When Are Duxelles Not Duxelles?

Quick, give yourself a pop quiz and see if you can remember how to make duxelles. I’ll give you a minute to think of the answer.

The reason I was thinking about duxelles the other day was because of a dish that my buddy Tom wrote about – a complicated, many-stepped, beauty of a lamb dish. His was duxelles-free, but it reminded me of a long-winded dish with many (homemade) components that I used to make. The only problem was…that for the life of me…I couldn’t remember WHAT the dish was. I knew it had duxelles and I vaguely remembered that it was made from salmon.

So here’s question number two. WHAT in the world was I thinking of? It’s an elaborate salmon dish with duxelles and maybe some pastry around it? Any ideas? I also have a distant memory of rice and maybe crepes too(???)

Finally, FINALLY, I remembered what it was. The dish I was thinking of was…Coulibiac. I don’t want to tell you how many decades it’s been since I last made one, but let’s put it this way – Bonanza may not have been on anymore, but Mork and Mindy was!

Just like Tom’s Lamb “Cannelloni”, Coulibiac is prepared in lots of different steps. The pastry – often a brioche dough – can be made in advance and even frozen. The duxelles can be prepared ahead too.

Oh! Back to the duxelles. So do you remember how to make them?

This is the classic way: Mince mushrooms, really MINCE them. (The food processor is the best way.) Squeeze them out in a dishtowel or cheesecloth to remove as much moisture as possible. Then sauté them in butter over high heat with minced shallots or onions. (Sometimes cream is stirred in.) Season with salt and pepper. The mixture should be dry and paste-like.

Suddenly, in my brain that was swimming with Coulibiac memories, I thought of another way to make duxelles, as well as an alternative to Coulibiac that wouldn’t require a 3 day break from all other activities.

I decided to rebel against everything I’d ever learned about mushrooms and duxelles. (Well, almost everything. I still used a high heat.)

I cooked the onions first, which is totally wrong for duxelles. I cooked them slow and low, because I wanted them soft and sweet…with no hint of bitterness.

Then I took the onions out of the pan AND (this part should be illegal), added the mushrooms in SLICES rather than FINELY chopped, but I had my reasons. I wanted them to pick up the caramelization from the bottom of the pan. The bigger the surface area of the mushrooms, the more crustily-browned they would get.

After I got the color I was after, I cooked them together with the softened onions for a bit to drive off the excess moisture. (THAT part, at least, follows normal procedure.) THEN the mixture went into the food processor. They didn’t have the usual soft and pasty texture. They were chewier with a heartier flavor than normal.

Then I went on to make a Coulibiac-style dish with many of the same elements as the original, except the slaving-in-the-kitchen part. Consider it a deconstructed version. This recipe looks long, but really it’s just a combination of several simple elements. The zucchini sauce is a variation on a fabulous recipe from Rozanne Gold’s Recipes 1-2-3.

Salmon with (My) Duxelles, Puff Pastry and Zucchini Sauce (serves 4)

Printable recipe here

Duxelles:

1 onion

3 tbls. unsalted butter, divided

Kosher salt

10 oz. mushrooms, sliced

salt and pepper

¼ cup parsley, loosely packed, if desired

Zucchini Sauce:

2 medium zucchini, quartered lengthwise and sliced into ½ pieces

1/3 cup water

½ tsp. Kosher salt

2 tbls. butter

4 6 oz. salmon fillets

1 sheet puff pastry, thawed

For serving: cooked brown rice

For duxelles: Cook onion in 1 tablespoon of butter in heavy-bottomed frying pan. Use medium heat until you hear a sizzle. Add a big pinch of salt, stir well, cover, and cook on low heat for at least 10 minutes. Stir well. Continue cooking, covered, until onions are completely soft.

Remove onions from pan and set aside. Add remaining 2 tablespoons of butter to saucepan. Stir in mushrooms and cook on medium high until browned on one side. Turn over (as well as you can) and cook the other side of the mushrooms. Don’t stir a lot so the mushrooms can get really browned.

Add the onions to the mushrooms and cook over medium heat until the mixture is fairly dry. Taste for seasoning. Purée in food processor with parsley, if using. Return to frying pan and set aside.

