Sunday I took off for a two-week shoot in Spain and Morocco, taping two new episodes of Bizarre Foods, my new series for the Travel Channel. There are five of us in our U.S. contingent, including Shannon Keenan, the high-powered producer (she shot Talk Soup, Wild On . . ., The Bachelor, etc.) taking care of overseeing the project for Tremendous Entertainment, the Minnetonka-based production company charged with keeping me in line. Tremendous CEO Colleen Needles Steward is along for the trip, we have a PA and a shooter here as well, and two Spanish TV and film producers (Eloy and Maria) are acting as fixers for the week, keeping wheels greased, scouting locations, translating, and the like.

Our first stop today was at La Broche, one of Spain's greatest restaurants, which is saying a lot since some of the most exciting and creative cooking in the world is taking place right here on the Iberian Peninsula. Sergi Arola, La B's owner/chef, is one of Ferran Adria's acolytes and his food shows it, but he's a little more grounded than the molecular gastronomy king of kings whom he worked with for years, and who we shoot with on Thursday. Arola made four dishes for me today: Seared red prawns on olive gnocchi with almond milk, tagliolini with morel–sea larvae–parmesan cream and topped with a sous vide egg yolk, roasted sardines with black trumpet mushrooms, and a dish he called roast beef.

The roast beef turned out to be a thin circle of blood sausage on a disk of olive oil–fried crouton, topped with ribbons of seared beef, a tangle of aromatic herb salad with baby fennel, and a scoop of foie gras ice cream to round the whole plate off . . .let me simply say it was a heck of a start to an incredible culinary adventure. We have stopped in tapas bars and jamoneria all day long to grab shots of angulas (baby eels), pescadillas (baby sardines), salchichon, Iberico dry-cured hams, chorizo, lomo, octopus, and a thousand other edible delights. Check out all the amazing pork products at the Museo del Jamon
if you are ever in Madrid.

The Spanish are my kind of folk, and here in Madrid, the restaurants outnumber every Madrilleno by about three to one. They eat every few hours in Madrid; each business or social conversation is an excuse for snacking—my kind of culture, to say the least. Apparently my last episode of Bizarre Foods of Asia has been airing constantly on Travel Channel's European sister stations because all day long we have met groups of tourists from other countries who have seen the program recently, including a bunch of Welsh ladies from Cardiff who cheered me on in the Plaza Mayor as I searched relentlessly for bull's balls, but it appears to be my Don Quixote moment so far, no criadillas . . .yet!

And yes, the whole country is football (soccer) crazy with the World Cup beginning shortly . . .there are several hours already devoted each day and evening to the event, and that's a week before it starts! Also, every person I meet from another country who speaks English asks me why we tolerate a president who behaves, talks, and governs the way ours does. In forty years of traveling internationally I have never felt as culturally and civically neutered as I have on this trip. America, for the first time in my life, is a laughingstock on many levels, the brunt of much anger on many others. When three ladies from Wales are making Bush jokes, you know you're in trouble.

Spanish seafood is as good as it gets, and while I am in Spain I thought I would share my favorite Mallorcan-style shrimp dish—a classic Romesco sauce is what makes this dish sing. I have substituted the always-available Ancho chili for the hard-to-find Spanish dried peppers that make this dish 100 percent authentic, but the results are perfect regardless.

6 T. olive oil
2 slices stale country-style bread
1 large red bell pepper, chopped, seeds and stem discarded
2 dried ancho chilies, revived in hot water for 20 minutes, seeded, and stems removed
1 large minced onion
8 garlic cloves
Several pinches dried red chili flakes
1 c. chopped fresh tomatoes
1/2 c. whole toasted almonds and hazelnuts, mixed together
2 lbs. u-15 shrimp, butterflied in the shell
1/2 c. dry white wine
1/2 c. shellfish stock or clam juice
2 T. minced parsley
1 T. red wine vinegar

Place half the oil in large sauté pan over medium-high heat and pan fry the bread; reserve. Repeat process with peppers; reserve. When finished cooking, add onion, garlic, chili flakes, and tomatoes, cooking briefly. Combine bread, peppers, nuts, and onion-tomato mixture in a food processor. Pulse to combine, and set aside. Place remaining oil in large sauté pan and flash shrimp over high heat. Add nut-vegetable paste and cook for several minutes. Add wine and stock. Cook for several more minutes until sauce tightens up and serve, seasoning with parsley, vinegar, salt, and pepper.

