Mushroom Duck Noodles

We used the leftover duck confit and rendered duck fat for this very easy, tasty one-pot meal. The veggie is frisee, but you can use any hearty green-- this frisee was a bit too hearty for salads, but cooking it down made it tender and delicious. The cilantro and mint brighten the rich duck flavor.

You'll need:
leftover duck meat from 2 legs, or confit some (see link above)
2T duck fat
1 large onion, sliced
6 cloves garlic, sliced
1 bunch frisee
1c oyster mushrooms
2T dark soy sauce
fresh egg noodles
cilantro
mint

Heat duck fat until melted. Add onion and sautee until caramelized, about 10 minutes. Add garlic and mushrooms and saute until mushrooms brown, about 5 minutes. Add duck and saute until crispy. Add frisee; cook until wilted. Add noodles and dark soy sauce; stir to coat. Serve, topped with chopped cilantro & mint.

Braised Rabbit with Leeks and Fennel

We're in Paris! 

I was really looking forward to things like rabbit being commonplace and not too expensive, but tonight's dish was probably the same as it would have cost back in California, and my fellow shoppers looked on with undisguised horror as my butcher hacked the rabbit into pieces. I'll have to do some rabbit shopping around. The past few days we've done a lot of cooking in our new kitchen-- dorade with a wine pan sauce, steaks, minestrone soup (which you'll probably see posted soon). It's small but very well equipped. The only real drawback is the electric stove, which will take some getting used to. In this recipe, I really missed my gas stove when trying to gently render the fat on the bacon, then sear the rabbit on high heat but without burning. It worked-- I just have to get the hang of it. We've also had plenty of non-cooked meals, involving copious amounts of cheese, pates, stuffed petits pains, and, our first night, rotisserie chicken. Expect some tasty things in the future, probably involving lamb.

You'll need (serves 4):

1 rabbit, cut into 6 pieces (mine weighed about 4lbs, or almost 2kg)

1 thick slice of bacon, cut into lardons

2c chicken stock

2 onions, sliced

2 heads of fennel, cored & cut into eighths

3 leeks, sliced

Half a head of garlic, crushed

1t fennel seeds

1/2t dried thyme

1 bay leaf

½ bottle of white wine

A shot of Ricard

Preheat oven to 325F (160C).

Bring the chicken stock to the boil with any trimmings from the rabbit (head, ribs, kidneys, etc).

In an oven-proof saucepan, brown the lardons and set aside; in the bacon fat brown the rabbit and set aside.

Saute onion and leeks in the same saucepan. Add garlic and fennel seeds and stir until fragrant. Add the white wine and reduce by half.

Return rabbit and bacon to pan. Add thyme, bay leaf and fennel. Add pastis and bring to a simmer. Add strained stock to cover rabbit. Cover pot and cook in preheated oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until tender.

We served this with mushroom wheat pilaf and caramelized endives; for those of you who can get endives cheaply, they're absolutely delicious seared and then braised with a bit of water. And they count as a vegetable! Yay.

Katie's Back! Feast

Katie, my partner in complicated cooking crime (see our past feasts: sushi, offal, around-the-world, & summer), is visiting from Scotland, where she's been living for the past year and a half. We designed a meal that highlighted seasonal ingredients, since she's been missing California produce. Unfortunately we were a bit too ambitious; we prepared 8 courses but our guests could only stomach 6. Nixed courses were a salad with arugula, heirloom tomato, avocado, and black radish, and a cheese course pairing Iberico with Bosc & Comice pear and Fuyu persimmon. We did manage to eat the following:

Spanish White Gazpacho with Grapes

Seared Duck Liver with Fig and Rosemary

Bay Scallop Ceviche with Avocado and Smoked Turkish Pepper

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Crispy Calamari, Baby Artichokes, Eggplant

Wild Mushroom & Goat Cheese Puff Pastry

Skirt Steak with Spicy Roasted Pepper Sauce and Savory Chimmichuri

Chicken in Creamy Morel Leek Sauce

This is an easy but decadent dish, and can be made with skinless boneless breasts as well (just cut down on the cooking time). If you can't find fresh morels use dried ones, and use the reconstituting liquid in place of the broth.

You'll need (serves 4):

8 chicken thighs, bone-in, skin and fat removed

1c flour

2-3 leeks

1/2lb fresh morel mushrooms

1/4c Pastis, Ricard, or vermouth

3/4c chicken broth

1/4c heavy cream

2T canola oil

1T butter

Heat the oil in a heavy skillet big enough to hold all the chicken in one layer. Dredge the chicken in flour seasoned with salt and pepper. Brown thighs over medium heat, smooth (former skin) side first, until dark golden brown. You can do this in batches. Remove browned thighs and set aside. 

