If you don’t like cilantro, close your browser right now, back away from the computer slowly and I’ll see you next week. If you love cilantro like I do, hang on to your butt, because I have a great one for you. Green / unripe coriander or cilantro seeds are one of my all-time favorite,…
Bergamot / Wild Oregano
Just a pinch of fresh monarda makes a tomato taste like pizza.
Wild bergamot or Monarda fistulosa is one of the hardest working wild herbs you can forage. If you're new to this wild herb, check out my introductory post on bergamot, then try my Salmoriglio sauce first.
Oven-Dried Tomatoes with Bergamot and Ramp Leaves
This is one of my absolute favorite ways to preserve tomatoes—great for the bounty of tomato season, or even if you’re just craving good tomato flavor in the off season, which I often do. They’re made to mimic the oil-cured, semi-dried Italian tomatoes that restaurants often purchase from wholesale purveyors. If I say so myself,…
Eggplant Baked with Tomato and Wild Herbs
Early last fall I was planning a menu to be executed in someones home. It was going to start with a few appetizers, and the client wanted a selection of gluten free, vegetarian, as well as meat centered apps for guests to graze on before I served dinner. It was the very tail end of…
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…
Bergamot Italian Sausage
I try to remember to dry as much stuff as I can to use during the Winter, which if you live in the Midwest you know can mean a lot of time in doors fighting cabin fever and looking for things to do. Inevitably I usually have plenty of bergamot (Monarda fistulosa) every year since…
Wood Parched Wild Rice, Black Walnuts, Wild Herbs and Green Garlic
Here’s another one of my favorite dishes that I developed for the dinner at Piney Hill this year for Slow Food Minnesota’s “Where the Wild Things Are Dinner” which showcases local, wild ingredients. I knew we needed some sort of starch to help complete our meal, and for a whole bunch of people it needed…
Bergamot-Ramp Chimichurri
For a solid year, I had the pleasure of having a sous chef who was from Argentina. I brought him on since he had some good experience and I thought that his view of food and style could be a great help to the restaurant. I remember one day a VIP customer came in and…
Cornmeal Catfish, Bergamot Salmoriglio Sauce, Tomato-Corn Salad
Here’s a great way to use that bergamot salmoriglio sauce: as a summery garnish to a piece of fish. Catfish is a great, often overlooked fish in restaurants, it’s meaty, and juicy, not to mention cheap. Fried in a crispy dredge of some seasoned cornmeal, it’s the beginning of a great meal. Summer time means…
Wild Oregano Salmoriglio Sauce
Ever since I discovered that bergamot tastes strongly like oregano, I knew I had to make this. I first heard about salmoriglio sauce (sal-mo-realey-oh) working under one of the Italians I know back at a restaurant in South St. Paul, we used it as a garnish for a fish entree. The fish we used…