Langdon Cook's Blog, page 11

The Art of Wild Mushroom Cookery

Bill Jones, an award-winning cookbook author, chef, and consultant, calls the bountiful Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island home. There he's restored an old farmhouse—Deerholme—to use as his base of operations. Lucky for Bill, prodigious mushroom fruitings occur in the nearby mountains, valleys, and coastal forests. I caught up with Bill recently to talk about his new cookbook, The Deerholme

Devil's Club Stir-fry

I happened on a beautiful grove of devil's club today. This isn't the sort of approbation one normally hears about the ornery plant. Devil's club, with its nasty spines and towering stalks, is the bane of hikers in the Pacific Northwest, especially off-trail hikers. Get stuck in a swampy bog of devil's club and you'll learn to avoid the stuff at all costs.



But this grove was right off the

Razor's Edge

One of the great pleasures of my foraging workshops is seeing the moment of recognition: that instant when a student uncovers nature's banquet for the first time. Such moments were repeated many times over this past weekend on Washington's storm-tossed ocean beaches, as fifteen of us plied the razor clam flats.





I can't remember back-to-back digs of such abundance. The shows were everywhere

Empty Buckets?

There's a lot of chatter right now in mycological circles about proposed legislation in Oregon to require permits for all mushroom harvesting in the state. As written, the law would apply to both commercial and recreational mushroom hunters, although there is a proposed amendment to exempt personal use gathering.


After reading through the documents, I'm still not sure what I think about the

The Urban Naturalist

I'll be contributing articles on occasion to the Seattle P.I.'s Urban Naturalist blog, helmed by Waverly Fitzgerald. Here's my first post, on that ornery yet useful weed, the stinging nettle. The post was actually inspired by the children's book, Wake Up, It's Spring!, which my daughter Ruby broke out of retirement this week.

Razor Clam Foraging & Cooking Class

Attn: Razor Clam Newbies! In association with Bainbridge Island Parks & Rec, I'll be offering my first razor clam foraging and cooking class at the end of March. This is something I've wanted to do for a while, but the planning required has stymied efforts. Until now.





This is a pilot program, and as such it's a great deal. We have rented a house on the Washington Coast north of Ocean

Win Free Tickets to Voracious Tasting

I have a pair of tickets to give away to Seattle Weekly's 4th Annual Voracious Tasting and Food Awards. I'm setting the bar super high...be the first to leave a non-robo, spam-free comment and they're yours. Let's make this quid pro quo: tell me about the last really good wild edible you ate, whether in a restaurant or at home, and what made it so good.

From the press

Pimentón Clams and Pig Face

This post is a shout-out to my peeps in the shellfish dept. One of the benefits of helming FOTL is the opportunity to share my experiences with others keen to forage and cook wild foods—a recipe for good times in the outdoors, with fun people.

My shellfish classes, in particular, have escalated (perhaps as word has gotten out and each subsequent class is intent on besting the previous one)

Backyard Udon Stir-fry

Weeded the garden yesterday. Then cooked up the weeds for lunch.

February and March are strange months in the Pacific Northwest. It's often the best skiing of the year in the mountains, but those same storms that dump powder at elevation (or Cascade concrete, as the case may be) are nourishing the first flush of spring greens down in the valley.

Spring?



Indeed. This is the time to start

Gnudi with Black Trumpets, Prosciutto & White Truffle

The magical combo of salty pig and fruity Cantharellaceae cannot be overstated. In this case I paired prosciutto with black trumpets, a match that took an already scrumptious dish—classic ricotta gnudi—over the top. But why stop there? If you're gonna get busted speeding, a certain twisted logic says it might as well be impersonating Mario Andretti.

So I shaved some Oregon white truffle.

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