WAUWATOSA — Chef Michael Feker shares the secrets to bringing seasonal ingredients into your kitchen this fall.
Fall is officially here, and Chef Michael Feker is bringing seasonal flavors to the table with a wild mushroom omelet and sweet potato hash brown with Wisconsin cranberries — and he's sharing a few tips that might change the way you cook at home.
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Feker, who runs a cooking school at Il Mito in Wauwatosa, said one of the most common mistakes home cooks make is adding ingredients to the pan at the same time as the eggs.
"The mistake that we all make at home is we add the ingredients to the pan with the eggs at the same time," Feker said. "That way the ingredients don't have a chance."
Instead, Feker starts by caramelizing onions in a dry pan — no oil — before adding mushrooms. He uses a mix of portobello, oyster, and shiitake mushrooms, each bringing something different to the dish.
"Portobello is going to be meaty. Oyster is going to be a little bit watery. The shiitake is going to be woody," Feker said.
He pairs the mushrooms with fresh thyme, calling the combination a natural match for the season.
"Thyme with mushrooms is magnificent," Feker said.
Sun-dried tomatoes round out the omelet filling. Feker recommends buying them packed in oil and using that oil to cook with, adding the flavor of sun-dried tomatoes to the dish as extra virgin olive oil.
When it comes to seasoning, Feker said a small amount of salt early in the cooking process serves a specific purpose — not flavor.
"This is not for seasoning. This is for a chemical reaction. The salt is going to pull the water out of the ingredients," Feker said.
He advises holding off on additional spices at that stage, adding nothing else until the water has been drawn out of the ingredients.
Once the filling is ready, Feker removes it from the pan before adding the eggs — the key step most home cooks skip.
The menu also includes a sweet potato hash brown made with Wisconsin cranberries, continuing the fall theme with ingredients that are at their seasonal best.
Feker teaches these techniques regularly through his cooking school at Il Mito in Wauwatosa.
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