Porcini and Bacon Sauce

    

     

Picture Homer Simpson saying "Mmmmm, doughnuts..."  Actually, that's more the sound you will make when you have this sauce.  Really, the picture should be of you tasting this sauce, sneaking it from the gravy boat, putting a dab of it behind your ears, filling the tub with it and swimming around slurping it up.  This sauce is that good.  It is not a heavy roux based gravy.  It is not a light sauce per se, but it is so savory, so sublime, so simply...unctuous.  Like all truly good things, it starts with rendered bacon.  It includes reduced wine, it includes more garlic than you would imagine.  Two kinds of broth, two kinds of mushrooms, but really it is not complicated.  It just requires a little patience to simmer down all that goodness into greatness.  That's ok, because I serve it with a Christmas roast, so there is time while that roasts.  Indeed, this is my Christmas menu every year: a standing rib roast, Yorkshire pudding style popovers, green beans, and this sauce.  It comes from Bon Appetit, December 2005.  I am sharing this secret with you, only because I know that at the end of the meal, when you volunteer to clear the table, when it is just you in the kitchen, you will secretly sneak a last mouthful of this sauce straight from the gravy boat.  It is Christmas after all...Makes 2 cups.

Ingredients:

2 oz dried porcini mushrooms 

2 cups boiling water

1/4 lb sliced bacon, chopped

9 garlic cloves, minced

2 shallots, thinly sliced 

1 lb button mushrooms, sliced

3 cups dry red wine

4 cups low-salt chicken broth

1 cup beef broth

1 large fresh rosemary sprig

4 tbsp butter, diced

Directions:

Place the dried mushrooms in the boiling water and soak for 30 minutes.  Meanwhile, cook the bacon in a large saute pan over medium heat until golden.  Add the garlic and shallots and cook another 3 minutes.  Add the fresh mushrooms, stir, and cook for 8 minutes.  Transfer half of the mushroom mixture to a bowl and reserve.  Strain the porcini mushrooms, saving the liquid, and add the drained mushrooms and wine to the pan.  Boil for 15 minutes and then mix in the broths.  Add the porcini liquid minus any sediment, bring to a boil, turn down the heat, and simmer until reduced to 5 cups, about an hour or more.  At this point, add the sprig of rosemary and simmer for 5 more minutes.  If preparing for a roast, after the roast is done and removed, pour off the fat from the roasting pan and place on the stove top over a hot burner.  Add the mushroom sauce to the pan and scrape up the browned bits, stirring them in to mix.  Strain the mixture back into the saute pan, pressing  out all liquid.  Simmer until reduced to 2 cups, about 5 minutes.  Turn off the heat, mix in the butter and the reserved mushrooms and bacon.  Season with salt and pepper.  Serve.


  

Chicken with Tarragon and Cipollini Onions

 

 

   

 “Elegant and Easy” was the premise of a recent episode of Giada De Laurentiis’ Giada at Home.  Our ubiquitous celebrity chef is beloved because of her approachability, both in her on screen presence and her recipes.  This recipe is certainly approachable in preparation and ingredients.  It could also just as easily appear in a Gourmet Today cookbook that extends Gourmet expectations to meals prepared in 30 minutes or less.  You might also find it in Bon Appétit: Fast, Easy, Fresh described as “fast enough for a weeknight, special enough for a weekend.”  Special, elegant, gourmet, bon appétit: what do these words mean to us and why are they used?  Of course, we all want to feel special, whether it’s the man on the couch eating nachos and drinking a beer, or the woman pouring a glass of wine and eating a piece of after dinner chocolate.  The former reflects how we consider ourselves special when we eat traditional comfort food.  In a sense, we are giving ourselves a hug, albeit in flannel.  We can also give ourselves an embrace, and feel special in that different way too.  What makes a hug an embrace?  Certainly, gourmet and bon appétit play upon our associations with French pretensions.  Anything with tarragon would fit that bill.  But this recipe goes beyond what is pretentious, and into what is truly elegant.  This recipe is simple, not garish, refined, not overdone, it is tasteful in both senses.  That is achieved with the cipollini onions.  Sautéing them and then including them with the braising liquid brings out their sweetness, and contributes to the savory nature of this dish.  The tarragon, I would suggest in more modest proportions than Giada, provides that brightness that lemon can, without introducing an acid.  Garlic, white wine, stock, it is beautiful in its simplicity, and simply beautiful.  Serves 2.

