Wild greens are eaten all over the Mediterranean, and, if you have a copy of my book you’ll know how much I like horta-the famous Greek conglomeration of foraged greens. For all intents and purposes, you can think of Tsigarelli (also known as horta tsigari) as it’s hot cousin, literally and figuratively. I read about…
Appetizers
Marinated Honey Mushrooms
I cook honey mushrooms all sorts of ways, but these marinated honeys are the first thing you should make if you’re new to them, or if you’re a honey-harvesting veteran who’s looking for something new tricks. They’re delicious, addicting, the perfect compliment to a charcuterie platter, and work warm or cold. Most of us are…
Carpaccio with Beefsteak Mushrooms
Carpaccio, the classic Italian appetizer of tenderized, thinly sliced raw beef served with olive oil, arugula and good parmesan, was one of the first recipes I was taught to prep when I worked for Chef Angelo Volpicelli, the first teacher I can credit with showing me a few of the ins and outs of traditional…
Hollyhock Sarmasi with Nuts, Mushrooms and Wild Grape
If you give me a big leaf, I can probably find something to roll up in it and call it a dolma, roulade vert, or, as with this version loosely inspired by Turkish rolls: sarmasi (Romanian sarmale is a synonym). I have a couple recipes for food rolled up in leaves on this site, but,…
Green Kentucky Coffee Beans
Kentucky Coffee Beans, also known as mastadon peas (my name), have been on my mind, in my fridge, and in my belly all week. They are, without a doubt, the largest, tastiest and most interesting wild legume (sans tepary beans, of course) I’ve eaten to date. This is a long, detailed post, with a lot…
Huitlacoche Elotes
Sweet corn season is in full swing here in the Midwest: stands filled with green spears of golden kernels dot the roadsides, parking lots of neighborhood watering holes, private drives, and just about anywhere you can fit a corn stand. Mushroom hunters know that with corn season comes another offering: Aztec black gold. Now is…
Wild Greek Salad with Purslane and Stonecrop
Midsummer means a lot of things, but heat and garden weeds are probably two that many of us are familiar with right now. A few weeks ago, there was a dinner on the farm I was going to contribute a dish too, and, as my partner’s family is proud of their Greek heritage, I thought…
Morel Escargot
I’ve gotten plenty of comments/request this year about what I do with big morels, you know, the giants, honkers, pigs and behemoths that come up at the end of the season. Seasoning them in a method similar to escargot is a fun treatment, and something you should try if you’re lucky enough to get a…
Morilles à la Crème (Morels with Cream)
I make all kinds of things with my morels, some of them take a bit of preparation, like roasted chicken with morels, morel quiche, or morels stuffed with morel sauce. But, when I come back fresh from a good hunt, my legs sore, and my little mushroom hunters heart excited to share the days finds…
Pheasant Back-Spring Vegetable Soup
Here’s a great recipe to celebrate some of the young growing plants of spring: a simple, brothy soup made from green garlic or wild onions, pheasant back mushrooms, a spring shoot/vegetable of your choice (I used fiddleheads and elm samaras) wild rice or another grain, and a little meat broth or whatever you have on…
Fiddlehead Salad
This simple salad is my go-to recipe for eating ostrich fiddleheads. There’s all sorts of advice out there on how to cook them: blanch five minutes, blanch ten minutes, saute afterwords and cook them to death in oil, put them in lasagna and bake them to oblivion, then pull out long, soft and stringy noodles…
Dandelion Hearts / Crowns
About 7 years ago while I was playing disc golf, I came across an elderly women digging up dandelions near the parking lot of the course. I’ve always been fascinated by traditional recipes and preparations, so, of course I had to walk up and ask what she was harvesting, and how she was going to…
Crispy Gyromitra
I finally got to eat my first Gyromitra caroliniana, also known as the “Big Red”. Where I live on the border of Minnesota and Wisconsin we have a number of Gyromitra that I’ve eaten, well two species to be exact (Gyromitra korfii and Gyromitra Brunnea) and they’re ok. Gyromitra caroliniana is special in a number…