soupnancy

For a minute in August, I always get sad as many wild plants go to seed (the cycle over), which means fewer tender leaves for picking, but also that the array of beautiful flowers (some tasty too!) dwindles to a measly palette of golden rod, wild parsnip and aster for the tables, some yarrow for medicinal purposes.. You see, beyond cooking the wild edibles, picking wild summer flowers makes me happy – being surounded by the scents and colours, arranging bouquets for the house and restaurant. 

Thankfully it’s always around the same time that mushroom season starts kicking so I don’t have much time to wallow. Not that ‘normal’ means anything anymore in terms of nature’s timeline apart from that. You’d think with all the rain and intermittent nice weather, it would be a good mushroom season, but apparently it's not a given yet. Like with many summer plants, marine greens and berries, everything is late.  Looks like a good berry season though thanks to the water.  The blueberries are amazing; we’re picking the first wild blackberries and sarsaparilla.

As for the shrooms, around here, the early summer boletes (like yellow granulee, pied rouge and glabrescent) are on their way out while the lobsters, lactaires delicieux are showing up. Chanterelles and porcini have been present for a couple of weeks, the Flocons and Black trumpets appearing now.  Puffballs and Hedgehogs won’t be far off.  Some Chicken mushroom, so Hen of the Woods soon too. Looks like it might be a better fall season, fingers crossed.

Some photos:

https://plus.google.com/photos/103408259485441464988/albums/5911313272915177377?authkey=CMygje3ZvqKIDA

Other things that make me happy in August, not just wild:

Ontario peaches and they are good this year. Especially when you have a forager guy that can choose fruit like François. Peaches are best eaten as is, but during the season, inspiring to cook with too. I put some in my berrry chaussons and some compound salads at home (with something salty, think melon proscuito).

Fresh peas and favas, however a bad season for them, but the few sacs we were lucky to get were good, always labour intensive but worth it.

Corn – you need to buy (Denault’s) yellow at Jean Talon Market, so good. Look for Le Roi du Mais..  Corn on the cob, a rite of summer; great in salsas and compound salads, in soup.. A favourite sidedish this summer has been a new potato salad with corn, yellow beans, sweet pepper, sea spinach and our wild herb chimichurri..  Corn is a sure crowd pleaser in soup too: I nowhave a corn and wild mushroom chowder on the menu at the restaurant, a good way to use up all the broth I make from the empty cobs.

Back to the wild: sea spinach of course!  My absolute favourite wild green, raw or cooked, especially just wilted with garlic, EVOO and butter  or chopped up and added to a salad or pasta/rice dish/omelet... If you've never tasted it, it's just like 'super duper' spinach - more flavour and a touch of salt and pepper built in.. Like with spinach, I prefer the bigger leaves of late season available now and for another week.. Hopefully I won't be sick of it by week's end, the last stretch in my race of putting up for the year, hundreds of pounds, a good chunk for Joe La Croute's popular Popeye bread.

The sea rocket and salicorne are good this year too, if hard to find; the stormy weather and tides having completely transformed the landscape, forcing Francois, Claudie and team to hunt far and wide.

The mushroom season has officially been a GREAT one!  Not that it’s over.  Many summer varieties came late, some didn’t come at all, and certain autumn ones showed up early.  Overall, it has been abundant and all at once - we’re in the thick of things now. The last week of August and all of September has been insane.  I’ve been processing 400lb a week. Needless to say, one mushroom or another appears in every dish on my menu.  In a couple of weeks, it will be 3 per dish.  Some poor mushroom hater came to eat last weekend thinking he was safe, opting to visit before the mushroom event.  Not an easy case, but I think I turned him around.

François arriving with cepe beauties

No records for big puffballs, but we got more than our share of mid-sized marvels- firm, white and pristine.  I love giving them an eggplant treatment, frying slices up in batter or baking with herbs and olive oil.  Layered in a lasagne or gratin or frittata, they perfume the whole dish.  This week, I made a flan with zucchini, eggplant, sea spinach and peppers with a puffball base, all lightly binded with some egg and a dusting of parmesan that pleased.  So rustic and very old school, yet beautiful and tasty.  It helped that I served it with a slice of rolled lamb belly, brined, smoked and cooked sous vide then crusted, and some yellow-foot and hedgehog mushroom-tomato ketchup.

