Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Foraging

I'm getting closer to finalizing the next Tasting Menu (10/25). Two ingredients that I will be using are ones that I found in our backyard - not really our backyard, but out in the wilderness.

These are oyster mushrooms that we found on a recent walk in a riverbed. A tree had fallen and these large clusters were in tact, dried. I showed them to a local herboligist and she confirmed that they were in fact oysters, and she explained the flavor distinguishing factors of color. She stated that the darker the color, the more rich and caramely the flavor. I have two recipes that are vying for these shrooms.

Then we have these juniper berries. Large, picked just days before their prime. I'm anticipating these in a rabbit dish, and most likely a patè.

On an unrelated note, we have an eGulleter visiting from the Netherlands right now, and tonight she said to me, "You always do weird food." WEIRD FOOD! What the hell does that mean?! Besides that whole celery dessert kick (here, here & here), my food is normal. Everyone else's is weird!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I dunno Rob, everything of yours that I have eaten definitely fit into the "weird" category ;).

Gfron1 said...

Last night Chufi clarified (actually her name is Klary, which would make it "Klary clarified") that to her language, "weird" means "different" and not bad...whatever sistah!

Tri2Cook said...

I don't know Rob, I usually take "weird" as a compliment as long as they're not spitting out the food when they say it. If someone calls it weird then I've probably pushed them outside of their comfort zone a bit.