Salads

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Sesame-Buckwheat Noodles with Fresh Green Almonds
Appetizers Asian Pasta Salads Sauces & Condiments

Sesame-Buckwheat Noodles with Fresh Green Almonds

One of our favorite spring ingredients, fresh green almonds, are just that – green (as in “unripe”) almonds, picked while the nut is immature and still in the early stages of formation. Green almonds are available only in the spring, usually beginning in late March or early April, and can continue to be harvested into May. In the earliest stages of growth, the entire almond is eaten, fuzzy green outer hull and all. The flavor is surprising; tart, almost citrusy, somewhat reminiscent …

Farro, Wild Mushroom and Chestnut Salad with Sherry Vinaigrette
Appetizers Mushrooms Salads Wild Foods

Farro, Wild Mushroom and Chestnut Salad with Sherry Vinaigrette

Farro, an ancient relative of modern wheat, was once called “pharaoh’s wheat,” since it’s been around since the pyramids were still under warranty. It’s kept its appeal across much of the world through the intervening centuries, especially in Italy and the Middle East, but it’s only caught on in North America relatively recently. Once considered rather exotic, delicious farro now pops up regularly on restaurant menus and can usually be found in well-provisioned grocery stores. Farro’s wholesome grain-like flavor makes …

Salads Sauces & Condiments Seafood

Grilled Tuna with Balaton Cherries, Sweet Onion and Arugula

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of tart cherries? Cherry pie? Cherry cobbler? Cherry jam? Think again; a juicy grilled tuna steak might not seem to be a likely pairing for fresh cherries, but the lively flavor of the Balaton cherry is big enough to take on the job. A meaty fish like tuna (or for that matter, salmon, halibut and cod) cries out for a generous dash of acidity to balance all that oily …

Hungarian Cherry Soup
Appetizers Salads Soups & Stews

Cherries Tart, Cherries Sweet: Two Refreshing Summertime Recipes for Cherry Lovers

Cherries are the fruit of summer.  First to appear are sweet cherries, large crisp globes of juicy flesh, perfect for eating fresh by the handful.  A few weeks later, tart (or sour) cherries arrive, bringing with them a frenzy of pie-baking, canning and freezing.  There are literally dozens (perhaps hundreds) of cultivars of both sweet and tart cherries, many well-known, others grown only in the small towns and hamlets where they’ve been nurtured in obscurity for centuries. Tart cherries are …

Grilled pepper and wild chanterelle salad
Appetizers Mushrooms Salads Wild Foods

Grilled Pepper & Chanterelle Mushroom Salad

  This rather unusual salad is one of those dishes that comes together quite naturally in the early fall. The first frost has not yet arrived and while nights are cool, the days are still sunny and warm. Colder weather is just around the corner though. Days are growing shorter and backyard gardens are winding down, yielding the last few sweet, sun-ripened peppers of the season. But while tame, cultivated crops are ending, wild mushrooms are exuberantly bursting forth from …

Grilled Salmon with Black Beluga Lentil & Mushroom Salad Featured
Mushrooms Salads Seafood Vegetables

Grilled Salmon with Black Lentil & Mushroom Salad

As deeply colored and glossy as black pearls, tiny uncooked black lentils have a flavor that is earthy, nutty and satisfying. Black lentils are very like lentilles du Puy, also known as French green lentils. Both varieties differ from common brown or green lentils in significant ways. Black and green lentils take less time to cook and they both hold their lens-like shape better, making them perfect for salads and side dishes (although they’re both wonderful in soups, too). Black lentils …

Maple-glazed Chanterelle & Arugula Salad with Grilled Apricots and Pecans
Mushrooms Salads Wild Foods

Maple-glazed Chanterelle & Arugula Salad with Grilled Apricots and Pecans

Among the most well-known and best-loved of wild mushrooms, chanterelles figure prominently in the wild mushroom seasonal cycle, usually starting up in late spring or early summer, just as the season for fresh morels begins to wind down. After that, chanterelles can be depended upon to be be growing in some part of the world for the next 6 to 8 months, and frequently longer. Their cheerful orange-yellow color and distinctive trumpet-like shape make chanterelles one of the most easily …

Appetizers Salads Vegetables Wild Foods

Warm Fiddlehead Salad with Pistachios and Parmesan

While almost everyone has heard of “fiddlehead ferns,” most people think only of the Eastern fiddlehead, the ostrich fern (Matteucia struthiopteris), as edible. But there is another widely consumed wild fern, the lady fern (Athyrium filix-femina), which grows along the west coast of North America from California to Alaska. Often simply called “Western fiddleheads,” lady fern fiddleheads differ only slightly from ostrich fern fiddleheads in appearance and flavor. Both fiddleheads have a distinctly “wild” green flavor that is often compared …

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Crayfish with Asparagus and Morels

The flavors of spring are delicate. The first tender emerging shoots and mushrooms usually don’t have the robust flavors of summer’s produce and need careful handling to bring out their best qualities. There are exceptions, of course. The first ramps of the year are thought by many to be the most potent and pungent of the season. But many other wild spring foods – morel mushrooms, fiddlehead ferns, wild asparagus and the like – are best appreciated when lightly cooked …

Soba Noodles with Roasted Matsutake Mushrooms
Asian Mushrooms Pasta Salads Sauces & Condiments Wild Foods

Soba Noodles with Roasted Matsutake Mushrooms

It’s already November, well into the fall season. Depending on where you live, fresh produce from your home garden may be done until next spring. Thankfully, there are a few hardy radishes and the last scallions to be harvested from our garden which add some crisp texture, fresh flavors and tangy “bite” to this preparation. With the addition of a few foraged wild mushrooms, it’s enough to make a wonderfully earthy dish, featuring hearty Japanese soba noodles. Soba noodles are made with buckwheat, a …