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.