The Earthy Delights Recipe Blog
Celebrating wild harvested, traditional & artisanal foods
Many of our favorite wild foods seem to appear all at once in the early spring, which can make it hard to appreciate each one adequately. A practical way to enjoy the season’s abundance is to combine several of them together into a single dish. Another is to preserve the fresh flavors of the spring wild harvest so they can be enjoyed all year round. This dish does both. The flavor and texture of the morel is well known, and these unique, …
From now on, whenever we cook artichokes, we’ll be finishing them on the grill. A quick trip to the grill transforms the prickly domesticated relative of the thistle into something altogether more subtle and flavorful, with a deep smokey intensity that soars above the simple steamed version. Grilled artichokes are easier to eat, too. Once the artichoke has been steamed, it’s a simple matter to quarter it and pull out the fuzzy inedible “choke” and inner leaves. After grilling, just …
The quickest, easiest and – some would say – best way to cook a steak is to pan-fry it. Certainly, this is an attractive option in the depths of winter, but the results are exceptional enough to make it a preferred method year round. After a quick sear on both sides, the steak can be cooked to perfection in 10 minutes or less without all the fuss and mess of a broiler or grill. With the steak right there in …
Here’s a tasty way to get your minimum daily requirement of vitamins B, E and M (Bacon, Eggs & Morels, of course). A couple of these hearty sandwiches are just what the doctor ordered to put some pep in your step and a smile on your face . This savory sandwich has all the elements of a classic country breakfast, neatly contained in a single delicious package, but its appeal goes far beyond breakfast; we’d eat if for breakfast, lunch or dinner and for …
When the weather takes a sharp turn toward the cool side, there is nothing more welcome than a bowl of hot, rib-sticking homemade soup. This hearty wild mushroom and barley soup is satisfying on so many different levels, that it just can’t miss. First, and perhaps most importantly, it delivers a great, big mouthful of robust flavor. How can something with just a handful of simple ingredients taste so great? Let’s give credit where credit is due: it starts with wild mushrooms. Mushrooms are known for their umami, a Japanese …
The days of boring burgers are over. The best tasting burgers begin with really good beef or bison, then add layer upon layer of savory ingredients to build a symphony of bold, harmonious flavors. Leaner grass-fed beef and bison naturally contain less fat than regular ground beef. Less fat is better for you, but it can lead to a drier, less flavorful burger. Our solution? Stuff those burgers with a layer of moist, buttery morel mushrooms! Nothing beats fresh morels, of …
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 …
Fiddleheads taste like the woodlands in spring time – fresh, green and exuberantly wild. The flavor of fiddleheads is often compared to asparagus, artichokes or green beans, but such comparisons fall short. The truth is, fresh fiddleheads taste like nothing else. Only a few of the many species of ferns are considered to be edible and of those, only two or three are widely consumed. If the best known, and most eaten, is the Eastern fiddlehead, the Ostrich Fern (Matteuccia …
Morel mushrooms. Asparagus. Fresh eggs. What do these ingredients have in common? They’re all traditional spring foods – and they all taste great together. This dish is a great way to celebrate the start of spring (and the end of winter). It’s just the thing for a leisurely weekend breakfast or casual brunch, and while our recipe serves just two, it’s easily scaled up for larger groups of any size. Instead of trying to twist it into some convoluted version …
Is there any party food more perfect than nachos? First, nachos are meant to be shared with others. Second, their spicy heat demands a cool, fire-quenching beverage – preferably beer! There are no hard & fast rules regarding ingredients when making nachos. The only constants are tortilla chips, salsa and cheese – the rest is up to you. In the spirit of fun & experimentation, we used one of our favorite ingredients in all the world, dried morel mushrooms (but …