Mmm, Morel Butter. (With wild honey in the background). Photo by Ava Chin
New York, NY. After taking an hiatus to give birth to both a baby and a book, I’m happy to report that the baby is now a happy and healthy one-year-old toddler (!), and the book is in with my publisher (Simon & Schuster). I’ve basically written a memoir about the ways in which foraging has shaped my life—from helping me to heal up after the death of my grandmother, to offering solace after a break-up—and it’s been a real treat reliving the earliest days of the “Urban Forager,” before I met my partner Owen, before we became parents. I’m so thankful for the lessons learned in nature while foraging throughout the five boroughs, finding mulberries, blackberries, oyster mushrooms, lambsquarters, and helping to save feral honeybees.
To help liven up the presentation my editor was giving to the Simon & Schuster sales team this week, I raided my stockpile of wild foods. I mixed up a batch of Wild Morel Butter from reconstituted morels (handpicked by yours truly), shallots, cream sherry, thyme, and pepper. (Tip: Sautee the ingredients first, then wait for the mixture to cool before putting it through the blender; and remember to add the water from reconstituting the mushrooms to the puree, for a deeply flavorful punch).
It was my first time making a compound butter and it turned out great. Even the baby loved it smeared on a rosemary-parmesan cracker.
Because I’m a stickler for presentation, I placed the butter in a glass jar and pressed two wee little morels into the top. Cute, no?
My editor said that the sales force loved the food—morel butter + brie and wild honey on crackers. Simple, but wild, just the way we like it.
The book, by the way, is currently slotted to come out April 2014.
