Morels, Wine & Rainy Weekend: Croûte aux Morilles with BC Foraged Mushrooms
- May 17
- 6 min read
Updated: May 18
May is a celebration in the kitchen: fiddleheads, asparagus, flowers, and fresh spring greens all signal the arrival of warmer days. Among these fleeting seasonal ingredients, morel stands out as one of the most luxurious and flavourful. A mushroom with unforgettable aromas whose season never lasts long enough.
You’ve probably noticed I’ve got a thing for mushrooms. No apologies.
They find their way into a lot of my cooking, and naturally, the wine pairings tend to follow.
If mushrooms had a social hierarchy, truffles would be flashy royalty covered in crown jewels, while morels would be the quiet old-money aristocrats who never need to mention what their family owns. Apparently even fungi have class politics.
So when someone lovely showed up this week with a generous pound of fresh BC-foraged morels, I immediately abandoned all reasonable plans and went straight into cooking mode. Convenient timing too, because this May long weekend was cold, rainy, and just snowy enough to remind everyone we still live in Calgary. Proper “stay inside and cook something comforting” weather.
I started with Morel Chicken because some classics are beyond improvement.
Then came a soup - rich, earthy, exactly what the weather demanded.
And somehow, I still had morels left.
That’s when things turned properly rustic: Croûte aux Morilles.
Croûte aux Morilles
A classic from France’s Franche-Comté region - a part of the country deeply committed to forests, mountain cheeses, and mushrooms in all forms.
At its core, Croûte aux Morilles is beautifully simple: morels slowly simmered in cream until the sauce turns rich, earthy, and deeply savoury.
A bit of backstory
In Franche-Comté, morel season arrives briefly each spring, usually sometime between April and May, and people take it very seriously. Fresh morels are fragile and notoriously difficult to transport, so drying them became part of the local tradition early on - practical, but also an excellent way to intensify their flavour.
The word croûte simply means “crust”, though in practice it refers to whatever is supporting this gloriously creamy mushroom situation. Most often that’s toasted country bread, though puff pastry occasionally enters the conversation and nobody complains.
They grow across every Canadian province and territory, primarily in hardwood forests morel season usually starts in April at lower elevations and stretches into June farther north and up in the mountains, particularly around disturbed forest areas, old logging zones, and previous burn sites.
A s soon as the snow melts in Canadian forests, the first morels begin to emerge. Their conical, honeycombed caps are quickly spotted by experienced foragers who supply some of the country’s best restaurants.
If wandering through forests with a mushroom knife sounds slightly too ambitious, fresh and dried Alberta and BC morels are also fairly easy to find in Calgary through specialty grocers, local foragers, and farmers’ markets - at roughly CAD$30–60 per pound, they’re definitely a small seasonal luxury, but absolutely worth it.
⚠️ Also, and this part matters: never eat morels raw.
They need proper cooking, both for flavour and for safety.
The wine situation
Oxidative Jura Whites
This dish belongs firmly to the Jura, where the wines are every bit as distinctive as the food.
Traditionally, Croûte aux Morilles is paired, and often cooked, with Savagnin-based Jura wines like Vin Jaune or other oxidative whites. These wines are intentionally exposed to oxygen during ageing, which gives them their unmistakable character: nutty, savoury, slightly salty, sometimes almost walnut-like, with enough structure and depth to handle all that cream without getting lost.
They’re not shy wines. Which is precisely why they work so well here.
I’ve written a full post about the Jura, this wonderfully stubborn, slightly eccentric corner of France, its wines, and its food. If you feel like disappearing down a very pleasant rabbit hole, it’s worth a read.
Oak-aged Chardonnay
If oxidative Jura wines feel a little too adventurous, a good oak-aged Chardonnay is a beautiful alternative. Burgundy is the classic choice: rich enough to echo the cream and toasted flavours, but still carrying enough acidity to keep everything balanced.
How much you spend is entirely between you and your conscience.
Red Wines
If you’d rather open a red, keep it elegant and earthy rather than heavy. Pinot Noir works beautifully, especially from Jura or neighbouring Burgundy, where the lighter structure and forest-floor notes naturally complement the mushrooms instead of overpowering them.
That said, good cool-climate Pinot from elsewhere is absolutely welcome at the table too.
