Missouri Morel Flan

• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
• Clean the mushrooms in your preferred manner. Try to allow the mushrooms to dry on a rack before cooking.
• In a large sauté pan, add 4 tablespoons of butter and 4 tablespoons of oil and begin to brown the butter over medium-high heat. Add the crushed garlic and thyme and then add the morels. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Continue stirring the morels until they are cooked, about 4 minutes. Pour the mushrooms onto a rack over a casserole dish in order to collect all the cooking juice.
• For the flan custard, combine the roasted garlic, cream and 1 cup of morel cooking juice in a pot. Bring the mixture to just under a boil on low heat.
• Combine the egg yolks and sugar in a mixing bowl. Temper the egg mixture with the cream and morel juice mixture. Season with salt and pepper. Strain through a chinos and allow to cool.
• For the caramel, place the decomalt and dextrose in a heavy-bottomed small pot. Begin to caramelize the sugars over medium heat. (You can add a small amount of water to help caramelize the sugars.) Once the sugars have reached a rich brown color, add the remaining morel cooking juice. Be careful, as the juice may splatter. Once the liquid is fully incorporated, whisk in the remaining butter off of the heat. Finally, whisk in the morel oil and allow the caramel to cool to room temperature.
• Place a large rectangular casserole pan in the oven. Heavily spray 6 foil cupcake liners with nonstick spray. Fill the molds with custard to about Œ-inch from the top of the mold. Place the molds in the casserole, and add water to come about œ to Ÿ way up the side of the liners.
• Bake for 45 minutes, or until set. Check the flans every 15 minutes. The flans are done when a cake tester can cleanly be removed from the custard.
• Once the flans are done, allow them to cool in the refrigerator. When you are ready to serve, heat the flans in a 350-degree oven for 5 minutes.
• In a sauté pan, add a little bit of olive oil, and warm the cooked morels. Correct the seasoning, if needed.
• Unmold the flans in the center of the plates, and top the flans with the sautéed morels.

*Available at www.le-sanctuaire.com.
**Available at www.earthy.com.

This article appears in May 1-31, 2009.