The Earthy Delights Recipe Blog
Celebrating wild harvested, traditional & artisanal foods
The best things in life are often the simplest. Bread pudding is one of those things. Bread pudding is something of a blank canvas for the creative cook. Made from a handful of ingredients that are found in almost every kitchen – milk, eggs, butter, sugar and leftover bread – bread pudding is one of the most basic comfort foods that there is. With the addition of a few spices and flavorings, the variations are infinite. Easier to make than …
Cherries are in season, and while it’s tempting to simply gobble them fresh by the handful, there are plenty of other interesting – and rewarding – ways to enjoy them. When sweet cherry varieties like Ulster, Cavalier, Hedelfingen and Regina ripen fully on the tree, they burst with deep, intense dark cherry flavor, making them excellent choices for use in recipes, both traditional and novel. The long history of cooking with sweet cherries is evident in the wide variety of …
You might not immediately associate fresh cherries with burgers, but it can’t be a coincidence that Michigan cherry season comes right in the middle of summer, just when grilling season is at its peak. It’s an opportunity too tempting to resist! In this recipe, fresh cherries are paired with a classic flame-grilled burger in not just one, but two very different ways. But before we start cooking, let’s make something perfectly clear; it’s essential that you use the best quality …
Is there anything finer, more perfect than a ripe, ruby-red cherry? Sure, we all love succulent strawberries, plump blueberries and juicy raspberries, but nothing can rival a cherry, that bright red summery globe so beloved of birds and small children. Cherries have a long and tangled relationship with mankind (you could say it’s “complicated”). Cherries, both sweet and tart, seem to have originated in Asia Minor, somewhere in the region between the Black and Caspian Seas. While they appear rather …
It’s been said that “One must ask children and birds how cherries and strawberries taste.” Cherries are a summer fruit, a small red globe that tastes of sun and warm days. Adults frequently forget how to appreciate the goodness of simple things like long summer afternoons and berries picked from a tree and put straight into a red-stained mouth. Perhaps cherries taste so good because they remind us of carefree summers and drives in the country, stopping at a roadside …
Fall is a season of transitions. The weather is growing cooler, the days shorter, and while we haven’t yet put away the grill, cooking and entertaining are shifting away from the patio and into the cozy warmth of the kitchen. So say goodbye to summer (it’ll be back next year) and celebrate the change of seasons with these roasted rounds of delicata squash, filled with a sweet & savory stuffing. While you could use any small squash or pumpkin, we …
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 …
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 …
Mousse! Lighter than pudding, airier than ice cream… certainly nothing like jello. Mousse has a reputation as a complicated, rich and decadent indulgence for special occasions. While our recipe for Balaton cherry mousse is something of an indulgence and does make any occasion special, it’s not really that complicated. Yes, there are several steps involved, but none of them are especially difficult, and with some practice and a little organization, this wonderfully summery dessert can take less than 45 minutes …
The classic baked dessert known as “clafouti” originates in the countryside of the Limousin region of central France. The name comes from a word, clafir, which in the local dialect means, “to fill”. Indeed, the clafouti, something of a cross between a cake, a custard and a crepe, is literally filled with sweet cherries, traditionally fresh and unpitted. While the idea of a dessert containing cherry pits may not appeal to everyone, they’re included for a reason; the pits contribute an intensely almond-like flavor to the dish …