The Earthy Delights Recipe Blog
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 …
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 …
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 …
What’s in a name? In this case, an interesting (and amusing) story lies behind the name of this close cousin to the more familiar gnocchi. The Italian word malfatti literally means “badly made.” Whimsical names abound in Italian cookery, especially when it comes to pasta. For example, strozzapreti means “priest choker,” fazzoletti means “little handkerchiefs,” orechiette means “little ears,” and last but not least, farfalle meaning “butterflies.” In this country, malfatti have come to refer to something akin to a …
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 …
It is no dream… Matsutake are growing On the belly of the mountain – Haiku by Shigetaka There is something marvelous about the famous “pine mushroom,” the matsutake. Their distinctive spicy aroma and flavor are absolutely unique in the mushroom world. The exotic allure of wild mushrooms has inspired many poets across the centuries. No surprise, then, that the matsutake, so highly regarded in Japan, has inspired volumes of haiku. Equally inspired, David Arora, author of “Mushrooms Demystified,” described the …