Cut 4 equal shapes from puff pastry – squares, circles or even rectangles. 20 minutes before serving, bake puff pastry on a baking sheet at 400°F for 15 minutes.

For zucchini sauce: Place zucchini, water and salt in small saucepan. Bring to a boil. Stir well, reduce heat to a simmer, cover and cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. (Zucchini will look woefully overcooked, but don’t worry. The bright green color will come back.) Pour cooked zucchini mixture into blender. Blend until smooth. (See how green it is!) Add butter and blend until smooth. The butter should be completely incorporated. Return to saucepan until ready to reheat.

Cook salmon in a baking dish at 400° F for 12 minutes. Remove from oven and cover loosely with foil.

To assemble, heat up duxelles and zucchini sauce. Place rice on the bottom of 4 plates. Place 1 salmon piece carefully on top of each plate. Spread each salmon fillet with duxelles. Carefully spoon zucchini sauce around rice. Place baked puff pastry shape on top of duxelles. Serve immediately.

Fun Food Tuesday

There are two fun food events tonight that you can do from your couch!

Sara Moulton’s Blueberry TweetChat starts on Twitter at 7 pm EST. Full details here.  AND the wonderful documentary, Kings of Pastry, will be on PBS’s POV tonight at 10 pm. 

Happy tweeting and watching!

"Kings of Pastry" In A Class By Itself

I was lucky enough to see the documentary about French Pastry chefs, “Kings of Pastry”, last week at a screening with filmmakers, D A Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus. What a fabulous story of passion and travail! Read more about it here.

Filmmakers D A Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus

In addition to following a few pastry chefs along in their quest for the Meilleurs Ouvriers de France (M.O.F. or Best Craftsmen in France), we also experience the intensity of the judges as they watch the chefs struggle through the 3 day ordeal.

I particularly loved one judge explaining how hard it was to be the arbiter of such excellence: “Each product is a moral dilemma” for the judge, he says. Plus they sweat right along with the chefs. “If someone breaks something, we all cry.” In fact, as the head judge is announcing the winners, he is weeping for the names he ISN’T calling.

You can check it out next Tuesday, June 21st at 10 pm on your local PBS station.

Here are some important lessons I learned from “Kings of Pastry” as the chefs strove to win the M.O.F.

• Humidity is sugar’s worst enemy.
• Don’t think you can win by cheating. Even the garbage will be checked.
• Just like the Olympics, you have to be good on THAT day.
• You can’t regret anything. Give it your all.

It’s rare to find such heart and soul in any area of life these days. And the fact that you can watch chefs (and they’re French!) perform at such a high level, producing such rarified creations, is a complete revelation and delight. Don’t miss it.

My Blogging Buddy, Cynthia, COMES To Dinner - Nah, Who Am I Fooling? Cynthia COOKS Dinner

Before her visit, I came up with the great idea that Cynthia should cook dinner. What an awesome plan! I think I’ll do that for all my houseguests from now on. After all, is it really fair that I should have to clean the house AND cook? AND Cyn even left it up to ME to choose what she would cook, although I tossed it right back to her. So here is the menu that Cynthia and I served the first night she was with me:

Salmon Mousse (served earlier in the day) - Printable recipe here

Guacamole - Printable recipe here.

Two-Toned Soup garnished with Lemon Oil and Pickled Shallots

Rice with Pigeon Peas

Chicken with Green Seasoning

Fish with Coconut Milk Sauce

Trifle with Vanilla Pound Cake, Gently Poached Plums and Rich Vanilla Custard

As I said before, I HAD wanted Cynthia to see me wielding my kitchen tools, but then I thought better of it because of time constraints, so I made the first course and dessert ahead (mostly).

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I made the soup completely in advance, but Cyn WAS very impressed by my pouring technique to get each soup to cover half the bowl. The trick is that the two soups must be the same thickness or the thinner one will overtake more of the bowl’s landscape. That may mean thinning one soup just before serving, and that’s fine.

Remember when Naomi garnished her celery soup with lemon oil and pickled shallots on Top Chef Masters? I went wild for it, so I used the same finishing touches with these soups.

