2014

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Crisp Caviar Spoons Wide
Appetizers Breads & Baked Goods Seafood Vegetables

Presenting… Caviar!

Once the symbol of opulence, caviars & roes are still among the ultimate delicacies, in a league shared only with truffles, champagne and saffron. Not so long ago, caviar could only mean ultra-expensive beluga caviar served with a mother-of-pearl spoon. Today, roe options from other types of fish can still offer an over-the-top experience at a much more affordable price.  With excellent domestic farm-raised caviar readily available, we can enjoy a delicacy that was once reserved only for royalty and …

Beverages Desserts

Real Hot Chocolate, From Scratch

The most delicious hot chocolate in the world is not made with cocoa powder, but with chocolate liquor. No, not THAT kind of liquor. “Chocolate liquor” is the term used for the thick paste that results when whole cocoa beans are fermented, roasted, crushed into ‘nibs,’ and lastly, finely ground.  All real chocolate begins with this raw ingredient. This chocolate liquor (also called chocolate mass or paste) consists of 100% cacao – both the cocoa solids and rich, oily cocoa …

Desserts Sauces & Condiments

Chestnut Marmalade (Marmellata di Castagne)

  With fresh American-grown chestnuts now widely available, more and more people are learning how to prepare and enjoy them. True American chestnuts, once common in North America, nearly disappeared following a devastating blight that swept across the eastern U.S. in the early 20th century. By 1940, nearly all American chestnuts were gone. Fortunately, due to the combined efforts of scientists, botanists, and growers, commercially cultivated chestnuts are back. That’s good news for all of us. Chestnuts, it turns out, are not …

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 …

Wild Mushroom Polenta with Thyme Sprig
Appetizers Mushrooms Wild Foods

Wild Mushroom Polenta

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 …

Appetizers Asian Mushrooms Pasta Sauces & Condiments Soups & Stews Wild Foods

Wild Mushroom Wontons, Three Ways

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 …

Mushrooms Poultry Vegetables Wild Foods

Chicken Cacciatore with Porcini Mushrooms

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 …

Breads & Baked Goods Mushrooms Poultry Vegetables Wild Foods

Wild Mushroom & Chicken Pot Pie

  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 …

Smoky Butternut Squash and Cacao Soup Closeup
Soups & Stews Vegetables

Smoky Butternut Squash and Cacao Soup

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 …

Carrots ready for the grill
Tips and Techniques Vegetables

Fire-Roasted Carrots with Mint & Balsamic Cream

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 …