People always ask me what serious eaters like to eat and where. Most of the best meals I have had are not traditional restaurant meals per se, but rather informal tastings in restaurants or food events where great chefs get together and cook for a cause. Here are four events that you won’t want to miss. You are hearing about this before anyone else, so don’t tell me later that I didn’t tell you to BOOK NOW!

June 14: Patricia Quintana, the Julia Child of Mexico, cooks for one night at Masa. You can drop your reservation at El Izote in Mexico City and just eat Patricia’s seven-course tasting menu for only $100, and all the dough benefits a Mexican charity aiding homeless and abandoned children. Click for details.

June 26: Auriga’s Doug Flicker cooks at the Beard House in NYC. The most under-appreciated chef in the Twin Cities takes center stage in New York for one night only. Click for details.

July 20: Seth Daugherty hosts another great dinner at the Grave 601 flagship restaurant Cosmos benefiting Share Our Strength. Daugherty is a 2005 Food and Wine 10 Best New Chefs conferee and he always lures his famous chef friends into town for the night to do a course at these meals. Look for this to be a knockout event. Click for details.

July 26: 2006 Food and Wine 10 Best New Chefs conferee Stewart Woodman, the chef-owner of Five, will cook his meal at the Beard House. This promises to be a great meal, and Woodman’s NYC connections should make this a popular evening indeed. Click for details.

Beard dinners take place in the old brownstone in New York where Jim Beard lived, taught, and cooked. The prices are $90 for Beard Foundation members, $120 for civilians, and include wine pairings. These dinners are always memorable—chefs tend to pull out all the stops for these events and you can rub elbows with many famous chefs, TV personalities, and writers as well. Click here to become a member. I'm one, and you should be too.

I am off to Africa and Spain to shoot a few shows for the Travel Channel. My new series, Bizarre Foods, debuts this January, on Monday evenings, so warm up the Tivo. I’ll be blogging a lot from the road, so look for my globe-trotting updates over the next few months. I will be camping in the Moroccan desert with nomadic Bedouins, eating camel and sleeping under the stars. Then hanging out with El Bulli’s Ferran Adria, the king of molecular gastronomy, in his laboratory in Rosas on Spain’s Catalan coast.

In a recent issue of Time Magazine I found the following: Adria's recipe for innovation is "cold and methodical." Adria starts with "information, information, information"—garnered by traveling, tasting, and above all, reading. He has an extensive gastronomic library installed in his new "laboratory workshop" in nearby Barcelona, and claims to have memorized thousands of tastes on his "psychological palate." He says, "What I hate most is monotony." He doesn't have to worry. Says superstar chef Paul Bocuse: "He's doing the most exciting things in our profession today."

Beginning today, the Grand Ole Creamery stores in both Hastings and in St. Paul, on historic Grand Avenue are offering a new ice cream flavor called The Chowhound. This is a toasted coconut ice cream with real bits of shaved and toasted coconut, mango, almond, papaya, pineapple, and a light caramel swirl rippling through it. Buy lots of it!!!! All the money from the sales of The Chowhound benefit The Retreat, in Wayzata. Dollars raised benefit The Retreat Scholarship Fund, helping to provide affordable chemical dependency recovery services to those most in need. The ice cream is for sale through June 30. Please let everyone you can think of know about this great opportunity to eat for a good cause. Buy a few quarts each week and treat your friends and family to a quiescently frozen tropical ice cream taste treat that will put a happy hitch in everyone's giddy-up and raise dollars for some folks who could really use them. And yes, it's named after Chowhounds, the best-tasting radio show on the planet, airing Saturday mornings from 10 to noon on KTLK, 100.3 The FM News Talk—and hosted by yours truly.

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Some random thoughts . . . . If tickets at Valleyfair were free, no one would go. Good luck rescuing the summer, they should just shut it all down. What self-respecting mom would take the kids out there regardless of who’s responsible for the Wild Thing crash? . . . . For all the know-it-alls who thought that the Vikes stadium was a done deal, and the Gophers and Twinkies would have to get in line after them, well, I told you so. The only way to get all three done was to push the deal that was the stone-cold lock (the Vikes deal) out a year. That way the two tougher projects could be passed and the easy deal could get done next year when nothing else is on the table. All three would never survive in the same year. This is a football town, and look for the Vikes deal to happen ASAP in the 2007 sessions . . . . I miss A. J.! On Saturday my Bridgehampton, Long Island, homeboy takes a shot to the face after bowling over the Cubbie’s plate minder, then taunts the Cubs pitcher on Sunday, sparking his team to a huge couple of wins over the cross-town rivals. The Twins could use some of his passion. Wow.

