Lemony Strawberry Shortcake
Breads & Baked Goods Desserts Sauces & Condiments

Lemony Strawberry Shortcake

Strawberry. Just the word itself conjures up visions of warm spring afternoons and the sweet fragrance of gleaming, sun-ripened berries. Strawberries are the most familiar and best loved of berries. Pop one into your mouth whole and taste the succulent juice as you bite in. Fresh strawberries, sliced and stacked in layers between buttery-rich shortcakes, are nothing short of miraculous in their simplicity and homespun goodness. There are a couple of simple tricks to making the best shortcake. Real butter, …

Mustard-marmalade chicken wings
Appetizers Poultry Rubs and Marinades Sauces & Condiments

Grilled Mustard-Marmalade Glazed Chicken Wings

Some people are fanatical about fine wines.  Some venerate truffles, still others worship the morel mushroom. Today, we salute a food that stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the best -the chicken wing.  It’s said that chicken wings are so delicious because of the high skin to meat ratio.  Whatever the reason, when prepared properly, chicken wings are the most flavorful, tender and succulent of meats.  In short, chicken wings are GOOD. We’ve cooked a lot of chicken wings and we’ve tried a lot of …

MOREL-STUFFED BURGERS ON GRILLED GARLIC TOAST WITH CHIPOTLE-LIME MAYONNAISE
Meat Mushrooms Sauces & Condiments Wild Foods

Morel-Stuffed Burgers on Grilled Garlic Toast with Chipotle-Lime Mayonnaise

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 …

All Recipes Appetizers Mushrooms Salads Seafood Vegetables Wild Foods

Crayfish with Asparagus and Morels

The flavors of spring are delicate. The first tender emerging shoots and mushrooms usually don’t have the robust flavors of summer’s produce and need careful handling to bring out their best qualities. There are exceptions, of course. The first ramps of the year are thought by many to be the most potent and pungent of the season. But many other wild spring foods – morel mushrooms, fiddlehead ferns, wild asparagus and the like – are best appreciated when lightly cooked …

Ramp Risotto with Blue Cheese II
Appetizers Cheese Rice Dishes Wild Foods

Ramp Risotto with Blue Cheese

Making risotto is a contemplative process. It’s not difficult; it just takes a certain amount of planning and time. Assemble your ingredients, heat the stock – then just stand at the stove and stir. The basic ingredients for risotto are simple. Rice and hot stock are essential; wine, butter and cheese are usually included too.  Other ingredients – seafood, vegetables, spices and so on – will vary according to the recipe. Of all these, the most critically important element is the rice. The …

Morel, Fiddlehead & Pancetta Tart, Just Out of the Oven
Appetizers Breads & Baked Goods Meat Mushrooms Wild Foods

Morel, Fiddlehead & Pancetta Tart

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 …

Appetizers Sauces & Condiments Vegetables Wild Foods

Steamed Artichokes with Ramp Aioli

For the uninitiated, cooking – and eating – an artichoke may seem like a daunting task. The prickly, tough-textured outside of the artichoke doesn’t seem particularly appetizing at first glance. After all, the artichoke is a close relative of the thistle and shares many of its characteristics. But beneath the leathery leaves of the artichoke lies a tender treasure – the sweet flesh that covers the base of each leaf and, best of all, the large meaty base or “heart” …

Ramp Vichyssoise with Crisp-fried Ramp Greens
Potatoes Soups & Stews Tips and Techniques Wild Foods

Ramp Vichysoisse with Crisp-fried Ramp Greens

Let’s just say straight off that this is not the classic version of Vichysoisse, the chilled potato-leek soup with its origins in the French cooking tradition. Instead, our version is a bit more of a backwoods country cousin, with its roots firmly planted in American soil. The origin of the soup known as Vichysoisse has been frequently debated. As the accepted story goes, it was created by French chef Louis Diat, at the Ritz-Carlton in New York in the summer …

Asian Poultry Rubs and Marinades Sauces & Condiments

Five-Spice Grilled Cornish Game Hens

A savory-spicy marinade is the secret to these intensely flavorful and juicy grilled Cornish Game Hens. The fragrant marinade is spiked with a generous dash of Five-Spice Powder, a popular Asian spice blend which includes Szechuan peppercorns, cinnamon, fennel seeds, cloves and star anise. Our version of this dish is inspired by and adapted from a recipe by foodwriter Joyce Jue, which was originally intended for quail. We loved the flavors so much that we wanted to try it with a …

Pork tenderloin with fresh thyme
Meat Rubs and Marinades Sauces & Condiments

Pan-roasted Pork Tenderloin with Cocoa-Spice Rub

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 …