Two-Toned Soup garnished with Lemon Oil and Pickled Shallots

1 recipe Carrot Vichyssoise

1 recipe Sweet Pea Soup (Email me for the recipe. It’s from The New Basics Cookbook)

lemon oil

2 shallots, finely chopped and covered in white wine vinegar

These soups can be served hot or cold, (even though vichyssoise is normally served cold). Have both soups at the same temperature and make sure they are of the same consistency.

Pour each soup into a small pitcher. At the same time, pour the soups into the bowl, aiming at opposite inside edges. 

X marks the spot where you pour each soup.

If they are the same thickness, they should reach the middle of the bowl at the same time.

Pour over a little lemon oil and garnish with shallots, including some of the vinegar. Carry to the table CAREFULLY.

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Rice with Pigeon Peas (from Cynthia Nelson)

Printable recipe here

2 cups basmati rice

1 onion, chopped

3 sprigs fresh thyme

2 tbls. vegetable oil

1 can pigeon peas (or any beans)

1 can coconut milk, made up to 2 2/3 cups liquid with water (See note.)

Rinse basmati rice well. Soak in cold water for 30 minutes. Drain well.

Sauté onion and fresh thyme in oil. Stir in rice, drained peas and coconut milk with water. Bring to boil. Immediately cover, lower heat and simmer, undisturbed, for 25 minutes. Fluff 10 minutes after cooking. (The fluffing is very important. According to Cynthia, if you wait longer than that, the grains will stick together.)

Note: If you don’t have time to soak the rice, add 3 cups of liquid when cooking it.

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Cynthia says to use any part of the chicken you like. She used thighs. (We forgot to get jalapeños, so we used pickled jarred ones and they worked fine.)

Chicken with Green Seasoning (from Cynthia Nelson)

Printable recipe here

Green Seasoning:

1 small handful cilantro

1 small handful basil

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 2 inch piece of peeled ginger, chopped

2 scallions

1 jalapeño, seeded and chopped

Add all ingredients to food processor. Process until smooth. Leftover seasoning paste can be refrigerated in a jar with a bit of oil poured over the top to keep it green.

For Chicken:

8 chicken thighs on the bone with skin

Worcestershire sauce

Green Seasoning

Toss the chicken pieces in LOTS of salt, Worcestershire Sauce and enough Green Seasoning to coat well. Marinate it for 20 minutes at room temperature or, covered, overnight in the fridge. Bake at 375° F. for 50 minutes.

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Fish with Coconut Milk Sauce (from Cynthia Nelson)

Printable recipe here

1 1/2 lbs. white fish, like cod, haddock, hake

Green Seasoning (see recipe above)

1 onion, chopped

2 tbls. vegetable oil

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 1 inch piece of ginger, finely chopped

1/2 jalapeño, seeded and chopped

1 can coconut milk

Toss fish in a good amount of salt and a few large spoonfuls of Green Seasoning. Let sit while you prepare the sauce.

Sauté onion in vegetable oil for 2 minutes, then stir in garlic with ginger and jalapeño peppers. Add turmeric and cook, stirring for 2 minutes. Add cilantro and coconut milk. Bring to boil. Taste for seasoning. Add fish. Simmer until fish is cooked about 20 minutes.

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These last two recipes taught me something really valuable. I always have leftover herbs at the end of the week. This Green Seasoning is a great way to use them up. Just purée the herbs with an onion, garlic and ginger and put the mixture in a jar covered with olive oil. It can be used on chicken, fish, pasta, even scrambled eggs.

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I assembled the trifle with Cynthia in the kitchen, which was a good thing. If you’re cooking for new folks, you don’t know how boozy they like things. She assured me I could saturate the pound cake in as much brandy as I chose.

I love to poach summer fruits this way – long and SLOW. Normally, I add no sugar, but since I was cooking for others, I did add a bit this time.