    

Ingredients:

2 boneless, skinned chicken breasts

¼ cup flour plus 1 tbsp flour

2 tbsp olive oil

8 cipollini onions, peeled

1 clove garlic, minced

½ cup dry white wine

1 ½ cups stock

2 tbsp fresh tarragon, chopped

salt/pepper

1 tbsp butter

    

Directions:

In a medium sauté pan over medium-high heat, warm the oil.  Season the chicken with salt and pepper and dust in the flour.  When the oil is hot, add the chicken and brown on each side, about 8 minutes.  Turn down the heat to medium and add the onions.  Soften and caramelize the onions, stirring occasionally, about 4 minutes.  Add the garlic and cook another minute to release its flavor.  Add the white wine and deglaze the pan, scraping up the browned bits.  Turn up the heat to high and add the stock, chicken and tarragon.  Bring to a boil, cover, turn down the heat to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes.  Meanwhile, in a small pot over medium heat, add the butter and melt.  Whisk in the flour to form a roux and cook for at least a minute.  When the chicken is done, remove it to a plate and cover.  Add the roux to the broth, whisking in until smooth.  Turn up the heat if necessary to maintain a simmer.  Simmer the broth for several minutes more until thickened.  Serve the sauce over the chicken with the onions.

   

Salmon Pie with Crispy Pancetta

   

   

Brrrr…bacon.  It’s still cold outside, and I’m still on a bacon kick.  I recently prepared a special meal for a loved one featuring her favorite food: bacon.  It’s winter outside, and so I wanted everything to reflect the season and provide a hearty, warming glow.  I served first the butternut squash with apple and bacon recipe that I featured yesterday.  But, what to do about a fish course?  I find that recipes wrapping fish in bacon tend to overwhelm the fish.  We’ve all tasted those ubiquitous appetizers with bacon wrapped shrimp or scallops.  I personally find them gross.  I’ve even had a more delicate wrapping, such as prosciutto, around a larger piece of fish, such as monkfish.  Still, the pork flavor overwhelmed.  For this meal, I wanted and needed something more.  This recipe from the Daily Mail UK newspaper last year suggests the quintessential British comfort food of a meat pie.  In a sense, it is a shepherd’s pie with fish instead of ground lamb.  Is this cheating on my bacon theme to just lay strips of pancetta on top of a dish?  Maybe so, but the idea of a seafood shepherd’s pie certainly made me feel warm inside.  This recipe builds upon a bechamel sauce and milk-poached salmon with smoked salmon for an extra layer of flavor, and shrimp for additional bite.  The salmon stands up to the bacon, the mashed potato topping adds that pot-sticking component, and the bacon on top allows you to select in which bites you want to include a bacon taste or just savor the salmon.  Serves 6.

   

Ingredients:

2 lb salmon filets, skin left on

1 cup milk

1 bay leaf

8 tbsp butter

¼ cup flour

½ cup dry white wine

1 cup crème fraiche (or ½ cup crème fraiche and ½ cup milk)

1 tsp dijon mustard

6 oz sliced smoked salmon, cut into 1/2” pieces

1 lb shrimp, peeled

¼ cup chopped parsley

3 lbs potatoes, peeled

2 egg yolks

3 oz sliced pancetta

    

