[Award Winning] Morel & Leek Strata with Lemon Thyme Biscuits

Delicious, buttery homemade lemon-thyme biscuits covered in sauteed leeks and morels and surrounded by a rich, creamy morel-and-lemon-infused custard. The perfect dish for your upcoming spring brunch.

This recipe was the winner of the Marx Foods Blogger Challenge: Morel Edition!
Step by Step Instructions (with photos)

Morel & Leek Strata with Lemon Thyme Biscuits

serves 6 as brunch main course

1 recipe Lemon Thyme Buttermilk Biscuits - baked and cooled
1 oz dried morel mushrooms
1 cup heavy cream
3 T butter, divided
1 large leek, cleaned and thinly sliced
1 cup chicken (or vegetable) broth
4 large eggs
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (use the lemon you zested making the biscuits)
3 T fresh thyme, chopped, divided
1 cup milk
1 generous cup shredded Gruyere cheese (0.25 lb)
salt
pepper

First, place morels along with 1 cup heavy cream into a small saucepan. Heat over medium-low heat until just boiling. Cover. Remove from heat and allow to steep for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350ºF
Melt 2 T butter in a medium saute pan over medium heat. Add sliced leeks and saute until transluscent (but not brown) -- between 5-10 minutes. Remove from pan; set aside and allow to cool.

When morels have reconstituted, remove mushrooms from cream. Set cream aside. Chop mushrooms roughly. Heat 1 T butter over medium-high heat in the same pan you used to saute the leeks. When butter has ceased frothing, add morel mushrooms and saute for 5-8 minutes -- or just until cooked and beginning to crisp. Set mushrooms aside to cool.

In heavy saucepan, bring broth to a boil. In a bowl, whisk together 3 eggs and lemon juice. Temper the eggs by whisking half of the broth into egg mixture. Then whisk egg mixture into remaining broth in saucepan. Cook egg mixture over moderately low heat, stirring until thickened. Do not let the mixture come to a boil!

In bowl, whisk together remaining egg, reserved heavy cream (from reconstituting morels), milk, remaining 1 T chopped thyme, and salt & pepper to taste.

Whisk hot lemon mixture into cold egg mixture until well combined.

Butter a 9"x13"x2" pan.
Slice 6 lemon-thyme biscuits lengthwise and arrange in the prepared pan. Top biscuits with leeks and morel mushrooms. Sprinkle with grated Gruyere. Pour custard slowly and evenly over biscuits in baking dish. Allow to rest for at least 1/2 hour (and up to 8 hours) in the refrigerator.

If you've refrigerated the strata for 8 hours, remove from refrigerator 1-2 hours before baking. Place in preheated 350ºF oven and bake for 30-40 minutes, or until the custard is set and the strata is beginning to brown slightly around the edges.

Serve strata hot from the oven, warm, or at room temperature.


19 comments:

Heather S-G said...

Yum! I had a strata over the weekend, too! Yours looks awesome :)

Dewi said...

You are just right, sounds really perfect to welcome spring! Delicious Lo!
Cheers,
elra

stephchows said...

mmmmm buttermilk biscuits... just thinking about them is making me drool!

michael, claudia and sierra said...

voted!

Rod Newbound said...

Oh, this spring-time recipe sounds so good. Makes me want to head to the woods and find some fresh morels. Little bit early here, but soon.

Thanks for sharing your unique creation. You definitely get my vote.

Juliana said...

Such an interesting recipe, should try soon!

Teresa said...

This looks amazing. I was mushroom hunting today and now I know what to do with any I find. Thanks for the recipe!

lizzylizard said...

This is the one! Beautiful presentation! Beautiful taste! The contest is yours!

the wicked noodle said...

Of course I'll vote! This looks elegant, inspiring and delicious. Makes my little bagel I'm eating at the moment look pretty pathetic!

Chowhound said...

How do I vote? This looks very yummy of course I'll vote for it.

s. stockwell said...

You have our vote! Sounds so tasty! Best from Santa Barbara.

Tin Signs and Things 4 U (eBay store) said...

can't type
keyboard too slippery
drool

Sindy said...

Hi, Lo! Thanks for leaving a comment on my blog- good luck in the contest!!

Unknown said...

I voted a definitive YES! for this delicious sounding recipe. Thanks for sharing it!

Rico said...

another impressive fruity savoury dish I love these, really do especially in spring. :) xx Rico-Recipes

Anonymous said...

Congrats on winning the morel contest! This recipe really looks like it tastes delicious!

Marlene said...

Way to go - congratulations on winning the contest. Your recipe looks delightful. We have a lot of morrels in Montana - I will try this.
Thanks.

bowling news said...

That looks amazing, but I think that anything with morels would be pretty much the best thing ever.

rcakewalk said...

Ok, you must be a forager or have a morel-findin' friend... I may become your best friend in the springtime! I haven't had a properly foraged morel in about 8 years, since leaving Wilton. My pie boss, GOP, knew some guys that would drop off a full size paper grocery bag full. Heaven!

When I was a kid, and if my Dad was lucky enough to find them, he would slice them up to include in scrambled eggs. But the GOP family way was to take the bounty, dredge in flour and fry in butter! What absolute decadence to eat as many butter fried morels as you could hold!

Truth be told, I don't recall seeing these elusive mushrooms in any stores around here since moving, save perhaps Whole Foods after it opened, I may have even splurged on the outrageous price, had I first viewed your cache of recipes!

I'm suddenly feeling like it's going to be a long, long winter.