Breaking S@#T down to molecules

Cbc Radio one, a suckling pig and 2 hours of the morning with a nice cool breeze coming through my window.

1 Suckling pig =

2 x cider and molasses brined cold smoked hams to be.....

2 x whole picnic shoulders for the drum smoker

2 x chili, rosemary and fennel "porchetta's" (I know your supposed to use the whole pig for the porchetta but, I feel I can better utilize all the parts to get more out of my hog)

1 x coppa di testa

1x big pot of delicious pork stock

Looking forward to some gomphus clavatus "pigs ear mushroom" to have with the next hog! Cranberry mission is set in Dawson City for September with Brice the Rappie Pie Guru! Ive promised to bring some of Grand Dowdell's amazing beets that I will pickle for the pie. There's some talk around the lodge of getting some Dall sheep this fall as well. Sounds good to me! Salmon are running in full swing now and my currents are starting to ripe 'n up. What great treasures will august have in store?

Still a mushroom marathon in the Yukon. We are still a couple weeks from the actual season!

Yukon Porcini Season!

Pictured above: a handsome boletus edulis! (click me!)

In the Yukon if we get funky weather like we have been getting this summer. Hot, cold, dry, wet combinations we can get a early fruiting of Boletus Edulis. Typically they start towards the end of July and fade out by the second week of august. Then re appear for 2 more weeks in September. This year looks like we get about a week and a half of extra picking! Wild strawberries are ripe, currents are still green and wild onions are as tough as wood now. Time to pick shrooms!!!!

I went out on a scouting mission today in a pretty much straight white spruce forest and out of the corner of my eye I saw a huge flag (mushroom cap). Sure it was Edulis, I tapped in on the cap.. Hard as a rock. I got butterflies. I crouched down, scanned the area and I could see little troops all around. %$#MUSH RUSH&^% Needless to say, what a start to the season. I was happy eating various species of Leccinums until I saw the king! It could be a good year.

Im heading up to Dawson City for Music festival weekend. I will be checking in on the kitchen crew at Klondike Kates restaurant to taste there latest creations. Mabe even plan a low brush cranberry picking trip in sept with my good buddy Brice. Not to forget my ole stomping ground for the Edulis. I sense a bbq, laughter and some great company in the near future!

Just emerging from the ground, a young leccinum insigne

A handsome and delicious Leccinum

I'm eating LOTS of boletus edulis tonight :p

Trophy Fish And Smoke House Fun

Here's some shots of some the the Pikes and Lakers the Clients have been pulling out of the various lakes and rivers around the lodge. Top 2 picks are 100+cm pike and the bottom shot is a 97cm lake trout! Things are heating up around here!

As well as fishing we are also eating. I've been having fun with my smokehouse. It seems that anything you put in there, tastes like magic when it comes out! The alder and willow have a nice flavor that works well with fatty fish, pork and duck. Ive put together a small film (like 25sec) to show you my smoke house for yourself. Let me know what you think. The pork t-bones are brined with foraged juniper berries and and green coriander. Cold smoked for 5 hours then cooked on a wood fired grill. The duck gets a similar treatment but no brine, just a quick salting (four hours) to draw out access moisture. I like the duck cooked sous-vide to 128f, cooled then I cook it on the skin for 12-15 minutes getting it right crispy! Oh my man. I know I know!

Alder smoked duck breast @128f with very crispy skin, spinach, parnips and smoke cherries

Labrador tea roasted hutterite hens

I was recently at Stacey's the local butcher shop in Whitehorse rummaging around when I spotted a chicken labeled "specialty chicken". When asked what kind of chicken it was, I was told it was a hutteritte raised free range chicken. He gave me one to try at the lodge, so I began thinking how I was going to cook it. Brine, roast the breasts on the bone, sous vide the legs and crisp them up in chicken fat is what I was thinking. Liver and giblet gravy with wild sage....Hell ya! Now to the brine.

Wild Labrador tea is up everywhere out here and is flowering this time of year. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labrador_tea Seeing as I love the flavor so much, I thought I would make a Labrador tea brine for the chicken. Holy Sh#$ is all I have to say! Why didn't I think of this earlier? Anyways, here's what I ended up doing. Recipe as follows...

