Shitake Mushrooms with Sourdough Toast and Rosemary Blue Cheese Creme Fraiche

You know a restaurant takes sustainable sourcing seriously when its recipes are named for particular vegetable varieties grown in their own garden. That was one of things I loved about The Ethicurean Cookbook of which I received a review copy. The Ethicurean restaurant and kitchen are located in two glasshouses of the Barley Wood Walled Garden on an estate just outside Bristol in England. The restaurant is run by a group of four friends who joined together on this mission in 2010 to highlight seasonality and sustainable sourcing. Vegetables and fruits come from the Walled Garden and orchards including 70 varieties of apples, and other ingredients are carefully sourced or foraged nearby. I was confused about the recipe for Sea Robin with Fennel Butter Sauce and Herbed Pink Firs until I read through it and learned that sea robin is another name for gurnard which is a thin, mild, white fish. And, pink fir is a type of waxy potato grown in the restaurant’s garden. Of course, in the spirit of The Ethicurean, it would make perfect sense to substitute ingredients that are local and seasonal to the reader. The book is divided by season, and it’s full of stories about what’s growing at different times of the year. There are also lots of side notes about the history of some ingredients and explanations of food science. In the recipe for Caerphilly and Cider Welsh Rabbit, the authors explain that since Caerphilly is a mature cheddar with a good level of acidity and high moisture content, the casein molecules in the cheese will separate preventing it from becoming stringy when it melts. The photo of the lovely, broiled and cheese-filled sandwich next to a fresh, crisp salad looks delicious. Some other dishes that caught my eye were the Ewe’s-Curd-Stuffed Courgette Flowers with Fennel Sherbet; the Crab Salad with New Potatoes, Pickled Carrot and Smoked Paprika Mayonnaise; the homemade Vermouth; the Globe Artichokes with Hollandaise Sauce and Sumac; and the Chocolate and Salt Caramel Brownies with Cherry and Elderflower Sauce. 

Kurt and I share a fondness for blue cheese, so my first stop in the book was at the recipe titled Wild Mushrooms with Sourdough Toast and Thyme Stichelton Creme Fraiche. I made a few changes to keep the sourcing at least a little closer to home. We have fresh, locally-cultivated mushrooms that are available year-round, so I used local shitakes. I usually have thyme in my herb garden, but it died back during one of our freezes this winter. I substituted rosemary for it since I always have rosemary growing in multiple spots in our yard. And, last, rather than using Stichelton which is a British-made, raw milk, blue cheese, I used Jasper Hill Farms’ Bayley Hazen Blue which is also a raw milk blue. On little pieces of sourdough baguette, these mushroom toasts are a great appetizer. The mushrooms were sliced and then sauteed in some oil with chopped rosemary (or thyme). They were left to brown a bit before being stirred and turned. When fully cooked, butter was added to the mushrooms with a sprinkling of sea salt. The topping is an easy mix of creme fraiche,  blue cheese, and some rosemary in my case that was combined in the blender. The sauteed mushrooms were spooned onto pieces of toasted bread and topped with the blue cheese creme fraiche. My rosemary still had some flowers clinging to the sprigs which I used as garnish. 

I might have made some extra blue cheese creme fraiche and learned that it also makes a fabulous dipping sauce for roasted potato wedges. But, it was perfect with the mushroom toasts. They were crunchy and savory and a nice start to a meal on one of our chilly days. I’ll be looking back to this book for inspiration as the seasons change and different ingredients are at their best. 

Wild Mushroom with Sourdough Toast and Thyme Stichelton Creme Fraiche 
Recipe reprinted with publisher's permission from The Ethicurean Cookbook (Ebury Press).

