we have our rehydrated porcini.

Give it a good stir one more time.

Now, I'm gonna let this simmer for a few minutes until my mushrooms are tender, until all the flavors have melted, and then we're gonna puree it and finish it up.

[gentle Italian music] So, my soup is simmered.

Those flavors have come together, and now, I'm going to puree it.

So, I'm going to transfer about half of my soup and I'm going to pour it into the blender, making sure I have both some solids and some liquid.

[blender whirring] So, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna put this back in the pot, puree the other half, and then we're gonna garnish this and it'll be ready to taste.

So, my pureed soup is back in the pot and I have two more things to add in.

The first is a tiny bit of cream to bring these flavors together and I'm also going to add the juice of a lemon to lift everything up for that final burst of flavor.

Let this hang out and warm up a little bit and look at these mushrooms that came out of the oven.

Are they not beautiful?

Now, by this point, this thyme has given all the flavor it's going to have, but I want to refresh that.

So, I have some fresh thyme leaves.

I'm just gonna sprinkle over and I also have stirred together some sour cream.

I took the zest off of that lemon that I put in the pot.

I stirred it into sour cream with a little salt and pepper and that's gonna be my garnish.

Let's put this together.

You want a nice big wide bowl for this, and then I'm gonna put some of my mushrooms on top.

Maybe one of these guys.

Let's stick one of those guys in there, too.

A big beautiful dollop of my lemony sour cream and and delicious.

This is a celebration of mushrooms.

Look at all the varieties we put in.

Look at all the ways we cooked them.

This is great mushroom soup.

It's a keeper.

[upbeat jazz music] [gentle upbeat music] My friend John Fleer and I share deep affection for recipes with a sense of place, especially our favorite place, the Appalachian Mountains.

John believes that moments around a shared table deepen the ties among the people we care about.

Today, he's sharing one of his storied recipes with us, a morel mushroom dish with the curious name of Merkel pie.

[gentle upbeat music continues] Hey, bud.

- Hey, how you doing?

- I'm good.

I'm so happy to be here today.

Thank you for having me over.

- Absolutely.

I am happy to have you up here on the ridge top.

- What are we making today?

- We're gonna make something called a Merkel pie.

- A Merkel pie, - Which is the Appalachian version of a morel pie, somewhat similar to a shepherd's pie.

As many good things start with some bacon... Having it at that lower sort of medium temperature helps the bacon render out.

[gentle music] - And looky there.

A few short minutes later, we have perfectly cooked bacon.

- Yes, indeed.

We're going to spoon out this crisped bacon here.

Let the fat drain down, and then if I need to pour it, it's already there.

- Okay.

- We're gonna save some of this fat to saute in, and then we're gonna pull off some fat to roast the potatoes with.

- Is that what this jar is here for?

- [John] That's right.

- And I see potatoes.

- Absolutely.

- What are we gonna do with this?

- So, we're gonna roast these.

I like to roast them whole for mashed potatoes or anything.

- Really?

- I do.

Yeah.

- So, you're gonna just put some fat on there.

- We are, and then we're gonna toss 'em.

- [Sheri] A little bit of salt.

- Let's give it a little sprinkle.

- K, and may I hand hand you a pan?

- You absolutely can.

- Okay.

I cannot wait to see roasted potatoes for mashed potatoes.

This is a revelation to me.

- [John] All right.

- All right.

To the oven we go.

- To the oven we go.

- And so now, we're gonna put 'em in a pan and they're gonna start acting more like mashed potatoes, right?

- Well, we're gonna mash 'em together.

- Okay, and then it looks like we're gonna put in butter and dairy.

I like that you're leaving some texture.

So, it's not gonna be a super smooth smash, more of a rustic.

- No, but the butter and the buttermilk will also help smooth it out as we go.

- All right.

[utensil banging] Okay, and then we have here buttermilk.

I love that you're using buttermilk.

I put buttermilk in mashed potatoes and my grandmother always did, and so potatoes are done.

- [John] Potatoes are done.

- We move on to mushrooms.

- Let's do it.

[soft music] - So, what are we gonna do to these beautiful things.

- So, we're gonna start with our bacon grease.

- Okay.

- And I like to start mushrooms in a pretty hot pan, 'cause I think it's important to get some nice caramelization.

- I see some ramps and some spring onions.

Ramps, like morels, it's a thing of spring.

