Saurkraud is a popular ingredient in many Easter European dishes. It can be used as a base for soups or as a dumpling filling. Saurkraud is made of fermented cabbage. The cultivated cabbage belongs to the same Brassica family as the black mustard (Brassica nigra) and wild (field) mustard (Brassica arvensis). Wild Brassicas have a stronger taste than their cultivated cousins, with noticeable mustard and broccoli flavors (broccoli belongs to the same family). They can be fermented in the same way as cultivated cabbage. You can use the fermented mustard in many ways, for example, together with mushrooms as a
Category: Starter
Not many mushrooms are good edibles raw. The beef steak mushroom (Fistulina hepatica), however, is one of the few that is. Because it has a meaty texture and look, it is a perfect mushroom to turn into a steak tartar. The original steak tartare is made with finely chopped raw beef, and has its origin in late 19th-century French cuisine. We swapped the beef for a beef steak mushroom and were very happy with the result! For a further wild twist, we replaced pepper with waterpepper (Persicaria hydropiper) and instead of using Worcester sauce, we used the liquid we had
The beef steak mushroom (Fistulina hepatica) is a rather unique-looking mushroom appearing in the fall on oak trees or oak tree remains. As its name suggests, it resembles a piece of steak, including a blood-like juice coming from it when cut. The structure of this mushroom is also rather meat-like, which inspired us to make jerky out of it. Left: The beef steak mushroom growing on a tree, note the red juice drops that resemble blood. Right: mushroom prepared like traditional steak. The beef steak mushroom can be eaten cooked, but also raw, for example, as a topping for a
The taste of the oven-baked rice with apples dish brings back childhood memories. This simple Polish dish was an inspiration for this recipe. The fruit flavor of Japanese knotweed (Reynoutria japonica) combined with rice and cinnamon resembles the childhood favorite quite well. Knotweed also has a perfect structure to be filled with something. Knotweed shoots consist of hollow pipes connected with “joints”. Through the process of long baking, the aroma and flavour of the plant soaks into the rice and makes it irresistible. Rice desserts are very popular in many countries in the world. For example, Khao tom mud is
Many countries have their version of potato pancakes and so does Sweden where they call it “Raggmunk”. In Sweden, they are typically served with bacon and lingonberry jam, which we both replaced by wild counterparts for which we already posted recipes previously. We replaced potatoes with Jerusalem artichokes, which are less starchy so this recipe requires a bit more flour then usual to achieve the right binding. In our first batch, we didn’t adjust yet and found out that increasing the amount of flour by 10% resulted in the perfect binding.
One must have at the Christmas dinner tables in Poland is herring. There are multiple varieties of traditional Christmas herring, including mustard herring, sour cream herring, or Kashubian-style herring. Kashubian-style herring originated in the Kashubian region of north Poland but is also very popular in other parts of this country. The fermented herring is mixed with tomato sauce, aromatics, and raisins or prunes. It can be prepared in advance, a day or two before Christmas because it will develop the flavor with time. In this recipe, we recreated beloved Christmas’ herring using fermented shaggy inkcap mushrooms. We chose shaggy inkcap mushrooms
In this recipe, we made truly fermented pickles using wild aromatics. Most pickles, you can buy in shops, are not fermented but pickled using vinegar, which has its place, but gives a different flavor profile. In Eastern Europe, fermented pickles are strongly preferred and used as an ingredient, for example, in pickle soup (see serving suggestions). Typical aromatics added to pickles when fermenting are mustard seeds, horse radish, garlic, dill, and kale leaves. We found mustard (Sinapis arvensis) seeds in the wild. The other ingredients we substituted with garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) root, wild garlic (Allium ursinum) bulbs, hogweed (Heracleum
Tempeh is a traditional Indonesian food consisting of fermented beans. The most well-known variety is made from soybeans fermented with the fungus Rhizopus oligosporus. The fungus forms a thick white layer of mycelium around the beans during the fermentation process which transforms the separate beans into a single block. The fungus can grow on a variety of legumes, nuts, and seeds. To make a wild tempeh, we initially tried using beech nuts (Fagus sylvatica) which had some degree of success (we successfully inoculated the nuts) but it was hard to remove most of the inner skin of the nuts which
Fermented mushrooms go well with sushi and they can be used as a vegan substitute for fish (more about this here). In this recipe, we show how to make a spicy fermented St. George mushroom maki. This type of mushroom is great for fermentation due to its taste and structure (see this post).
Falafels are balls made of soaked and ground chickpeas or broad beans originating from Middle Eastern cuisine. They are usually deep-fried. They can be eaten as a snack or served as part of a meal, for example on pita bread or in a wrap, with vegetables and sauce. Typically falafels are seasoned with parsley, onion, and garlic. All these plants can be replaced with wild counterparts: ground elder (Aegopodium podagraria), crow garlic (Allium vineale), and wild garlic (Allium ursinum).