A few years ago I was reading a book on Venetian cooking when I came across something interesting: a dish of scallops cooked in a simple pan sauce with peppermint. Along with watercress and teeny nettles, peppermint is the first wild herb I start to see in the Midwest. The mint seems to cry for…
Wild Herbs and Spices
Ramp Leaf Spaetzle
The German in me loves a good spaetzle, and I will make the little dumplings out of just about anything I can. Ramp leaves and green plants make great ones. The key to getting your spaetzle to actually taste like ramps is a little tricky though–you’re going to need a blender, preferably a vita mix,…
Brine Fermented Ramps
I’ve been getting a lot of questions this year about if you can ferment ramp bulbs, if leaves or bulbs are better, if brine is good, or pounding with salt, etc, etc. The answer to all of your burning questions about ramp fermentation is that yes, ramps make a wonderful ferment, and people have been…
Ramp Leaf Burgers
Ramp burgers are one of the first things I ever made after I discovered everyones favorite wild leek. That was years ago, and, unfortunately, the friends I made the burgers for can probably still taste them to this day. Don’t get me wrong–I like garlic and all the oniony, things, but they were a little…
Pine Pollen
Most foragers know of cattail pollen, but, if you live in a city, finding marshes where you can harvest, getting waterproof clothing/waders, and, most importantly, hitting the spot at the correct time when the pollen is ready can turn harvesting an interesting ingredient into a frustrating experiment, at least it did for me at…
Cabbage with Venison Bacon and Wild Caraway
Here’s one of the greatest, trusty winter side dishes of all time, along with aquavit beets with sour cream and potato Dauphinoise. Back when I was dreaming up dual 3-course tasting menus, 4 a la carte entrees, and 4 individual sides, new, every day for the Heartland menu in St. Paul, cabbage with bacon and…
Roasted Beets with Snowsweet Apples, Angelica and Dried Cranberry
Here’s a great alternative to the horrific Midwestern holiday salad of mayonaise, cool whip, fruit jelly and stuff I think is called ambrosia. Mayonaise, fruit jelly, and, nope, not for me, I’ve never liked the stuff. What I do like, is roasted beets, preferably dressed in a creamy something, along with crunchy apples and thick,…
Forager’s Aquavit
We’re all familiar with caraway seeds, but when I found my first patch of wild caraway, the first thing I did (besides making a traditional beef soup with wild caraway leaves and morels) was try to find a way to use the whole plant in something using the whole plant: leaves, roots, and unripe, green…
Wild Herb Brioche
Herbs mixes, herb salt, teas, all of them strike a chord with us that looks back to history: for thousands of years, humans have preseved nice smelling herbs because we like to cook with them. For a dinner I did last year, I wanted to make a bread flavored with herbs I gather, and after…
Water Pepper / Persicaria hydropiper
Do you like spicy food? If you do, prepare to fall in love with waterpepper (Persicaria hydropiper), if you don’t, you might as well stop reading right now and forget about this plant. Once summer really kicks into gear, around mid to late August in Minnesota and Wisconsin where I hunt, the smartweeds will appear….
Japanese Style Waterpepper Sauce / Tade Su with Hickory Nut Oil
You found some waterpepper (Persicaria hydropiper), it’s spicy hot and interesting-now what do you do with it? Like with a lot of other wild ingredients, I find it useful to look around at ways other cultures have used things before us. American culture and many of the European cultures that white American culinary traditions are…
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,…
American Burnweed / Erechtites hieraciifolius
“This clearing burned down to the ground last year”, my friend told me as we walked through a clearing on our way to his black trumpet patch. As we waded through the clearing, I started noticing some new plants I’d never seen. Long, serrated, light-weight leaves. They were tall too, and some of them were…