Ajiaco, a stew of multiple types of various potatoes, poultry, and corn, is a famous Latin American dish probably best known around the world as being Colombian, although there are different permutations enjoyed in different places, like Peru and Cuba, to name a few, each with slight variations. A riff on the Colombian version is…
Poultry
Grouse Scaloppini with Watercress and Bacon Vinaigrette
Here’s one of the most perfect dishes I know of for a warm summer evening: a scaloppini of grouse (or any other light-colored poultry like pheasant, partridge, etc) grilled quick over a hot fire and tossed onto an extra large salad of watercress (or whatever greens you like) with a warm vinaigrette and fresh herbs. …
Wild Goose Eggs
Where I live, and around the country, wild poultry are just about everywhere: ducks, turkeys, quail, swans, pheasants, woodcock, grouse, and many more. One species I’m acutely aware of right now in the spring, as much for the honks and flying Vs, is our native Canada Geese, Branta canadensis. One thing geese and all the…
Sumerian Pigeon Soup
Sumerian pigeon soup is a love letter on pigeons being worthy for the table, and an example of how I get inspired by historical texts. I like variety, and my collection of food references spans everything from Greco-Roman Apicius, Archestratus, and Byzantine Geoponika, to the more modern A Discourse of Sallets and The Little House…
Chicken of the Woods Wild Rice Casserole
It’s getting colder outside, and I’m starting to crave that cold weather food. Stews and braises have happened already happened, but one thing that’s been gnawing at me was a good, solid casserole. Coming from the Midwest, I have casserole in my blood, and there’s nothing like the classic chicken wild rice casserole laced with…
Braised Pheasant Legs In Morel Sauce
I love my Grandma, and occasionally I re-invent dishes of hers I’ve eaten over the years. Grandpa loves Grandma’s pheasant breasts cooked in a can of Campbells golden mushroom soup. Braised pheasant legs with morel sauce is my version of that family classic. I originally made this as a dinner for them on one of…
Watercress Omelet with Herbs (Green Eggs and Ham)
When I was in college, I cooked constantly (not much has changed). One of the things I often made for my roomates in our cramped house, besides big bowls of hummus, was colored scrambled eggs. Typically they were red eggs, with a little tomato puree, or hot chili. To this day, I don’t really understand…
Unlaid Eggs
For the most part, we don’t appreciate older animals much. We want things young, tender, and easy to chew. Old dairy cattle are an unwanted, tough by-product of industry, the same goes for old milking ewes (and their unwanted male offspring necessary to keep them producing goat milk for cheese). Old laying hens are the…
Cibreo: Renaissance Chicken Livers on Toast
Cibreo, also known as everything-but-the-cluck stew, is an interesting Italian sauce off the beaten path of the usual tomato sauces, ragus, sugos, and things you might associate with Italian cooking. It’s a literal, visceral celebration of chicken, and speaks to a time when nothing was wasted. Not. A. Thing. This version is basically a little…
Turkey Wild Rice Soup with Black Trumpets
As far as food is concerned, the main course for holidays will change here and there. One year it’s a ham for Christmas, the next year we’ll smoke a prime rib. One thing that’s constant is somewhere along the line there’s probably turkey at one of the gatherings I’ll attend, either for my girlfriend’s family…
Grouse Wild Rice with Wild Mushrooms
While I was up north hunting matsutake last week, I completely forgot that I was going to be hunting at the same time as grouse season opener. As I walked on the trails I’d charted, it seemed like every 30 minutes or so I’d inadvertently flush a few birds. After two birds made me jump…
Vietnamese Coral Mushroom-Chicken Noodle Soup
I’ve been working on recipes with Rau-Ram, or Vietnamese coriander, as it’s basically my new favorite herb. If you don’t like cilantro, you should probably close your browser immediately, and walk away slowly from the computer, using your fingers to form a crucifix. Trust me, it may not be in the cilantro family, but the…
WildFed: The Pigeon Hunt
Pigeons were the first fowl domesticated by man, but we’ve moved a long way from what they used to be: companions used for communication, and sustenance. Only 200 years ago, owning a few breeds of “fancy” pigeons would have been seen as a worthwhile hobby like falconry, as well as fashionable, in the Victorian era….