One of my favorite things is talking to people about ingredients we’re both excited about. Last Spring I met my friend Francois who’s from France and now helps organize the logistics and sourcing of a well known restaurant in Duluth. He’d been following my work for a bit and made it down to the Slow…
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.
A Raw Porcini Affetatti
Years ago when I was working at Pazzaluna, I was on the garde manger station making hot and cold apps, salads, and desserts, as well as curating a daily changing selection of antipasti I came up with. One of my favorite snacks, and plates to make was the affetati, an Italian platter of cured meats….
French Morel Mushroom Salad
The connection between memories and what we eat is a strong one. If I wanted I could recall my entire life as a timeline through what I ate, or just foods I remember, each particular thing imprinted for a reason only my esculent oriented brain could tell you. Wild mushrooms are no exception, and the…
Pheasant Mousseline, Morels and Spring Vegetables
This Spring I was rummaging around the freezer and found a couple pheasant breasts, the sad kind I usually get donated by friends who hunt and just breast the birds out and throw away the legs and skin. It’s too bad more people don’t save all of the animal they kill, but I’m happy to…
Lentils, Chicken Heart Confit and Hedgehog Mushrooms
As the head of purchasing for the restaurant I have plenty of local purveyors I buy food from but there’s one that stands out from the others. He isn’t technically local, but he might as well be. His name is George Weppler, and in the Twin Cities there’s plenty of restaurants that would like to…
Puffball Hummus
My new job is happily devouring my life, so I only managed to engineer *one* new recipe with puffballs this year, but it’s a great one: puffball hummus. Last year I shared a recipe for a caramelized puree of puffballs that allows you to concentrate their flavor and compress them into a small size that’s…
Saffron Milk Caps With Chickpeas, Tomato, and Gran Queso
In Spain, hands down the most famous is the rovellon, or saffron milkcap. This particular recipe I made for the Cascade Mycological society’s cookbook. Chickpeas are popular in Spanish cuisine, and gran queso is a famous, slightly salty cheese from the region. Combining the chickpeas and cheese with a little chopped, peeled tomato, and some…
Lactarius Indigo Vinaigrette
I went through a phase where whenever I found Lactarius indigo growing I tried to come up with preparations that would keep their blue color. This is one of the more interesting ones: a blue mushroom vinaigrette. It’s not the type of vinaigrette you’re going to throw on a salad, since you won’t be able…