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.  Bring a large pot of salted-water to boil.  Meanwhile, in a large pan, add the salmon filets, bay leaf and milk.  Add more milk if needed to cover the thickness of the filet.  Bring to a simmer, cover partially and cook for 4 minutes.  Add the potatoes to the pot of boiling water.  Remove the poached salmon from its pan and cut the meat from the skin.  Pull apart the meat into bite-sized chunks and set aside.  In a medium pot over medium-high heat, melt 4 tbsp of the butter.  Stir in the flour and mix to make a roux.  Allow the roux to cook a couple of minutes and then whisk in the wine.  Whisk in a cup of the cooking milk, mustard, ½ cup crème fraiche and cook for 10 minutes, stirring to ensure there are no lumps.  Add more of the cooking milk if needed to produce a smooth sauce.  Taste and adjust the salt and pepper seasoning.  Fold in the poached salmon, smoked salmon, shrimp and parsley then turn out into a baking dish.  When the potatoes are cooked, drain, run through a ricer, and then combine with 4 tbsp of melted butter, the egg yolks and enough crème fraiche or milk to produce a smooth mashed potatoes.  Smooth the mash over top of the fish mixture.  Bake the pie in the oven for 20 minutes. Lay the sliced pancetta across the top and bake another 25 minutes or until the pancetta is crisp.  Serve.

    

Butternut Squash Soup with Apple & Bacon

  

  

Blustery, breezy…bacony.  How do these go together?  With winter’s icy grip finally closing us in her grasp, strength is needed to withstand her chilly fingers.  Strength against the cold can come from foods such as squash, bacon and apple.  Bacon is savory, it is salty, it is smoky.  Energy can come from the hearty fall vegetables, nature filled with starch and vitamins.  Brightness can come from the apple, left over from autumn’s harvest.  Combining these three ingredients produces this wonderful butternut squash soup, which I prepared for Thanksgiving, and again this month.  Of the many ways to prepare butternut squash, this is one of the simplest, quickest and best.  You do not need to worry about steaming or roasting.  The secret to this soup from Fine Cooking October/November ’05 is the same as a good stew, or I should the secret to making a good stew into a great Beef Bourguignon, cooking in the first rendered bacon fat.  Browning the squash and mixing in some of the bacon along with apple give both a slightly savory and sweet taste to this soup.  Add sage for an additional layer of flavor.  Serves 6.

   

Ingredients:

6 thin slices of bacon or 3 thick slices, cut into ¼” strips

2 lbs butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into ½” dice (about 6 cups)

1 Granny Smith, peeled, cored and cut into 1/2” dice (about 1 cup)

1 tsp fresh sage, chopped

1 tsp salt

½ tsp ground salt

4 cups chicken broth

    

Directions:

In a large pot over medium heat, cook the bacon until crisp.  Remove the bacon to a paper towel lined plate.  Pour off all but 2 tbsp of the bacon fat and increase the heat to medium high.  Add the squash and cook 6 minutes, stirring just once to allow the squash to brown.  Add the apple, sage, salt and pepper and cook another 4 minutes.  Add the broth, scraping up the browned bits from the bottom, and bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat to maintain a simmer and cook a further 6 to 8 minutes.  Turn off the heat and add half of the bacon bits.  Puree the soup with a stand blender, or food processor in batches.  Adjust seasoning as desired.  Serve the soup with remaining bacon bits on top.

   

Turkey Enchiladas with Chipotle Crema Sauce

 

 

You know what they say about too much of a good thing…after three nights of roast turkey and turkey leftovers, I’m approaching that point.  That’s not to say that I’m quite ready to abandon turkey, but I’m ready to give a break to the roasted, savory flavors of my Thanksgiving meal and traditional leftover recipes.  I love a Thanksgiving dinner and the traditional sides, as do I love day-after Turkey Tetrazzini.  This year, I also made Turkey pot pies. But, now, I’m ready to kick things up a notch.  This menu planning swerve takes us south of the border, or at least up to the border, with a Tex-Mex flair.  In the choice of enchiladas, the comfort food angle of the weekend turkey eating marathon remains.  Indeed, how much more comfort can you get than from cream and cheese?  The difference now is Mexican crema and Monterrey Jack cheese.  But to really interest the palette, to get a little salsa in our step, to get our mariachis moving, we go with chipotle peppers and adobo sauce.  Chipotle peppers are fun, they’re hip, and they even supply a smoky flavor that can continue a Thanksgiving theme.  Enchiladas are fun and easy to make.  So Feliz Day After Thanksgiving!  Serves 4.

