It’s the first week of June. Like every year, I’m watching the lambs quarters get bigger, and waiting for the purslane to show. The cattail shoots are perfect, and, hidden in the marshes nearby, another annual tradition, one that’s been taking place for roughly 90 million years in more or less the same fashion, is…
Fish/Seafood
Trout with Spring Shoots and Pheasant Backs
Last week we had a couple over for dinner and the woman, a friend of my girlfriend I’d met many times before, was, unbeknownst to me, a fly-fishing apex predator. I still have trouble catching anything but rocks with my rod, but she showed up with an entire cooler filled with 8 whole brook trout,…
Eggs de Gaulle with Morels and Shrimp
Baked eggs with dried morel mushrooms and shrimp is one a great recipe I’ve borrowed from the Legendary Jacques Pepin, and a favorite of a number of people I know in the mushroom hunting community, including myself. Technically, the dish has two names, the first is Eggs en Cocotte, which basically means eggs steamed or…
Grilled Venison Trip-Tip
If you like alternative cuts of venison like I do, than you owe it to yourself to cut and grill up a venison tri-tip steak. Tri-tips are a cut of beef from the bottom of the leg made famous by chefs from California. If there was such a thing as a state cut of meat,…
Crab Stuffed Morels
Stuffed morels filled with crab meat napped with melted butter, a dusting of breadcrumbs and baked to a golden brown are a classic, and make for a great appetizer made with both fresh or dried mushrooms. With the end of winter coming, I thought it was about time I start really using up the previous…
Steamed Fish with Trotter-Mushroom Sauce
Flecked with mushroom duxelles, lemon and herbs, trotter mushroom sauce is one of the richest sauces for fish I know of. When I have trotters, the first thing I usually make are crispy-fried cakes, but this earthy, mushroomy, herby sauce lifted with lemon is a great recipe for using up leftover minced trotter (you’ll have…
Wild Mushroom Tom Kha Gai (Thai Coconut Soup)
Oh this is a good one, and a recipe for chicken of the woods (or other wild mushrooms like hen of the woods) I’ve been meaning to get up for a while. Tom kha gai is a classic Thai soup typically using chicken, mushrooms, coconut milk, and a few aromatics. It’s a well known soup,…
Baked Fish with Black Trumpet Crust
When Sitka Salmon sent me loads of fish to cook with this year in preparation for a project we were working on, I started working on a few great ways to use frozen fish, especially white-fleshed fish like black rockfish and cod. Making a topping with dried black trumpets, leeks and tomatoes was one of…
Anchovy Vinaigrette
This basic anchovy vinaigrette recipe is one of the cornerstones of fine home cooking for me–think of it like Ceasar salads lighter, more delicate cousin. I keep a number of simple vinaigrettes in jars around so I can make salads and have them on the table in seconds. Anchovy vinaigrette, along with a basic white…
Monkfish Piccata with Cardoons, Chard, and Dandelion Capers
A simple piccata with monkfish and preserved cardoons. Feel free to use any capers you like. Monkfish is wonderful served to people who might prefer chicken over fish. This uses my preserved cardoon recipe here.
Simple Shrimp Mousseline
One of the best selling appetizers I used to run at my first restaurant, The Salt Cellar, was a simple deep fried shrimp cake served with lovage aioli. It went through a number of different preparations behind the scenes as I tried to dial in efficiency, but at it’s heart it was always nothing more…
Nasturtium, Arugula, and Purslane Salad with Milkcaps and Shrimp
The marinated milkcap mushroom preserves I talked about in this post are fine out of the jar, but even better warmed up and put on a plate with something. I love a good salad, and my nasturtiums have been in full swing, so whatever I made, I knew they’d be going in there. A great…
Linguine with White Clam Sauce and Chanterelles
If you pick chanterelles you know the excitement that comes with the first buttons of the year, and picking what recipe you’ll make with the first teeny guys is something I really look forward to. Bright egg-yellow, rock hard wine corks that squeak like cheese curds when you chew them whole, giving off whiffs of…