Currants

I came across currants in the Nourse Berry Farm catalog from which I have bought strawberry plants in the past. They caught my attention because they grow in Zone 3. In Jackson Hole, where we have two seasons, winter and the 4th of July, we'll eat anything that can survive the winter. I can't say for sure that I had ever eaten a currant. When I cooked in restaurants, I recall seeing dried currants but I can't recall what we did with them or how they tasted. I mostly remember their being mentioned in various works of English literature. I certainly had never seen a fresh one. I thought, if they will actually grow in Jackson Hole, and they're good enough for the Queen, I might as well give them a try. So three years ago I planted eight bushes of different varieties. It took the first two years to get them established. This year we got a significant amount of fruit.

The currants grow like mini grapes. In tight beautiful bundles near the ground. The berries have a tart, earthy taste. Some are quite tart and better for mixing with food. We found the lighter colored pink and white ones to be the tastiest for fresh eating. The varieties are called Blanka and Pink Champagne.

Normally, we only have moose in the yard in the winter but we did have one moose slip in and prune the currant bushes this summer. You can see nibbled branches in the photo above. Fortunately the moose just had an appetizer and didn't do any significant damage.

Though the kids were skeptical of the tart flavor at first, after watching them grow, picking them and playing with them, they were eating them by the handful. It is amazing how many unusual things kids will eat when they see them growing in the garden.

I am still experimenting with different uses for these abundant little gems. Countless references to jellies, jams and desert sauces in English literature come to mind. The other thing that currants seem to be exceptional for is mixing with meats. The sweet, tart, earthy flavor seems to make a strange kind of magic together with meat. Whether added to a braise, used in making a savory sauce or mixed into a chicken salad, as I did in the recipe below, they add a certain special flavor I have never experienced previously.

Coyote Loop's Freshest Chicken Salad

Ingredients

Two handfuls of leftover roasted chicken chopped (Wyoming Chicken Ranch Range Fed).

1-2 whole green onions or shallots chopped (garden fresh).

Two handfuls of baby to teenage mustard greens chopped (garden fresh). Arugula is lovely here instead.

1 1/2 handfuls of fresh currants. I've used some that I froze as well. They work fine.

1 T mayonnaise

Generous slather of olive oil

Salt and pepper

Mix it all together. YAHTZEE!

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Morel Mushroom Hunting

Morel Hunting

In the ongoing quest to feed the family using local, natural products; morel mushroom hunting has become an annual right of late spring in Jackson Hole. The hunt for mushrooms is a mystery for many varieties of mushrooms. The location of good patches is a closely guarded secret. In some years the right combination of weather will cause them to spring up all over the valley. Most years, though, it is a frustrating sometimes feudal effort to locate them in just the right time and place. There is one sure fired method that one can always count on in the Rocky Mountain west and that is forest fire burn areas. The spring following a forest fire you can always count on there being a lot of morels. You still have to wait for the right moment in, the complex matrix of weather events that tell the morels when to pop up but when it is on, it usually way on.

In late June, the word came down from some other mushroomers in Jackson that things were happening in the in the New Fork burn area near Pinedale,WY. This had been a big 40,000 acre burn last summer. At 40,000 acres it not a big deal to keep it a secret. There were plenty of mushrooms for everyone.

Early the next morning Marc Hirshfield and I loaded up in his truck with USGS maps and headed for the burn area. Marc is the owner of Betty Rock Cafe and and a partner in the Rendezvous Bistro, two of Jackson Hole's best dining institutions. It took a couple hours to get to Pinedale and navigate the maze of Forest Service roads to find our way into the depths of the burn area. Before we had even unloaded and geared up for hunting, I found my first morel.

Walking through a heavy burn area is like no other place I've been. There is a strange beauty to it. This area was totally lifeless except for morels.

For the first couple of hours we collected many mushrooms here and there. Any normal time it would be considered good harvesting. Being that we were in a burn area though I was looking for the motherload. Just as we were starting to head back to the truck to drive to a new spot we struck gold. All of the sudden there morels as far as you looked in any direction. The next three hours were spent picking the morels as fast we could crawl or bend over and cut them off.

Marc harvesting in his mycologist ensemble

As our backs began to get sore and our bags got full, it became time to head for the barn. Once we got back in cellphone range we called ahead to let friends and family know to meet at Marc's house for a morel feast.

There are limitless uses for morel mushrooms. There subtle earthy flavor and unique texture make them wonderful in many dishes. When they are fresh out of the woods it doesn't take much and you don't need to mess around with them to make them taste great. Since we had a hungry group of mushroomers waiting for food we didn't have time to get fancy anyway.

We started the evening with appetizers of straight morels sauteed with a generous about of olive oil, salt, and a finely chopped rosemary, green onion and garlic tops plucked fresh from the garden.

The main course was pizza's on the grill. My latest advancement in my never ending quest to make the perfect pizza is letting the pie dough age in the fridge for many days. The batch we had that night had been festering for a week. I think it develops some kind of sourdough phenomena. I don't know the details but I know is it gets soft, stretchy and delicious.