Morels for me are the great harbinger of spring, the first blessed event of the year. Nearly impossible to cultivate, highly prized for their unique flavor profile, and different in structure than traditional fungi, morels have a hollow cylindrical body and a finely honeycombed cap that can be blond, white-tipped, black, or coniferous, and in some fields, they grow to be 8-inches tall. I’ve seen these giants on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and I almost had a heart attack.

My home in St Anthony Park has morels growing in the backyard, along the stump and root ridges of an old oak tree. Last year was a perfect year for morels. They bloomed all at once, after a particularly damp few days. I stumbled across fifty or so of them quite by accident, while weeding with my wife in the flower garden.

Once sure of their species (some false morels can be unpleasant to eat), we checked them for mites by splitting open a few. The rest we shook free of dirt and wiped with a damp rag. I hate washing mushrooms and would rather eat some black earth than sacrifice any of the morel’s subtle flavors. Basket in hand, we rushed to my best friend’s house and cooked them, standing in his kitchen, smiling contentedly, and not saying a word.

Morels can be found right now in farmers’ markets, from your friendly neighborhood forager, at local markets, and from Fresh and Wild, 800-222-5578, via mail order.

Sautéed Morels on Toast
2lb. fresh morels, sliced in half lengthwise
2 T. unsalted butter
2 T. minced shallots
1 T. minced flat-leaf parsley
¼ cup white wine
4 oz. heavy cream (I like Cedar Summit Farms best)
Sea salt to taste
2 T. thinly sliced or minced chives
4 slices fresh artisan bread, toasted and halved

Wipe morels clean with damp rag. In large sauté pan over high heat, add butter. When melted and foaming, add shallots and parsley. Stir briefly and add morels. Toss a few times and lower heat to medium. Sauté until cooked through and aromatic, roughly 3-4 minutes. Add wine, let evaporate almost all the way, and add cream, bringing to a simmer. This will happen quickly. Toss, season with sea salt and chives, and divide onto plates, pouring over toast. Serves 4.

One of the coolest food magazines I have come across recently is the often-disregarded Sunday New York Times Style supplement. If you haven’t seen the May 7 edition, dig it out of the recycling pile or log onto the Times’ website at nytimes.com  and be on the lookout for the next one. With amazing recipes, great editorials, and some awesome ideas for everyone who loves food, the entire supplement is food focused. Yet it has been bizarrely mislabeled, devoid of reference to the gold mine for food freaks that’s hidden in its pages. From a profile of Boston’s Ihsan Gurdal to a peek at Cape Cod clam shacks, an eater’s guide to Rome, a BBQ voyage with Jane and Michael Stern, and plenty more.

For would-be locovores and gastropreneurs, it’s a must read. The quarterly Times supplements, increasingly dominated by food-focused articles, are quickly becoming my favorite generalized food magazines as the pages of Food and Wine and Bon Appetit become more derivative and less provocative with every issue—Bobby Flay grilling again, Mom? Boring!

Another must-read is the latest issue of Fast Company, a monthly techie and digital media biz magazine that often bores me to tears. The current issue has a great special food section with tons of cool articles, including a fascinating cover story on Homaru Cantu, the chef and partner in Moto, one of Chicago’s best restaurants. Check out motorestaurant.com. Cantu is one of the leading lights in the increasingly popular molecular gastronomy movement. He’s the one who does the edible paper and is working on a machine that levitates the food while it’s being served. It’s fascinating stuff, and of all the pieces I’ve read on this guy, this one is the most enjoyable and conveys fully the wild-eyed-inventor side of a guy who is 100 percent mad scientist in the kitchen. I can appreciate the technical wizardry of Cantu, but still prefer a chef who has his feet firmly planted in the recognizable food world. Food should still be food and look like and taste like something from our conscious experience. Cantu argues that he is redefining that world for us by serving a small square marshmallow that looks like a sweet but tastes like caesar salad. For my money, I’ll take Grant Achatz—the chef-magician at Alinea,  (alinearestaurant.com), the best new restaurant in North America—over Cantu any day of the week. While his food possesses all the intellectual challenge I can handle at a meal, he can still cook like a grandmother when he wants to and his seared squab with golden chanterelles and foie gras is still the best dish I have eaten in the last three years.

Of all the cities in all the world, with all the restaurants to choose from, I would just as soon eat at Aux Armes De Bruxelles on the Rue des Bouchers in Brussels than at any other restaurant. Check out armesdebruxelles.be for some great pix and a virtual tour.

