Archive for February, 2010

My contribution to the latest Passion Fruits Farmers’ Market Challenge. Sad to report, despite the gorgeous array of mushrooms I plucked from the market, I wasn’t very inspired this week in the kitchen and–pathetically–failed to give these beauties some solo prime time a la Luke. It’s been a crazy week at work and as impressive as the funghi was, I needed something quick. So, yeah, Joe.  Why not a simple saute?

My quick kitchen default, in case you haven’t figured it out, is pasta, pasta, pasta. So, I opted to break these mushrooms up into large chunks, toss them in a very hot pan with olive oil, fresh thyme, some salt and pepper and sear until caramelized. I set them aside and decided to incorporate them into a pasta I was making, risotto-style. Read the rest of this entry »

So, after the cardoon challenge (*FAIL*), and the sunchoke challenge (*toot*), I was so relieved to open Joe’s bag to see an array of mushrooms. And not, you know, tree bark or bee larvae or clods of dirt or something. These were lovely specimens too… cremini, oyster, chanterelle, and a few others I couldn’t identify. Trusting Joe and his vendor, I proceeded to think about what to do with my little pile of treasure. Since they were so lovely, I really wanted to keep the mushrooms themselves front and center. It was also a weeknight, so I didn’t want to spend forever messing around with them either.

Rummaging through the cupboards, I came across some stone ground cornmeal that got me in the mind to do a soft, creamy polenta topped with simply sauteed mushrooms. Easy, quick, and delicious. Sold. I only added a few things to the mushrooms to keep the spotlight on them; the shallot, wine, and parsley are all very much supporting players. Technique is important here, if not at all difficult. Start with a big pan that will hold your shrooms with plenty of breathing room so they actually saute and don’t steam defeatedly in their own juices. Preheat the pan and use high heat; the mushrooms can take it. They should squeak when you toss them, and pick up some good golden brown color. Then, drop the heat and carry on with the shallot and everything else at a more relaxed temperature. And, because, I’ve never met a lily that couldn’t be gilded just a little, hit ’em at the end with a drizzle of truffle oil to tie everything together. A restrained dusting of parmesan could also be a nice finish. Mr. T gave this little supper an enthusiastic thumbs up.

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With its moist and toothsome whirl of spinach and spicy merguez stuffing, this pork roast makes a lovely and delicious Sunday supper. This shouldn’t be a surprise, as it is inspired by the stuffed leg of lamb in Suzanne Goin’s Sunday Suppers at Luques. The lamb is all big flavor and one of my favorite dishes from the book. This roast is similarly robust in flavor, but seems lighter, benefiting I think from a milder meat and a greener stuffing.

Opening out the pork is quite easy–you can hack away in the most ineffectual manner and still end up with the beautiful spiral. I served this with potatoes parboiled and then tossed into the roasting pan in the last 30 minutes of cooking and a pea and watercress puree.

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Time for another installment of our Farmers’ Market Challenge. The pickings continue to be slim at the market, though I did appropriate some beautiful rockfish which I’ll detail in a post next week. As both Challenge Cardoon and Challenge Sunchoke were both a little hard to swallow–or at least digest–I was desperate to find something neither excessively weird nor utterly gut-shattering. That means no turnips!

For this challenge, then, I am pleased to present an assortment of meaty mushrooms from the always consistent, reliable, and lovely Ferial Welsh (Sundays at the Dupont Farmers’ Market) are on the menu. I picked up a variety of specimens: oyster, cremini, enoki, and perhaps a few others. Far more exciting than your average supermarket buttons, and these are only a tiny percentage of the wild and wonderful world of fungus.

Luke, I promise to bring you your share tonight!

I’m thinking something I’ll be doing something vegan with my mycological bounty as ‘that friend’ will be over again tonight, and I’m looking forward to seeing what Mr. Perfect comes up with. What are your go-to mushroom preparations–at least, the ones that don’t involve sweat lodges, peyote, and vision quests?

Secrets. Everyone has them, and almost everyone ends up spreading them around. This wonderful little recipe holds several secrets that I’m very pleased to share. First–and no surprise–they are delicious. Smooth and creamy, every spoonful floods your mouth with the nuanced flavors of finest chocolate. So, yay for THAT. Also, and just as important, they are quick and easy. I can’t imagine why anyone would make a mere chocolate pudding or mess around with mousse when pots de creme can be had for the same level of exertion.

It goes without saying that these are very, very rich. I usually serve them with a few crisp little cookies (langues de chat are a lovely option) and a bit of fruit–grapes or a diced orange salad. Small tea or punch cups can be lovely, but I’ve found that demitasse cups yield the perfect portions. They’re really an elegant ending to almost anything. Infusing the cream mixture can add layers of flavor that enable them to cap more exotic meals. I’ve done chili and cinnamon to follow a Mexican dinner, and star anise with black sesame tuiles after a big, celebratory Chinese banquet.