I have never seen so many Bolets à Pieds Rouges, a variety I love for desserts but worry about running out of.  This year, it may very well make it into our mix, bonus. Same with the Bolets à Pieds Glabrescent.  It was an awesome run for Porcini too, but the autumn ones are by far the best; in summer, they are rarely worm-free.  I’ve never seen so many perfect little firm bouchons, and tall firm ones too with a long meaty tender stem (the best part when young).  It is a lucky year when you can eat cepe tartare for a month straight.

Yes, the red-mouthed boletes turn blue when cut!

local cepes

It was a magnificent season for Yellow-foot chanterelles, and I think they are my new ‘coup de coeur’.  So delicate, yet flavourful, pretty and delicious fresh or dried.  It took me years to ‘get’ this mushroom, and I don’t see why.  Initially, I wasn’t taken with the way they went limp, but now I don’t mind that, and they do retain a certain chew.  It has always been my go-to to candy, so cute and tasty when raisin like or made crispy, tastes like caramilk.  But it is equally dynamite in savoury dishes when you want a little mushroom enhancement without it taking over the dish, say with fish or in a soft salad..

chanterelles en tubes dans le sechoir

Amanites des Césars, trompettes de la mort – both always rare and hard work, but François was rewarded albeit with much time and mileage.  These mushrooms are priceless.  The first so buttery soft and unique, just gently sautéed; unfortunately there are never enough to go around. The latter is definitely one of François’ favourites (mine too!); he likes to make black omelettes, quite yummy.  I prefer them at dinner and like to put them up to stretch out all year – to use in our mix, to make fresh cheese with, to take a potato dish up a notch.  I say who needs truffle when you have trompettes – they have a similar complex earthy, musky aroma, but less stinky, more delicious - notes of cheese, artichoke, licorice, caramel, deep and lingering. 

 baby amanite des césars

The prized amanite in diff stages trompettes de la mort

Now, it’s Armillaires and Matsutake, Polypore Hen of the Woods occupying my fridge space and time.  More pickling this week!  We should have stakes in the mason jar business.

armillaire et matsutakepolupore poule des bois; hen of the woods

pholiote ridéagarics forestiers

The nasty ones were everywhere - a  good season for ALL shrooms!

toxic!

The first signs of autumn beauties are appearing, the last flight..  Bolets jaunes, cepes des meleize, pleurotes d’automne, coprins, lepiotes, tricolomes... Hoping the fall will live up to the summer! 

Lactaire Delicieux - in season now, so fragile!

One more month or so of dirty fingernails, mushroom fumes and dreams..

Summer, so sweet..

Summer abundance across the province.. green everywhere, flowers in bloom, berries asking to be picked, mushrooms popping up, roadside stands spilling over with corn..  The mosquitoes have even calmed down. The country is the place to be, in the kitchen or not..

dame's rocket à la Table des Jardins Sauvages day lily and bee balm (and everything!) in bloom

the best table in the house

The Wild Edibles..

elderflowerI just love the elderberry (not quite ripe yet) but the flower even more with its characteristic aroma; it smells and tastes like candy. It's delicate, with floral, citrusy, fruity and tangy tea notes.  I hate not being able to describe it better.  It's delicious.  I dry it for the tisane, I make syrup, I use it in jellies and sauces both savoury and sweet.  Goes great with poutlry, cheese, fruity desserts. 

cattail spear and pollenThis coveted wild edible puts us in the juice every year, the window for picking being so short, and the prime spots not always easy to get to..  Hours of peeling the little spears follow, which I put up for the year for a fun vegetable side.  Then its time to harvest the pollen, which I use in crepes and savoury batters and bread, or as a umami rich seasoning.  Cattails make a good vegetarian stock too.

Milkweed from sprout to flower: tasty at every stage..  As a vegetable, it needs to be well washed and cooked through.  The perfumey flower makes a great addition to either salads or desserts, exceptional to flavour a granité, syrup or fruit preparation.  Next come the fruit which is more of a vegetable (we call the cornichon) or pod, not so unlike okra.

milkweed sproutmilkweed brocolimilkweed flowers

Marine greens - always a high point of summer: Salty, Crisp, crunchy and Green, they are all delicious raw,  or even better quickly blanched and dressed or wilted with garlic and olive oil/butter.