    

Ingredients:

½ cup olive oil

1 large yellow onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 1/2 cups water

1 chipotle chili, seeded and diced, along with 1 tsp of adobo sauce

1 cup Mexican crema

1 can diced tomatoes, drained

2 cups cooked turkey, cut into ½ inch pieces

salt/pepper

8 six inch corn tortillas

1 cup shredded Monterrey Jack cheese

    

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.  In a medium saute pan over medium-high heat, add 1 tbsp oil.  When hot, add half of the onions and soften a few minutes.  Add 1 clove minced garlic and carefully add the water.  Boil a few minutes to thicken slightly.  Lower the heat to warm and stir in the crema and ½ to all of the chipotle chili and adobo sauce, depending on desired level of heat.  Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a large saute pan over medium heat.  Add the other half of the onions and cook to soften, about 5 minutes.  Add 1 clove minced garlic and salt and pepper as desired for taste.  Add the tomatoes, turkey and ½ cup of the crema sauce.  Stir the turkey mixture and cook a few minutes to warm through.  Lower the heat to warm.  In a medium saute pan, heat the remaining oil over medium heat.  For each tortilla, add one at a time to the oil and cook for 10 seconds.  Turn over the tortilla and cook another 10 seconds.  Then dredge the tortilla through the crema pan, coating each side lightly.  Lay the tortilla in a 9 x 12 inch baking dish.  Spoon several tbsp of the chicken mixture and a tbsp of the shredded cheese into the tortilla, fold the tortilla sides on top of each other and then roll the enchilada over so that the overlapping edges are on the bottom.  Slide the enchilada over to the edge of the dish.  Repeat with the remaining tortillas.  Sprinkle the rest of the cheese over the enchiladas and then spoon out the remaining crema sauce on top of the enchiladas.  Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and starting to brown.  Serve after allowing to cool slightly.
     

Turkey Pancetta Pot Pies

   

   

What to do with leftover Thanksgiving turkey is a problem I like to have - so much so that I bring it on myself.  I am one of those people (are there others like me?) who actually buys a bird a few pounds larger than I need just so that I have extra meat for leftovers.  I’m not talking about making sandwiches later Thanksgiving evening.  I’m talking about multiple meals in following days.  In recent years, I have made a Turkey Tetrazzini the day after Thanksgiving (see Cook to Grow, Nov ‘09).  This casserole with slivered almonds and parmesan provides a salty, nutty, toasted taste to turkey leftovers.  This year I added this Turkey Pancetta Pot Pie recipe for Saturday night.  Pot pie of course is one of the great comfort foods.  The recipe, originally from Giada di Laurentiis, adds the earthy, savory flavor of unsmoked pork to the mix.  This weekend, I used prosciutto instead of pancetta because that is what I had on hand.  I also saved time by using a premade pie crust instead of making a homemade crust.  After all, part of the comfort of the rest of the Thanksgiving weekend is no longer slaving in the kitchen.  Serves 4.  Next up, Turkey Enchiladas with a Chipotle Crema Sauce…

   

Ingredients:

2 tbsp olive oil

4 oz diced pancetta

1 tbsp butter

1 shallot, chopped

2 medium carrots, diced

1 1/2 tbsp dried thyme

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

¼ cup flour

2 ¾ cups low-sodium chicken broth

¼ cup cream

3 cups roasted turkey breast meat, cut into 1/2” pieces

1 cup frozen peas

1 sheet premade pie crust, thawed in refrigerator

   

