Steak and Potatoes

I'm getting boring in my old age. Here's the proof along with a dull post. A nice piece of pastured rib eye (Millgate Farm), alongside some goat cheese (Mackenzie Creamery) creme fraiche and roasted shallot fortified mashed potatoes, and an oyster mushroom (Killbuck Valley) pancetta and sweet onion mixture. There was a pan sauce too, and it was pretty good--shallot, white wine, butter, and a touch of the creme fraiche. It went well with everything.

And an heirloom lettuce salad, organic from the yard, complete with all its insect damage. Coated lightly with extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper, it was lovely in its imperfection.

Lion's Mane

Linguine with Tomato Sauce and Lion's Mane Mushrooms. Standard cooking on the pasta. The sauce started with sliced onion sauteed in olive oil with some salt, dried red pepper flakes, and a little cumin (which was nice). Once the onion softened a bit the mushrooms were added, sliced about 1/8" thick as per the mushroom man's instructions. The sliced mushrooms didn't take much time in the pan to get some color on each side. Then in with the mushroom mixture went a can of whole tomatoes and juice that were first crushed in a bowl. The tomatoes were cooked down with the addition of more salt, pepper, and some pasta water.

As this guy pointed out years ago, the mushrooms are sort of crab-like. I think after being cooked they'd be nice served Napoleon style, layered with avocado and possibly a thick slice or diced tomato. Maybe next time.

Tastes like Spring

Alaskan Halibut from Kate's Fish, Blue Oyster Mushrooms from Killbuck Valley Mushrooms, Bacon from Country Gristmill (organic, Berkshire), and Ramps from another vendor at North Union's Shaker Square Farmers Market. I know I'm not the first person around Cleveland to pair ramps and halibut this season, and I can understand why. Despite today's quick snowfall, the ramps are definite proof that it is spring. Morel's are right around the corner.

Ingredients:
- Halibut (or any fish)
- Blue Oyster Mushrooms (or any mushrooms)
- Ramps, cleaned (no substitute for the taste, but kale cooked with garlic could work well too)
- Bacon, chopped
- Butter
- Olive Oil
- Canola or other high heat vegetable oil
- Salt and Pepper
- Three pans

Method:
- Preheat oven to 425
- Melt a bunch of butter and very slowly saute seasoned mushrooms
- Once the mushrooms are cooked add some olive oil to taste and leave over a very low flame, stirring occasionally
- While mushrooms are cooking render the chopped bacon over moderately low heat
- Once bacon is crispy remove it to a paper towel and add ramps to the pan with some salt and pepper, turning the ramps around to coat with the rendered fat
- While ramps are slowly cooking heat up third pan over high heat and add equal parts butter and Canola (or other vegetable oil)
- Place seasoned halibut in the hot third pan, flesh side down
- Keep on eye on the ramps. I don't think it's too common to cook the stems and roots together, but these roots were thin and it worked well
- Once flesh side of the fish is well browned flip and place in hot oven until it's done
- While fish is finishing in the oven dry the ramps with a paper towel and plate
- Then plate the mushrooms, topping with the fully cooked fish
- Garnish with the crispy bacon

This was a great seasonal meal. Really simple and fresh. I'll likely make pesto with the rest of the ramps, which I'm keeping by storing them on the counter in a cup with the roots barely submerged in water and a plastic bag over stems. The ramps were a great surprise at the Farmers Market, although I think I was one of the few unsuspecting people there.

It's been a ramp filled weekend. Bar Cento is serving the stuff on pizza. It's great, but you may want to bring some gum for afterwards.

Pasta with a Smoked Scallop, Brown Oyster Mushroom, Butter, Garlic, White Wine, and Creme Fraiche Sauce.

Cuisine Soignee, or Cooking With Care

Not so much, but naming what's on the plate would be a bit long for the title line. Arctic Char with Barley/Shiitake Risotto and Rosemary Infused Blood Orange Beurre Blanc. "Risotto" and "Beurre Blanc," however, may be misnomers. There's no rice in the risotto, and this beurre blanc doesn't contain any shallots, nor is it blanc, obviously. But regardless of the looseness of the aforementioned culinary terms, the meal was good, and the components will show up again in my future meals.

A few things before the recipe. First, Arctic Char is proof that not all farmed fish are bad--the folks at Monterey Bay approve. This piece came from my standard fish monger, at Kate's Fish in the Westside Market. Second, the idea for the barley risotto came from here. Check out the second video. And due to the food co-op, there's no shortage of grains around here. Third, the shiitakes. They're from these fine folks--Killbuck Valley Mushrooms--who make the weekly trek to sell their wares at the Indoor Winter Market. That covers that. Here's the recipe:

Barley/Shiitake Risotto
Ingredients:
-Barley
-Shiitake caps, big dice
-Shallots, dice
-Butter
-Olive Oil
-Stock, kept near a boil (I used duck, but any would do)
-Salt and Pepper
-Chives, little batons (optional--I wouldn't have used them if they weren't laying around)
-White wine
Method:
- Slowly saute shiitakes in butter
- As the shiitakes are cooking, season with salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil
- When shiitakes are to your liking set them aside
- Sweat shallots in butter
- When shallots are sweated, add barley and stir well
- Add some white wine to the shallots and barley and cook it down
- Now add stock to the mixture and cook like you would any risotto (here's my post on the subject)
- When it's close to where you want it add mushrooms and stop adding liquid
- Once it's how you're going to serve it, season with salt and pepper and stir in the chives (I didn't add additional butter because the stock I used wasn't skimmed, so there was plenty of fat in there. No cheese because I'm generally not a cheese with fish kind of person.)