Clean and trim leeks. Quarter and then slice thinly horizontally so you have small half crescent moons. Clean and trim mushrooms. Slice in half and remove any dirt or bugs.

Wipe any burnt bits from the pan. Add butter. Add leeks and saute about 7 minutes until translucent. Add mushrooms and cook until wilted, about 5 minutes. Deglaze pan with Pastis.

Return chicken to pan, smooth side up. Add broth and bring to a boil (this should happen fast as the pan's pretty hot at this point). Lower to a simmer. Cover and cook 45 minutes.

Remove chicken from pan. Add cream. Bring to a boil, then simmer to reduce. Return chicken to pan and heat through.

Serve with a grain to absorb all the yummy sauce!

Silky Cauliflower Soup with Fresh Porcini Mushrooms

This soup has a remarkable texture, and is very versatile: you can make it simple, with cauliflower and water instead of stock, or you can use the cauliflower as a base for other flavors.

You'll need:

1 head cauliflower, broken into florets

6c stock, water, or a combination

1 medium onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

2T butter

fresh porcini mushrooms for garnish*

*I put a few mushrooms in with the cauliflower but I don't think it added much. Keep them as a topping.

Melt butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add onions and garlic and cook, stirring, about 10 minutes, until very soft. Don't let the onions brown.

Add cauliflower and salt (more if you're using water or no-salt broth). Add liquid to cover; bring to a boil, then simmer gently until cauliflower is soft (about 10 min). 

Puree in a blender (I tried using a hand blender but it didn't get the silky consistency) until frothy and smooth. 

Slice porcini mushrooms and saute in butter and salt. Serve soup garnished with mushrooms. I sprinkled Aleppo pepper on top as well. 

Thanksgiving 2008

No pictures in this post; just an update on Thanksgiving, since people have been asking. I'm not doing a real post for two reasons-- one, we basically did the same thing as  last year, since last year's Thanksgiving was so ridiculously good; and two, I didn't have a camera on hand for pictures. Honestly, some of the tastiest things are the least photogenic-- stuffing, for example. So the menu was: (most of the recipes are on last year's post, linked above)

Spicy Sweet Potato Soup

Brined & BBQ'd Organic Turkey

Gravy (made from turkey stock, which we made the day before)

Wild Mushroom Stuffing (recipe below)

Butternut Squash Gratin

Spicy Cranberry Relish

Jelled Cranberry Sauce (yeah, the Ocean Spray kind. I love the stuff.)

Lemony Brussel Sprout Hash

Sour Cream Cheesecake (my dad's delicious contribution)

The wild mushroom stuffing was really amazing, and can easily be a vegetarian main dish or brunch dish any time of the year. We tweaked last year's recipe a bit. Here goes:

Make cornbread and let it sit out overnight so it dries out a bit.

Cut the cornbread into crouton-sized (1/2inch) cubes. Toss cubes and all crumbs into bowl. Add 2T each chopped thyme & sage; add olive oil and toss until well-coated.

Spread seasoned cornbread cubes and crumbs onto a baking sheet. Bake at 400 degrees until golden. Cubes should be crunchy. It's ok if the crumbs get a little dark.

Clean 2lbs mushrooms. We used 2/3lb shittake, 2/3lb oyster, 2/3lb chanterelle. Reserve the shittake stems.

Add shittake stems to 4c chicken (or veggie) broth and bring to a boil. Lower to a strong simmer and cover. Cook about 20 minutes, until reduced by half. Strain. You should have 2c mushroomy broth.

Slice mushrooms.  Slice 5 large shallots. Saute shallots and mushrooms in about 1T butter and 1T olive oil until golden brown, about 20 minutes (they'll release liquid, and then start drying out and browning). Add salt and pepper to taste.

Add the cooked mushrooms to the strained broth.

An hour before serving, beat 1c heavy cream with 3 eggs. Combine with mushroom mix and cornbread cubes only. Pour into gratin dish. Sprinkle cornbread crumbs on top.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes, until set (a thin knife inserted into the gratin will come out clean).

Tingly Spicy Stir Fry

I know these are not the most appetizing photos, but I made this in a hurry and it smelled so good that I wanted to get around to eating it as soon as possible. This is an easy way to use up veggies that need to be cooked. I had some string beans and an eggplant on hand, but other things would be delicious in this too-- broccoli, kale, spinach, chard, bok choy, etc. 