- Absolutely.

- And when it shows up in nature at the same time, it's probably gonna work pretty well.

- All right, I think we're about ready to move on.

- Okay.

- We're gonna add some butter and we're gonna lower the heat down.

- Okay.

- And we're really gonna let these mushrooms stew.

- [Sheri] And garlic.

- Little sliced garlic.

I like slice my garlic, so I can see it.

- [Sheri] Exactly.

- I don't like it chopped.

- And then our spring onions and our ramps.

- And ramps.

We're gonna season this.

- But salt at the end, - Almost the end, 'cause we're gonna let this sit and stew.

It's gorgeous, isn't it?

I just love this.

- It's absolutely beautiful.

- The way those things look together.

- Love how the green is still holding its color so pretty.

- All right, I think that's- - Beautiful.

- I think we're there.

- All right.

So, now, we're gonna build a pie?

- We are.

- All right.

Let's get the stuff.

- Let's do it.

[upbeat music] I love that it's in the skillet that we have used for two or three things already.

- Well, it's well-seasoned.

We are gonna build this in a couple of layers.

- [Sheri] Okay.

- And we're gonna start with potatoes on the bottom.

Now, we are gonna take about half of our morel mixture.

- [Sheri] And that great green color.

- It also helps to kind of press 'em down into this layer of potatoes, so that- - The substrate, the good potato spackle.

- That's right.

- [Sheri] Okay.

Yeah.

- Now, we're gonna finish off the other half of the mushrooms.

- Okay.

Aren't these great?

Aren't...

Nothing looks like that.

They're so fascinating.

And then- - That's why they put 'em on the top of your britches there.

- That's it.

That's it.

They knew what they were doing.

And another layer of potatoes, - We got all of our holes filled first.

- Now, I'm seeing over here an egg.

Are we gonna really put an egg wash on here, like it's the top of a pie.

- We are, it's like old school French pastry.

- [Sheri] So, this is gonna go back in the oven.

- So, it's gonna spend 20 minutes or so in the oven and we're really looking for this egg wash to create a golden brown.

- All right.

- In the oven?

- In the oven.

- Here we go.

[pan bangs] [gentle rock music] - [Sheri] Well, would you look at that?

- I've got it.

- That is so beautiful.

Now, do we get to taste it?

- Absolutely.

Let's do it.

- Be rewarded for our efforts.

Oh, it holds together beautifully.

- It does, really.

- Wow, look at that.

- Potatoes make good spackle, right?

- They really do.

All right, let's go in my friend.

I'm gonna get a little bit of everything here.

[gentle rock music continues] That is absolutely a mushroom dish.

I mean, that's the first thing you get.

You get that whole, you get that earthy, that sweetness, but they're tender now.

You get that little bit of both the garlic and the ramp.

- And it'll fill you up, too.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

- You can have dinner.

- Exactly.

- That's it.

- Well, bless the heart of the person that brought you a Merkel pie to the kitchen that day.

- Well, all praise to Shannon Walker.

- Exactly and to the people that helped us find the mushrooms.

- Exactly.

- And to you, my friend, for letting me come to your house and cook with you.

- Well... - It's a pleasure every time.

- I'll never turn down the opportunity to host you here.

- That sounds good.

- All right.

[music fades out] [cheerful music] - You know, some days, I kid around and say, "I think I live off of toast," and it is true.

I love toast, especially when I put delicious things on toast and that's where I'm starting with this great mushroom and Gruyere toast recipe.

[cheerful music continues] So, I'm just brushing this delicious crusty bread with a little bit of a high smoke point oil, 'cause I'm telling you this pan is screaming hot and I'm going to let this bread sit until I get gorgeous grill marks.

[playful music] I bet I have beautiful grill marks by now.

Let me take a look.

Oh, yes.

A little bit of char around the edge.

Beautiful toasty grill marks.

This is exactly what I'm looking for.

Couple more minutes to get the other side toasty, and then onto the next step.

So, here is my plate and I'm just gonna transfer these pieces up to my serving plate, and then the first thing I do with good toast when it's for a savory thing like this is I put a little salt and pepper on there, just to give it a little bit of seasoning and while my toast is still nice and warm, this is freshly shredded Gruyere cheese.

Now, I chose Gruyere for all sorts of reasons.

One is it's fabulous with mushrooms.

It's a classic pairing with mushrooms.

