Here’s a quick recipe for making spaetzle out of acorn flour. While developing the recipe, first I wanted to see if I could make them out of 100% acorn flour, and you likely could by increasing the amount of egg and yolk, and decreasing the water, but, since the flour is so precious, I wanted…
Nuts, Seeds and Starches
How to Make Acorn Flour
There is a lot of info out there on how to process acorns, some better than others. I’m defintely not the first, or last to write about this process, but hopefully I can share some of what I’ve learned personally over the last few years. I’m not going to go crazy in depth on different…
Lotus Root Confit Stuffed with Sausage
Funky water tubers with their air-channels stuffed with sausage is my favorite go-to recipe with lotus root confit. The air channels are basically begging to be stuffed, and although you’ll need commercial, and not wild lotus root, unless you got some huge pond monster. It’s a great way to use these funky things, especially if…
Lotus Root Confit
From what I can tell, Americans don’t think of lotus root as something that grows in the U.S., or even as something to eat, but the lotus has always been here. They’re a little tricky to cook, but what I’ve learned is that they kind of like to be done either hot and fast (deep…
Glazed Sunchokes
Jerusalem artichokes, fartichokes, sunroots, earth apples, or whatever you call them, people either seem to love them or hate them. I’m in the love camp, but I’ve also been cooking them for a long time, and they can be tricky, especially if they’re knobby and full of dirt. This recipe though, this is a conversion-quality…
Pork Short Rib and Burdock Stew
I’m constantly blown away by the connections I get to make, in the Midwest, and the United States, but especially from other countries around the world. A few years ago, I was talking about using burdock root to make a relish I had been serving with fish, and I got an interesting conversation going with…
Parched Wild Rice-Mushroom Bisque
If you’re a mushroom hunter who likes to pick different types of boletes this mushroom bisque is for you. 2018 was a great year for boletes with our steady, late summer rain, and I got a lot more variety than what I’d say a typical year brings. The great part about boletes is that with…
Buttercup Squash Ravioli with Hickory Nuts and Birch Syrup
One of the things I wanted to show off on a menu for a recent event was hickory nut oil. The dish changed a bit as I developed the flavors in the rest of the courses, but it seemed like the only place I could sneak the oil in, so I was resolved not to…
Caramelized Pumpkin Bread with Wild Fruit, Maple Sugar and Black Walnuts
Recently I did a big tasting menu with a couple different desserts. The crowd favorite was this pumpkinbread, spread with butter, crusted with maple sugar, griddled and smothered with wild blueberries, candied plums, soft cheese and candied black walnuts. As pictured its a bit of a process, but doing a toned-down version would be a…
Sunchoke Flour & Maple Sugar Beignets
Thanksgiving is a good time for reflection, and this year I really enjoyed reading my friend Sean’s article in the Times-an essay on Thanksgiving from an Indigenous perspective. It made me think of a lot of things, mostly about how unfortunate history has been for Native Americans. It’s not my place to weigh-in, but it resonated…
Chestnut Honey Sauce
Chestnuts are a lot more than something to add to stuffing or roast an eat, they’re special flavor, treated well can become a condiment all by themselves, particularly good with game and poultry. This sauce elevates them to a different level by incorporating a special ingredient: Chestnut blossom honey. Chestnut honey, along with buckwheat honey…
Wild Rice Flour Crusted Sunfish
I love keeping a little bit of wild rice flour around for projects here and there. There’s a lot of gluten-free flours out there, but none that I’ve come across that pack quite the flavor punch of wild rice flour, amaranth flour coming in a close second. I don’t use wild rice flour specifically because…
Wild Rice Crepes with Elderberry Syrup, Apples and Black Walnuts
Back at Lucia’s I used to come up with a different brunch every week, along with lunch, and the dinner menu. With such intense recipe generation, you’re bound to have a few hits and misses, and it can take some time to dial things in, especially if you’re working with new line cooks. Here and…