Hen of the Wood blogged by NY Times..Mark Bittman

A nice mention about the VT food scene by New York Times food writer Mark Bittman...

Foraging update...7/20/08

It was a quite rainy day today, and too gloomy to stay inside, so I decided to head into the woods fir a few hours and see what I could find.

I found some beautiful chaterelles, they are really a great size right now. Also found one lonely brown oyster mushroom, and a hand full of boletes.

At the end of my wet jaunt through the forest, I stubled on a patch of wild raspberries. A perfect ending, and a perfect complement to a saute' of mushrooms with berries over soft polenta. I have a pheasant leg hanging out in the freezer I think I will raost and put over the polenta, and top with the saute. That's what I am talkin about.

The three mile radius fritatta...

My friend Mike and myself worked up a hunger after a beer/banjo/guitar session on my porch.

Eggs (mine were from Knoll Farm, wonderful deep golden yolks, and the best damn eggs around) are the one thing I would be happy including in some way shape or form in every meal, wheather it be breakfast, lunch or dinner.

I went scrouging in the fridge, and pulled out a handful of snap peas, a koosa squash (normally stuffed, a Lebanese dish...) and the montherload...a basket of over a pound of chaterelles. I asked mike to prep the mushrooms. He asked "All off them?"...we grinned as I said that yes...we should eat them all. We grabbed some sage and parsley from my porch, and were underway.

When sitting on my porch eating, I thought about where each ingrediant came from...as i do whenever I eat or cook, as it is this connection that makes cooking and eating an intimate experience for me. I realized that everything we were eating came from a 3 mile radius. This was bliss. I think we will write a song about it! Here is how to make my fritatta..

4 Eggs, beaten and seasoned
1# Chanterelles, cleaned and larger ones torn into thirds.
a Hand Full of your favorite farms Snap Peas, sliced on the bias into 1/3rds
1 Clove New Garlic chopped
1 Squash(The koosa is normally stuffed, and its flavor(bland) and texture lends it best to that..so use a summer squash or zucchini) halved and cut into 1/4" pieces.
1T Fresh Sage, chopped
1T fresh parsley chopped
Some Butter
A tad of olive oil
S&P

Turn on your broiler.

Over medium high heat, add a bit of olive oil, saute(in a oven safe pan) and season the squash untill a nice carmelization appears on the sides. Remove from pan and set aside.

Turn up the heat to high, add a tad more oil to coat the bottom of pan, and add the chanterelles. Move them around with a wooden spoon while cooking untill the start to develop some golden brown hues. Add about 2 T butter, the new garlic and continue to cook for 30 seconds. Make sure the butter has coated the bottom of the pan. Reduce heat to meduim. Add in the reserved squash, the snap peas and herbs mix up a bit, pour in the the eggs, allow to cook for about one minute, just till eggs set, the move the pan to the oven and allow to cook under the broiler for about 3 minutes, untill eggs just start to color, but don't let them get too dry!

Remove from oven and finish with some of your favorite local grating cheese
And Viola! your own 3 mile radius fritatta.

Shameless Plug

So, a link to my friend Caesare's Blog. A local foodie with like minded philosophies in the kitchen. Read up and eat up.

The Launch of VT's Newest Brewery

A article I wrote about the launch party at The Pitcher Inn:


The Big Basin Band opened with a rendition of “They Call It Lawsons Finest” to the tune of “Mellow Yellow”. The fanfare had begun, and the energy behind the taps multiplied as the theme song played on. Maybe a new wheat beer named Mellow Yellow is in order?

The porch and gardens of The Pitcher Inn were transformed into a picnic scene, as party goers mingled around enjoying BBQ country ribs, grilled jerk chicken and flank steak with cilantro dipping sauce, smoked pork BBQ sandwiches along with sides of potato salad, cole slaw fried plantains and many others. Kudos on the use of the natural hardwood charcoal. I bet thats why there was none to be found at Mehurons that Sunday!

