We should have a "What are you cooking?" thread. Now we do.

[davent]

Oh wow, double lucky you, asparagus season is upon you and you have your own patch! Is the patch new or been around for awhile so you can get in there and harvest multiple times? Fresh as fresh can be, envious, it'll be June before we see local asparagus again.

The patch has been in probably 15 years now, usually kicks off about now, and we will be picking a bunch every 3 days or so throughout spring.  It's a lot of asparagus.  Amazing how creative you can get sneaking it into every meal.  Some of a green variety called 'fat bastard' I think, and a purple one for something different.

Sounds great, i've never had enough available to ever grow tired of a light steaming to heat through, butter, salt and pepper to taste, a simple step beyond raw which is also fine. Do corn on the cob the same way.
dave

[davent]

Month of September this year tomato ripening ground to a crawl, all kinds of green fruit just sitting there, normal year sees peak canning time. Dosed them acouple times mid month with epsom salt solution, the weather cooperated and warmed up and yesterday had enough Amish Paste tomatoes to make sauce along with a good collection of other varieties.

Five quarts of sauce from the food mill which i reduce by a third, add garlic slices and fresh basil, seven pint jars finished in a water bath and the pantry is filling up, may get tthere yet, still lots of green ones but below seasonal temps returned today for the forseeable future.







Indigo Apples - these and the other wildly coloured ones are from Wild Boar Farms located in Napa Valley, hope they're okay.




The mix...

Take care.dave

[davent]

Had all those yellow 'peach' tomatoes, they have fuzzy skin, half a ball of mozzarella left from the weekend pizza, odd bits of dried pasta, mushrooms, garlic, basil, parmesan and olive oil, Aleppo pepper for some colour.

Uncooked tomato sauce and pasta, only in the summer or shortly after.




Cheers,dave

[davent]

It is what it is, a quick one, ten minutes to heat the gas grill and ten minutes to burn.

All beef hotdog, soft bun and pantry stock, yellow mustard, sweet relish, pepperoncini & kimchi.


Friday, have a good one.dave

[davent]

Saturday night dining in. Tomato shrimp risotto, apple pie.

Mix of tomatoes from the yard and from the veggie box that's delivered to the door from a local farm. Today's vegetable stock, Black Tiger shrimp from the freezer, we have a couple bags of different Bomba rices from Spain so that's what was  used here. Onions, garlic, saffron, Aleppo pepper powder and crushed Arbol chili flakes... shrimp were coated with a mix of cumin, Aleppo pepper, granulated garlic and salt, olive oil, stove top sear.

Cold enough these days to appreciate having the oven on so Apple pie to warm up the house. Still no Spies available but we can get Ginger Gold & Honey Crisp from the neighbourhood Friday afternoon market and those did the trick for now, 11% Greek yogurt to top.











Take care,dave

[rockola]

I guess I'll be having shrooms tonight.

Sent from my Redmi Note 7 using Tapatalk

[midwayfair]

I guess I'll be having shrooms tonight.

Holy smokes.

My friend gave out some sulfur shelf mushrooms to us over the weekend, unfortunately they were about 2-3 days past their prime. And I didn't find any boletes this year.

[somnif]

I was so sad, I normally go up on my local mountain to raid a couple chanterelle groves I've found, but my mountain was on fire this year at peak picking time. Granted, we'd had a dry as hell summer, so it's unlikely the harvest would've been spectacular, but I always enjoyed the hike either way.

(And though the fire would likely be spectacular for morel hunting, we have way too many false morels locally for me to ever really be comfortable picking them up here, and I have a graduate degree in mycology!)

[alanp]

Just remember what Boris taught us.

If Babushka picks you mushrooms, and you do not cook them, oy are you in trouble.

[rockola]

My friend gave out some sulfur shelf mushrooms to us over the weekend, unfortunately they were about 2-3 days past their prime. And I didn't find any boletes this year.

