If you hunt hen of the woods, you’ve probably had the problem of not knowing what to do with large-sized hens that pop up during the season. Hens are the best young, but it’s easier said than done to get them at that perfect, tender, button stage. Thankfully, and in some ways unfortunately, they stay…
Fresh Mushroom Recipes
Fresh mushrooms work in two basic ways: as the main ingredient in a recipe, or as a supporting character working in the background. Here you'll find a little bit of everything.
Storing Truffles with Eggs: Does it Work?
Ask a chef or someone who likes truffles how to store or cook with them to get the most out of them, and you can get some confusing answers: “Cook them in chicken stock!” “They must be stored with rice!” “Store them in a case of butter!” “Chopped up to make truffle butter!” “Store them…
How to Eat Matsutake Mushrooms Raw
Matsutake, just like other expensive, often rare ingredients, (cliché examples being foie gras, truffles, caviar, etc) can be confusing. We assume an amazing experience with the price tag. But, If you serve them to someone who was blindfolded and who had no idea what they were, or the history surrounding them, you might get reactions…
Milwaukee Rice Bowl with Coral Mushrooms and Lotus Root
I didn’t get to attend classes at the Midwest Wild Harvest Festival this year, but I did have a great time with some good takeaways. If you’re not familiar, it’s a bit like Hogwarts School of Magic for adults, and is run by Forager’s Harvest. You can take classes with wild…
Wild Mushrooms Bordelaise (Bourdeaux Style)
When summer is peaking and the mushroom gods bless the woods with rain, there’s a few tried and true recipes that don’t need any embellishment or re-interpretation. WIld mushrooms bordelaise, and wild mushrooms persillade are the two best examples I know of. When we get into historical-type preparations, you start digging into minutia. Basically what…
Grilled Hen of the Woods Steaks with Garden Herb Sauce
It’s that time of year again in the Midwest: time to treat those hen of the woods mushrooms like a piece of meat. Hen steaks, hen roasts, hen pot roasts, I’ve done them all, and I like them all. There’s little more satisfying in fall than firing up the grill to warm up, and slicing…
Matsutake with Hakurei Turnips
As much as I can, I try to plant the seed of enjoying the entire plant when you cook with a part of it. A lot of times, this means cooking with stems, roots, and leaves in a dish, but depending on the season and what you’re cooking it could also be various bulbs,…
Steamed Hericium (Lions Mane Mushrooms) with Butter and Herbs
If you hunt wild mushrooms, you probably know some of the flavor comparisons for well known species. Chicken of the woods taste like chicken, chanterelles smell like apricots, slippery jacks taste like viscous slugs (fresh at least), candy caps taste like maple syrup and hericium mushrooms cook a bit like crab (note that I said…
