‘Forage & Feast’
Vegan chef Chrissy Tracey searches state’s woods for mushrooms, ramps and more ahead of her new cookbook
When Chrissy Tracey goes for a hike somewhere new, the cookbook author and food personality said she looks at the trees — certain mushrooms are associated with certain types of trees. She also looks for moss, which tells her an area is wet enough for mushrooms to develop.
The week before the April 9 release of her first cookbook, “Forage & Feast: Recipes for Bringing Mushrooms & Wild Plants to Your Table,” Tracey went foraging at Pootatuck State Forest in New Fairfield, apologetic that it would be too early for most of the good stuff.
The first vegan chef to host videos for the Bon Appetit Test Kitchen, Tracey is also part of the panel of experts behind Connecticut Magazine’s top restaurants lists. With her first cookbook, she wanted to provide readers with an entry point into foraging. The book includes about 85 recipes that use foraged items.
Just off the parking lot, Tracey pointed to a low plant with fan-shaped green leaves that have scalloped edges. This, she explained, is garlic mustard. It’s invasive in Connecticut and has a horseradish-like flavor with garlicky notes. It can be bitter, but Tracey said it tastes better young.
The wild mint that sometimes grows nearby isn’t up yet, she said. A lone forsythia bush still had tight yellow buds, while the flower was already in bloom in many parts of the state.
Making her way down the trail, she pointed to a log where she usually finds mushrooms, but they’re not there yet. She gestures to a stand of white birch trees to explain how to make syrup from them.
“You know, you can make a cordial with the flowers,” she said.
Growing up in Cheshire, Tracey said she loved to explore the woods.
“I remember finding wild garlic and making mud pies,” she said.
On a trip to Jamaica, Tracey said she was struck watching her grandmother go outside to grab fruit, herbs and callaloo for meals. She said she realized that this was a part of her culture and heritage.
For Tracey, foraging is a way of embracing nature, her culture and what she calls her “first love,” cooking, all rolled into one. She started teaching her friends to forage, she said, and realizing that she wanted it to be part of her career.
That comes with a certain level of responsibility.
“For something like ramps (a wild onion) that’s really cherished, you never take them all,” she said. “It takes (about) seven years for ramps to grow back, so if you pull them all up with the roots, there won’t be anymore, and over seven years, something invasive could take over so that they’ll never grow back.”
Tracey stressed the importance of learning what plants are invasive.
“Those, take as many as you want. Take them all,” she said.
That includes the garlic mustard and
dandelions. Japanese wineberry, also called wine raspberry, are another invasive plant that Tracey encourages people to eat if they come across it. The berries look like short, fuzzy raspberries. If birds eat them, she said, they’ll end up spreading the seeds around, causing further invasion. Plus, she said, they’re delicious.
Autumn olives are another such berry. Like the Japanese wineberries, the plant started out as an ornamental imported from East Asia, but it’s become invasive.
And that birch syrup, Tracey said, can be made by simmering twigs from a white birch tree in liquid and adding sugar, although birch syrup can also be made the same way as maple syrup: by tapping a tree as its sap rises, and then boiling down the sap into syrup.
Magnolias, Tracey said, are another plant that makes a good syrup.
Some of her most prized finds, Tracey said, are morel mushrooms and fiddlehead ferns. The latter, like ramps, should be picked judiciously and eaten fresh.
For other finds, particularly mushrooms like hen of the woods, chicken of the woods and trumpet mushrooms, preservation is a good idea. Tracey said she freezes some and dehydrates some when she has a big hauls.
These foraged foods, Tracey said, aren’t meant to replace one’s entire diet. She said that probably about 15 percent of what she eats is foraged, and her approach is often to incorporate foraged foods into familiar dishes.
“People love ramp pesto, but ramps are very pungent,” she said, as an example. “You don’t want to use all ramps.”
But when used correctly, a foraged ingredient can add a depth of flavor and put a new spin on a well-known dish, Tracey said. Potato-leek soup with stinging nettles is an example she gave.
With “Forage & Feast” making its way into the world, Tracey will be doing launch events at the Oyster Club in Mystic, whose chef Renee Touponce was recently nominated for a James Beard Award, and at Madison Beach Hotel.
Tracey also has other goals in mind. She’s working on a wine project that uses wild berries. And then there’s maple sugaring — she said that she’s been tapping maple trees for a few years. The inconsistent winter and spring weather that’s come along makes it a challenge to get enough sap to make syrup, but she’s excited to keep trying.