Yellowfoot Chanterelles

Yellowfoot Chanterelle Lefse

When I think of the cuisine of my Nordic ancestors, I don’t usually think of mushrooms, and that’s a mistake. Scandinavia is home to many similar varieties of mushrooms that we have in the Midwest: chanterelles, murklor, and even matsutake! Lefse with chanterelles, sauerkraut, and hushallsost cheese is one of the most delicious examples of…

Hot and Sour Soup with Wood Ears and Yellowfeet

I’ve been saving a bag of wood ear mushrooms my friend from Forest Mushrooms gave me the last time I saw him for a good batch of hot and sour soup for months. Wood ears are special in that, after rehydrating they’re nearly indistinguishable from their fresh state. Finally I got around to using them…

Yellowfoot Chanterelle Broth with Tiny Pasta

Midwestern yellowfoot chanterelles are small–no doubt about it. As such, their the sort of ingredient that is so difficult to source in volume as to make them near impossible to find on a restaurant menu, no matter the cost. They’re literally a chef’s dream, and I made one of the best wild mushroom soups I’ve…

Linguine with White Clam Sauce and Chanterelles

If you pick chanterelles you know the excitement that comes with the first buttons of the year, and picking what recipe you’ll make with the first teeny guys is something I really look forward to. Bright egg-yellow, rock hard wine corks that squeak like cheese curds when you chew them whole, giving off whiffs of…

Lobster With Yellowfoot Chanterelles and Dandelion Purée

A few years ago my girlfriend asked me the type of question that lets you know someone loves you: “Sweetheart, if you could eat anywhere in Provence, where would you go?” I knew the answer right away, even though I had never really thought I’d be able to go: La Bastide St. Antoine in Grasse,…

Bavette Steak with Chanterelle Mushroom Pan Sauce

Grass fed beef is all the rage, and customers really think they want it. Ethically you do, but there’s a disconnect between the beef most people have eaten all their lives, and grass fed beef. In short, grass fed beef is lean and tough-it’s supposed to be. This poses problems when diners expect it to…

Wild Mushrooms With Garlic And Parsley

There are some recipes so timeless that they’re known across borders and cultures with the only change being their name. Wild mushrooms with garlic and parsley, or persillade, is one of those dishes. In France, this would be called mushrooms with persillade. In Italian it’s known as mushrooms “la loro morte” roughly “cooked to their…

Fried Oyster Mushroom Croutons

If the restaurant were to fail, finding a way to mass produce these would make me rich I tell you. They’re not so much a crouton as they are crispy, deep fried mushrooms, but calling them deep fried mushrooms would insinuate that they’re served hot, which they aren’t. Personally, the word “deep fried mushroom” conjures…

Northern Pike Dumplings in Yellowfoot Chanterelle Consomme

Here’s a refined, elegant recipe for using nothern pike and yellowfoot chanterelles together. The Lyon region of France is famous for a recipe using pike made into fish mousse dumplings, called quenelles de brochet. Since pike is filled with tiny bones, fileting it out to be boneless results in very thin pieces of fish that…

Yellowfoot Chanterelle Vodka

I love yellowfoot chanterelles, they’re pretty, petite, and fragile. I only know of one place to pick them in Minnesota, its a mixed woods forest up north, with lots of rolling hills and a wide amount of varying terrain. In a couple places there are wet spots with puddles and tiny ponds. These damp spots…

Fried Perch with Peas, Ham and Yellowfoot Chanterelle Sauce

The combination of peas, meat, mushrooms onions is a tried and true stand one. At an Italian restaurant I used to work at, we had very popular menu item called “Fettuccine Bosciola”(meaning in the style of the forest). This recipe is a fun play on the traditional ingredients, using them as the basis for a…