Pizza dough recipe:

8 cups of flour. I used a high gluten, all-purpose, all natural flour from Montana Wheat. You can use half semolina or whole wheat.

2 tablespoons Honey. Sugar or maple syrup ok.

2 cups tepid water

2 teaspoons salt

1/4-1/2 cup olive oil

I use my kitchen aid with a dough hook. Add water or flour as needed to get the dough to form. Finish with some kneading by hand. I put the dough in the fridge in a bowl or ziplock with some olive oil rubbed all over it. Let it proof in the fridge for 1 day to a week. You can let rise traditionally out of the fridge for same day use.

We made a couple of different pizzas using mozzarella, goat cheese, prosciutto, chopped scallions, chives, garlic greens and different herbs like rosemary, thyme and sage.

A few techniques I use for grilled pizza.

1. Roll out the dough thick or thin. (Having grown up in central Ohio,one of the under appreciated thin crust pizza centers of the Universe, I like thin crust). Marc who serves pizza in their restaurant can throw and spread the crusts by hand but I need a rolling pin.

2. Slather the pie in olive oil and grill one side. Lid down. Careful not burn it!

3. Saute or grill the mushrooms. I have a mesh screen designed for cooking pizzas on that is great for putting the morels on the grill without losing them. Toss them in a bowl with a generous amount of olive oil, salt and herbs.

4. Put toppings on the grilled side. Put a little salt on too.

5. Put the pizza back on the grill lid down. If you can turn off part of the grill or move coals to one side it is best to put the pie away from the direct heat so it has time to melt the toppings before the bottom burns.

Enjoy!

Coyote Loops freshest salad. Watermelon and you have a feast!

Moreling Tips:

1. Find an experienced mushroomer. Charm them into taking you hunting.

2. Collect mushrooms in a mesh bag so the you distribute spoors around while you are hunting. More morels next year!

3. Cut the morels off a little above ground level with a knife. Pulling them out of the ground disturbs the mysterious underground network of mushroom life. It also keeps you from getting a lot of dirt/ash in your mushroom sack. I like a fairly long 4-5 inch one handed opening pocket knife. If you need to use both hands to open the knife it slows down the picking or encourages you to walk around with the knife open which can lead to stabbing yourself when you trip over an unnoticed rock.

4. Don't wash the mushrooms. They are like little sponges. You want them to soak up yummy not water. You can brush them off. I find that them shaking around the mesh bag does a fairly good job of cleaning. I don't worry much about eating a little dirt and ash from the middle of nowhere in the Wyoming wilderness. Compared to the innumerable unknown in ingredients in a McDonalds meal, a little dirt doesn't seem so bad. Terroir baby.

5. Mushrooms can be eaten fresh for several days. As soon as they start to go bad they should be frozen or dried. I dry them for a few hours in the oven with the door open at 150-175 degrees on my mesh pizza trays. They should be like crunchy Styrofoam when they are dry. MAKE SURE THEY ARE FULLY DRY BEFORE STORING IN AN AIRTIGHT CONTAINER. I had one batch that wasn't fully dried and lost about 20% due to mold. TRAGIC!!

6. Reconstitute in water for a couple hours before using. They will be almost as good as new. Use them in any recipe that calls for mushrooms.

A few favorites of mine are:

1. Handmade pasta with sauted morels, herbs, garlic and olive oil and/or butter.

2. Braised chicken with wine and morels.

3. Stir fry with pork, morels and garden fresh vegetables.

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Coyote Loops Freshest Salad and Hand Cut Pan Fried Croutons

I made this salad the night of my epic battle with the irrigation ditch to show off the cutting ability of the Super Bread knife after shredding with the willow roots. (link to Tales of the Super Bread http://newwestknifeworks.blogspot.com/ ). This is also probably my favorite thing there is to eat. Especially in the spring after a LONG winter in Jackson Hole of eating store bought vegetables. (Spring Jackson Hole is that time in June when we get a few days of warm weather. Often we just skip spring all together and go from winter right to summer, which you can always count on starting on the 4^th of July. Unless it snows.) Fortunately, lettuce loves cold weather. Jackson Hole, which I normally think of as one of the least hospitable places in the US to grow stuff, is great for lettuces.

The recipe for this salad is very simple. Take whatever looks good from the garden and eat it. The point of the recipe is to encourage you to plant a garden. I guarantee that this very simple salad that was picked and served in less than a half hour will taste better than any salad the you can buy in a restaurant anywhere. Besides the incredible flavor the joy growing and preparing your own food can’t be beat.

Ingredients

1. Mixed lettuces. I eat all my lettuce when it is a baby (about 6 inches or smaller). It is oh so tender and lovely. Fresh out of the garden it is still crisp and delicious not flaccid and half rotten like store bought baby greens. This salad was a mix of arugula, baby mustard greens and several romaine varieties with fancy French names that I got from Seeds of Change. http://www.seedsofchange.com/ I like the appearance, texture and flavor of romaine very much so I plant a lot of it. In this salad I also thinly cut a couple of aspargus spears that had shot up in the garden. I thought they added a nice crunch. My wife didn't like the uncooked flavor

2. A big three-finger pinch to small handful of garlic, chive and shallot greens coarsely chopped. These are also popping up in the garden. Everything is still small this time of year so I just cut green stems off a few different plants.