Unfortunately I've been a bad blogger lately, and I didn't write down what went into this. But it was something along the lines of 1/2lb ground beef, 1/2lb ground lamb, cubes of roasted eggplant, green beans cut into halves or thirds, shittake mushrooms, garlic and ginger; all that cooked in a sauce of light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, and garlic chili paste. When I took it off the heat, I mixed in some toasted ground szechuan pepper for its delicious tingly spice.

Kale Shittake Pasta

I had some leftover cooked pasta, but not quite enough for a meal, so I sauteed an onion, some chopped garlic, sliced shittake mushrooms and some chopped kale. I added the pasta til it warmed up and topped the whole thing with some good olive oil and freshly grated parmesan

Chicken Chanterelle Stew

I've been waiting for months for the rain and cold to come, and it's finally here so I decided to celebrate. This is the perfect rainy day dish, and it's a one-pot meal.

You'll need (serves 6):

3 1/2lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs

3/4-1lb meaty pork neck bones

5 medium yukon gold potatoes

2 onions

2 carrots

10 cloves garlic

4 anchovies

1T tomato paste

1 bottle dry red wine

4c chicken stock

2c chanterelle mushrooms

1T herbes de provence

1c flour

veggie oil

bouquet garni:

3 bay leaves

2 springs rosemary

4 springs thyme

1 large branch sage

Heat 1T oil in a dutch oven. Brown neck bones well on all sides.

In the meantime, clean the chicken. Remove all the fat you can find. 

When the bones are browned, remove them and set them aside.

Salt and pepper chicken generously and dredge in flour. Heat more oil in the dutch oven, if necessary, and brown the chicken in batches, about 4 minutes per side. Set aside browned chicken.

Chop onions and carrots. Crush and slice garlic. Chop anchovies.

Add more oil if necessary. Saute onions and carrots about 2 minutes; add garlic and anchovies. Saute about 10 minutes until golden brown.

In the meantime, clean the chanterelles. Remove dirt from the gills under running water. Cut off the tough stem ends. 

Move the onion mix to the sides of the pot. Add a little oil in the middle. Add the chanterelles, ripping them into pieces as you add them. When they're all in, mix them with the other vegetables and saute about 4 minutes.

Return the neck bones to the pot. Add the bouquet garni (just tie together all the herbs listed above with a piece of string) and the herbes de provence.

Pour the bottle of wine into the pot. Boil about 20 minutes, until reduced by at least half. You'll end up with about half an inch of liquid in the pot.

While the wine is reducing, peel and quarter the potatoes.

Return the chicken to the pot and add the potatoes. Add broth to cover. Bring to a boil. Stir to make sure everything's fully submerged. Lower to a simmer; cover and cook about 30 minutes, until the chicken is tender and the potatoes are done. Uncover and continue cooking to reduce liquid to desired amount and consistency, or smash a few potatoes to thicken the liquid.

Chicken with Creamy Mushroom Sauce

This entire dish comes together in thirty minutes but it's decadent and guest-worthy. It also features very few ingredients.

You'll need (serves 4):

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

5 shallots

8oz crimini mushrooms (about 2c)

1/2 vermouth

1c heavy whipping cream

2T olive oil

Preheat oven to its lowest possible temperature.

Mince shallots; set aside. Mince mushrooms (or chop coarsely, if you want a more prominent mushroom-ness to the dish) and set aside.

Slice each chicken breast in half to make 2 even-ish cutlets that are thinner than the original breast (so you'll be slicing them horizontally, if that makes sense). Place cutlets between two sheets of plastic wrap and pound so they're all of even thickness-- they should be about 1/2 inch thick at most. You can pound with a meat mallet or use the bottom of a heavy pan.

Heat olive oil in a heavy, wide skillet.  Salt and pepper the chicken cutlets and brown them in batches, being careful not to crowd the skillet. Once you lay the chicken down, don't move it or you won't achieve good browning. Flip chicken when one side is light golden and do the other side too. Place browned cutlets on a plate; when they're all cooked, put the plate in the oven to keep the chicken warm.

There should be a bit of oil left in the skillet; add the shallots and stir until the shallots turn golden. Add the mushrooms and cook until dark and liquid is released and evaporated, about 7 minutes. Add vermouth and reduce by half. Add cream and let boil over medium heat until reduced and thick. When it's as thick as you want it, put the chicken in the sauce and serve. We ate this with red-brown rice, and green beans which will be featured in a post soon.

