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
Category: Recipes
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).
Tarte flambée or Flammkuchen is a type of flatbread with toppings that originated from Alsace. It is reminiscent of Italian pizza but tarte flambée dough does not contain yeasts. Tarte flambée can have a variety of toppings. The most well-known is the one with bacon, onion, and crème fraîche. This recipe was inspired by the Forestière variety of tarte flambée with mushrooms as a topping. Arguably the holy grail of mushrooms of the spring season are morels (Morchella). They have a very short season from late March until May (in Europe). Morels are a family of mushrooms with different subvarieties.
Sambal is a spicy condiment from Indonesian and Malaysian cuisine. It consists of ground chilies and salt with optionally other aromatics and ingredients. We experimented with adding fermented wild garlic to basic sambal, which turned out to be a match made in heaven. Once prepared, the sambal can be kept for a long time in the fridge.
The Jerusalem Artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus), which we already used in several recipes, also called Topinambur is a related plant to the sunflower native to America but can today also be found in many parts of Europe. The plant produces thick roots which can be used like potatoes. They are sweeter than potatoes and the sweetnes increases with the season. They can be picked from fall until early spring. We made gnocchi (or Polish kopytka) out of the last Jerusalem artichoke of this season.
White borscht, traditionally eaten on Easter Sunday morning, is made of fermented flour sour soup base and served with eggs, sausage, and sometimes potatoes and feta cheese. Here we present a wild version of this soup. The traditional white borscht soup base is made of fermented flour (usually wheat or rye) with garlic cloves, bay leaf, and allspice. We chose oat flakes for fermentation as they give a milder flavor and wild garlic instead of garlic cloves. We replaced eggs with stinkhorn eggs and potatoes with Jerusalem artichokes.
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).
Stamppot is a traditional Dutch dish consisting of mashed potatoes with vegetables, usually some type of leafy greens. In this recipe, we made a wild version of stamppot using mashed Jerusalem artichokes and wild garlic leaves. A classic way to serve this dish is to form a “well” of stamppot filled with gravy in the middle and sprinkled on top with small pieces of crunchy bacon. We used wild versions of vegan bacon and gravy we described in earlier recipes.
Bojo is a cake which main ingredients are grated cassava root and coconut. Its often eaten on family gatherings and birthdays. Cassava, also known as Jucca, is a popular root vegetable in South America. It is often eaten in savory dishes, similar to how you would use potatoes. But it also works well in cakes because it has some sweetness to it. Cassave used in bojo is grated and because of that it give the cake a unique structure. With an abundance of Jerusalem artichokes (Helianthus tuberosus) in our neighborhood, we tried to come up with creative ways of using