Morel and Crab Napoleons

At my age there's something wrong with celebrating one's birthday for three days.  It's not a major birthday and 29 is WAY far in the rear mirror.  However, celebrate for three days I did.

Ken, brother number four - that's measured only in age - was here on Friday.  He was on his way from his home in Charlotte to pick up his son Evan in Michigan.  John, that would be brother number three, and his wife, Pam, met us for dinner at our favorite restaurant, Chef Joseph's at the Connoisseur Room.  Joseph is an amazing chef.  I had scallops that were perfect.  They were exactly what I wanted.  I'd told Connie we'd make scallops on Saturday because I had no clue Joseph would have them as his special and I didn't trust any other restaurant to make exactly what I wanted.  Juan waited on us and spoiled us totally.  Sara made her normal fabulous drinks - like my after dinner drink of coffee Patron tequila, salted caramel vodka and Baileys.  Oh, my, but that was good.  John and Tom - the owners - were there to offer birthday wishes.  Sammy even came out of the kitchen to say hi.  John, Pam, Ken, Connie and I had a fabulous time talking about all kinds of things. 

Ken took off Saturday morning and Connie and I were off to brunch before the office.  Unfortunately, we tried a new place:  Just Judy's.  We won't be back.  It didn't seem that anything was scratch made.  And, both Connie's pancakes and my sausage gravy tasted funny.  There was a lot of food for the price but I'd rather have wonderful food and less of it.  After we got home from the office at o'dark thirty, I decided to fix pissalidiere. 

One of our favorite dishes.  It always elicits a conversation about one of our first dates when I fixed it for Connie and he was entranced by the fact that I too love onions, garlic, anchovies, olives and cheese. 

Sunday morning I used Pam's leftover housemade potato chips from Chef Joseph's.  I'd scanned in some recipes on Saturday night and found an Iberian frittata using potato chips rather than sliced and fried potatoes.  It was good but not great so I'll not post the recipe here. 

After our breakfast, we were once again off to the office.  We actually headed home before 5:00.  YAY!  On the way we stopped and bought phyllo dough.  Something I've not used and am not comfortable with.  Something my friend Liz uses all the time and does a fabulous job with.  It was Easter.  I couldn't call Liz for moral support.  It was all up to me.  Argh!  But, I wanted to make this recipe.  It was to be my cook for myself birthday dinner.

I've got a few left from this chapter in Commander's Wild Side.  It's called, "Showstopping Dishes to Impress Your Friends."  Thus far, they certainly have been.  We've made the Truffled Scallops and Crabmeat with Caviar Vinaigrette, Creole Lobster Bisque and Pepper Crusted Beef with Crispy Oysters and Horseradish Cream.  Still to come are the crab and brie stuffed founder and crab and oyster mushroom risotto.  I'm going to skip the other two recipes since one has grits (a Connie no-no and the other has fois gras - a no-no for both of us.)

Well, what did we think?  Amazing.  Over the top.  May I lick my plate?  Please?   Now, this recipe sounds intimidating and difficult.  It really isn't.  I was amazed at how easily it came together. 

Morel and Crab Napoleons
serves two

Ingredients:

for the phyllo squares:
3 half sheets of phyllo dough
2 T butter, melted

for the fish
1 c dry white wine
1 c clam juice
2 fresh parsley stems
5 whole black peppercorns
1 bay leaf
2 tilapia filets (the recipe called for speckled trout)

for the crabmeat:
1/2 pound crabmeat, picked
1/4 thinly sliced green onions or shallots
2 T dry white wine

for the mushrooms:
4 oz assorted mushrooms
3 T butter

for the morel cream:
1 c heavy cream
2 T dry white wine
salt and pepper
1/4 oz dried morel mushrooms, finely ground

Directions:

Lay one sheet of phyllo dough on a baking sheet. 

Brush it with melted butter.  Top it with another sheet of phyllo dough.  Brush it with melted butter.  Repeat with the last sheet of phyllo dough.  Cut them in half.  Bake for 15 minutes at 300F.  The recipe calls for putting another baking sheet on top of the phyllo rectangles so they'll remain flat.  I decided not to do that and they puffed up beautifully. 

Pour the cream and wine in a small saucepan and simmer for 10-15 minutes or until reduced by half.  Stir in the salt, pepper and morel dust.  Keep warm.

In a small skillet, pour the ingredients for the fish poaching - white wine and clam juice.  Add the parsley, peppercorns and bay leaf. 

Bring the poaching liquid to a heavy simmer and add the tilapia.  Cook about 10 minutes or until the fish flakes easily. 

Remove the skillet from the heat and set it aside. 

In another small skillet, heat the crabmeat gently with the shallots and white wine.

