Showing some love to the fungi

Tags

cold weather, mushrooms, postaday2015

My daughter and I braved the frigid, brutal world today to take care of some errands and believe it or not, tomorrow will be even worse. After tonight when the temperatures drop to negative 8 degrees, tomorrow will be another day of teen degrees but with a lot of wind on top of that. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!

When we got home, the usual question on my mind “what will I make for dinner?” popped up and I went into the refrigerator looking for an answer. We still have paella, but I was going to finish it, so I was looking for inspiration in the drawers and on the shelves. I came across the fresh mushrooms that my husband had picked out, plus the portobello and button mushrooms that we had purchased for something or other.

So despite the fact that both of our children supposedly hate mushrooms, I decided to slice and sauté all of the mushrooms in olive oil in a med-high pan and later throw in a bunch of garlic, finish them with a pat of butter and sprinkle fresh chopped parsley. Our son isn’t home yet, but when I told our daughter that sautéed mushrooms were waiting for her downstairs, I just wanted her to try them, turns out she loved them. 😀 One down, with another to go in my mushroom conversion.

For the rest, I am going comfort food and for my two that is cheese ravioli with parmesan cheese and butter. A hot and tasty choice for a bitterly cold night.

Write like a music critic

Tags

blog, food, mushrooms, music, postaday2012, writing, zucchini

• Write about the subject you usually blog about as if you were a music critic.

• Music Critic
• Zucchini Saute

  I decided to shake things up a bit in my zucchini saute with onions, garlic and parmesan cheese.The base is a classic, the slow caramelization of the onions provide a rich backdrop to the mild flavors of the zucchini and the sharp notes of the barely sauteed garlic gives the taste buds something to relish as the smooth tomato sauce and tangy parmesan cheese arrive to coat the different flavors and meld them together into a balanced dish. To this symphony of flavor, my introduction of a new player was the mellow flavor of the button mushroom, its earthy, low notes added even more depth to the foundational elements of flavors in the dish. I have to say that this sophomore effort deserves an encore.

A small love note to French appetizers

Tags

bechamel sauce, coquilles Saint-Jacques, mushrooms, scallops

In front of me was a beautiful arrangement of cepes, delicate mushrooms that are hard to find yet so worth the hours of foraging for just a trayful to bring home, their subtle perfume and silky texture make them perfect in crème sauces, omelettes and they are also strong enough to assert themselves even when accompanied by the hearty combination of garlic, parsley and butter. It is especially when presented with a persillade backdrop that the cepes texture becomes center stage. It is an exquisite first course, light but with a lot of personality at the same time. The coquilles Saint-Jacques, on the other hand, their presentation speaks to elegance on the plate. The coquilles themselves are presented within their own coquillage with its classic scalloped edges and the seafood and vegetable laced béchamel sauce gratinees with a robust Gruyère cheese completes the visual culinary work of art on Jack’s plate. He is subtly transferring a coquilles onto to his bread plate to hand over to my side of the table where I, trying to be equally subtle in the transfer, am doing the same. We have unleashed a trend at our table because Guillaume and Sabine without even tasting their entrees are preparing a little taste test for each other. The beauty of our first course is that in essence we each had two tastings for the price of one. A few tables are looking askance at us but Jack has imbued me with a little newly found self-confidence and I’m able to shrug off their disapproving looks and enjoy everything on my plate and near my plate and these first courses are to die for, everything is so well seasoned. The scallops of the coquilles Saint Jacques are beautifully caramelized and just tender to the bite; the béchamel has been flavored to perfection with a well perfumed fish stock and has been simmered to the light consistency that softly coats the scallops and the vegetables.