Why? Well, I love bistros, brasseries, and cafés, no matter the country or food style. Humble trattorias, tavernas, and the like are my cup of tea. Great food, with none of the pomp and circumstance to distract me from my dining companions. If the food is good, count me in.

AADB is a nearly ninety-year-old restaurant that reeks of history. One room is laid out with window treatments and fancier napery and is nonsmoking. I prefer to eat in the black-and-white-tiled smoking room, but smoke-a-holics be cheered; no one really smokes in there. I like it because it’s the quintessential bistro room. Plattered foods roll out of the kitchen, and plates are divvied up by seventy-year-old waiters who know exactly what they are doing at all times. Crepes with Mandarine Napoleon are fired up left and right on rolling gerridons; big pots of steaming mussels and pommes frites are on every table. Terrines and pâtés are second to none. The fish is insanely fresh and prepared sautéed, steamed, or grilled. I had the grilled sole when I was there, and it was so good I went back the next night for more. Silver-haired tuxedoed A-list types are at one table, Ted Danson at another, four college kids at another sit on their backpacks. The oysters are phenomenal—I prefer the 000 grade Belons. One night when I tired of seafood, my waiter gave me a roasted petite filet with béarnaise and asperge Flemande on the side, and I almost cried when I ate the last bite. The lamb, from a family farm about thirty miles from the city, is grilled to order, carved tableside, and meltingly good.  I always have the mussels with white wine and cream. Every time. I squeeze it in as a third or fourth course if I have to. Don’t skip the crepes, turned out of an ancient copper crepe pan. The custards come in 100-year-old glass cups. The wine list has been built for eighty years by the same family—so go figure, it’s deep. This is the type of place that as you leave the restaurant you say goodnight to the tables on either side of you.

If you told me Aux Armes De Bruxelles—or Benoit in Paris, the Red Capitol Club in Beijing, Trattoria Sostanza in Florence, or a handful of other hot spots around the globe—was the only restaurant I could ever eat in for the rest of my life, I wouldn’t complain. It was King Leopold’s favorite beer-and-oyster bar, and it could be yours too. Next time you’re on the continent, check it out.

Nothing beats braised chicken in the spring. As barbecue season heats up I say goodbye to the one-pot chicken meals by serving this killer version of the Caribbean asopao, a dish that is served all over the region from island to island. Serve it with a great chopped vegetable salad and a plate of sliced avocado, some lime wedges, and some corn tortillas for good measure.

Asopao de Pollo (Chicken and Rice Stew)

3 lbs. boneless skinless chicken thighs, cubed in 1-inch pieces
2 T. fresh thyme leaves
2 t. sea salt
2 T. fresh oregano
8 sliced garlic cloves
5 T. olive oil
4 slices fruit wood–smoked thick-cut bacon, cut in 1-inch pieces
2 medium-size onions, minced
2 bell peppers, one each green and red, diced
1 scotch bonnet or habanero pepper
2 c. chopped tomatoes (canned is fine)
2 c. long-grain white rice
5 c. chicken stock
freshly ground black pepper
3 T. capers, rinsed
1 c. frozen peas
juice of 1 lime

Mix chicken, thyme, salt, oregano, and garlic. Set aside. In a large, nonreactive heavy skillet on medium heat, heat oil and sauté chicken a few pieces at a time to brown on all sides. Reserve chicken to a work bowl. Add bacon to the pan and sauté until browned. Add onions, peppers, and hot chili, and stir a few minutes to cook through. Add tomatoes. Add rice and stir to coat with vegetables. Add the chicken stock and freshly ground pepper to taste. Cover and cook over medium-low heat for 20 minutes. Remove cover and stir in capers, peas, and lime juice. Season to taste. Serves 6.

I love Belgium. The waffles, Le Grande Place, the dogs in the cafés, the Horta architecture, the goofiest sculpture ever made (the Atomium), Magritte . . .but old and new Europe are not mixing well, and I speak of the two cultures that seem to be present in every country I visit as I hop around the continent.

There is old Europe, shopping for cheese and meats at the traiteur, browsing for antiques, enjoying a café for a coffee in the morning before heading off to work in a new office tower. The locals return home at night, kiss the kids, perhaps take in a dinner at one of the soigne new spots around town, and go home. This is classic Europe, and whether these families are in their thirties or sixties it matters not.