Serves 4 

2 tbsp rapeseed oil 
300g mixed wild mushrooms, such as slippery jack, penny bun, russula, horse mushroom, sheep’s foot and puffballs, cleaned and sliced into 1cm strips 
leaves from 4 sprigs of thyme 
25g unsalted butter 
8 very thin slices of sourdough bread 
fine sea salt flaky sea salt 

For the thyme Stichelton creme fraiche: 
25g Stichelton cheese, roughly chopped 
75ml creme fraiche 
leaves from 5 sprigs of thyme 

For the thyme Stichelton creme fraiche, put all the ingredients in a blender or food processor and pulse to a semi- coarse consistency. Season with salt to taste and set aside. 

Place a large frying pan over a high heat and leave until it is very hot. Add the rapeseed oil; it should begin to smoke. Immediately add the mushrooms and thyme leaves, plus a dusting of fine salt, and toss to coat them evenly with the oil. Leave undisturbed for a minute or so, until the mushrooms colour ever so slightly, then toss and colour on the other side. Remove from the heat and add the butter to the pan. Toss until it has melted and the mushrooms are evenly coated, then check the seasoning. 

While the mushrooms are cooking, put the sourdough bread under a hot grill and toast, turning every minute, until both sides are golden brown. Thin slices of bread will curl under the grill, and the regular turning prevents this happening. Remove the sourdough from the grill and add a couple of slices to each plate. Cover with the mushrooms, season with flaky sea salt and add a heaped tablespoon of the Stichelton creme fraiche.

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Melon with Blue Cheese and Black Pepper

Food and art collide intentionally in the new book from Alain Passard. In The Art of Cooking with Vegetables, of which I received a review copy, he has created a collage to accompany each recipe. He explains that although the food usually inspires the collage, there have been times when creating the collage led to different combinations on the plate. The collages are abstract, colorful, and beautiful. I’d love to have them framed and lined up on a wall. The book was created in celebration of the 25th anniversary of his restaurant L’Arpege with vegetable recipes for each season. The recipes all have simple, straightforward titles in contrast to the complexity of the flavors in the dishes. For instance, Herb-Filled Peppers on Warm Crusty Bread is made with a filling of finely chopped, blanched fava beans, sauteed garlic and onion, and sorrel, cilantro, chervil, basil, and chives. The roasted, stuffed peppers are then served on toasted bread and topped with shaved parmesan. Ratatouille Brittany-Style in Butter is an interesting mix of cooked and raw vegetables with an eggplant and butter sauce served on the side. A recipe I can’t wait to try is the Avocado Souffles with Dark Chocolate. A souffle of mashed avocado, pistachio marzipan, vanilla, and egg whites, of course, is baked in the halved and hallowed avocado skins. A square of dark chocolate is set into each souffle before baking. Puffed, green domes baked in dark, black avocado containers is something I want to see and taste. From the section of the book focused on summer, the first recipe I had to try was the Melon with Blue Cheese and Black Pepper. It’s a colorful, sweet-savory, fork-and-knife kind of salad made with fourme d’Ambert which is Kurt’s favorite cheese.

I actually planned ahead for this recipe. One of the ingredients is purple basil although green basil would have been fine instead. I had planted purple basil seeds and waited until some leaves appeared to make this. I wish the leaves had been more completely purple, but I went with what I had. The salad also includes sorrel, and red sorrel would have been pretty. Sadly, I was only able to locate green sorrel, but its lemony flavor was great. The colors, textures, sweetness, saltiness, and herbiness were all important here, and one more twist for this salad was the mix of hot and cold. The melon slices were actually stewed in a little olive oil. The melon became just slightly more tender and was the only warm element on the plate. To finish, the plate was drizzled with a little balsamic vinegar, and flaked sea salt and coarsely ground black pepper were added. I had a few walnuts on hand and decided to use them for garnish to add a crunchy item to the mix.

The sweet, warm, orange melon with the savory, big flavor of the blue-veined cheese was well-matched for looks and taste, and the bright mix of herbs cut the richness nicely. It was a surprisingly filling salad with the wedge of melon and chunk of fourme d’Ambert. Now, I’m flipping to the late summer pages of the book to decide which food as art piece to recreate next.