3. A generous dollop of olive oil, a splash of balsamic vinegar, solid pinch of salt and course ground pepper.

Mix it together right before serving before you add the croutons.

Hand Cut Pan Fried Croutons

These are fast, simple way to use up old bread and add a delicious crunch to any salad. You can use any kind hardish bread. French baguette, ciabatta, whole wheat, dinner rolls, anything but wonder bread seems to work. I actually like to use bagels best of all. I didn’t have any around the house when I made this so I used a small baguette.

The standard for making croutons is to roast them in the oven. I find using the oven method often dries the bread out to much and you end up with a crouton that is to crunchy and almost cuts the roof of your mouth. With the pan fry you get a crisp, crunchy outside but still little chewy inside that can’t be beat.

Here’s how you make them.

Slice bread into thin slices. Depending on the size of the bread, I may stack the slices up and then slice them again into some nice, bite size shape. You need a sharp, long serrated knife to get a nice thin cut. If don’t have one, I know where you can get a good one.

file:///store/fusionwoodknivesitem/super-bread

This the Super Bread I used in the battle with the irrigation ditch as of yet unsharpened. Though it cut the bread well. I did hone it on my DMT diamond steel for about 30 seconds after this. I like to keep it really sharp.

Bread sliced under the watchful eye of Sous Chef Bucky

Throw the slices into a cast iron skillet or French steel pan.

Then turn the burner on high.

Pour a generous amount of olive oil on top.

A nice pinch of salt and a couple twists of pepper.

Stir or flip the contents until nicely mixed. Spread the croutons out evenly. I like to us a pan large enough for one layer of croutons. Don’t worry too much about them being neatly spread out and all having perfect contact with the pan.

Your first time you can stir them occasionally or, if you have the skill, flip them using the pan. Until they have a nice toasting on the outside. They can be very lightly toasted but still crisp or dark brown almost burnt. I prefer them all of the above which is what you get when you don’t worry about them being to evenly spread out in the pan and you use the advanced technique.

The advanced technique: What I do now having made them many of times is put them in the pan then turn it on. By the time the pan has gotten nice and hot and they are golden brown on one side. I give them a quick flip in the pan, turn it off and forget about it. When everything else in the meal is prepared. I pour them on top of the salad; toss them in still a little warm. Delicious!

( Here’s where the picture of the salad with the croutons mixed in goes. Unfortunately, being as this is the first New West recipe blog attempt and there may have been too much PBR and wine used in the filming of this recipe. You will have to use your imagination in what it all looks like together.)

Gardening notes:

YOU SHOULD PLANT A GARDEN. Our family’s grocery bill goes down 60% in the summer due to gardening. If you do the math, on what I save in grocery bills I make $50-$100 per hour in the time I spend in the garden. It is so easy. Besides sharpening implements (link to sharpening page) and building a fire this one of the first things mankind figured out how to do. People spend way more time on their lawns and landscaping than I do on my garden. MOST IMPORTANTLY: The freshy, freshy food from my garden, simply prepared, tastes better than anything I have ever had in a restaurant and I’ve eaten at some good restaurants.

Tips on Planting Lettuce

1. Plant early and often. I plant fresh lettuce seeds every week or two. That way there is a fresh supply of baby lettuce all the time. Arugula grows really fast and bolts quickly. June 10^th I’ve already planted it 4 different times. No big deal 5-10 minutes once every couple weeks.

2. I seed lettuce very heavily spread evenly through out an area. No rows. I find it keeps down weeds, stays moist and doesn’t need watered as much. Most importantly, the lettuce grows really tightly and compactly together. When you pull one out the others quickly fill in any open space. A small space turns into the lettuce version of the Horn of Plenty.

3. Corey’s planting technique. Lettuce seeds like to be basically on top of the soil. Most seed packs say 1/8-inch depth. Spreading an 1/8 of soil on top of seeds is not very easy. What I do is sprinkle the seeds heavily (think like planting grass seed) in a well-tilled mostly flat area. With my fingertips just lightly scratch the surface. Visualize lightly scratching someone’s back. Be careful not to push the seeds all together into one spot while you are doing this. I then give the surface a firm pat down with the flat of my hand. (Play the bongos). Add water. Nice light spray not a fire hose or the seeds will get washed all into one place.

3. I like to mix two varieties together. Lots of the time a green and a red variety. That way if one variety doesn’t feel like growing for any of the myriad of mysteries of why plants do what they do, you are bound to get one variety to go off.

4. Try to keep the seeds wet for the first week. This is the only thing that takes some diligence. It will work to some degree no matter what but you want the lettuce to really come up densely this is the key. In the spring this is easy if you live somewhere where it rains a lot.

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