Hank Shaw's Blog, page 84

I don't eat a lot of sweet things, but I do have a soft spot for cookies. These I call "Bacchus Biscuits," and they're my take on a Greek fennel seed cookie. It's like a shortbread cookie, not too sweet, with toasted fennel seeds in it. They last a while and are great as a quick snack.

For most of the world, porcini mushrooms are a feature of fall. But here in the West, we also get spring and even summer porcini. In fact, the biggest flush I deal with are right now, as spring fades into summer. To do justice to these mushrooms, we cannot look to Europe. We must develop our own porcini cuisine.

Boudin, the ultimate Cajun comfort food. Not quite a sausage, boudin is more like jambalaya in a hog casing. You eat it on crackers or just by hand, right out of the casing. I learned how to make it at Legnon's in Lafayette, and here's my version.

“Ever eat a pine tree? Many parts are edible.”  That may be the most famous quote from the father of modern foraging, the late, great Euell Gibbons, who spoke those words in a Grape Nuts commercial back in the 1970s. He’s right, of course, and I’d like to walk you through just which parts he’s talking […]

Sorrel sauce. It's so basic, yet so profoundly useful... and awesome. Sorrel tastes like lemonade in a leaf, and both wild and cultivated varieties grow like weeds in any garden. This rich, tart sauce is perfect with pasta, poached fish or poultry, or any other lightly cooked meat.

It's time to catch black cod, a/k/a sablefish or butterfish out here in the North Pacific. If you've ever eaten this fish, it's like eating silk -- mild, velvety and just a little oily. This means it's perfect for smoking.

I love fried clams. A lot. Maybe too much. My sisters will attest to this. Well, this is how they make fried clams in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, where I've been eating giant baskets of them since at least 1974. This recipe is so good you'll want to head out to the clam flats ASAP.

When life gives you mushrooms, make tortellini out of them. OK, maybe tortellini are not everyone's first thought when it comes to cooking fresh mushrooms. But I love these little packets of love, and making them with morels is especially lovely.

Some of you know I started cooking professionally in an Ethiopian restaurant. Well, this was my absolute favorite thing to make when I worked there. It's a hybrid stew/stir-fry called tibs. I make it with venison now, but it was damn good with beef, lamb or goat, too.

There's a lot of talk out there about people overharvesting ramps, the most dominant wild onion in the East. Some of that talk is true. Here's how to responsibly harvest wild onions of any sort, as well as how to prepare, store and preserve them.