Home  |  About   |   Wild Food Lab   |  Services  |  Gallery  |  Buzz  Contact

Wild Food Lab is a collaboration between Transitional Gastronomy and Urban Outdoor Skills.

 

We forage what's available seasonally and then both research and test how each ingredient was used in the past, as well as experiment and create new methods and means of utilizing these wild ingredients.

 

The result is wild cuisine that's interpreted for today's palate with a modern culinary perspective.

Yucca Stories: Spring 2012

 

 

All Things Yucca Whipplei!

 

Let's take a little trip down memory lane. Yucca whipplei...not quite describable and when I first started cooking with it, I thought..."meh." It's a little watery, cucumber-y, slightly sweet finish. But it's a beautiful, mysterious wild food to me and after a few years, it's become a favorite and a staple. Pascal is like a preserving mad man when it's in season as the season is so short and we want to utilize what we do harvest as to not waste them or over harvest.

 

It's related to the agave and looks a little like it. The entire shoot when young, is edible, as are the beautiful white puffy flowers. The flowering plant is really a site to see as it's a stark white against the California scrub.

When people ask me what it tastes like, I say, "When raw..a little like green papaya and when boiled or steamed like artichoke/mushroom and when grilled...a little sweet like asparagus/artichoke." It’s really the tofu of the wild foods, LOL. Let’s take a little trip and see what you can do with it. There are many talented chefs experimenting, so here’s my interpretation.

 

Yucca Flower Niçoise

The flowers are so beautiful and although neutral, they do have a very subtle, sweet flavor that’s pretty clean. And we have access to fresh forest snails that have been feasting on wild rosemary. So…this is my take on a niçoise. It’s a very simple dish with sweet and anise notes and a very light mustard finish.

 

Yucca flowers

Blanched golden beets

Radishes

Foraged Fennel

Yellow mustard flower and garlic sauce

Forest escargot broiled with wild fennel butter

 

Yucca Trio

I was planning something small and portable for an event so cubed it was. Here I simmered the yucca in a CA bay leaf and wild spice bouquet garnis and served it with a very rare steak bite and tomato “heart” along with some of Pascal’s smoked and infused salts (CA Bay, wine).

 

Yucca shoot, simmered  in wild spice bouquet garnis

Rare steak and tomato with smoked and infused salts

Parboiled yucca pan seared in wild sage beurre noisette with steak

 

Yucca Tuile

Ginger infused yucca, then dehydrated around a form

Lambsquarter mousseline

Lambsquarter and Thyme sauce

 

Yucca Carpaccio

Yucca sliced super thin before par-boiling in sesame oil/ginger infusion

Poached quail egg, seasoned roe, mustard and radish flowers, wild arugula and wild radish pod salad with enoki

 

Yuccaccine

Yucca , squash and carrot strands

Wild mustard leaf, garlic and cream sauce

 

And there so many more things you can do. We’re always discovering new ways to use this plant, like this:

Yucca “Pok Pok” Thai-inspired salad - has a natural green papaya taste

Yucca Gratin – homey and good, just cream and butter and garlic

Yucca Scotch Eggs – because we had farm eggs that day

Yucca “Bourguignon” – Pascal made this one, reminds him of home

Yucca Jerky – Pascal has perfected this and I swear it tastes, looks and has the texture of jerky, amazing!

 

Have an amazing yucca story? We would love to hear and be inspired by you!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Images & Material Copyright © 2013 Mia Wasilevich and Transitional Gastronomy, All rights reserved.