The simplest things are often the most delicious-this ice cream is a perfect example. A while ago I was flipping through the Grammercy Tavern cookbook after I got to meet a hero of mine: Dorothy Kalins, founding editor of Saveur magazine, and mentor to my girlfriend (a talented writer in her own respect). The Tavern…
Sweets
Chocolate Maple Mousse with Chokecherry Sauce
Chocolate mousse. It’s one of the simplest, and most classic desserts I know. Simple can be relative, since there’s a fair amount of whisking involved, but it can be made well in advance and put together at the last minute. Recently this was the dessert I walked a number of home cooks through in a…
Elderberry Jelly
I brought on one of my favorite purveyors into the Salt Cellar this year for two things only: heirloom potatoes and elderberries. Granted I can get basic potatoes from other places, and I can pick elderberries myself, but getting enough elderberries to supply a restaurant is a big project. With the elderberries, I preserved them…
Knotweed Custard Tart, With Goat Cheese Mousse
Knotweed season has passed, but here’s a great way to use the sweetened puree of the shoots I mentioned a while ago. The puree is just a blank slate for whatever you want, eggs can be added like in the recipe here, but there’s really infinite possibilities, for example the knotweed leather (recipe here) as…
Knotweed Fruit Leather
Here’s a fun twist on classic fruit leather using a basic puree of knotweed I mentioned here. It has a nice, slightly tight apple flavor. Lately my pastry chef has been cutting these into strips, tying them in knots, and serving them on the complimentary petit fours plate we serve at The Salt Cellar to…
Quark-Lime Mousse, Black Walnut Praline, Currant Coulis
Out of the blue a few months ago, an old Italian chef I used to work for gave me a ring (I’ll call him Lorenzo). It had been years since we’d talked, and the last thing I remember was missing my last day of work locked up in a jail cell, which in hindsight, is…
Goat Milk Sorbet With Currants, Yarrow And Black Walnuts
I know a special woman that has trouble digesting cow dairy and gluten. I have a couple sweet tricks up my sleeve, but tossing out two of my favorite standby’s has made things a bit tricky-a good creative exercise. With the increasing skepticism of bovine dairy and gluten, you probably know someone with a dairy…
Spruce Tip Ice Cream
Spruce tip ice cream is one of my stand-by’s, a cornerstone in a canon of wild food recipes I’ve developed over the years, and one of the most popular recipes on this site, ever. Spruce tips are a great introductory flavor for people getting into foraging, but also for others that may be…
Paw-Paw Pudding
It’s a special treat ever year to see a box of paw paws show up. Last year I remember there were at least 10 different species; some with orange flesh, some with white, some with yellow. The flavors all differ a little too depending on their type, they could be extra sweet, a little tannic,…
Jean Louis Palladin’s Black Truffle Ice Cream
Of all the chef’s I look up to, Jean Louis Palladin takes the cake. I only learned about his work after he died, hearing Anthony Bourdain talk about him on one of his tv shows. What Bourdain said was: “You and I will never cook like Jean Louis, no one will” I became a bit…
Salted Black Walnut Croquant
After the unfortunate closing of Il Vesco Vino restaurant in St. Paul, I was left without a job, wondering where the heck I would go. As usual though, my Italian training served me well. I found an add on craigslist and did a quick stage (where you work for free in a kitchen for a…
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…
Japanese Knotweed Mousse with Wild Mint
A simple mousse dessert you can make with my basic sweetened knotweed puree I discuss in this post here, stored in the freezer. If you have fresh knotweed, just cook some with sugar or maple syrup to taste until it releases the water, puree until very fine, then reduce to a thick puree, cool and…