But it's different indeed than the gypsy beggars in the streets or the hordes of disaffected North African or Middle Eastern youths silently chain smoking and mainlining coffee in the local bar-tabac. The small foie gras and oyster cafés (the oyster bar in the Passage du Noord is my fave) are increasingly more desolate, the Schwarma/Kebap stands are more prevalent, and the old guard can't understand why anyone would forego the former for the latter. My Sultan Special at the King of Kebap would explain it if they gave it a try—a grilled chicken and pickled vegetable pita that would curl your toes it's so good. But old Belgium won't accept the new immigrants and their customs and won't give them meaningful jobs and access to good schools—and this is a progressive country!

I came over here wondering about our immigration issues in America, and I return grateful for our system—which needs fixing—but Europe is a powder keg of jealousy and resentment, misunderstanding and denial, and it feels like the chances of a peaceful civil rights movement flourishing here, one that could result in mutual understanding and progressive change, is almost nil.

Next week, the best day of eating in Brussels and an update from the world's largest seafood show . . . .

Sunday I took off for a few days in Belgium to take in the European Seafood Show, one of the coolest food events in the world. Unlike most trade shows, this one is attended by every Michelin starred chef in Europe and the city of Brussels turns into a food fantasy land for the week. More on that as the week unfolds over here and I see what's going on at the show, which starts Tuesday.

I flew NWA/KLM out of Chicago and while laying over in the Windy City, I chilled in the Air France Club. NWA is a partner of theirs, so access was gratis. Most clubs are all cut from the same mold. Not this one. The French know how to make you feel welcome. Stacks and stacks of magazines and papers, free internet and phones, unbelievable food. Usually all you see at these places are those little bags of carrots and presliced cheddar cheese, some pretzels, and free booze for the drinkers. At the AF lounge, the champagne was poured by courteous servers, the foie gras and smoked salmon canapes never stopped coming, and the flowers were stunning. The I boarded the KLM plane, which had new seats, new video systems, great food, a purser who made the rounds eager to please and make you comfortable—a great flight.

First food stop tonight, some moules et frites, and then a night of heavy sleeping before tackling the show in the morning. A bientot!

The grilling season is officially underway, and for barbecue freaks everywhere that means one thing: pork. Try this awesome combo, or use the rub, sauce, or shoulder in your favorite recipes.

Pulled Pork Sandwiches with Homemade Barbecue Sauce

The Meat
1 5-lb. natural bone-in pork shoulder

The Rub
1/4 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. paprika
3 T. ground black pepper
3 T. kosher salt
1 T. garlic powder
1 T. onion powder
1 T. celery seeds
1 t. cayenne pepper

The Basting Sauce
1 c. cider vinegar
1 small onion, minced
1 t. hot chili flakes
1 T. kosher salt
1 T. brown sugar
1 t. ground black pepper

Barbecue Sauce
2 c. cider vinegar
3 T. molasses
3 T. dark corn syrup
1/2 c. Heinz chili sauce
3 T. brown sugar
4 t. kosher salt
1 T. Crystal hot sauce
2 t. red chili flakes (or more to taste)
2 t. ground black pepper

Combine the rub ingredients.
Combine the basting sauce ingredients, whisking until sugar and salt are dissolved, and set aside.
Combine barbecue sauce ingredients over medium heat in a small pot. When simmering, pull from heat and let cool. Refrigerate for later use.
Massage pork shoulder with the rub and let sit 24 hours in the refrigerator. Barbecue the shoulder over indirect medium-low heat, using smoking chips if desired to establish a smoke flavor—remember, a little goes a long way. You will want to keep adding wood or charcoal every 40 minutes or so to maintain a medium-low heat of roughly 275 to 300 degrees. If using a gas grill, you want to maintain a temperature of roughly 275 degrees. Baste every hour with the basting sauce. Pork is done when the internal temperature is 175 to 180 degrees and a fork twists freely when inserted into the center of the roast. (Alternately, you can cook, in rack and pan, in a 275-degree oven for 6 hours.) Let pork cool 30 minutes, shred meat by hand, and discard bones. Toss meat with some of the sauce, mound on toasted rolls, and serve with cole slaw.

I’m not the first person to say this, nor the last, but Sherry Yard is the bomb. The executive pastry chef and resident sweet-nik for the Wolfgang Puck empire was in full effect last night at the Walker Art Center. Flying in from all over the globe, Puck’s army descended on the Walker for a benefit called CuisineArt. Clever.

