In Sam Thayer’s book Incredible Wild Edibles, he discusses wild caraway in depth, and, in passing, mentions a sort of Scandinavian soup made with beef stock and wild caraway leaves. I wanted to find the soup, and, even moreso, I wanted to study the history and any variations I could find. Well, it took me…
Dried Mushroom Recipes
Mushroom Preserves with Tomato, Coriander and Chili
Here’s a great way to put up any mushroom, but especially those that have gills waiting to soak up juices, or need a little boost in the flavor department, as milkcaps and ho-hum mushrooms like Pluteus and Megacollybia rodmani do, milkcaps being vastly superior of the aforementioned three. The marinade is a little trick I…
Caramelized Shallots and Black Trumpets
An ode to all things dark and sweet, here’s a recipe to up those fresh or dried black trumpet mushrooms: mixed in with some caramelized shallots and reduced down to a sweet-savory condiment for a hunk of meat, although it makes a great tart filling, coarsely chopped, too. It came about as I was looking…
Lobster Mushroom Breadcrumbs
I almost always have bags of dried lobster mushrooms around the apartment. Re-hydrated and mixed into things they’re ok, and just ok. Most of the time though, I’m going to grind the suckers up and do something with the powder. Dried, re-hydrated lobsters might not be that interesting, (toast them a little to bring out…
Pigeon Pie
I talked to a hunter last year and told him I was excited to harvest pigeons. He laughed, looked at me like I was idiot, and told me he shoots them and throws them in the woods as they’re not worth eating. I kept my mouth shut. Now, I’ve never really been a hunter, spending…
Lobster Mushroom Burbot with Crayfish Butter
Burbot was one of those interesting local fish, like sunnies, crappies and perch that were hard to source through fish purveyors, no one seemed to carry it. Eventually I got to try my first after someone was nice enough to grab me a couple packages from a fish shop up in Cumberland, Wisconsin. I knew…
Venison Rib Chops with a Black Trumpet Crust
The best part of butchering your own animals is the creativity, giving you the ability to make all sorts of things, and one of the grand daddy’s of them all is a rack of venison. If you want to know how to cut a rack, just search you tube, there’s lots of info out there….
Jaegerschnitzel with Leccinum Gravy and Acorn Spaetzle
The snow is quickly melting, and I’ve been working hard to use up my stores of 2018 preserves. I have a lot of mushrooms and game (mostly venison), but, it was a great year for acorns too-I discovered a new white oak that gave the best acorns I’ve had yet. Thinking of how I could…
Puffball Mushroom Bratwurst
Here’s a fun way to use meat, and dried mushroom powder, specifically puffballs. In charcuterie and sausage making, milk powder is often used, especially in finely ground emulsions like bologna and hot dogs to achieve a nice, bouncy texture. Here, instead of using milk powder in the sausages, I use toasted, dried puffball powder, which…
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…
Dried Wild Mushroom Risotto
The off-season is the time to use up your dehydrated fungi stash, and one of the most tried and true crowd-pleasers is a risotto with dried wild mushrooms, or “rizzo” (after the Wu-tang artist Rza) as it’s been affectionately called in a number of kitchens I worked in over the years. Risotto is one of…
Dried Lobster Mushroom Rub
If you hunt lobster mushrooms, chances are you end up with a surplus of dried ones at the end of the season. If you don’t keep on top of using them, that surplus can double up if there’s any left once mushroom hunting season starts again where you live. Unlike some other mushrooms I pick,…
Candy Cap Caramels
Holidays remind me of seeing butter caramels sitting out on the counter at Grandma’s, or being wrapped for sale in the corner nook that’s always populated by different sweets at her house. I never ate a ton of them, but I’ve been having fun dreaming up flavored caramels for a mignardise platter, a tray of…