And bien sûr, Jura reds themselves are excellent here too. Look for Poulsard or Trousseau, lighter, more rustic styles with bright acidity, subtle spice, and just enough wild character to feel completely at home beside morels and cream.
Sparkling Wines
And if you want to go celebratory, Champagne or any good dry sparkling wine is a very strong move - especially a Crémant du Jura to stay local. The acidity cuts through the cream, the bubbles reset your palate, and suddenly everything feels a bit more special than strictly necessary.
A dry sparkling wine with this is wildly underrated.
Champagne works beautifully, but a Crémant du Jura feels especially appropriate if you want to stay regional. The acidity cuts through the richness, the bubbles reset your palate, and suddenly a bowl of creamy mushrooms on toast starts feeling suspiciously sophisticated.
You can usually find these through specialist importers like Metrovino in Calgary, which is a solid place to start if you’re exploring Jura wines locally.
Croûte aux Morilles - Rustic Morel Toast
You might ask why cook some mushrooms for an entire hour?!
With morels, that slow simmer isn’t overkill - it’s the whole point.
In a classic Croûte aux Morilles, the long cooking time does a few important things at once. First, it builds flavour. As the morels simmer in cream and a splash of regional wine like Savagnin or Vin Jaune, their earthy, complex character slowly infuses the sauce. At the same time, excess moisture cooks off and the cream reduces into something rich, velvety, and properly concentrated, not watery or thin.
Second, there’s a safety factor. Fresh morels contain natural compounds that need thorough cooking to break down. A proper simmer, at least 15–25 minutes, and ideally longer in a finished sauce, ensures they’re fully safe to eat.
Finally, texture. Morels aren’t like button mushrooms; they’re spongy and a bit wild. The extended cooking softens them right through so they turn tender, almost melt-in-the-mouth, instead of chewy or uneven.
So yes, it takes time, but that hour is doing a lot of heavy lifting.
Serves 2-3 | Prep time: 15 minutes | Cook time: 1 hour
Ingredients
150 g / 5 oz fresh morels or 30 g / 1 oz dried
150 ml / 2/3 cup 33% cream
20 g / 1.5 tbsp butter
25 ml / 2 tbsp white wine*
1-2 small shallots, finely chopped
1 small garlic clove, minced
Salt and fresh cracked black pepper, to taste
A small handful of parsley, chopped
1 thick slices of country / sourdough bread per person
1 poached or soft-boiled egg per person - optional
*Ideally Savagnin form Jura, France or Fino /Manzanilla (dry) sherry or oak-aged Chardonnay.
Instructions
Preparing the morels:
If you're using Dried Morels (Rehydrating)
Soak dried morels in lukewarm water or broth for 20–30 minutes, or overnight in the fridge.
Tip: They absorb a lot of flavour as they rehydrate, so don’t toss the soaking liquid. Strain it through a coffee filter or paper towel to remove grit, then use it in soups, sauces, or to deglaze a pan for extra depth.
If you're using Fresh Morels (Cleaning)
Fresh morels should be cleaned quickly since they soak up water easily and can become mushy. You can slice them in half, or keep them whole, then briefly rinse them in cold salted water. Give them a quick spray under the tap and pat them dry with paper towel before cooking.
In both cases, you can also soaked then in a warm chamomile infusion, which pairs beautifully with their earthy flavour. The morels can also be lightly cured with salt and a splash of vinegar to draw out moisture and intensify their flavour. Save the resulting liquid as the base for a rich sauce.
Sauté the shallot in butter over medium heat until soft and fragrant.
Add the morels and cook them down until they release their moisture and start concentrating in flavour (1).
Deglaze with white wine and let it reduce slightly.
Add the garlic and about half the cream, season with salt and pepper (2), and let it simmer gently, covered, for 40–50 minutes.
Add the remaining cream gradually as it reduces until you get a rich, glossy sauce (3).
Meanwhile, toast the bread until golden and crisp.
To serve: spoon the creamy morels over the toast.
If you’re feeling like taking it one step further, add a poached or soft-boiled egg on top for a rich, velvety finish that ties the whole dish together. I also dared to add some Comté cheese chips for the full Jura experience.
Bon appétit!
Happy sipping and savouring!
Wow! So excited for the may blogs💐💐💐