Fish

Italian ‘Glutton’s Style’ Shark

It's summertime, and the fishing is easy. After an epic shark fishing trip in San Francisco Bay, I decided to celebrate summer with a classic Calabrian dish that uses lots of fresh tomatoes.

Venison

Venison Steak Diane

Steak Diane may be retro, but it's a perfect recipe for venison backstraps. Normally made with beef, the "Diane" in the dish is Diana, Roman Goddess of the Hunt. So venison just seemed right...

Fish

Simple Grilled Whole Fish

One of the best ways to cook a fish like a bass, rock cod or sea trout is whole. And one of the best ways to cook whole fish is on the grill. Here's how.

Berries and Fruits

How to Make Elderberry Syrup

It's elderberry season, and making elderberry syrup is the first thing I do once the berries turn ripe every year. After all these years running this blog, I thought I'd finally write down the recipe.

Recipe

How to Make Verjus

Verjus, or verjuice, is the juice of unripe grapes. It is a classic French alternative to vinegar, and it is pretty easy to make. Here's how.

Foraging

Cooking Blue Camas

Blue Camas, camassia quamash, has been a staple of the Northwest Indians for centuries, but few modern cooks have experimented with this edible bulb. Here are the results of my experiments.

Pheasant, Grouse, Quail

Pheasant Salad with Fennel

Most of the country is suffering from triple-digit heat, and no one wants to be in the kitchen. Thus, this cooling pheasant (or chicken) salad that relies on a gentle - and unique - poaching method.

Foraging

Sea Beans, Salicornia, Samphire, Pickleweed

How to pick and cook salicornia, the plant of a thousand names: Saltwort, samphire, chicken feet, whatever -- no matter what you call it, this is one of the finest foraged foods around.

Recipe

What to Do with All that Zucchini

This is my favorite way to use a surfeit of zucchini: It's an old Sicilian method where you dry the zukes and then saute them with oil, chile and mint.

Charcuterie

How to Make Guanciale

Guanciale is like bacon or pancetta, only better: It's made from the jowl of a hog, not its belly. And, like most charcuterie, what kind of hog you get your jowls from makes all the difference.

Venison

Mushroom Swiss Burger

Inspired by a beef-and-mushroom burger I made, this version, with venison and morel mushrooms, is even better! Venison and mushrooms are a natural combination.

Foraging

Bracken Fern: Food or Poison?

Bracken fern lives all over the world. And most every place it lives, people eat it. Yet it's recently been branded as a carcinogen. That seems to be true, but like all things, the poison's in the dose.