Celebrating wild harvested, traditional & artisanal foods
Polenta is one of those dishes that is far too underappreciated. It’s humble stuff, made from nothing more than coarse ground corn. The most basic of foods, it’s both thrifty and filling. It’s also quick and easy to make. If you can hold a spoon and stir, you can make polenta. Polenta is folk food. It fed both the Native Americans and early European pioneers (they called it corn meal mush or “coosh”), who often enjoyed it with a generous slosh …
Wontons are fun. They’re great party food, perfect as appetizers and for special occasions. But wontons are, at their heart, simple Asian comfort food. Wontons have been around in some form for literally thousands of years. Most basic wonton recipes are quite similar (after a thousand years or so, you should pretty much have the basic recipe perfected). Popular as street food in almost every Asian country, wontons have plenty of local variations. While fillings can vary, the basic technique remains …
Pollo alla Cacciatora, better known as “Chicken Cacciatore,” can be loosely translated as “Hunter’s Chicken.” It’s unclear where the name originated – perhaps pheasant or other wild game birds were replaced by domesticated fowl somewhere along the way. The classic rendition of this rustic dish is nothing like the version that comes covered in thick, tomatoey spaghetti sauce, as is all too frequently found in the United States. Done properly, it’s light, but satisfying, flavorful and subtly sweet with carrots, onion and celery …
Pot pies are one of those secret guilty pleasures that we’ve all indulged in. I’m referring, of course, to those frozen blocks in the little foil pans from the supermarket freezer case. You don’t have to feel guilty about this pot pie though. Made entirely from scratch, it’s chock full of good, wholesome ingredients, most of which you probably already have in your fridge. It’s likely that the only ingredient you’ll need to buy specially for this recipe are …
It’s funny – it seems that the instant that summer ends and fall begins, we immediately begin to crave the comfort of warm, rich, homemade soup. It could be just about any kind of soup, from old-fashioned chicken noodle to a steaming bowl of fiery chili, as long as it’s hot and it’s good. This intriging recipe for Smoky Butternut Squash and Cacao Soup, adapted from author, scholar and restaurateur Maricel E. Presilla’s encyclopedic cookbook of Latin American recipes, Gran …
While summer is quickly coming to an end, our garden is still producing a bumper crop of fresh, tender fingerling carrots. What better way to complement their sweetly herbaceous flavor than to pair them with fresh mint – and a generous drizzle of Earthy Delights Balsamic Cream. Is it just our imagination, or did the fresh mint somehow tease out even more of the complex notes from the balsamic cream? There’s only one way to find out. Make this simple, yet enormously …
Over the past few weeks, we’ve been enjoying the newest truffle on the scene, the Hungarian Honey Truffle (Mattirolomyces terfezioides). Of course, it’s not a “new” truffle – it’s been around forever, but it’s new to most American truffle-lovers. So far, we haven’t been able to find many (actually, ANY) recipes using honey truffles, either online or in our extensive cookbook library. What’s the solution? We create our own recipes, of course! We started by thoughtfully tasting a paper-thin slice …
Mention the word “truffle” in the context of dessert and most people would probably think you were talking about the round, chocolate confections that are so popular on Valentine’s Day. In this instance, we’re talking about real truffles, the kind that grow underground in association with the roots of certain trees. While the use of fungus-type truffles is certainly not unheard of in desserts, it’s honestly sometimes a bit of a stretch and frequently not entirely to everyone’s taste. But there is one little-known …
The wild huckleberry (Vaccinum membranaceum or Vaccinum deliciosum) is a tasty relative of the blueberry, but it’s much more elusive. In appearance, huckleberries are very nearly identical to blueberries, but they’re smaller and their flavor has an “edge” which is missing in domestic berries. The flavor of wild huckleberries, as is true of many wild things, is more complicated and less obvious than the flavor of their tame cousins. While a fresh huckleberry may look like a blueberry, it tastes a …
You have to admit that the average potato isn’t much to look at. But it’s not about a potato’s good looks or lack thereof; it’s all about the many ways we can prepare – and eat – the humble, yet eminently versatile potato. There’s no doubt that one of the world’s favorite potato preparations is the French fry. The origin of this method of preparing potatoes is hotly contested with the Belgians in one corner and the French in the …