I also chose it, because it's a great melter.

It has a beautiful, nutty flavor that brings something to the game, but will not overwhelm my mushrooms.

So, I often say, "When you don't know which cheese to pick out for a recipe, pick Gruyere.

It's probably the perfect choice."

Now, I'm going to saute some mushrooms.

We use the term saute a lot with mushrooms, but there's actually a way to do it and it works so well and once you know that technique, you'll have it in your back pocket to use here on out.

I'm gonna let this melt and get beautifully sizzly and I want you to notice how wide this pan is.

When you're sauteing mushrooms, you want width, because we are going to put these in here in as close to a single layer as we can get them.

Mushrooms need space.

When we have put mushrooms in the pan and that brownish gray liquid starts coming out, once that starts, it's hard to stop.

So, just don't let it start and I'm gonna give these a couple of minutes to start turning tender and for the edges to begin browning.

Same thing, stir, stir, stir, wide pan, high heat.

We are on our way and I'm gonna add more flavor to this pan, making myself a little real estate right there and I'm going to drop in this last bit of butter and let it melt, and then I'm going to add some very finely diced shallots.

You want them really small, so that they'll get done in the time it takes to finish the recipe, and now that my mushrooms have started getting tender, that's when I'm gonna add the salt.

I wish you could smell this, that shallot, that butter, the earthiness of the mushrooms.

So, now that my shallots are tender, I am going to deglaze this pan, and to do that, I'm using sherry vinegar, which is probably my personal favorite red wine vinegar.

So, it's both releasing flavor and adding flavor.

My next thing is creme fresh.

It is a sauce in a bowl.

It's magic.

No matter how hot you get it, it will not separate.

I love how this works.

Makes a little bit of creamy sauce.

Then we're going to add some parsley, some cracked pepper, [grinder crunching] and so this is ready to go on my toast.

I have some wonderful chives and I'm gonna use some tarragon.

Take a great piece of toast.

I'm going to take a great big scoop.

Oh, doesn't that look good?

It smells so good.

Can you believe that toast can be this fancy?

It is so easy.

Good bread.

Get it toasted well.

Cook these mushrooms the way I showed you.

Put a little creme fresh, a smattering of fresh herbs.

This is delicious.

This is toast worthy of dinner and that's what mine's gonna be.

[classical music] [playful music] We've done mushrooms out in the woods.

We have gotten mushrooms at farmer's markets.

I wanna talk about mushrooms from the grocery store.

Now, a lot of times when we buy them, they come with this cellophane shrink wrap.

So, as soon as you open them up, I want you to transfer your mushrooms into a brown paper bag, a good old lunch bag.

[paper crinkling] [playful music continues] Now, this bag is permeable, which means your mushrooms are gonna be able to breathe.

Just gently close the top, stash 'em in the fridge, and this is going to extend the life of your mushrooms by several days, giving you more time to cook them.

Now, sometimes, mushrooms have a little bit of dirt on them.

I don't want you to think that this is actually dirt dirt.

It's a growing medium and it won't hurt you, but it's not necessarily pleasant either.

So, I'm gonna show you a way to clean these mushrooms.

All you need to do is take a little pastry brush and just brush that little bit of that gritty growing medium off, but if you have some more, like this is serious dirt and you can tell, right before you cook them, not ahead of time.

I want you to rinse it off.

You don't wanna give 'em a long soak, but a little dip in the pool, a little blotting them dry is a quick and easy way to clean your mushrooms.

That's all you have to do.

[playful music continues] [upbeat music] Given their versatility and incredible range of flavor, mushrooms are sure to be the key ingredient in your next recipe.

It's interesting, isn't it?

The sun is going down and the shadows change, it's harder to see 'em, isn't it?

- [Luke] Oh, nice.

- There we go.

- [Natalie] Yeah, this one's dried.

It's still good.

- The butter helps with that later.

- Oh, yeah, a little butter.

Yeah.

Butter helps with everything, doesn't it?

Hello, what is your name?

- His name is Massy.

[upbeat music continues] - [Sheri] Visit our website.

It's where you'll find the key ingredient for a perfect time in the kitchen.

[gentle music] - [Announcer] This program was funded in part by the Forest at Duke, a retirement community in the heart of Durham, North Carolina.

With more than 350 residents, the Forest at Duke presents residents with ongoing opportunities to keep growing.

[upbeat music]