Recipe
Cheek by Jowl
Thank Holly for the name of this dish: Cheek by Jowl. Braised wild boar cheek served with fresh spring veggies, a saffron cream sauce, and crispy pork jowl.
French
Sorrel Soup, French Style
I've grown sorrel in my backyard for years. How is it I never made sorrel soup? Time to rectify that.
Fish
White Sturgeon and Fine Dining
Fine dining is a high-wire act, a balance between art, technique and flavor. Miss one element, and the dish fails. This dish, I am proud to say, did not fail.
Wild Game
Doves with Prickly Pear BBQ Sauce
I spent Labor Day weekend in perhaps the best place in America to hunt doves: South Texas. I've never seen dove hunting like it, but I hope to see it again next year. Absolutely epic. To celebrate the hunt, I created a perfect grilling sauce to go with these birds.
Foraging
Blue Camas and Other Edible Bulbs
Last week I found lots of wild edible bulbs in the High Sierra, notably blue camas. But eating bulbs has twin problems: Poisonous look-alikes, and the fact that their flowers are achingly beautiful.
Foraging
Eating Yucca Flowers
No matter where I went, from here in Sacramento all the way to South Florida, yucca plants are in bloom. There are lots of different species, but the flowers are all edible - they taste like a cross between a green bean and an artichoke leaf.
Appetizers and Snacks
Oyster! Oyster! Oyster!
Sometimes I can't do justice to my crazy ideas on the first go-round. Sometimes I need to fail a couple times before I nail the dish. I am happy to say I've nailed "Oyster, Oyster, Oyster."
Recipe
Corned Gizzards and Cabbage
I know, this should have been done in March. But trust me, this dish is worth the wait. It is easily the best offal dish I've ever made. I used to like gizzards. Now I love them!
Recipe
Sharptail Grouse, Prairie Style
Sharptail grouse is strong-tasting, but I love it, especially when paired with flavors from the prairie where it lives: Wheat, sunflower seeds, wild onion and a rose hip glaze.
Essays and Stories
NOMA: Time and Place and Meaning
After months of struggling with NOMA, the cookbook from the Danish restaurant considered to be the best in the world, I finally get it. Food is about time, and place. And meaning.
Butternut Squash Soup with Bacon
There are a million recipes for pumpkin or squash soup on the Internet, but I’d like to think mine is…
Italian
Making Mirto, a Sardinian Liqueur
The first time I drank mirto, the dark, herbal-tasting Sardinian liqueur, I fell in love with it. Little did I know then how easy it was to make, and when I found a myrtle bush, it was game on!