A Shabbat Feast

This feast, generously subsidized by Birthright, was a wonderful opportunity to make something I normally cannot afford: veal shoulder. This beautiful five pound roast is stuffed with herbs and garlic, rolled in porcini dust, and cooked slowly in my homemade chicken stock, red wine, and tomato paste, with some marrow-filled veal bones tossed in to beef up the sauce.

the herb & garlic stuffing

the bones & the roast

adding liquids

After cooking, you refrigerate the roast overnight, scrape off all the fat, carve the meat and reduce the sauce, sneaking a bite of marrow on toast as you remove the bones. I adapted my recipe from Epicurious's, adjusting things like the balsamic and porcini (I added more).

I served this with a barley and roasted vegetable pilaf-- I roasted the butternut squash and parsnips with balsamic vinegar and fresh thyme, separately so each cube would get creamy on the inside and caramelized on the outside...

combined in one pan for easy cooling

...then tossed them with the cooled cooked barley, reheated the pot, and added lemon zest, toasted almonds and mint.

As an appetizer, I made a salad of arugula, julienned apple & celeriac (celery root) soaked in lemon juice & olive oil, smoked trout, warm goat cheese and spicy-sweet walnuts with a dill-pomegranate (thanks Maia!) cream dressing.

J, of the Green Kitchen next door, made dessert: dried cherries soaked in reduced sour cherry juice, served over Haagen Daaz vanilla ice cream with Chessman cookies.

Fennel and Corn Brown Rice Risotto

This makes a great vegetarian main dish or shellfish side (it'd be delicious with prawns, cooked separately, of course). Be sure to get the vegetables well caramelized; this makes the entire risotto deep brown and very flavorful.

You'll need (serves 3-4):

1c brown rice

4c chicken or vegetable broth

1 onion

1 large fennel bulb

1 ear of corn

8 mushrooms

1T olive oil

1T butter

1c vermouth

1/2c parmesan, grated

1/2c sharp cheddar, grated

Finely chop onion.

Melt butter and oil in large heavy skillet. Add onion.

While onion cooks, chop fennel bulb and add that too (reserve fronds). Remove corn from cob and add it as well, with some salt and pepper.

Clean mushrooms and chop them rougly. Once the veggies look golden brown, add mushrooms and cook 5 more minutes. 

Add rice (and more oil if necessary); stir and cook about 1 minute. 

Add vermouth slowly, scraping at the bottom of the pan (you should have a well-browned fond). Let cook until vermouth boils away.

Add broth slowly, stirring almost constantly, adding more when the mixture looks dry. Cook about 1 hour until rice is tender but not mushy.

Stir in cheese and fennel fronds and serve.

Pork Medallions with Bulgur Pilaf

The nice thing about this dish is that it takes only minutes to make. The bad thing is that you have to eat it right away, as in before-you-can-take-a-picture right away. But it's tasty, quick and easy, so I made it again for lunch a few days later-- for blogging purposes only, of course. Now you have lots of pictures to enjoy.

For the pilaf, saute 1/2 onion, chopped, and 1c chopped mushrooms until onions are golden and mushrooms soft. Add 1c bulgur; saute 2 minutes. Add 2c chicken broth; bring to a boil. Lower to a simmer and cook, covered, about 20 minutes. Add 1/2 bunch kale, chopped, and stir well to combine. Cook until kale turns bright green (about a minute) and serve.

For the pork, slice a pork tenderloin into 1 inch chunks. Pound lightly to even out. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. 

Brown in hot oil in a non-non-stick skillet about 1 minute/side. Set aside. Deglaze skillet with Marsala wine. Let boil slightly to reduce; stir in 1T butter. Add salt and pepper to taste. Pour sauce over medallions. Serve!

Ginger Miso Salmon with Roasted Kale and Mushrooms

This is a light, delicious meal that uses only one baking dish and is ready in about 15 minutes. You can skip the cilantro mint topping and drizzle soy sauce instead, but I like the freshness of the herbs and the heat of the chilies.

You'll need (serves 1):

1 filet salmon, pinbones removed with tweezer
1T white miso paste
4 leaves kale, stems removed
a handful of shiitake mushrooms
1 inch ginger, chopped
2T chopped mint
2T chopped cilantro
1 thai chili, minced

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Tear the kale into bite-sized pieces and place in baking dish. Top with mushrooms, quartered if large. Drizzle with some chicken stock or water and a bit of olive oil. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper.


Roast about 5 minutes, until kale is crispy on top and mushrooms are soft.

In the meantime, combine cilantro, mint, and chili and set aside.

Stir ginger into kale and make a well in the middle; place salmon, skin side down, into well. Turn oven down to 275 degrees and return dish to oven. Cook until salmon is opaque on the outside, about 7 minutes.

