The New Wildcrafted Cuisine: Exploring the Exotic Gastronomy of Local Terroir

by Pascal Baudar

Overview

"A gorgeous book . . . .  [Baudar’s] methods, ideas, and aesthetics . . .  are truly inspirational."—Sandor Ellix Katz, author of The Art of Fermentation 

"A beautiful book, loaded with recipes and techniques for preserving and eating wild plants."—Saveur

With detailed recipes for ferments, infusions, spices, and more!

The New Wildcrafted Cuisine explores the flavors of local terroir, combining the research and knowledge of plants and landscape with the fascinating and innovative techniques of a master food preserver and self-described "culinary alchemist."

Author Pascal Baudar views his home terrain of southern California (mountain, desert, chaparral, and seashore) as a culinary playground, full of wild plants and other edible and delicious foods (even insects) that once were gathered and used by native peoples but that have only recently begun to be re-explored and appreciated.

For instance, he uses various barks to make smoked vinegars, and combines ants, plants, and insect sugar to brew primitive beers. Stems of aromatic plants are used to make skewers. Selected rocks become grinding stones, griddles, or plates. Even fallen leaves and other natural materials from the forest floor can be utilized to impart a truly local flavor to meats and vegetables, one that captures and expresses the essence of season and place.

This beautifully photographed book offers up dozens of creative recipes and instructions for preparing a pantry full of preserved foods, including:

• Pickled Acorns
• White Sage-Lime Cider
• Wild Kimchi Spice
• Currant Capers
• Infused Salts with Wild Herbs
• Pine Needles Vinegar
• Wild Beers
• And much, much more!

Readers everywhere can apply Baudar’s deep foraging wisdom and experience to explore their own bioregions and find an astonishing array of plants and other materials that can be used in their own kitchens.

The New Wildcrafted Cuisine is an extraordinary book by a passionate and committed student of nature, one that will inspire both chefs and adventurous eaters to get creative with their own local landscapes.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781603586061
Publisher:	Chelsea Green Publishing
Publication date:	03/24/2016
Pages:	432
Product dimensions:	8.00(w) x 10.20(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Pascal Baudar is the author of three previous books: Wildcrafted Fermentation (2020), The Wildcrafting Brewer (2018), and The New Wildcrafted Cuisine (2016). A self-described “culinary alchemist,” he leads classes in traditional food preservation techniques. Through his business, Urban Outdoor Skills, he has introduced thousands of home cooks, celebrity chefs, and foodies to the flavors offered by their wild landscapes. In 2014, Baudar was named one of the most influential local tastemakers by Los Angeles Magazine.

Table of Contents

Preface: What Is This Book About? vi

Introduction: My Personal Quest for Local Flavors 1

Why Foraging? 2

Winter: The Forest Time

Tasting the Forest 9

Making Wild Cheeses 24

Preserving-A Forager's Perspective 34

Discovering Acorns, a Delicious Native Staple 50

Making Primitive Wild Beers 58

Cooking with Dirt, Sticks, Bark, Leaves, Sap, and Stones 83

SPRING: The Greens Time

Emerging Buds and Greens 103

Cooking with Unripe Ingredients 123

Preserving by Dehydration 134

Making Cold Infusions 146

Preserving Herbs through Freezing 151

Creating Wild Spice Blends 157

Wild Mustards 178

Appreciating Sweet White Clover 183

Summer: The Berries and Fruits Time

Concocting Summer Drinks 189

Making "Wild" Sodas 212

Elevating Vinegar 237

Going Native 257

Collecting and Cooking with Cattails 270

Moving to the Mountains 279

Creating Wild Hot Sauces 291

Making Jams and Syrups with Wild Ingredients 303

Fall: The Seeds Time

Appreciating Olives 307

Foraging Wild Seeds 320

Transforming Ingredients 346

Exploring the World of Edible Insects 356

Wild Tapas 370

Feasting: A Friends-and-Family Affair 382

Appendix 398

Acknowledgments 399

Disclaimer and Notes 401

Resources 403

Index 405

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly-

"Baudar, a self-described 'professional forager' whose ingredients and preserves have been used by such chefs as Ludo Lefebvre and Top Chef winner Michael Voltaggio, shows how to transform barks into vinegars, insect sugar into beer, and rocks into plates, among other things, in this avid guide to field-and-table cooking. While most of the recipes center on fauna found in Southern California, aspiring survivalists anywhere will likely appreciate Baudar’s deep commitment to the practice. Pickled acorns, anyone? Dirt index: Swimming in the primordial ooze.”

“Pascal’s book contains some of the most unique and innovative ideas that you'll ever find for using wild flavors. Clear instructions accompany each recipe, along with striking photos of the ingredients and finished products.”—Samuel Thayer, author of The Forager’s Harvest and Nature’s Garden

“As a Southern California native, I grew up with the terroir that I eventually would incorporate into my cuisine at Girasol. Pascal was my spark.  The first day Pascal walked through our back kitchen door with a cornucopia of foraged California wild plants and ‘Old World’ recipe vinegars and beers, I knew I had found my voice.  Pascal’s seemingly infinite knowledge and passion for what grows in the desert region we live in has truly inspired me.  This book is one of a kind, a walk off the beaten trail and an exploration of true wild flavors.  Chefs who truly care about finding new ways of expression and commitment to ‘time and place’ cooking will undoubtedly be captivated by it.”—CJ Jacobson, executive chef, Girasol restaurant, and winner of Top Chef Duels

“Visually stunning, The New Wildcrafted Cuisine is incredibly impressive, a tour de force, a masterpiece. At long last, an author has truly captured the power and sophistication that wild foods can impart to both our diets and our lives.”—Stephen Harrod Buhner, author of The Lost Language of Plants and Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers

“The New Wildcrafted Cuisine takes wild foraging to a gourmet level of creativity. I am delighted by Pascal’s ingenuity of wild combinations and impressed by his experience demonstrating the vast potential of culinary artistry. Pascal clearly articulates the procedures and details of transforming wild ingredients into practical recipes, thereby making the gifts of nature more accessible to us all.”—Katrina Blair, author of The Wild Wisdom of Weeds

“This gorgeous book will make you salivate and dream. Pascal Baudar is exploring important culinary terrain in his coastal California bioregion, incorporating the incredible diversity he forages into a broad array of foods and drinks in exciting, elegant, and clever ways. Beyond the particulars of what he can harvest there—some which you or I might find where we live, but much of which is very different—it is his methods, ideas, and aesthetics, all of which can be applied much more broadly, that are truly inspirational.”—Sandor Ellix Katz, author of The Art of Fermentation and Wild Fermentation

From the Publisher