Melon with Blue Cheese and Black Pepper

Recipe courtesy of Alain Passard, L'Arpege, and Frances Lincoln Publishers, Ltd. Copyright 2012. Excerpted from The Art of Cooking with Vegetables. All rights reserved.

Serves 4, 40 minutes

1 large, ripe melon

150-200 g (5-7 oz) fourme d’Ambert or Stilton
3-4 tablespoons virgin olive oil
several handfuls of red or green sorrel, washed, and tough ribs removed
leaves from a bunch of purple or green basil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
fleur de sel
1 tablespoon black peppercorns crushed or coarsely ground

Drink with A Pineau de Charentes or a Floc de Gascogne

Slice the cheese into four equal-sized portions and leave them at room temperature for about half an hour.

Meanwhile, cut the melon into quarters, and scoop out and discard the seeds. Thinly cover the bottom of a saute pan with about one tablespoon of the olive oil, holding back the rest; arrange the melon quarters, flat on their sides, in a single layer, in the pan. Partially cover with a lid and stew the melon quarters gently over low heat for 25 minutes, turning them over from time to time.

While the melon is stewing gently, put the leaves of sorrel and basil in a salad bowl and dress them gently with the remaining oil.

To serve, arrange a quarter of melon, a portion of cheese and a helping of the salad on four individual plates. Season to taste with salt and crushed or coarsely ground black pepper. Sign each plate with a trail of balsamic vinegar.

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Double Blue Crostini and Fully Loaded Potato Skins

While my couch and I were re-connecting during that lovely, lazy week before the new year began, one of the books I read was Nigella Christmas. This was my first experience with a Nigella book. So, the references made to her previous books regarding recipes and friends were lost on me. It is, however, full of festive ideas for entertaining during the holiday season, and I was instantly inspired to try a couple of things. She presents ideas that don't require too much preparation time for casual gatherings. For our New Year’s Eve night of fun food, I wanted to try the double blue crostini and the fully loaded potato skins. Nigella explains that she makes simple canapes with tortilla chips rather than toasted pieces of bread because it's a time saver and good, thick tortilla chips 'resist sogginess longer.' The double blue crostini were blue corn tortilla chips with a blue cheese dip, and the fully loaded potato skins involved yet another bacon situation which I’ll explain.

For the blue cheese dip, room temperature cream cheese and sour cream were stirred together, and then blue cheese was mashed into the mixture. Finely chopped, pickled jalapenos were added, and the finished dip was scooped onto blue chips. Celery is always good with blue cheese, even though it went against the double blue concept, so I used some as a chip alternative.

Now, the point of the potato skins was that the filling mixture plus bacon on top made them fully loaded, so I couldn't skip that topping. I could have gone the route of using turkey bacon, but instead I decided to get creative, make a change, and use hot smoked chipotle salmon. I opted for mini yukon gold potatoes, and they were baked, halved, and hollowed. The potato pulp was combined with sour cream, chopped scallions, shredded cheddar cheese, and a bit of Worcestershire sauce. More shredded cheddar was applied on top, and they went back into the oven until melty and warm. Just before serving, I added pieces of smoked salmon to each.

I completely understand if you choose to fully load your potato skins with proper bacon, but the chipotle smoked salmon was a delicious alternative. As for the filling, there’s no denying the lure of potatoes with sour cream and cheddar. Regarding the double blue hors d’oeuvre, this was a simple but genius combination. The pickled jalapenos added addictive acidity and spice. Don’t start eating these while you’re hungry like I did because they’ll be gone far too quickly. This book offers Christmas-specific recipes and some to use all year, but I especially look forward to pulling it off the shelf when the holidays arrive again.




