A wild member of the onion family with wild mushrooms -- and bacon! It's not healthy, but it's incredibly delicious!

The special ingredient in this week's Steemit Iron Chef contest is any member of the onion family. I decided to stay wild, so I wanted to use an invasive noxious weed that's good to eat -- Wild Garlic, Allium vinale. This time of year, clumps of this plant look and taste more like wild chives. This is a decadent dish -- such a rich and delicious combination of mild garlic, mushrooms, bacon, and cream. It's spectacular!

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Foraging Winter Wild Garlic

For a long time, I called these plants wild chives (Allium schoenoprasum). They grow in clumps and are only around during our wet season here in Oregon's Willamette Valley. The leaves are hollow and they have a mild flavor, like chives, not hot at all. These clumps never flower, and they die back and become dormant during our dry summer. That all fits with wild chives.

But I've started looking closer and each of the round, hollow leaves does have a groove on the side closest to the center of the plant. So that makes it a Wild Garlic, Allium vinale. In the summer, I often see the traditional garlic form, with a single plant, with a scape that bears a clump of bulblets at the top of the plant. I harvest and use the dry top-set bulblets and the underground bulbs that have cloves like regular garlic. I think the dry bulbs have a strong flavor!

But wild garlic can grow in clumps, too. Then, the leaves become more fine and look like chives. It doesn't really matter much, because any Alliums, or members of the Onion family, are edible. They all have some sort of onion scent and flavor.

Anyway, I use these plants a lot! Usually I snip the leaves and use them exactly like chives. But sometimes I use the bulbs, like in this Ramen Noodles with Weeds. This time of year, the bulbs are mild-flavored, not at all like garlic!

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Foraging Yellowfoot Mushrooms

Earlier this week, I was back in the forest, looking for more mushrooms. In the deep forest, where the daytime seems like dusk all day, the Yellowfoot mushrooms, Craterellus tubaeformis, were coming up. They are sort of like a Chanterelle, with folds under their caps that look similar to gills, but they aren't. And Yellowfoots have hollow stems, not at all like the solid stems of real Chanterelles.

Yellowfoots are small, but their flavor is really, really good! I think anyone who likes traditional mushrooms would like the taste of these Yellowfoots!

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Cooking In the Kitchen

This is not a dish that anyone will ever be able to buy, because it takes a long time to cut the little heads of garlic from their dense clump of roots! It's not at all practical for a large crowd, but for one small dish, it's worth it!

Besides the wild garlic bulbs and stems, and the Yellowfoot mushrooms, I used bacon, half and half, and a little white wine. So this dish may not be the healthiest, but it's tasty!

I cooked some finely chopped bacon in a tiny cast iron skillet. Once it was cooked, I removed the bacon and put the little bulbs in the skillet and covered them with half and half. I let that simmer until the bulbs were tender and then removed them. I added a little white wine to half and half and let it reduce until it was a thick cream. I had to keep stirring that to make sure the mixture didn't separate.

To cook the Yellowfoot mushrooms, I just heated a little bacon fat in another cast iron skillet, added the yellowfoots, put on a lid, and turned off the heat. After a few minutes, they are wilted and cooked through. Yumm!

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Eating My Creamed Wild Winter Garlic Bulbs and Yellowfoot Mushrooms

I put the wild garlic bulbs on top of the thick, warm cream and arranged the Yellowfoots all around. I topped it with little crisp bacon bits and the chopped stems of the wild garlic. Which taste like wild chives. With a small glass of beer, this was magical! The bulbs were tender and mild-flavored and went so well with the mushrooms and bacon.

This dish will never be popular, because it takes awhile to prepare the little garlic bulbs. But that's part of what makes this dish so special and elevated. It's wild, yet delicate - with bacon! Quite a combination! And worth the effort!

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What Do You Think?

• Have you ever eaten any wild chives, wild garlic, or Yellowfoot mushrooms?
• Do you forage for any wild food?
• Have you seen any mushrooms recently?
• Would you eat my creamed wild winter garlic and yellowfoot mushrooms?

I eat a lot of wild plants and show you how, because I believe that we can all have lives that are richer, more secure, more grounded, and more interesting by getting to know the plants and the land around us – in our yards, our parks, and our wild places.

I would like Steemit to be the premier site for Foraging on the Internet! If you have any thoughts about foraging, or experiences to share, write a post and be sure to use the Foraging tag. And check out the @foraging-trail to see curated quality posts about foraging. Happy Foraging!

Thanks @progressivechef for creating the Steemit Iron Chef contest series!

I try to make content that's interesting! If you found this informative and helpful, please give it an upvote and a resteem.

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Plant and Fungus List

• Wild Chives - Allium vineale
• Yellowfoot mushroom - Craterellus tubaeformis

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Haphazard Homestead

foraging, gardening, nature, simple living close to the land
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