Now, it's time to assemble the napoleons...

Pour about 1/4 cup of the morel cream on each of two dinner plates. 

Top the cream with half of a tilapia filet each. 

Top each piece of tilapia with 1/4 of the mushrooms

then 1/4 of the crabmeat. 

Top that with one of the phyllo rectangles. 

Top that with the other piece of tilapia, the mushrooms and the crabmeat. 

Top each with the last phyllo rectangles then drizzle with the rest of the morel cream.

adapted from Commanders Wild Side

Morels

There's a teeny town about an hour west of Indianapolis by the name of Mansfield.  They're known for the Parke County Covered Bridge Festival and the Mansfield Mushroom Festival.   That's MOREL mushrooms.  For those of you who've never had the pleasure of eating a morel, I can tell you there's absolutely nothing like them.  The first time I had one in 2005, I was hooked.  Totally hooked.  They come out in April and are only available for a few weeks.  There are two kinds of morels - yellow and black.  The black have a more woodsy, pungent flavor.  The yellows are a bit more mellow.  They're both incredible.  One thing to note is that they should NOT be eaten raw.  Evidently that can lead to an upset tummy.  Not the result one wants from eating decadence. 

We started our adventure at the Keystone Deli.  It's a hole in the wall not too far from our home.  Breakfast is their specialty.  Several years ago the Indianapolis Star ran an article about them and for a year after there was a HUGE line.  Now, it's back to normal - the place is packed but you typically don't have to wait terribly long.  We both ordered the smokehouse breakfast.  Two eggs, basted, bacon, biscuits and gravy,  home fries, extra crispy.  The home fries went into a box and into the cooler in the trunk.  They'll be turned into blue cheese potato salad for lunch on Monday. 

Next stop - Goose the Market.  Goose is a butcher shop, deli, specialty market.  Chris Eley manages to make a pretty small space work quite well.  We wanted to use our gift card on a couple of steaks for our morel bash.  Into the cooler went the steaks along with four scallops for another meal. 

On the road to Mansfield.  It's about an hour and a half straight west of Indy.  We decided to go through town and see where we ended up.  I've been doing a lot of that recently.  Let's turn here and see where this road goes.  Amazing the things you discover when you're exploring your own city!  Once we hit the west side of Indy, we headed toward the most direct route to Mansfield.  The weather was chilly and rainy.  We really didn't notice.  It was so wonderful to not be in the office!

The morels are sold at auction.  That's the only way you can buy them in Mansfield.  Some friends wanted us to buy some for them too.  So we wound up with about five pounds of morels.  That's a lot of good eating there, my friends.  It's fun to watch the others at the auction.  Some of them come in to buy just a pound or two and others buy as many as we did. 

From Mansfield we decided to once again take the road less traveled.  We turned onto the county road and were greeted by a sign that said, "Dangerous curves next six miles."  Ok, we'd be able to drive slowly and enjoy the scenery.  And, odds were good we'd not have some idiot on our tail wanting us to go faster.  In fact for the entire six miles only one person came up behind us.  Connie pulled over and let him pass and we continued wending our way through the lovely woods and fields.

Next destination, Cox's Garden Center.  Great selection and great prices.  We bought flowers for Mom's pots and for ours.  And, we bought some more tomatoes and peppers and herbs for our garden.  Best of all, they had a scale we could use.  We weighed our mushroom haul :-)

The car was stuffed and we were tired puppies.  But, we still had four stops to make.  Back to Indy and north to Mom's.  A little bag of morels for her dinner.  Our reward was an ear to ear grin.  That was the best part of the day.  The big box of packing paper was dropped off as well as a flat of flowers.  Now, we had room to run to Trader Joes and Sams.  Mission accomplished.  One more stop.  Girls Night Out.  We'd planned on gettting back into town about 3:30 so we could empty the car and clean up and maybe rest a bit before meeting the GNO crew for dinner.  That didn't happen.  So, we stopped by and said hi to the crew and headed home for a nice, simple dinner.  We'd not been home for dinner for almost a week.  It was time.

Scallops with lemon caper sauce.  Sauteed morels.  Asparagus with citrus caper aioli.  And, mashed potato cakes.  Accompanied by a lovely bottle of Foghead Sauvignon Blanc. 

Let's start with the mashed potato cakes.  They started with about 2/3 of a cup of leftovers from a dinner out last week.  I mixed in a drizzle of white truffle oil, a bit of grated parmesan and a sprinkle of cayenne pepper.  Then, I made pancakes out of them and smooshed those into a mixture of panko and grated parmesan.  The pancakes were then fried in a bit of olive oil.  They were wonderfully crispy and flavorful. 

