When I first started to be interested in mushrooms I remember reading somewhere that pioneers, out of desperation, would make a sort of bread from puffballs. Ever since then, I’ve wanted to make, or just taste, bread made with wild mushrooms. There was only problem: I had no idea how to make bread. As fate…
Baking
Honey Mushroom and Beef Runzas / Bierocks
Back at the Salt Cellar there was an older couple that would come in every weekend, the staff and I called them our favorite couple. Salad, split entree, then they’d each have a different scoop of ice cream to share. I loved talking to them in between pushes on Friday or Saturday nights. The man…
Strawberry-Rhubarb Crisp, With Angelica
From the first time I smelled angelica I’d been trying to figure out the perfect use for it in a dessert, which is easier said than done. Like truffles, the flavor is very strong alone, and almost soapy, but when mixed with too many things, the taste and aroma disappear completely. To further compound things,…
Angelica Seed Pound Cake
When I was dreaming up what to serve at the Slow Food MN’s Wild Things dinner last year, I knew I had to have an interesting dessert. Most of the other dinners of the previous years didn’t include a sweet option to finish the event, so I wanted to up the ante. Whatever the dessert…
Ricotta-Ramp Tart With Morel Jus
For the first 7 or so years of my kitchen career, I was addicted to cooking Italian food. There’s a mystique about it that seemed to epitomize fancy to me as a kid, so making high cuisine must mean I have to be in an Italian restaurant, right? Now I understand that Italian and French…
Rhubarb-Hazelnut Cake, With Spruce Tip Ice Cream
Cooking is more than a job to me, it’s a way of life. When I’m sad, I cook. When I’m bored, I cook. This little cake came from an evening where I cooked because I was really happy. I was cooking for a date, with the most talented and beautiful woman I’d ever met. I…
Hen Of The Woods-Leek Gratin
Here’s an awesome, easy way to enjoy those hen of the woods. Story goes that I was at my girlfriends place getting ready to make some Sunday dinner, we pulled some pork chops out of the freezer, but were a little light on the vegetable front. Thankfully there’s a giant garden around-the stuff dreams are…
Black Trumpet Bouchées With Chanterelle Mousse
Here’s the appetizer I started out with at the Hunt ‘N’ Munch: little savory eclairs flecked with black trumpets, filled with a chanterelle cheese mousse, and topped with a pickled chanterelle. The “bouchée” description is just the pretty name given to savory, filled bites of pate a choux like this. If pate choux isn’t…
Chanterelle Custard / Pot du Creme
Our chanterelles in the Midwest are delicious, in my opinion much more than the variety that I see coming in from the Pacific Northwest. The P.N.W chanterelle I’m familiar with I suspect to be one cantharellus formosus, it turns brown after pickling, where our chanterelles will stay golden, it’s flavor is also less intense, less…
Roger Verge’s Morel Quiche
I wanted to end the morel season with a bang, so I waded through a couple piles of old French cookbooks. I found just what I wanted in an old 80’s recipe by Roger Vergé. There’s just something about dated cookbooks that turns me on. The plating is usually super cheesy and over the top….
Paw Paw Cheesecake
If you can get your hands on a paw paw, this should definitely be on your list of things to make. A pastry chef I worked with was very talented at using them, his cheesecake was the first thing I ate made with paw-paws, and it is a great recipe. The paw paw’s fruity flavor…