Earlier this year my former chef, friend, and mentor Chef Andy Lilja gave me a ring during chanterelle season to tell me how awesome his dinner was. Some of my favorite recipes are those from my chef friends, either restaurant staples, or things that they make at home, and I keep track of them whenever…
Fresh Mushroom Recipes
Wild Mushroom Tom Kha Gai (Thai Coconut Soup)
Oh this is a good one, and a recipe for chicken of the woods (or other wild mushrooms like hen of the woods) I’ve been meaning to get up for a while. Tom kha gai is a classic Thai soup typically using chicken, mushrooms, coconut milk, and a few aromatics. It’s a well known soup,…
Chicken of the Woods Wild Rice Casserole
It’s getting colder outside, and I’m starting to crave that cold weather food. Stews and braises have happened already happened, but one thing that’s been gnawing at me was a good, solid casserole. Coming from the Midwest, I have casserole in my blood, and there’s nothing like the classic chicken wild rice casserole laced with…
Cauliflower Mushroom Steaks
Cauliflower mushroom steaks are an analogy to one of the most popular recipes for hen of the woods I’ve shared: cutting them into big chunks and cooking like a piece of meat. Cauliflower mushrooms are like hen of the woods in that they’re often large–much larger than many other mushrooms, but unlike hens, cauliflower mushrooms…
Steamed Cauliflower Mushrooms with Ponzu
Oh how I love cauliflower mushrooms. Sparassis radicata, Sparassis crispa–I don’t care if they come from the East Coast, West Coast, or Timbuktu, all I know is that they don’t grow in the Midwest, for all intents and purposes. Once in a while, when our fall mushroom season winds down in Minnesota, I might order…
Angelos Dried Wild Mushroom Ragu
A simple ragu of wild mushrooms was one of the recipes on the saute station back in the day when I was working at the now-closed Trattoria Da Vinci under Chef Angelo Volpicelli. Angelo was super talented, barely spoke English, and had owned his own restaurant in Rome for 12 years. Twelve years is a…
Honey Mushroom Gulyas / Goulash
Honey Mushroom Goulash / Gulyas has been in the works for years over here, and I’m excited to finally share it with you. It’s without a doubt, one of the best things I’ve had with them, and, it’s pretty traditional, more or less. I know I’ll get some contentious comments about my creative liberties here,…
Wild Mushroom Tacos
If you’re a mushroom hunter, the thought of making wild mushrooms tacos has probably crossed your mind, as it has mine. The thing is, wild mushroom tacos aren’t some gringo adaptation, or heretical thing, they’re actually a traditional way of preparing mushrooms in certain parts of Mexico, specifically (to my knowledge, chime in if you…
Grilled Hen of the Woods with Ginger-Soy Vinaigrette
There’s something so primal about a big hen of the woods and breaking off giant clusters to cook whole like a piece of meat, there a great entry level mushroom too, easy to identify, big in size, typically worm-free, delicious. I don’t know any cooking technique more raw than cooking over burning wood, so…
Shaggy Mane Ink
“Leave mushrooms on the counter until they turn into a black, inky mess, then puree this goop and eat it” sounds like instructions in a recipe for someone on a quest to make themselves sick. For the unfamiliar, Shaggies are part of a group of mushrooms called inky caps because the mushrooms quickly turn to…
Mushroom Fricasee Fredy Girardet
Old cookbooks are a wealth of knowledge. Back in the day, it didn’t matter how many art directors were on set for the photo shoot, and how many different plate props you had, good food was just good food. One of my favorite old books is Fredy Girardet, a famous Swiss chef who reached the…
Honey Truffles
I love working with truffles, so when a truffle hunter from Hungary and his friend asked me if I’d contribute to a new book on truffles they were writing by sampling Honey truffles (Mattirolomyces terfezioides) fresh from the earth, shipped direct from Hungary, I agreed (and squealed with joy). Shipping mushrooms across the pond is…
Matsutake Fried Rice
If you’re skilled enough to have access to wild matsutake mushrooms (or lucky, or know a have a nice friend), fried rice needs to be in your rotation. Matsutake are strange creatures, even though we know they grow in places outside of Japan and Korea where they’re especially treasured (PNW, Scandinavia, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Maine, Ontario,…