Sean and his wife Karen were offering their selections of: “Fistful-O-Hop IPA”, “Crooked Cabin Ale”, “Weiss-K”, “Papelblonde” and “Woodchuck Stout”. The beers nicely ran the gamut in body and flavor profiles the whole way through. (Not necessarily in that order.)

I caught up with Sean at his brewery over a pint of Crooked Cabin to ask him his thoughts on the future of his newest operation billed as a “nano-brewery” by some. Yes, a nano is smaller then a micro. With Sean’s isolated availability and small batch production... a fitting term.

Sean got his start in brewing back in the college days, where he was often told: “Wow...you made this? This is really good...can you show me how?”. And so a passion begun. He moved on to spend time at The Brekenridge Pub and Brewery in Brekenridge, Colorado and Beaver Street Pub and Brewery in Flagstaff, Arizona where apprenticeships helped him to advance his craft.

Lawson’s Finest Liquids began production in Warren in March of 2008, “high on the hill, in the sugarhouse brewery”, focusing on supplying several local restaurants as well as the Warren store.

Right now Sean is committed to focusing just on The Valley for his beer supply, with a “think big, start small” philosophy. His goal at this stage is not on growth, but rather focusing on offering quality to the local community. He compared this to the Old World tradition of a pub, where you had to actually go there to get the beer. In the U.S, prohibition wiped out the community brewery, but current trends are seeing this becoming at the forefront of artesianal beer production. With the localvore movement alive and strong here in The Valley and Vermont, a welcome addition to our scene.

Sean talked about another VT brewery, Switchback, which shares his same philosophy of keeping it in Vermont. It can only be found on draft throughout the state. (And some varied locations on the extreme eastern border of New Hampshire). But how he differentiates himself from Switch back as that he believes in making as many small batch styles of exemplary beers as possible, while Switchback only focuses on one.

A major issue plaguing small craft brewers these days is the current hop shortage. In just the past year, the industry has seen the cost of goods rise 300-400 percent, as well as some favorite hops such as Chinook and Centennial become almost unobtainable. The catalyst for this was that last year unusual weather in Europe cause their harvest to fall well below expectations. Germany’s crop was OK, but the harvests in Czechoslovakia and Slovenia fell 30% below what was forecasted. All this combined with a bad harvest in Washington found brewers now paying $26.00 a pound for the same hops they bought at $2-3.00 a pound a year ago. Sean deals with this by teaming up with a local group of home brewers dubbed “The Lager Boys” to put in a bulk order to help keep costs somewhat reduced. With the planting of Dave Hartshorn’s hops this year, we may see the first local hops going into Lawson’s Finest perhaps as early as next year.

We ended the night by tasting his coveted “Chinookard”, brewed with his private stash of the now rare Chinook hops...a robust IPA with a hint of apricot. He then poured me a sample of the super secret, brewed once a year, single batch “Maple Tripple”. This beer is made entirely from maple sap and maple syrup. With all the liquid coming from a tree, he joked it was his “No water added” beer. This beer had a pleasant body, and not a overpowering sweetness as I would have thought. The alcohol level was also up there in the 10-11% region, but was well balanced by the sugars. We both agreed it would be a perfect “dessert beer” paired with a VT apple pie.

Sean will be making his debut at the Vermont Brewers Festival in Burlington on July 18-19, 2008, as well as The Great American Beer Fest in Denver this October, of which he dubs “The be all and all of beer in the U.S.”. For your more immediate craving, you can find his beers on tap at American Flatbread in Waitsfield, The Pitcher Inn, and at the Village Porch in Rochester. You can also find his bottled beer served at The Common Man, and in take home format at the Warren Store. Additionally Sean will be at the Waitsfield farmers market this Saturday offering samples and bottles to buy and hopes to have a presence there at least once a month. Just please don’t buy all the Pappleblonde, as I believe it is my favorite.