Serve topped with herb-chili mixture.

Roasted Mushroom & Tomato Pasta

This is an intensely flavorful dish that involves minimal work-- just chop the veggies, stick them in the oven, cook the pasta, and toss it all together. It helps to use really good tomatoes because, roasted, they lend a slightly smokey sweetness to the finished dish that goes really well with the sharp arugula. I used Early Girl tomatoes, which were only 59 cents/lb at Monterey Market last week. Also, use bunch arugula if you can find it-- it's cheaper and much more strongly flavored than baby arugula, and won't wilt as quickly when it comes into contact with the hot pasta.

You'll need:

5 medium tomatoes
15-20 mushrooms
1/2 onion
5 cloves garlic
olive oil
basil
arugula
fettucine or whatever pasta you want
pecornio romano
salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 400.

Halve and core tomatoes, squeezing them gently to remove some liquid. Then roughly chop them and place on baking sheet.

Quarter mushrooms and add to baking sheet.

Quarter onion, separate pieces, and add to baking sheet. Add peeled garlic cloves too.


Drizzle everything with olive oil (I use a great olive oil spray from Trader Joe's). Sprinkle with kosher salt.

Place veggies in oven and heat water for pasta.

In the meantime, chiffonade basil and separate the arugula leaves from their tough stems.

When veggies are almost done (soft and golden), cook pasta; toss it all together, stir in basil, arugula, and a glug of good olive oil. Top with shaved pecorino and ground black pepper.

Steelhead Trout with Tarragon Pepper Sauce

Tarragon is a fantastic herb. It tastes great and holds up to (and combines with) many other flavors. It's also delicious on its own, suspended in cream or butter. Here, I've matched it here with the bite of Szechwan pepper and tang of lemon juice. I used steelhead because it looked good in the store, but this recipe would work well with salmon too.


You'll need (this makes enough sauce for 2 people):

1 center-cut filet of fish per person
2T chopped fresh tarragon
3T butter
1t ground Szechwan pepper
1t lemon juice (from 1/2 a lemon)

Heat a small pan. Melt 2 T butter. Add tarragon and pepper. Turn off heat.

Rub fish with olive oil, salt and pepper. Heat a pan. Place fish, skin-side down, on hot pan. Cook 3-4 minutes; turn and cook 2-3 minutes on the other side.

Make sure butter is still hot. If not, reheat, then turn heat off. Stir in lemon juice. Vigorously stir in the last tablespoon of butter until sauce is creamy. Spoon sauce over fish.

Serve with mushroom barley (above),
warm bean salad or grain pilaf.

*Mushroom barley is easy-- just chop a bunch of mushrooms (I used shittake), saute in olive oil & butter, and add spices (I used dried oregano & savory). When mushrooms begin to brown, add 1c pearl barley & 3c chicken or veggie broth. Bring to a boil; lower to a simmer, cover and cook until liquid is absorbed, about 40 minutes.

Chicken Gorgonzola Pasta with Balsamic Broccoli

This is a great way to use up leftover chicken, but you can even make it without chicken and just use mushrooms for a vegetarian variation. You don't need to use expensive cheese here; a domestic gorgonzola-style cheese will suffice.

The balsamic broccoli is a really nice touch here. Its sweetness offsets the tangy blue cheese. I love this flavor combination.


You'll need:

leftover or otherwise cooked chicken breast meat (no skin, gristle, etc)-- spices on the meat are fine; they'll make your pasta sauce that much better

pasta of your choice (I used farfalle)

shittake mushrooms, stems removed, sliced (each mushroom should yield about 4 slices)
1 onion, sliced
red pepper flakes

2T flour or Wondra flour
1c milk (nonfat is fine)
1/2c gorgonzola, or more to taste

broccoli
2T olive oil
2T balsamic vinegar


Heat oven to 400 degrees. Break broccoli into florets and toss with salt, pepper, oil & vinegar. Roast on a baking sheet about 20 minutes, until golden brown (vinegar will make broccoli very dark in spots).

In the meantime, boil salted water and cook your pasta.

While water is boiling and broccoli is roasting, heat some olive oil in a large heavy skillet and saute onion, mushrooms, and red pepper until mushrooms turn golden. Slice chicken very thinly and toss into cooked mushrooms. Toss to warm chicken.

Add flour and stir until it disappears. Add milk and stir; sauce should thicken as milk is absorbed. Turn off heat and add cheese in chunks; toss until cheese melts.

Add cooked pasta and toss to coat. Add roasted broccoli and serve with additional gorgonzola.

(still good without broccoli)