This is such a good salad. Such. A. Good. Salad. Working in Italian kitchens most of my life, shaved fennel salad was basically an afterthought—I honestly didn’t know why we put it on the menu sometimes, since it just didn’t excite me. By the time service came around, it would often be a clumpy oily…
Garden
Fresh Horseradish
Fresh horseradish. Just the thought of it makes my eyes water with glee. Horseradish is an ancient condiment, and It’s kept a good popularity compared to other root crops like skirret and parsley root, the former of which I’m still dying to grow. It’s popularity has to be due at least partly to the fact…
Raw Turnips with Acorn Oil
Raw turnips with acorn oil might sound like something you’d be served during winter in a Polish Gulag, but I can assure you, it’s a far cry from a punishment. The idea for this came from a couple different places, but the most inspirational was a book many of you will know (and love): The…
Homegrown Horseradish Cream
Nasal-clearing, bracingly hot, creamy and delicious. Fresh grated horseradish cream sauce lives in the Valhalla of ultimate condiments, and is one thing that everyone should have in their culinary toolkit. It’s a snap to make, keeps for a very long time even though it’s dairy based, has tons of fun variations–two of which I’ll share…
Lamb Shanks Braised with Cardoons and Tomato
I’ve done a lot of research as the executive chef of Lucia’s. The restaurant, once known as the Chez Panisse of the Midwest lost it’s way somewhere along the line, the chef got bored, let the restaurant slide into disarray, then left. What was once a bastion of locally sourced food slowly evolved into what…
Hosta Buds
Wait a minute, that looks like an artichoke! I stooped down and snapped a hosta bud off of one of the plants in the garden of my apartment building, put it in my pocket, and went to work. When I got to the kitchen, I took the little bud out of my pocket, it was…
Bitter Celtuce
Celtuce. Kind of like if lettuce and a long root vegetable had a baby, with a beautiful, translucent, emerald color. I heard about it from a friend of mine one day when we had a snowday, he and I decided to meet up, geek out over some of his cook books, drink a couple beers…
Root Vegetable Sauerkraut, with Wild Caraway
Fresh sauerkraut is a world of difference from the mostly overcooked, mushy versions sold in jars at the store. Besides having a mild flavor (if you choose) the cabbage is still crisp, which gives you more freedom for cooking with it in the kitchen and having it keep it’s integrity. Cabbage is only one thing…
Nasturtium Capers (Lacto-Fermented)
Milkweed capers, dandelion capers, elderberry capers, I’ve made them all, but the best, from a flavor and texture perspective are nasturtium capers. They’re widely known in the chef and gastro-centric gardening communities, got a really good shout out in Jeremy Fox’s book On Vegetables in 2017. The book is chock-ful of cutting edge plates, and…
Green Butternut Squash
“OH MY GOD! The zucchini-looking squash are huge, I better act quick so they don’t get tough!” I filled my arms with giant, bulbous heirloom squash and trucked them to my car, a couple of times. There comes a point where I’m ok with shredded zucchini bread, pancakes, fritters, latkes, dumplings, noodles, dried coins, kimchi,…
Vietnamese Coriander / Persicaria odorata
What’s this herb? I said as I picked up a bundle of greens I’d never seen. “Good Herb!” the older woman told me in her thick Southeast Asian accent. She motioned for me to taste some. I picked up a leaf, gave it a little crunch to release any aroma and smelled: it was wonderful,…
Milkweed Flowers
Nothing makes a beautiful Midwestern landscape pop quite like the deep purple milkweed flowers of the summer. They also make gardens look great, and will attract bees and butterflies, like the monarch, whose relationship with milkweed is probably the most known, and polarizing. For this post, I’m referring only to common milkweed: Asclepias syriaca. Eating…
Common Amaranth: Amaranthus retroflexus & Friends
For me, amaranth is the king of greens to pick in the mid to late summer. Come July, the lamb’s quarter at the farm is probably wanting to go to see soon, and unless I continually cut it down, it will. I still usually get a good blend of greens until early August, but during…