roasted eel avocado roll

Some snaphots of the beginning of a cookbook. The core, though unmentioned theme centers around the idea that many of the best things you can eat are made from five ingredients or less. I’ll post these sketches as the recipes are collected.

roasted eel
sushi rice
avocado
green onion
roasted/salted nori 

kimchi porcelain black walnut

Various kimchi arranged on the table. 

bamboo ‘roots’

When I was a kid a spent many weekends at my grandparents house in Hartwell, Georgia. They lived on 75 acres of woodland, but they weren’t rich. Land wasn’t expensive when they bought it. Their farm was on a clearing on the corner of the property. They had bee hives, a big garden full of corn, sunflower, beans, cucumbers.

In a spot near the bee hives where the soil was boggy regardless of how dry the summers got, my great grandfather planted a small cluster of bamboo. The year was around 1975. By the time I was a kid, it was as big as a house and full of birds. It was a great place to read. The light was filtered by the leaves and wind was diverted into tiny currents that kept the shade cool.

The last time I visited, it was so thick that I could find no point of entry to the thicket. I miss it alot. I think I’ll visit this weekend. Get some photos and a few pieces of bamboo - which leads me to the food part.

Baby bamboo trees are perfect for their tender rhizomes. Dig up a few and soak them in cold water after cleaning. Peel the outer layers to reveal a stepped tapering rhizome. Boil the root for twenty minutes allowing the bitterness to be released into the air - do not cover. Cut this up into thin strips along the grain and add to a wok or frypan that has garlic and crushed ginger already simmering in hot oil. When the bamboo soaks up the oil, add sesame oil, sesame seeds, salt&sugar to taste and some green onion. {I like to use spicy sesame oil.} If you have to put soy sauce in everything - just make sure you put a very small amount, or it’ll dominate the other flavors.

Freezing only slightly affects the flavor of the root - just drain after boiling and freeze. {Don’t chop it up.}

pepper harvest

This is an image from the beginning of pepper pickin' time. Now, a month and hundreds of peppers later, I've let the latest ones ripen on the vine, and I'll harvest them for hot sauce this afternoon. I'm using habanero, thai chili, hot banana, and jalapeno peppers blended into a fruit and tomato base with a touch of salt and vinegar.

morel cultivation

It has recently been discovered that morels have a symbiotic relationship with Elm trees. They grow into the roots of the tree, consuming sap while breaking down nutrients in the soil, making them available to the uninfected roots. Simply put, Elm trees grow better when “infected” with morel fungus. Fungus that participate in this kind of symbiotic relationship are known as mycorrhiza.

This reminds me of the role that good bacteria plays in the human digestive system. When we have optimal levels of healthy bacteria present in our digestive system, they break down nutrients that we normally don’t absorb. Mycelium does a lot of things that are beneficial to their environment. There’s lots to read about the benefits of mycelium in the book Mycelium Running by Paul Stamets.