TigerChef

The first thing that might come to mind when a home cook hears the term “wild food” may be a vision of hunting moose in the forest. However, a professional chef knows that wild foods include many gourmet items, such as truffles, herbs, and fresh-caught fish. Even without foraging for these foods, the savvy chef can incorporate wild food into a traditional menu with delicious results.

Cooking wild runs the gamut from adding indigenous fruits and vegetables to totally living off the land, as espoused by survivalists. Many cooks are excited about working with wild foods, and cooking wild is coming into its own in kitchens across the continents. Australians look to “bush tuckers,” people who foraged for wild foods in the Australian bush country, as inspiration for their modern wild food revolution. Closer to home, Native Americans serve as inspiration for chefs who are cooking wild.

Menus can be diversified by the judicious addition of wild mushrooms, wild fish, or game meat, for instance. Of course, wild foods are available for buying instead of foraging. A number of quality gourmet sites offer a great selection of wild food. Specializing in wild edible food, including wild greens, mushrooms, fruits and berries, the Wild Pantry is a good source for wild foods. An impressive selection of truffles is available from the Gourmet Food Store. For game meat, try Dartagnan.

Imagine combining smoked wild trout with a more traditional watercress and apple salad. How about potted venison served in a stunning chafer with melon balls and garlic mushrooms on the side? Use a fish poacher to make succulent tea-smoked wild salmon and serve it with oven-roasted potatoes seasoned with rosemary.

Start small by adding fresh local herbs to sauces and soups, move on to wild mushrooms and truffles, and finally add some game meat. Both the accomplished chef and novice chef will find that the addition of just a little wild food makes an epicurean statement with pizazz.

Filed under: How-To • General • Resource Central

Tags: chafer, cooking wild, wild food, wild foods