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Roasted Squash Salad

The planning, shopping, and cooking for Christmas ended with splendid indulging and leftovers for a few days. Indulging continued on through New Year’s week, but I was no longer cooking. While visiting family, I got to sit back, relax, and catch up on magazine reading. Is there anything better than not setting an alarm for several days, getting to sit and read without even needing to glance at a clock from time to time, and knowing someone else is making dinner today? Well, that last one is nice once in a while. I spotted this roasted squash salad in the December issue of Bon Appetit which I lazily read right after finishing Saveur and just before picking up Eating Well. Rough week. The combination of flavors sounded great, and it looked like a meal in itself.

The peeled butternut squash was thinly sliced and roasted with a glaze of balsamic vinegar and a scant bit of brown sugar. The remaining ingredients were simply arranged on the plate. The one change I made was using pears instead of apples. Endive spears were fanned about, pear slices were interspersed, the roasted squash was mounded nearby, and dried cranberries and blue cheese crumbles were spilled atop it all. The plated salad received a drizzling of balsamic and lemon vinaigrette.

It was simple and lovely, and tasted as good as I knew it would when I sat idly reading about it a few days ago. What culinary challenges and delights will 2009 hold? Which filed-away recipes will finally be attempted this year? What classics will I ruin beyond all recognition? I have no idea. I really want to make a sourdough starter. I want to make tamales in my own banana leaves. I want to make ice cream too. And, I have a stack of new books waiting to inspire all sorts of new dishes.

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Greens Two Ways

When your CSA gives you greens (lots and lots of greens), make, well, make greens several different ways. Here we have quesadillas with greens and then polenta with greens and blue cheese. First, the quesadillas, and that begins with a story. A few years back, I attended a Tyler Florence cooking demonstration at a wine and food festival here in Austin. He sent someone with a microphone into the audience so questions could be asked while he cooked. There was a lot of excited giggling among the ladies, and one pointed, culinary question asked was “boxers or briefs?” He feigned embarrassment and continued cooking his spicy black eyed peas to which he had added some salt pork. Then, a serious question was asked regarding how to add flavor to the peas yet make it a vegetarian dish. Tyler began his answer with something about life without pork and then said that if you really want to leave out the pork you could use a smoked turkey wing. The woman who asked the question gave him a quizzical look, and he said, oh right, vegetarian! You could add chipotles instead for smoky flavor. I’m so glad that stuck with me. That’s exactly what I did to impart a smoky character to the greens that I cooked for the quesadillas.

Multi-grain tortillas were layered with shredded dry Jack cheese and a little shredded cheddar along with the chipotle sautéed collard greens and some seeded and chopped tomatoes. The quesadillas were fried until golden on each side and served with a homemade chipotle tomato salsa and fresh guacamole with cilantro. Our CSA provided the tomatoes this week as well. Getting local tomatoes in November is one more reason to really like Austin. Shoe leather would probably taste good melted into a cheese-filled quesadilla, but these fresh, spicy, cooked greens were especially delicious in them. To about four cups of chopped collards, I added one big finely chopped chipotle as they sauteed. For the salsa, I had two ripe, medium tomatoes which I chopped and plopped into the food processor along with two chipotles, about a quarter of a cup of finely chopped onion, and the juice of one large lime. I also added chopped cilantro and salt after pulsing a few times. This was a rather hot salsa, so you could start with one chipotle and add more to taste.

The next day, greens were sauteed with garlic and served over polenta with parmigiana topped with Maytag blue cheese. I’m afraid I don’t have a story to go with this one. I just blatantly stole this idea from the amazing Herbivoracious site. I used collard greens here again, and this time they were sautéed in olive oil with sliced garlic and crushed red peppers. The polenta was simply cooked with water, and parmigiana was stirred in when it was done. The greens paired very well with the creamy, mild polenta, and the crumbled blue cheese amplified the overall flavor. This was a great dish. It was hearty and filling, and the cheeses worked perfectly with the slight bitterness of the greens.

We also received tatsoi, arugula, eggplant, daikon, green peppers, carrots, and cilantro from our share. The quality has been fantastic, and I’m having fun coming up with new and different ways to use every bit of what we receive.

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