Uncle Nat’s Morels

Nathan George Horwitt, who died two years ago this June at the age of 92, was known by many as the designer of the Movado Museum watch--the one with the dot that spawned a revolution of watches without numbers.

Horwitt was also known as a raconteur, idealist, humanitarian and political activist. He helped establish the state of Israel in the 1940s and helped promote the “wave of wheat” that aided India during the famine of 1951.

I didn’t learn in detail about Horwitt’s many activities and accomplishments until I read his obituaries. To me, he was known mainly as the most colorful, entertaining and magical member of our family: Uncle Nat.

I was a child when he designed the Movado watch, but I remember when he showed me the drawings, describing the elegant simplicity of his design, the dot signifying both sun at high noon and the moon at midnight.

Since he was an industrial designer, his work was grounded in practical concepts, though sometimes they were whimsical--on the wall before me is a hilarious self-caricature he drew on a brown paper bag to entertain me one day at lunch more than 30 years ago: half man, half dog with a bone in its mouth.

Perhaps some saw Horwitt as a dogmatist, but I experienced Uncle Nat the teacher. He was so entertaining that I learned from him without ever knowing it was a lesson. Riding along in his car one spring, he would suddenly screech to a halt, back up with terrifying speed, leap onto someone’s lawn and pluck a mushroom he had spotted out of the corner of his eye. “They know me here,” he would explain. (One of Horwitt’s sidelines was selling costly morels to Lutece, one of New York’s finest restaurants.)

A walk in the forest was full of experiences: “Taste this mushroom. Can you feel the pepper on your tongue? That’s why it’s called the pepper mushroom.” Or, “See this mushroom with spots? It’s called Amanita muscaria , the fly mushroom, because it draws flies. Don’t eat it. It’s poisonous.”

My favorite lesson was: “Do you see anything among those dead leaves?” His eagle eyes had spotted a prized morel, and after pointing out the first, he showed me how others always grew nearby, and I joyfully scurried to find them.

He taught me not to eat too many wild mushrooms at one sitting by sending me five pounds of morels with a note: “Don’t eat them all at once.” I disregarded his advice and ended up with the inevitable stomachache.

Uncle Nat’s final and most important lesson about the glorious morel mushroom was how to cook it: “As simply as possible.” Here’s how.

SAUTEED MORELS

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt or 1/4 teaspoon table salt

1 pound morel mushrooms

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 large clove garlic, smashed with broad side of knife

Freshly ground pepper

Stir together salt and several cups cold water in large bowl. Add mushrooms and soak about 10 minutes. Salt draws out any live insects that may be lurking in cavities. Place mushrooms in colander and rinse well under cold running water to remove any dirt. Cut off stem bottoms and any tough parts of stems. Slice each mushroom into 1/8-inch-thick rounds or cut into pieces, depending on size.

Heat butter over medium heat in large, heavy skillet with lid. When bubbling, add garlic and mushrooms. Cover and cook on low heat until mushrooms are tender, about 10 minutes. Continue cooking, uncovered, over medium heat about 5 minutes, stirring often, until all liquid evaporates and mushrooms begin to glaze lightly. Season to taste with pepper. Taste to adjust seasonings. Makes 4 servings.