Hank Shaw's Blog, page 75

After a frustrating 2014, a year of many false starts, I am overjoyed to announce that I will indeed be writing a third cookbook! This one will be to venison (in all its forms) what Duck, Duck, Goose was to waterfowl.

Simple seared fish -- in this case sturgeon -- served with spring awesomeness, in this case asparagus, spinach and peas. Use this recipe as a model for whatever fish and whatever spring bounty you can find. This dish tastes as clean as a cool spring breeze.

I grew an awful lot of fennel over the winter. So much that I needed to find a use for it. I found one. Fennel sauerkraut. It may be my new favorite kraut.

I've been making pasta, mostly at home, but sometimes in restaurants, for more than 25 years. Over that time I've read a great many books on making pasta, and some of the best are very recent. Here are the best - the ones you will want to own if you want to make pasta at home.

Spring is in full swing here in California, and it's not far off in the rest of the country. This recipe brings together several of my favorite spring ingredients: Rabbit, morel mushrooms and nettles, all in a lovely, Italian-inspired dish.

Here's how to identify and eat the wild greens of spring: Dandelions, wild lettuces and other wild chicories. These are pleasingly bitter, super nutritious and awesome with meats and pasta.

This is a bit like venison barbacoa, but this version, from the Yucatan in southern Mexico, is so zippy it's just as good eaten as a cold salad. Either way, this is an excellent recipe for a front shoulder, neck or roast.

Stalking the wild asparagus, as the late, great Euell Gibbons did, is harder than you might think. Here's how to find and forage for one of spring's finest wild edible plants.

Braised pheasant thighs with parsley roots. Parsley wha? Yep, there is a variety of parsley that grows fat, juicy roots. But parsnips or carrots would work just fine in this lovely, delicate, late-winter recipe.

Pike dumplings, or quenelles, to be exact, are an ancient preparation for the bony fish, but any fish will work here. These are light as air and are perfect floating in a clear broth - in this case, a wild mushroom broth.