Trifle with Vanilla Pound Cake, Gently Poached Plums and Rich Vanilla Custard

1 Pound Cake, (Email me for the Joy of Cooking recipe I used)

Gently Poached Plums

6 cups Rich Vanilla Custard (Email me for Craig Claiborne’s The New New York Times Cookbook recipe) or your favorite custard

To assemble: brandy or liqueur of choice

1 cup cream whipped with 2 tbls. sugar

Gently Poached Plums

2 lbs plums

1 tbl. cinnamon

optional: 1/3 to 1/2 cup sugar

Cut plums in half. Remove the pit. Cut plum halves into 3 wedges. Place in heavy-bottomed medium sauce pan. Add just enough water to barely cover the bottom of the saucepan. Stir in cinnamon and sugar, if using. Bring mixture up to a simmer over medium heat. Stir well. Cover and cook over lowest heat for an hour. Every 15 minutes, stir well. The mixture should be barely simmering. Raise the heat (a bit) if you need to, but the plums should cook very gently. The longer they cook, the sweeter they get. Cool and set aside until ready to use. You can make this days in advance and freeze. Thaw before using.

To assemble:

Slice pound cake into 1/3 inch slices. Pour some brandy into glass pie dish. Place 2 or 3 pound cake slices in brandy. Don’t soak more than 2 or 3 pieces at a time or they’ll get too soggy. Break pound cake slices into about 4 pieces and place in bottom of glass bowl. Spoon over cooled (or cold) poached plums, making sure to include some of the liquid. Pour or spoon over a layer of custard. (Thick custard is great, but thinner is okay too. It makes more of a sauce.)

Continue soaking the pound cake in brandy and layering it up with the fruit and then custard. End with a layer of custard. Refrigerate until ready to serve. (I like to keep it to no longer than 4 hours. Many people leave their trifles overnight. I think that makes them too soggy.)

Before serving, place whipped cream in a large piping bag with star nozzle. Pipe cream over top. Serve with a large serving spoon. (It’s okay to refrigerate the trifle for up to an hour or two after piping on the cream.)

Note: For a stronger brandy flavor, stir in 2 tablespoons of brandy to the plums after they’ve cooled.

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I loved Cynthia’s visit and her buddy, S, was really entertaining too. Cooking with Cynthia was so fun. (The other time was spent touring around, shopping and having great Indian food.) I’m already thinking about what she should cook for me the next time she comes...

Meeting A Blogging Buddy

Many of Cynthia’s fans and followers know that she participated in a great event last week. The Tastes Like Home author and blogger was part of a Guyanese celebration in Brooklyn. The great part (for me) was that it brought her to New York and I was able to persuade her, and friend S, to spend a couple of days with me in the boonies.

I thought Cynthia would be nice. I thought she’d be fun, but I had no idea just how warm and wonderful, not to mention feisty, she’d be. Because we didn’t have THAT much time together, I quickly put her to work. My plan was that we’d cook dinner together the first night and then the second night we’d go to my most favorite Indian restaurant in the world, where I’ve NEVER had a bad meal, even after 1000’s of visits.

H thought it was a bit bold to ask a guest from faraway to cook. I said, NAH! Of course, she’ll want to. And whether Cynthia was pretending or not, we had a great time.

I did have to carefully consider the rest of the meal, though. I had wanted to show off my culinary prowess and let her see HOW I chopped an onion, HOW I stirred in stock, HOW I opened the refrigerator door…but I decided not to let my vanity get the best of me. So I had the first course and dessert ready before Cynthia and S got here.

Cynthia cooked and I sous-chefed (somewhat). She’s so easy-going and natural in the kitchen and doesn’t need the strictures of recipes and exact amounts. She held her own too, when I gasped at how much salt she was adding to the fish before cooking. (And, just as she said, the dish turned out PERFECTLY.)

But even better than the cooking was the visiting and hearing about life from her side of the Atlantic. (I practically flunked geography, so, kids (MY KIDS), don’t comment and say that Barbados is in the same section of the Atlantic as we are. You know what I mean!)

AND...even better than THAT was the time Cynthia took to show me myriad things that my camera could do – things that I couldn’t even have dreamed of. She’s a very patient and clear instructor. (Both qualities are essential for MY learning style.)

I also loved friend, S, who is a professor and really knowledgeable about media and communication matters. I could have talked to her forever.