A two-hour cooking class had the sixty attendees divided into teams making hors d’oeuvres like corn blini with smoked salmon (20.21 flies it in every week from Spago in Beverly hills) or Puck’s signature tuna tartare cones. Watching Deb Hopp, Frank Guzzetta, Michael Francis, Amir Efkethari, Kathy Halbreich, Art and Martha Kaemmer, and the rest of the Twin Cities' A-list decked out in chef’s whites and cooking up a storm was a blast for food mavens like yours truly. Yard was off the charts. Stretching strudel dough the length of a twelve-foot table with a confident and cavalier 'been there, done that' professionalism that even impressed the most jaded cynic in the room (me).

After the class, we all headed down to the 20.21 restaurant for a meal that featured hot and sour Thai coconut milk soup with lobster, pan-roasted turbot, grilled lamb, roasted duck salad and Yard’s kaiserschmarren, a mind-blowing German soufflé-pudding on warm poached berries. 20.21 chef Scott Irestone and his crew did a great job hosting the event, and for those who have never been to the restaurant, you need to head over there soon.

While Yard’s work was the most impressive from my perspective (her cookies, candies, and chocolate cookie goody bags were the talk of the town last night), Puck has to be acknowledged as the quintessential chef of our modern generation. His sense of theater, incomparable reach across the globe, and ability to cook and talk without pausing to do anything else except flirt, eat, drink, tell stories, and sell himself and his company is mind-boggling. And while Puck prexy Carl Schuster may have lamented their recent TV efforting (Celebrity Cooking Showdown was yanked after only a few episodes aired), he and Puck, Puck’s brother Klaus, Sherry Yard, Lee Hefter, and all the other cooks and WP company veeps around the world can rest easy—their organization is second to none.

Real inside scoops are hard to come by, but try this one on for size.

My favorite Vietnamese restaurant in town, Que Nah, is one year old this week. To celebrate this momentous day, it's offering a seven-course traditional Vietnamese beef dinner. Meals like this are usually created to mark special occasions, and my buddy Ha Nguyen who runs the place is thrilled about doing this beef menu—she has been talking about it for months. If you love great Vietnamese food, you should head over there right away.

Here’s the menu:

Beef salad
Steamed beef paté
Grilled ground beef sausage with dipping sauces
Beef wrapped in Hawaiian lotus leaf
Grilled beef with lemongrass
Special beef rice soup
Vietnamese fondue of beef, fish, shrimp, and squid with a special dipping sauce
Vietnamese BBQ of beef, fish, shrimp, and squid marinated with lemongrass and cooked on a griddle at your table

Wow! And the best thing about it is that the seven-course menu is really eight courses. Now you know why this is my fave place for pho!

Que Nah is located at 849 University Avenue in St. Paul. See you there—I’m the bald guy in the corner sucking down a bowl of crispy rice hot pot with all the insouciance of a riverboat gambler.

Zakuska are Russian tapas—oh, I hate that word but it works so well here—and in celebration of May Day, everyone should exercise their Constitutionally guaranteed right to make their opinion heard by making a call to their congressman and weighing in on the impeach/don’t impeach the president issue. Next step, go buy a bottle of Stoli, ice it down, and eat plenty of these classic Zakuska.

Marinovannye Griby (Pickled Mushrooms)

20 oz. cider vinegar
1 c. water
1/4 c. brown sugar
1 T. black peppercorns
6 cloves
2 bay leaves
4 garlic cloves, bruised
4 dill sprigs
4 thyme sprigs
1 T. salt
Red chili flakes to taste
2 lbs. whole cremini mushrooms, trimmed and wiped clean with a damp cloth

Combine all ingredients except mushrooms in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Add mushrooms. When liquid returns to a simmer, cook for ninety seconds, stirring once or twice. Cool mushrooms in the liquid. Discard cloves and bay leaf. Mushrooms can be eaten right away, but I like to place them in a tight-fitting container for a few days in the refrigerator before serving. Serves 8-10 as an hors d’oeuvre.

Rassolye (Herring and Potato Salad)

Salad
2 lbs. pickled herring, rinsed and patted dry
6 beets, roasted, cleaned, and diced
2 lbs. “red b” new potatoes, boiled until just cooked through, and diced
1/2 c. sliced cornichons
1 large onion, minced very fine
2 T. minced parsley

Dressing
3 T. brown mustard
1 T. hot English mustard
3 T. white vinegar
1-1/2 c. sour cream
6 oz. grated, prepared red horseradish

Combine salad ingredients in a large bowl, sprinkling with the parsley at the end. In a separate bowl, combine mustards, vinegar, and sour cream. Season dressing with horseradish to taste, and set aside. Serve salad, passing the dressing at the table.