A Mid-Summer Foraged Feast

One of my favorite things about summer is the absolute abundance of food. You have all the fresh greens, mushrooms, and fruits; the recently preserved spring harvest, and anything leftover from last fall that you didn’t use up during the winter. This leads to some truly amazing possibilities and couple that with the challenge of making something nutritious and filling without making the house hotter than a heatwave and you have a recipe for creativity. 

So I have a three course foraged meal that you can prepare in about 2.5 hours, using minimal heat. 

First comes first:the appetizer and if you’re anything like me you haven’t eaten all day and so you need a little something to eat after foraging to get your energy up to cook the rest of the meal. Something I have recently really come to appreciate is 

A little warm feta with pinecones and pine cone syrup with a warmed salad. 

1. Start by heating a large cast iron skillet on the stove. When it is piping hot, grill the feta

on both sides, enough to warm it but not so much that it loses its integrity. You can also

grill the feta. Remove the feta from the pan and set it on the final plate.

2. In the same pan, wilt the wild greens you are using for the salad. I like common

plantain and alehoof as both will keep their green color and neither is too tough or bitter

this time of year. This way you can keep the cooking to a minimum, as we are just trying

to improve the texture of the greens a little bit.

3. Remove the greens from the pan and drizzle with the syrup of your favorite pinecones

(mine are the male and female cones of the pitch pine, the male cones of the white

pine, and the female cones of the Norwegian spruce). Use the cones as a garnish. If

you would like a little bit of crunch, you can make the pinecones into crispy crunchies

that add another nice texture to the plate.

4. Drizzle with just a touch of foraged vinegar. I have some wild apple, beach plum,

wineberry and blackberry vinegars which would all work very nicely.

5. You can also use some toasted wild nuts like black walnut or hickory nut to achieve an

added crunchy texture. 

Now that you are sustained enough to cook the remainder of the meal, begin the sauce. The inspiration from this recipe came from my grandma who I was visiting with the day before I made this. I was craving some more sauce and a little beef and so I took out a

London broil in a quick sauce.

The finished sauce a top some pasta.

(I say quick- this takes about two hours to make, but most of that is just simmering time)

1. In the same pan that you made the feta, heat some olive oil and wild garlic bulbs; this is

something I preserve early in the spring. I try to preserve enough that I can use these all

year.

2. Next add the onions to the pan. I used fermented Ramp leaves as I also preserved

enough ramp leaves to use those as my onions for the year.

3. Then after you add the onions to the pan, you will want to add in the mushrooms. I used a few mini chanterelles, some veiled oysters, dried black trumpets, and 3 king

oysters that I got from the store.

4. As the mushrooms sauté, add in a large spoon of tomato paste. I know it’s not foraged

but it's necessary.

5. Then add in a large spoon of sour apple butter. This was something I made last fall and

have found it adds a lovely depth of flavor to soups, sauces and stews and also is a

great way to add more apples into your diet.

6. While these sauté, season the meat with a little salt and pepper.

7. Then you add seasoning to the pan. I used dried:basil, sweet fern, spicebush berries,

sassafras leaves, northern bay; fresh:fennel fronds, sage, thyme and chives. I also

added some dried red italian pepper, sichuan peppercorns, and cumin seeds. The goal

with the seasoning is to add enough that you can taste them all, but not so much that

any one overpowers the others.

8. Add the meat to the pan and brown on all sides. I cut mine into strips and did it in two

batches.

9. Once the meat is browned, deglaze the bottom of the pan with a little splash of foraged vinegar, I used beach plum vinegar as it has a similar flavor to red wine.

10. Add in a 32oz jar of preserved tomatoes. Reduce the heat to low and simmer the sauce for about 2 hours, until the meat is tender but not falling apart.

This sauce can be served over pasta; either homemade or boxed depending on your energy level. If you are using boxed pasta, move on to making the dessert if you are making fresh pasta  mix and knead the pasta dough and then make the dessert. 

For dessert I made a 

Mulberry and peach crumble.

Peach & Mulberry Crumble Fresh From The Oven

(You can use any fruits you would like. I just happened to have picked mulberries that day and they need to be used or preserved the day they are picked as they tend to begin to ferment very quickly. I also happened to have some peaches that were a little overripe and so those needed to be used as well. I was very very happy with this combination and would encourage you to try it.)

1. Halve, pit, and quarter the peaches. Add them to a bowl with the mulberries.

2. Add in your seasonings and a little bit of sugar. I used fresh elderflowers, wild mint, sweet fern, basil, fennel fronds, cinnamon, spicebush berries, a little hot pepper, nutmeg, and beach

rose syrup. I left all this in a bowl to sit for an hour, at least until the fruit gives up its juice

and it smells very fragrant.

3. Place the fruit in a baking tray or pie plate and cover with a mixture of some amaranth

flour, dock seeds, rye flour, whole wheat flour, and pumpkin seeds. You can add a little

seasoning or some spice to this mixture if you would like.

4. Mix in two tablespoons of melted butter.

5. Drizzle some molasses over the top; less is more with the molasses, too much and it

comes across as bitter.

6. Bake in the oven for 30 to 45 minutes depending on how good your oven is. You will

know it's done because it will be bubbling at the edges a little. I leave this in the turned off oven until I'm ready to serve it to keep it warm.

At about the time the dessert has finished baking you should be ready to cook your pasta. Then the dessert will be the optimal temperature for eating by the time you are done having your pasta and have had a little time to let the pasta settle.