Labrador Tea Roasted Hutterite Hen

The brine:

• 4 liters water
• 225g kosher salt
• 125g sugar
• 3 tbsp coriander seeds
• 8 bay leafs
• 1 big hand full dried Labrador tea leave
• 1 garlic head cut in half

Bring all ingredients to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes to infuse, cool down completely. (can be done up to a week in advance)

When the brine is ice cold. You can put the chicken in. Use a weight to keep it submerged if necessary. The chicken will need to be in the brine for approx 12-15 hours (this was a 6 pound bird) When out of the brine pat dry all around and air dry in the fridge preferably overnight to form a pellical and insure good browning in oven. I roasted the breast on the bone in a roasting pan on a rack. Under the rack I poured in white wine and threw in another handful of Labrador leaves to get some vapour action from underneath the breast. I sous vide the legs at 160f for 10 hours then rubbed them with beer mustard, wild sage and buttery bread crumbs and crusted them up in a 400f oven for 15 minutes. Giblet and liver gravy.....Potato gratin, and chicken fried carrots.. The chicken was moist and had a real "chicken" kick to it. Hutterite chicken is definitely worth seeking out!

New Digs!

Ive finally arrived at Dalton Trail Lodge, 40km south of Haines Junction, Yukon. This is where I will be spending my summer cooking and foraging. The other veteran chef Mike has been showing me the ropes the over the last couple days before we get busy with the seasons full wrath. The elevation is quite a bit higher here than in Whitehorse, so you can still see tails of winter about. The smoke house needs cleaning and the bbq pit needs some work but its not by any means in bad shape... Just needs some lovin! The Dalton range is in your face and Dezadeash lake is just behind the lodge where this time of year lake trout are all about! Looks like ill have lots to explore and the terrain should prove to be a bumper spot for ceps and boletus mushrooms! More to come.

Ive suddenly become a bit of a baker since arriving!

From top to bottom, View of the lodge & Country style multi grain bread

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Sorry Relocating And Fishing

Have not had any time for blogging with moving in progress. But have had time to get some very nice lake trout! The 6 and 4 pounders were pulled out Moose lake just outside Valemount B.C. only a week after the ice has broke off the lake. Popping them on the webber tonight with some cedar planks and some birch syrup!

I sprinkle the fillets with course sea salt and leave them for 30 minutes to firm up the flesh and push out excess moisture. Rinse the salt off, pat dry, then put them on cedar planks which have been soaked overnight in water. Im using lump charcoal and paper birch for flavor. Finishing it with a glaze of black pepper, coriander and pure 100 Mile birch syrup! Sides will include webber roasted potato gratin and some steamed bok choy on the side.

I'm Yukon bound as of tomorrow! See you in Whitehorse!

Morel Chat On CBC

Here's a short clip of me on CBC radio spouting off about morel mushrooms and having a good chat with Alan Neal on the All In A Day show. The show was aired on April 28th just a few days before the morels started popping in Ottawa.

Morels With Ramps, Nettles And Lemon

This is what may tastes like in the Ottawa river valley! Serves 2 as a starter

• Good olive oil to coat pan (don't cheap out here!)
• 15 Fresh morels
• 5 Ramps finely sliced, tops roughly chopped
• 1 cup fresh nettle leaves
• 1 lemon/zest
• fleur de sel to taste
• fresh ground pepper to taste
• good chunk of bread (baguette, ciabatta, Belgium or crispy sourdough)

1. Clean your Morels!!! Morel pores are perfect homes for many interesting small critters! If morels are big slice so they are all the same size. Don't forget to inspect the insides of the mushrooms for friends as well!
2. Zest and juice only half the lemon. Remove any seeds from juice and add zest to juice. Set aside.
3. Prep your ramps. Clean them. Remove the bulbs from the leafy tops, slice the bulbs fairly thin and rough chop the tops. keep bulbs and tops separate.
4. Prep your nettles. Use gloves to remove the nettle leaves from plant. Select young new plants with tender leaves. Wash as you would regular lettuce and dry. Combine with ramp tops.
5. You should now have one bowl of cleaned morels, one bowl of cleaned nettles/ramp tops, one bowl of lemon juice/zest, one bowl of sliced ramps, fleur de sel, a pepper mill and good olive oil.
6. Get a large frying pan hot on stove. When hot add olive oil to coat pan. Before oil starts smoking add sliced ramps. Cook for 10 secs, to totally infuse the oil with rampy goodness. Add morels and nettle/ramp mix.
7. Leave on high heat so that any liquid that comes out of the mushrooms will evaporate as its being cooked. Cook until morels have shrunk by almost half and all the liquid in the pan is absorbed back into the morels about 3-4 minutes.
8. Add lemon and remove from heat. Season with fleur de sel and a fresh pepper. Serve immediately with crusty bread.

Note: I sometimes add fresh red chili with the ramps at the beginning for a little extra kick!