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.  In a large saucepan, heat the oil over medium heat.  Add the pancetta and cook, stirring occasionally, until browned, about 8 minutes.  Remove the pancetta to a plate lined with paper towels and add the butter to the pan.  Add the shallots, carrots and thyme.  Add the salt and pepper and cook until softened, about 6 minutes.  Stir in the flour to make a roux and cook one minute.  Add the chicken broth and whisk to remove the lumps.  Turn up the heat to high and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally until the mixture thickens, about 3 minutes.  Add the cooked pancetta, cream, turkey and peas and simmer a few minutes to heat through.  Ladle the mixture into ramekins.  Roll out the pie crust dough and with a round cutter or knife cut circles a little larger than the dishes.  Lay each on top of the filling in each dish and press down the edges slightly.  Cut a slit in the top of each to allow steam to escape.  Bake in the oven until the crust is golden and the filling is bubbling, about 25 minutes.  Remove, allow to cool slightly and serve.

   

Coconut-Lime Shrimp and Rice

  

    
The moon shown brightly this morning, as full as it was intense.  I had seen it the night before, high in the night’s sky, but now, setting in the western sky, it lit the pre-dawn morning so brilliantly that it cast shadows of light onto my feet.  I was up before the sun had yet to rise, and now was witnessing a different kind of brightness, that lit up the entire room, turning night nearly into day.  It was a drenching brightness, the kind of light that bathes something or someone.  And in that way, it reminded me of two weeks previously, of a moonlight dappling a shoulder, lighting a neck, providing enough light to provide a vision with a memory.  The light reminded me also of the sounds of that evening past, the crashing waves on a beach, the rhythmic throwing of the ocean onto the shore.  It also reminded me of the tastes of that island paradise, tropical fruits mixed with exotic Indian spices.  I don’t know if those feelings led me to choose this meal, or my menu choice was an attempt to rekindle those feelings, but the scents of coconut, lime, cumin and shrimp now filled my nose as it had filled me before.  Cooking can do that for you too.  Rekindling a memory, feelings associated with tastes and smells.  On any given night you can take yourself on a journey, to a place or a memory.  Coconut-lime did it for me, maybe it will for you too.  Thank you to Bobby Flay’s Boy Gets Grill for the shrimp journey and Darien Schmidt for a new favorite rice recipe.  Serves 2.

    

Ingredients:

1 cup chicken stock

½ tsp turmeric

¼ tsp saffron

1 clove garlic, minced

1 ½  tsp fish sauce

1 ½ tsp lemon juice

½ tsp ground cumin

Pinch dried crushed chili

1 ¾ cup coconut milk

1 cup basmati rice

zest of 1 lime

juice of 1 lime

1” piece of ginger, minced

4 tbsp canola oil

1 tbsp cilantro, chopped

2 serrano chiles, seeded and chopped

½ lb shrimp, shelled

    

Directions:

In a medium pot over high heat, mix the stock, turmeric, saffron, garlic, fish sauce, lemon juice, cumin and chili.  Stir and bring to a boil.  Add ¾ cup of coconut milk and the rice and return to a boil.  Stir, cover and lower the heat to a simmer.  Cook for 15 minutes.  Meanwhile, mix the remaining coconut milk, lime zest and juice, ginger, 2 tbsp oil, cilantro and chilis.  Add the shrimp and allow to marinate.  When the rice is done cooking, fluff the rice with a fork, turn the heat to warm and allow to steam. 

Heat a grill pan to medium-high heat and add 2 tbsp of oil.  Remove the shrimp and shake off the excess marinade.  When the oil is hot, add the shrimp, taking care not to crowd.  Cook a couple of minutes until browned on one side and then turn, browning the other side.  Cook in two batches if necessary, draining and wiping the pan in between to remove the excess liquid (which will steam the shrimp instead of browning and grilling).  Remove the shrimp to a plate and pour the remaining cooking oil over the shrimp.  Serve with the rice.