The moral of the story – if you ever have a chance to reach out and meet a blogging buddy, DO IT! You won’t regret it. Not only will you learn more about the person behind the blog, hopefully you’ll also add a friend to your REAL life. And that’s even more important than a new recipe or camera tip.

What we cooked is coming up next time…

Not Just Anyone Should Be Writing About Pie

I never heard of Nathan Heller before today. He’s a copy editor at Slate, so I’m guessing I’m not alone. He wrote a piece for Slate called Pie - It's gloppy, it's soggy, it's un-American.

Forget Weinergate. Forget the Palin Express. Forget that everything is going to hell in a handbasket. Actually, remember that last thing. This is the most blasphemous thing I’ve read in a long time. Really. Don’t take your precious time to read it.

It comes down to this: Heller says pie is an inferior product that its hawkers have been trying to push down the throats of the American people by virtue of its long history and the patriotic values it’s supposed to represent.

He describes in detail the disaster of eating pie, of how it explodes on the plate and the crust is a nightmare to cut through AND chew. Everything he says is 100% correct…when it’s applied to BAD pie. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that a soggy crust trying to keep an overly liquidy filling under control does NOT a superlative dessert make.

Heller continues his besmirchment of pie by saying that it doesn’t have the illustrious history its supporters claim it has. He says we eat pie at Thanksgiving, because of its “elaborate mythology”. I don’t give two figs about the mythology of pie, although the provenance of different food items can be fascinating. The reason I eat pie at Thanksgiving is because it’s good AND it’s what my mother always served.

Wherever it came from and, whether or not you believe in its traditional values (Mom, Apple Pie and all that), a well-made pie is a glorious combination of perfectly ripe (or perfectly sweetened) fruit enrobed in a crisp, flaky crust.

An excellent pie CAN make the diner believe that, yes, there is an America of which we can be proud.

And, if only for the moment that we have fork in hand, we can also agree that Mom, Grandma and Aunt Elsie (not to mention the occasional Uncle Orville) all hold the key to, if not prosperity and good fortune, at least a darn good dessert that’s worth preserving and passing down.

Tastes Like Home's Cynthia Nelson Visits Brooklyn!

One of my favorite bloggers AND cookbook authors, Cynthia Nelson, is going to be in Brooklyn tomorrow. She will be promoting her new cookbook, Tastes Like Home, as part of the festivities of the Guyanese Cultural Association’s 5th Annual Literary Hang.

It will be a great day with Cynthia reading from her book and signing copies of Tastes Like Home. It will take place in the garden of St. John’s Episcopal Church, 139 St. John’s Place, from 12:30 pm to 7:00 pm on Sunday, June 5th.

Please go and say hi for me. I’m so sorry I can’t be there, BUT that doesn’t mean we won’t be meeting up later in the week. J

I’ll save the details for later, but, just so you know, I AM spending the beginning of the week shining up my pots and pans and making lots of treats!!! 

Homemade Hamburgers Buns And Lots Of Other Good Things Too!

Remember my buns? My HOMEMADE Hamburger Buns from our barbecue

on Monday.

Well, here's one in use:

As I said, I was really thrilled with them. I got the idea to make them from scratch from Shulie, a fellow tweetster, and, boy, am I glad I did. I don’t know why I was so taken with the idea but I was.

The funny thing is that the result was exactly what I usually try to avoid at all costs – they tasted just like store-bought hamburger buns. Okay, fresher and puffier than store-bought ones, but they had that air of perfection that says mass-produced. AND they were still fabulous!

Here’s the hamburger bun recipe. I made a few revisions.

When I use yeast, I ALWAYS proof it first. ALWAYS. Especially since this dough had extra good things in it like butter and an egg and sugar, I didn’t want to chance using flabby yeast. So no matter what the recipe says, I sprinkle the yeast (one envelope in this case) over hottish water that has had a teaspoon of sugar stirred into it. Then I wait for some action.

If after 10 minutes, there is none, I start again with different yeast. (You actually know WAY before 10 minutes, if the yeast is dead.)