Arctic Char
Ingredients:
- Arctic Char, fillet
- Butter
- Oil, for high heat
- Salt and pepper
Method:
- I rinsed and dried the fillet--some people skip this step
- Salt and pepper the fillet, both sides
- Heat up a pan (I used nonstick) with some butter and oil
- Once the pan and fats are hot, add fish flesh side down
- When the flesh side has some color, flip the fish
- Cook on the skin side until cooked through (The skin should get crispy.)

Rosemary Infused Blood Orange Beurre Blanc
Ingredients:
- Blood Orange, juice (Typing this now I kind of wish I used just a bit of the zest too.)
- White Wine
- Rosemary, small sprig
- Butter, pieces (for a small amount of sauce I used around a quarter stick of butter cut in four or five pieces)
- Salt and pepper
Method:
- Add equal parts juice and white wine to a small sauce pan (a few tbs of each) with the Rosemary sprig (traditionally minced shallots would be included here)
- Reduce the juice and wine over pretty high heat (with the sprig in there) until there's just a little left and it's syrupy
- Remove Rosemary sprig and discard
- Lower heat as much as possible and whisk in butter pieces one at a time, waiting for one piece to incorporate before adding the next
- Once all the butter is incorporated season with salt and pepper
- If the sauce is too thick for your liking thin with a drop of water
- To hold the sauce put it on a burner that's as low as possible, whisking occasionally
- If you're really worried about the sauce separating add a small drop of cream when the juice and wine are reducing to stabilize the sauce, but with so little butter (comparatively) this sauce is pretty sturdy

This is a nice meal on a cold winter day. The mushrooms go very well with the barley, and the somewhat rich and bright sauce complements the char well. The sauce looks a bit cornstartchy in the picture--I think it's the lighting--but the color was very nice.

Duck and Mushroom Pasta in the Style of Carbonara

How's that for a name? After a cold day and not so good lunch a comforting dinner was in order, but a trip to the store was not. So in an endless quest to make sure nothing goes bad in the pantry and fridge (and to use Plum Creek Poultry's great eggs), this is what I came up with. It's fettuccine, duck confit, reconstituted dried morels, and an egg/parmesan sauce. I would have used cream instead of the egg sauce, but I didn't have any, and I'm glad I didn't. Here it is:

Ingredients:
- Duck confit, shredded*
- Morels, soaked cut in half**
- Eggs
- Parmesan, grated (pecorino)
- Pasta (fettuccine worked well here)
- Sage, chiffonade
- Salt and pepper
- Butter
Method:
- Cook pasta
- While pasta is cooking saute mushrooms in butter with salt and pepper
- If you started with dried mushrooms, once the mushrooms are cooked and just slightly browned add the water you used to soak them (as noted below)
- Once mushroom water is cooked down, or when mushrooms are cooked if you're not using the liquid, add sage
- Separately stir together nearly equal parts parmesan and egg
- Add cooked pasta to mushroom mixture and also add shredded confit
- Stir well and then turn heat way down (or off)
- Add egg mixture and a season to taste, stirring well until mixture firms up (Keep in mind that the eggs will keep cooking for a little bit, but not too much, when you're serving.)

It's a satisfying cold weather meal. Any roasted poultry could be substituted for the confit (quail works great--also available from Plum Creek), and I imagine most mushrooms could be substituted for the morels, but since dried morels are just about always available, I'd try to get those.

* Duck confit - There are lots of duck confit recipes on the web, so I won't spend too much time here discussing mine, which is a mixture of the ones I've seen. I sprinkle duck legs with these Herbs de Provence, salt, and pepper, and layer the legs in a to-be-covered plastic container with a few garlic cloves (cut in half) mixed in there. I leave that in the fridge overnight, and the next day brush the mixture off (but not too well) saving the garlic cloves. I then submerge the legs with the garlic in rendered duck fat (That's a whole 'nother blog entry, and getting a good quantity of duck fat around here has become tricky--it wasn't just a few years ago), in an uncovered sauce pan, and place in a 225-250 degree oven until they're just about to the tenderness I want. I then remove the duck legs and strain and reheat the fat (on the stove or in the oven) to get any water/duck juice moisture out of it (The garlic cloves left in the strainer may be the best things ever.). I then pour the (hopefully) water and juice free fat over the legs to cover (If the fat's not pure things get a little ugly in storage.). If there's leftover fat it's not hard to find a way to use it. The legs keep covered in fat in the fridge for a longer time than it should take you to eat them.

** Morels - I love them, fresh and/or dried. There are good reasons to enjoy these mushrooms dried, most notably, because they're seasonal (and the flavor is intense). I was lucky to move from one area plush with morels (the Pacific Northwest) to another (shockingly to me, the Midwest--there are tons in Ohio and Michigan). With the fresh ones, before cooking I like to soak them in lightly salted cold or room temp water. It's just how I learned to do it, and it also drives out the worms that love to hide in the honeycomb-like mushroom. With the dried ones, I reconstitute them in hot salted water in a bowl covered with plastic wrap. The plastic wrap keeps the moisture in so you don't have to weigh down the mushrooms, but I still turn them over a few times to keep the soaking even. (This technique also works with porcinis, which I've never had the chance to enjoy fresh.) Please, save the water and somehow incorporate it in the dish, i.e. the sauce or braising liquid with meat, the cooking liquid with risotto, or just with the cooking mushrooms themselves. Also, note that morels are great with milk fat, either cream or butter. This is the time to use either one (or both) liberally. These mushrooms are a real treat, just be sure to cook them--I don't think raw is the way to go with this one (see here).

Here's another shot: