The Earthy Delights Recipe Blog
Celebrating wild harvested, traditional & artisanal foods
Recipes featuring beef, pork, veal, venison, bison and other red meats
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 …
These grilled lamb rib chops are perfect for a quick, yet elegant meal. Prep them first thing in the morning (or even the night before), and you’ll have dinner on the table in 15 minutes or less. Lamb, considered a traditional spring dish, is generally harvested at 3 – 5 months of age, so that “spring” lamb was actually probably born in the fall. Americans tend to prefer milder-flavored meats, so it’s no surprise that lamb is much more popular than mutton, …
“Pig Fingers” is a deliciously old-fashioned dish that has been around in some form since forever, apparently. While you may find various other versions online, this one is an original, an old farmhouse classic, dating back to that long ago time before the internet was invented. The following recipe was faithfully copied from a yellowed, handwritten index card that has been carefully kept in an decoupaged wooden recipe box for over 30 years. It was given to us back in the 1970s by the daughter …
Savory. Succulent. Tender. Sweet. We’re talking about pork, but not just any old cut. We’re talking about thick-cut boneless pork loin chops, in our opinion, one of the best and most flavorful cuts of pork. Boneless pork loin is essentially a pork loin chop without the bone. When you de-bone a whole pork loin, you end up with baby back ribs and a boneless pork loin. Pork loin chops are easy to cook, they’re big, meaty and tender – and …
Summer isn’t even over yet, but with Labor Day weekend upon us, there’s already a little bit of fall in the air. Shadows are growing longer, nights are cooler and soon, instead of picnicking, we’ll be tailgating. There’s another September tradition worth mentioning: Oktoberfest, the German celebration of beer and all the wonderful food that accompanies it. Everyone loves Oktoberfest. Who doesn’t enjoy drinking beer and eating sausages? (Not that we really need an excuse.) But why is Oktoberfest celebrated …
Quick-cooking lentils are probably the oldest cultivated legumes and are certainly among the earliest cultivated plants. Often planted alongside wild wheat and barley by our ancestors, lentils are both highly nutritious and good-tasting. Lentils are generally split into two broad groups: flat, large lentils and small, rounded lentils. While the large varieties are generally more common, it’s the small, varieties that are more prized. Small lentils tend to keep their shape better and have a finer, creamier texture than their …
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 …
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 …
Pork and chocolate? It may sound unusual, but this is a partnership that really works. The combination of crushed cocoa nibs, unsweetened cocoa powder and sweet, aromatic spices highlights tender, naturally succulent pork tenderloins in a surprisingly effective way. Cocoa nibs are roasted, coarsely crushed cocoa beans, the raw ingredient that is the starting point for all chocolate. Closely resembling coarse-ground coffee, cocoa nibs have a complex chocolaty flavor and nut-like crunch, without the sweetness of processed chocolate. While rather …
Ah, it’s that time of the year again. The holidays are past, winter is back with a vengeance and the Super Bowl is just around the corner. Sounds like the perfect time to whip up some hot, tasty party food! Over the past few years, we’ve noticed that Super Bowl snacks have gone far beyond the usual guacamole, chili and nachos. You’d almost think that the game was secondary to the increasingly elaborate edibles featured at Super Bowl parties with …