Fresh mushrooms should be handled like fresh fish, they will go off easily, some species easier than others. Apparently this year has been very good for boletes around here, I've found some, but not in great numbers.

I was so sad, I normally go up on my local mountain to raid a couple chanterelle groves I've found, but my mountain was on fire this year at peak picking time. Granted, we'd had a dry as hell summer, so it's unlikely the harvest would've been spectacular, but I always enjoyed the hike either way.

(And though the fire would likely be spectacular for morel hunting, we have way too many false morels locally for me to ever really be comfortable picking them up here, and I have a graduate degree in mycology!)

There's a handful of chanterelles in that basket, but at this time of the year you can't take two steps in a forest without hitting a funnel chanterelle patch. Found a few Hydnum repandums as well.

False morel (Gyromitra esculenta) is considered a delicacy around here. Boiling them 2-3 times for 5-10 minutes, throwing the water away each time and rinsing with fresh water in between, gets rid of practically all the gyromitrine. There's usually one or two growing at our cabin in May (sadly not this year though) for that singular false morel meal of the year. According to some sources gyromitrine accumulates in the body, so it's definitely best enjoyed well in moderation.

True morels (Morchella elata) are around too but I've only ever seen one, on the side of the busiest stretch of road in the country.

[davent]

Great haul of mushrooms! Do you have go far to search them out or is it pretty much backyard hunting? What meals have you planned to use them up in and what type(s) of mushrooms are they besides the few chanterelles you mentioned?

Looks great!
dave

[alanp]

Edit - wrong thread!

[davent]

Rained all day yesterday, postponed 'til today. Grilled cabbage salad, radishes, bacon, cherry tomatoes, chives & a blue cheese dressing. Grilled boneless chicken thighs first marinated with Guajillo/Morita sauce, has worksd well with chicken and beef so far.





One day down, four more until the weekend, take care.dave

[rockola]

Great haul of mushrooms! Do you have go far to search them out or is it pretty much backyard hunting?

We've got a cabin about 1 h west of Helsinki in the middle of the forest. No running water, solar panels only, but also no neighbors. That haul was the result of a 3 h walk in the forest.

What meals have you planned to use them up in and what type(s) of mushrooms are they besides the few chanterelles you mentioned?

At this time of the year there's mainly funnel chanterelles (Craterellus tubaeformis). There's a few hedgehog mushrooms (Hydnum repandum) in the basket but the season for those is all but over. I was quite disappointed that this year was not good for gypsy mushrooms (Cortinarius caperatus) which are normally quite abundant and just about my favourite mushroom. King bolete (Boletus edulis) is not revered for nothing though. A few weeks ago there were plenty of woolly milkcaps (Lactarius torminosus), they make a nice cream sauce with onion. The funnel chanterelles go in a dehydrator for future use in soups and as a spice in meatballs.

[davent]

Great haul of mushrooms! Do you have go far to search them out or is it pretty much backyard hunting?

We've got a cabin about 1 h west of Helsinki in the middle of the forest. No running water, solar panels only, but also no neighbors. That haul was the result of a 3 h walk in the forest.

What meals have you planned to use them up in and what type(s) of mushrooms are they besides the few chanterelles you mentioned?

At this time of the year there's mainly funnel chanterelles (Craterellus tubaeformis). There's a few hedgehog mushrooms (Hydnum repandum) in the basket but the season for those is all but over. I was quite disappointed that this year was not good for gypsy mushrooms (Cortinarius caperatus) which are normally quite abundant and just about my favourite mushroom. King bolete (Boletus edulis) is not revered for nothing though. A few weeks ago there were plenty of woolly milkcaps (Lactarius torminosus), they make a nice cream sauce with onion. The funnel chanterelles go in a dehydrator for future use in soups and as a spice in meatballs.

Very cool! I was thinking with the number you had there dehydrating might play into it, a bit of work now pays big dividends down the road.
dave