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The Lenten season is upon us and this Catholic plans to bring you one fish dish a week until Easter. And, like a good, multitasking Cafeteria Catholic the season allows me to honor one of my resolutions for the year: cook and eat more fish.  More importantly, cook and eat more sustainable fish. The fish I used in this recipe was longline-caught, Pacific Cod, a safe choice according to the gurus at Monterey Bay Aquarium. I’ve raised this point before but if you haven’t downloaded their Seafood WATCH pocketcard for your wallet or or PDA, do it!  It’s a fantastic cheat sheet, giving you quick access to the most sustainable fish to purchase and consume.

So, Friday night’s cod…

I thought it turned out quite well. It’s a mild, relatively oily fish and it withstood a fair amount of heat and aggressive cooking I applied. I have not cooked much fish in the past and I’m trying to get comfortable with the concept of under-cooking my fish, resting assured that the residual heat, from pan-to-plate, will finish the cooking process, beautifully. I will elaborate a bit more on under-cooking fish–and quality meats, in general–in a future post as I think it’s an important point to make. Under-cooking is also a sign of confidence in the kitchen. However, I would only advise doing this if you know the sources of your protein! Again, more later.

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O.K. So, yeah. Wow.  

The TVP in my chili worked last night bringing me from spastic Wookie noises the night prior to serenity in my cooking galaxy.

The recipe was inspiration, mostly of memory from the chili my ex would make, with some additional flourishes. Chiefly, I wanted to create an all vegan chili as I was entertaining a friend who is now eschewing dairy and meat. Plus, I wanted it to have some fresh dimensions so I created a spicy, parsley-pistou (cilantro would be nice, too, and more appropriate) that I dolloped atop the chili and gave the bowl a hearty spritz of fresh lime juice just before serving.   The pistou was very intense. I tried cutting the spice with a little honey. Next time, I’ll watch the serrano.

Sorry, Jon, for any pain the spice is causing today.

Chili can be such a hearty dish and its strength is in its robustness. However, I wanted to lighten it up a bit with some of these additions.
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So it is what I had, hope, last night when I made a veggie chili that turned into an epic disaster.

I wanted to experiment and I need to learn that kitchen adventures are best left to more lucid hours not, say, 11:30 at night post several glasses of vino.

I’m seeking a veggie chili recipe that has enough fiber broom power to clear the intestinal tracts of ‘Willy.’

I used Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP)–a defatted soy flour product–in place of a ground meat. I used way too much TVP and it absorbed–completely–all of deep, gorgeous color of my darkened sofrito that I spent a good 30 minutes cooking and developing it’s flavor. I was left with a beige-y mass of…mass. It looked gross, was lacking flavor and I could not safely add any more cumin to resurrect the flavors.

A number of veggie chili recipes call for bulgar wheat in place of the meat however I think I’m going to try this again tonight and just use less TVP. I love the texture of TVP. It has a nice chew and is high in protein. So, I will restrain myself.  Wish me luck.

Does anyone else have a veggie chili recipe they would like to share?

Oh, onigiri. How I love you. Often said to be the Japanese equivalent of the sandwich, these balls of rice are at once ubiquitous and extraordinarily varied. They are also easy, tasty, and very accommodating of necessity or invention. They can be mixed or filled or wrapped with just about anything, which makes them even more deliciously endearing. When tooting around Japan with Wonder Twin #1 this summer, we would stop every morning at the closest 7-11 or Lawson for breakfast, where we were invariably greeted by a wide array of surprisingly tasty tinned coffees and myriad triangular, nori-clad onigiri.

Ingeniously packaged so the moist rice and seaweed remain separate until you unzipped it all and it pops into your hand all done up in the still-crisp nori. (This is a nifty piece of engineering that needs to be experienced to be believed.)  The Wonder Twin usually went for tuna, which I found a bit much at 9am. I usually picked up the ume-shiso, a salty blend of pickled plum and grassy shiso. Mr. T generally had tea sandwiches, but he’s English. Thus fortified, off we would go to conquer whatever temples, shopping districts, or Important Cultural Assets were on our agenda for the day.

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Despite the distractions of lingering snow and Olympic excitement (though Bob Costas could fall into a crevasse somewhere and I don’t know that I’d complain…) life does go on. Life, of course, includes having my friend Kate for tea  to plan our menu for a Lunar New Year dinner. While we’ve yet to settle on a date at this point, at least the menu’s going to be hot. One cannot, of course, have someone to tea without something nice to go with it. In honor of our Asian endeavor and the newly-minted year of the tiger, I decided to make some rich and zingy ginger-vanilla scones.

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