 sea rocket sea peassea parsleysea lettuce

 salsifis

sea spinach

 sea asparagus

The real weeds..  The usual suspects below might not be so welcome in a garden, but in the wild, it's a different story.  Readily available, for a longer time frame than most, and we find a use.  In salads, in soups, pesto or for a sprightly garnish depending..  I put some pigweed up blanched sous-vide like I do with the sea spinach, but most are just enjoyed as is here and there all summer. Oxalis (surette) tastes lemony - it's great added to a mesclun or compound salad, or to garnish a fish dish. The heart shaped leaves are so pretty too.  Orpin aka stonecrop/live-forever is a juicy, crunchy green and not bitter at all when picked in shady, humid conditions.  This is a salad green and that's it.  I don't need to say anything about mint and chives, which we have growing wild along the river.  Daisy is one of my favourite weeds, the sprouts taste sweet and licoricey.  The buds are good for capers, but I like to get at the sprouts first.

 garlic mustard leaf

orpin, mint, and oxalis

daisy

pigweed

tufted vetchSuch a pretty flower, and not much more than a sweet touch and child hood memories to sprinkle over your plate..

Not so wild, but we like them too...

The nasturtiums and bee balm, our garden herbs, chard and tomatoes, the first corn at the market, the beans and little roots, the favas and squash - as close to my heart as the wild stuff ..  Tomato sauce and ratatouille season are around the corner.

capucine Not like I don't have enough mustardy tasting greens in my arsenal with the wild greens, but I do love nasturtium.  To make a salad sparkle, to cut the fat or richness of a tartare or tataki, to add clean bite to a salsa verde or aioli, not so unlike sea rocket.

first little tomatoes showing up

First Quebec mushrooms..  Beautiful wine caps kicked off the season alongside the morels. The chanterelles are starting now, Lobster mushrooms and boletes too, soon a smorgasborg (fingers crossed)..

mousserons, aka fairy ringpleurote en ombelle

chanterelles

bolets (pied rouge, jaune)Yay!!

You should see all the fantastic dishes I'm making with these wild edibles. 

If only I could think to take a picture during service!

Next time..

Spring has sprung.  These first pictures are from last week.  François worked hard to collect the first ten pounds of fiddleheads (seen below), out in his canoe, wearing his rubber boot - body suit.  Just a few days later, it's an altogether different story, as the weather wants to jump to summer while skipping spring.  The fiddleheads are now out en masse, and eager pickers are following, down on their knees, in full force, working hard on our property.  By next week end, we will hopefully have enough to keep up with the market, where everyone is anxious for something local and green.  The girls are picking greens and flowers too, so more exciting salad mixes are on the horizon.  My kitchen smells green and floral again with the dog's tooth, day lily sprouts and ramp leaves - how invigorating.  All the better as I move into fiddlehead processing mode and swifter business in general - the season is off to a roaring start! 

I will add pictures and notes as the season progresses. 

 first fiddleheads                                     

erythrone, rampsclaytonie de caroline violet

  day lily sprouts live-forever snow crab nordic shrimp candy  

snow crab: worth the work guinea hen, quinoa, asparagus, day lily sprouts shrimp 'sushi salad' with wild greens

The first images of summer

In the kitchen, at the table, out my window in the garden, and in the wild..

day lilies in bloom: the buds, the petals, plenty to use

purselane

strawberry, rhubarb and rose petal shortcake and granité (with clover and vanilla grass)

low water levels: good for foraging

scallop ceviche with oxalis, wild ginger gelée, bee balm, milkweed brocoli vinaigrette

Pettinicchi in town: another sign of summer

milkweed shoots and brocoli

cattails ready to cook up

pigweed (or lambs quarters)

early summer salad with pigweed, live forever, smoked duck, quail egg, crinkleroot pickled veg

hot in the kitchen (hence the rag-sweat band)

François and his pea shoots

wild pea shoots

Aperos outside

oxalis
snacking on pigweed

Achilée riverside

julienne des dames

lilac season at La Table

armoise, liveche

Terrasse is open

From the woods, the first shrooms..

Morels from my old spot in Ste-Adele

Agarics forestiers - smells like chocolate!!

François' first bolet picks: bolets orangés and bolets jaune

the first baby chanterelles (left)..

I seem to always forget to take food pictures during service, so as for signs of summer on the plate, you'll have to come out to eat...   

My menu this week: http://soupnancy.squarespace.com/menus/ or visit www.jardinssauvages.com

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