Category: Slow Food Conference

My limited experience of cooking mushrooms is limited to frying them in a pan with oil and onions; knowledge bestowed upon me courtesy of my father. These mushrooms were always the uniform and mild tasting ones you find at the grocery store. So I thought it was important to learn how to cook the more interesting varieties properly in a way that perfectly enhances their flavor. The workshop at the Slow Food Conference was lead by Chef Jeffrey Wall from Hearth & Dram and his recipes were mouthwatering. Wall’s recipes included ‘Roasted chanterelles, leeks, and corn with butter and preserved lemon’, ‘Hen of the woods with celeriac and aged vinegar’, and ‘Glazed shiitake with bacon and potatoes’. He started off by stressing the importance of buying good mushrooms; they should be dry, yet fresh and alive with no off odors. After procuring your soon to be delicious mushrooms, it’s important to mince them to shorten the cooking time. (If you double the mass, you quadruple the cooking time.) By the time you start cooking, your pan should already be hot, then you can add the oil and put the mushrooms in. Its important to not crowd the pan and not to touch the mushrooms as they roast for 3-4 minutes. If the mushrooms appear to absorb all of the oil, then add more. The goal is to achieve coloration in the mushrooms and for them to smell like meat. After this time you may add some salt (timing is important; add salt every time you add a new ingredient). Next add a cube of butter to the mushrooms; don’t worry about adding too much, as you can drain it out at the end using a paper towel. Swirl the pan around to evenly coat all the mushrooms in the butter, then add more butter and repeat. This adds more aromatics, because the butter acts as a medium. It is important to be aware of the smell change that occurs in the mushrooms as they transition from raw to cooked to toasted, so you can better identify the process as it happens. Finally, add more salt, drain the butter, then add a touch of acid. This could include fresh parsley, lemon juice, or celery root for that bitter compound.

Overall, the workshop was really interesting and the Chef was incredibly knowledgeable. The only downside was how rushed he was; next time they should make it a longer workshop than 1.5 hours. I also left wishing I had gotten to taste more than a bite of each dish, considering I had paid a good chunk of money for the workshop.

 

 

After scoring a free ticket to the Cider & Charcuterie pairing, I decided to skip my workshop on making the perfect cheeseboard and attend this instead. As my friend and I waited patiently outside, I kept myself occupied with daydreams of fresh apple ciders and savory meats. Luckily I was not disappointed when the doors finally opened and we sat down in our seats. We were each given a plate with four different types of Prosciutto and over the course of the tasting, we were poured four various kinds of cider.

Eden Cider is based out of Vermont, they use unique apple varieties that are all grown in Vermont as well in a holistically grown orchard (think compost and comfrey spray). Some examples of the apples they use include a french variety called Calville Blanc d’Hiver and a baking apple called Northern Spy. The apple with the top acid and sugar content is a British variety called Ashmead’s Kernel. All of their ciders are unfiltered and unpasteurized, in order to let the flavor of the apple varieties really shine through. La Quercia is a company based in Iowa that focuses on making cured/aged meats out of heritage breed pigs. They believe that an animal who leads a better and healthier life, will in return have a better taste; so there is an incentive for treating animals with respect and dignity.

Our first pairing was honestly my favorite; prosciutto made from wild foraging pigs with a diet of acorns, paired with a sparkling dry cider (produced via the champagne method). I’m struggling to find words to describe how good it was, because nothing will really do it justice. Umami, savory, earthy, sweet, dry…I can try, but these words can’t portray the flavor correctly.

For our second pairing we sipped on a semi-dry cider (made by disgorging the yeast and adding in some ice cider) and nibbled on a Tamworth breed pig prosciutto. The cider was full of interesting tropical notes, but the prosciutto didn’t impress me much (though the two did pair well together). Interestingly enough, our next beverage was not a cider, but an Apertif. Made with basil and anise, this Apertif was paired with pasture raised Ridgetop  prosciutto. Both of which were delicious.

Finally, the long awaited Berkshire prosciutto was paired with Eden’s heritage Ice Cider. Made with fifteen varieties of apples and left with 15% residual sugar in the bottle, it was the perfect way to end the tasting. So good in fact, I obtained my own bottle for my birthday and drank it with my partner as the sun was setting the other night; it paired deliciously with my Beni Wild Harvest 66% chocolate.

 

The Zero Waste Family Meal was held on the final day of the conference and was a great way to celebrate with those we had learned with throughout the weekend.

All of the food waste produced at the conference was recycled into new food. At first glance, it may seem somewhat disgusting. But eating trash turned out to be one of the more glamorous experiences of my life.

The food seemed scarce at first, but as time went on I was overwhelmed with the amount of food being served. Alcohol flowed freely and everyone was deeply engaged in joyous banter.

I couldn’t think of a better way to end the conference and I hope this is an event that is duplicated in the future. It just goes to show, one person’s trash is another person’s treasure.