Chef Brian Henry

Indigenous trumps local food

Without question our unstable weather patterns from winter have carried over into spring and this is challenging for those who like to harvest their own food. It has been hard resisting the temptation to plant my vegetable garden as the weather has often felt like summer on many days since February. Although the risk of frost continues until May 24^th weekend it is hard to believe that the first long weekend of summer is still almost five weeks away.

 Switching our attention from the garden to the forest might help feed our instinctive hunter-gatherer needs by allowing us to harvest the many foods that are available in nature such as ramps, morels, fiddle heads, elm seeds, nettles and dandelions to name a few of the many .

 These wild and free foods are ahead of schedule and ready to harvest throughout the region. I don’t know of any other way to eat more locally than by eating indigenously.

 I strongly encourage you to know how to correctly identify any foods that you are harvesting from the wild. Always inspect the foods you harvest and discard any diseased or insect infested pieces.

For long term preservation of your forest foraging bounty you can dry the morels, pickle the ramps and blanch/freeze down the extra fiddleheads; there is never a shortage of dandelions so only harvest what you need.

If you are not comfortable with the thought of harvesting these foods on your own then I recommend heading down to the Peterborough Farmers Market on Saturday and forage around the many vendors who are selling these wild ingredients safely in a tame manner.

Where the Wild Things Are Chicken

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
3 tbsp. canola oil
½ cup morel mushrooms cleaned, trimmed and coarsely chopped

1-2 ramps cleaned and coarsely chopped
1 cup white wine
1 cup chicken stock
1 tsp. marjoram
1 tsp. thyme

¼ cup fiddleheads

¼ cup chopped dandelion greens
1 cup light cream
Salt and pepper to taste
Flour for dredging
Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Pre-heat a large sized Dutch oven over med-high heat. Dredge the chicken in flour and shake off excess. Add the canola oil to the Dutch oven and add the chicken to the pan. Do not overcrowd the pan. Allow chicken to lightly brown on each side. Now add the morels and ramps to the pot and continue cooking for few minutes. Stir in the wine, chicken stock and herbs. Secure the lid on your Dutch oven and place it on a lower rack in the oven. Cook or braise chicken mixture for 90 minutes. While waiting for the chicken to cook prepare a few cups of egg noodles.

Once cooked remove chicken from the Dutch oven, and place the thighs over the egg noodles. Skim off any fat from the braising liquid with a large spoon. Stir in the fiddleheads, dandelion greens and the cream. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Ladle the braising liquid over the chicken and serve immediately.

Rampage!!

The wild leek known as “ramps” is a wild onion native to North America. This  member of the Lily family is one of the very first plants to push its head out of the ground after the snow melts. They usually appear in late April and can be harvested throughout the month of May.

The wild leek can be recognized by its broad, smooth, light green leaves that grow to about  eight inches in height. The leaves are often tinted with burgundy or purple highlights.  First time ramp hunters need not worry so much about their botanical identification skills for when one pulls up  the strongly rooted  Scallion like bulbs from the ground your nose will confirm your find;  by tearing the plants stem and taking a sniff.  If it the strongly distinctive scent of an onion sears your nostrils then you have hit pay dirt.

Later in the season  ramps develop a yellow flower which only develops after the leaves have dried up and fallen away from the plant. Although they are still edible at this time the bulbs become rather swollen and tough with a woody texture.

 Ramps are adaptable to almost any food style and can also be sautéed or used in soups and stir fries. Substitute them in any recipe that calls for onions or garlic. I enjoy eating freshly harvested ramps raw; however their scent seems to linger for a couple of days on your breath.

 Ramps have made the USDA endangered species list as spieces of concern resulting from its commercial exploitation. Ontario does not have any laws in place to protect ramps but I do recommend that you only harvest ramps when they are abundant, and even then only collect scattered patches or individual plants.

The ramp season isn’t very long but you can preserve harvested ramps by freezing or pickling them.

Ramps grow in moist sandy soil often near streams. I usually stumble upon them when foraging for Morel Mushrooms. Try hunting for both this weekend  and cook them in a quiche with this weeks recipe.

Wild Leek and Morel Quiche

9-inch pie pastry
Two tblsp canola oil
Five ounces ramps, washed and coarsely diced
Four ounces fresh morels, split and cleaned
Two ounces bacon, diced
One tsp tarragon
5 large eggs
One quarter cup 35-per-cent cream
One quarter cup milk
Two ounces Monteray Jack
Two  ounce Romano cheese, grated
Salt and pepper to taste

Method: Preheat the oven to 325 F. In a medium sized sautee pan heat the oil over medium heat. add the bacon and  morels, season with the salt and pepper. Cook mixture until it becomes fragrant and the mushrooms release some moisture. Add the ramps and tarragon.  Continue cooking until leeks are limp and tender. Remove from heat and check seasoning. Spread evenly on pastry shell and sprinkle with grated cheeses. Beat eggs and mix in cream and milk. Pour mixture into pie shell and bake on the middle rack of oven until mixture sets. Around 20-25 minutes.