Shroomin'

This time of year marks the arrival of when a walk in the woods can provide the reward of some tasty edibles on your table. Particularly members of the Boletus family (also known as porcini or ceps) and my summertime favorite, the chanterelle. You may also stumble upon an oyster mushroom or two.

While mushroom identification should be done with caution, once you have successfully identified chanterelles (with the help of someone who knows what they are doing!) and boletes you should be on your way to harvesting some with piece of mind year after year.

The great thing about chanterelles is that they can be prolific, have in my opinion the best flavor and texture of any wild mushroom found around here, and are pretty bug and pest resistant. The scary thing about chanterelles, is that there are some look-alikes that can leave you in severe pain, and hugging the toilet for days to come. The most common impostors are the scaly vase chanterelle and the Jack O’Lantern mushrooms. Proceed with caution my friends.

Boletes are pretty friendly once you are able to identify the species, as none of them can do really any serious harm besides a upset stomach. Also, the “bad” ones have the tell tale sign of instantly staining blue when cut. Besides that, the most unpleasant aspect of non choice boletes is a bitter taste. These mushrooms are what are called Mycorrhizal, meaning that they have a symbiotic relationship with the roots of certain trees. A mushroom is actually the only reproductive part of the organism, the “fruit” if you will, kind of like a apple is the only reproductive part of an apple tree. The main part of the mushroom is actually underground mingling with the roots of a certain tree or running through dead wood and consists of a web of fibers called mycelium. So when you find a “King” or “Two Colored” bolete (two absolutely delicious varieties found in The Valley’s woods), note the type of tree it is growing under, as this is a good sign of where more will be discovered.

While my legal council advises against telling you how to identify mushrooms that wont kill you, I will suggest these two resources to get you on your way:

Edible Wild Mushrooms of North America. A Field-To-Kitchen Guide. By David W. Fischer and Alan E. Bessette. University of Texas Press.

www.wildgourmetfood.com The Northeast Kingdom’s own Les Hook and Nova Kim are world renowned hunters of wild food and medicines. Their web site contains various links as well as a schedule of workshops that help participants become familiar with wild edibles.

How do I cook these things you ask? First of all, never wash a mushroom. They are like sponges, and will absorb all that water making it counter productive to the cooking process which is meant to remove moisture... creating a golden brown and delicious caramelization to add texture and flavor depth to what you put on the plate. Soggy mushrooms are not good eats in my book. I keep some soft bristled tooth brushes in my kitchen drawer for the cleaning process, and simply cut away any discolored or bug visited areas.

You also want to use high heat. Get your pan nice and hot before adding the oil and mushrooms, season them with some salt and pepper, and move them around while cooking with a wooden spoon. Mushrooms also love acid. Finish them with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice, a splash of white wine or good quality sherry vinegar and the depth of flavor is multiplied. Remove from heat, add a pat of butter and some fresh herbs, and your good to go. You can also wilt in some spicy greens such a mizuna or arugula and some garlic scapes for a oh so tasty side dish. Or, as I am making for my guests tonight, combine one part Gaylord Farm burger with the Weber and a bit of apple-wood. Top with that saute I just described (greens fresh or wilted in), some nice Jasper Hill Blue cheese, Dave’s tomatoes, toasted Red Hen bread...and you will be grilling with the best the season has to offer!

Happy hunting out there, and if you can’t find any chanterelles in the woods....check out Dave Hartshorn’s market stand!

Change...

This marks the time of a new job. I will be making these again...

This is a photo of some Laplatte Farm short ribs on the line at Hen of the Wood
restaurant in Waterbury.

It will be exciting to work with my friends Eric, William and Laura agiain. It is amazing how things can come full circle in this industry.

Thanks to all the farmers I have made connections with over the years at American Flatbread, and I hope to pick on some last minute produce from you on my way to work in the future.

See ya at The Hen.