If the yeast is fine, as it was in this case, I add it to the dry ingredients with the rest of the liquid that’s called for. Here I mixed flour, sugar, an egg and some melted butter together before adding the yeast. Shulie suggested adding one cup of water instead of a ¾ cup. I actually think three quarters of a cup PLUS 2 tablespoons would have been fine. Just add the last few tablespoons slowly.

Another change I made was to make 10 buns instead of 9 and I probably could squeezed out another one too. These were good-sized.

I kneaded the dough for about 7 minutes by hand and then put it back in the KitchenAid with the dough hook for another 4 or 5 minutes. If your dough looks blistered (ANY yeast dough), it’s not ready. Keep kneading.

It should be smooth and supple.

The recipe mentioned using the KitchenAid. It’s funny. I completely forgot about that way to knead dough. Usually I do it in the Cuisinart or by hand. And make sure you knead on speed 2 or 3, and no higher, if you do use your stand mixer.

The only other challenge was getting the sesame seeds to stick. Shulie said the butter didn’t do it and she used an egg white. I didn’t want to do that, because they weren’t going back into the oven. One bun at a time, I brushed melted butter over the baked buns and immediately sprinkled over sesame seeds. They seemed to stick until we came to use them and, then, there were sesame seeds everywhere – the counter, the floor, H’s arm and my hair.

I think next time (and there WILL be a next time and many times after that), I’ll take them out a little early, brush them with butter and then PRESS in the sesame seeds and put them back in the oven.

Other dishes –

· My fav barbecue sauce that I marinated and cooked chicken breasts in.

·

Guacamole

3 ripe avocados, chopped

1 cup diced red onion

½ tsp. salt

Juice of 2 limes

Big handful of chopped cilantro

Mix all ingredients together.


Julienned red onions, carrots and zucchini, which I cooked in the same pan as the bacon dressing below. Just quickly sauté the vegetables together. This dish is really all about the knifework.

Then I made two dishes that started with inspiration from June’s Food Network magazine. The first was Corn Salsa that was supposedly a close copy of Chipotle’s. I’ve never been to Chipotle. I tried to go once, but it didn’t look like a cozy place to sit and visit with a friend, so we skipped it. I have no idea how close a version this is – The Food Network Magazine’s Almost-Famous Corn Salsa. I also found myself without most of the ingredients, so this was my lightning-fast, super easy Corn Salsa.

Corn Salsa

One ear of grilled corn, kernels cut from the ear

¼ cup (or more) diced red onion

Juice of one lime

A big handful of chopped cilantro

Mix ingredients together and serve.

· I also saw this awesome sounding Grilled Romaine With Blue Cheese-Bacon Vinaigrette from Guy Fieri in the same magazine. (This was after not finding anything in the last two Bon Appétit’s that I wanted to make.) I totally changed the recipe. I didn’t grill the romaine, I didn’t use blue cheese, but I did cook bacon with basalmic vinegar. It was kind of divine!

·

Romaine Lettuce Leaves with Bacon and Balsamic Dressing

This is really a bacon-packed drizzle for whole leaves of lettuce. The recipe makes more than enough for 12 people. But make it all and dilute the leftovers with lots of red wine vinegar to dress your salads for next week. Mmmm.

½ big red onion, diced

8 oz bacon, diced

1 tbl. olive oil (I could see the argument for skipping the oil)

½ cup balsamic vinegar

romaine lettuce leaves

Cook the onion and bacon in a large sauté pan until the bacon is crisp. Start at medium heat and then as the bacon gets more cooked, raise the heat to medium high. It should take 8 to 10 minutes.

Stir in oil and balsamic vinegar. Reduce for about a minute. Remove from heat and leave in pan until ready to use.

Just before serving, place romaine lettuce leaves on serving plate. Heat up dressing for 30 seconds. Using a teaspoon, carefully spoon some of the bacon mixture down the center of each leave. Serve immediately.

Here was the final product – from the bottom half of the (homemade!) bun up:

MY Bun; Chicken Breast cooked in Barbecue Sauce, Extra Barbecue Sauce,

Corn Salsa, Guacamole. Served with Romaine Lettuce with Bacon and Balsamic Dressing and Sautéed Julienned Vegetables.