On to the morels.  Butter.  The only way to go.  Just plain butter.  A lot of folks batter them then fry them.  Not us.  Just plain butter is perfect.

The scallops were magnificent.  The recipe came from a Rachael Ray magazine's quick section.  They were indeed quick.  If good scallops were more affordable, I'd have these regularly!

Last, but not least, the asparagus.  A recipe from one of my favorite chefs - Cat Cora.  This was published in Coastal Living.  I added a bit of orange juice to the aioli and wished I'd added more.  The citrus flavor was so delicate as to be barely discernable.  But, the sauce was still fabulous.  I didn't want to take the time to grill the asparagus as the recipe called for but will next time I make this. 

Ahhhh, a lovely day indeed.  Now, it's back to reality and the office...

Scallops with Lemon Caper Sauce

serves 4

Ingredients:
10 large scallops
1 lemon
5 T butter
1 T capers
2 T chopped parsley

Directions:

Prepare the lemon.  You'll want half of it peeled, seeded and sectioned then chopped.  The other half is juiced.  Pat the scallops dry.  Melt one tablespoon of butter in a skillet.  When the butter is hot, add the scallops. 

Cook 2-3 minutes per side.  You want to get them nice and brown but not overdone.  When the scallops are done remove them and keep them warm.  Add the rest of the butter to the skillet.  Get it nice and brown. 

Add the other ingredients and stir well. 

Serve the scallops with the sauce drizzled over them.

Asparagus with Citrus Caper Aioli

serves 4

Ingredients:
1 1/2 lbs asparagus
2 eggs
1 large garlic clove
1 T fresh lemon juice
2 1/4 c olive oil
1 t crushed red pepper flakes
1 T capers
1 t kosher salt
1/2 t freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

In the bowl of a blender, add the egg, garlic and lemon.  Puree.  Slowly pour in the olive oil until it thickens.  Pour the aioli into a bowl

and add the capers and crushed red pepper.  Serve over grilled or steamed asparagus. 

New Year's Eve Eve

Did you know there used to be a law regulating the maximum number of times a week servants could be served lobster?  It was such a cheap food that many folks overdid it so they regulated it to a maximum of two times a week.  From junk to dear.  When I found out that I was one of the 24 bloggers chosen by Foodbuzz to do a New Year's Eve dinner, I knew lobster was going to be on the menu.  You see, there's a stipend involved.  That'd allow us to order lobster from Salty Lou on Cape Cod.  And, since the lobsters themselves aren't terribly expensive there but shipping them to Indianapolis is, we decided to order enough to have Mom over for dinner on December 30th.  She's not had lobster for many years so this would be a major treat for her.  We also decided to prepare one lobster Connie's mom's favorite way.  Unfortunately, I never got to meet his mom.  She died several years before we met.  My guess is that I'd have really liked her.  She wasn't much of a cook but she did like good food.  And, she loved Lobster Thermidor. 


Before I go any further, let me tell you about Salty Lou.  For those of you unfamiliar with Cape Cod, there are three main roads across the lower part of the Cape.  The southern road is 28.  It's the shopping mall mecca.  You'll find all of the chains and kitschy shops.  Tourist traps.  And, you'll find some great restaurants like Cap'n Parkers (best clam chowder I've ever had) and the Yarmouth House (scallops and about anything else on the menu!)  The middle road is the limited access highway  - 6.  The northern road is the old "highway" 6A.  It meanders along and is one of the prettiest drives you can take.  Lots of Cape Cod style homes.  Stone walls.  Quaint shops.  A few restaurants.  Only a couple of gas stations.  Absolutely beautiful. 


On one of our trips to the Cape, Connie and I drove over to Sandwich.  In my opinion, it's the quintessential New England village.  We took 6A because we weren't in a hurry and wanted to enjoy the scenery.  I saw a sign at the end of a driveway that said, "Fresh Lobsters."  We decided to find it on the way back and buy our lobsters there instead of hiking over to the exit east of my sister-in-law's house and buying lobster from the seafood store in the strip mall there.  It was getting dark and we weren't sure we'd find the place again but we got lucky and did.  Salty Lou had made a Christmas tree from lobster pots in his front yard.  It was gorgeous.  We knocked on the door and there was no answer.  Connie said, "Let's leave, there's nobody here,"  just about the time Salty Lou answered the door.  The lobster had been caught that day.  We've been back practically every trip since.


What better way to get our lobster for New Year's Eve?  Except for the fact that we couldn't get ahold of Salty Lou.  My guess he was so swamped with local orders that he didn't have the time for an order from Indy.  Oh, well.  Plan B.  Goose the Market.  You've heard me chatter on about Chris Eley and his wonderful butcher shop.  It's actually much more than just a butcher shop.  It's been named one of the best sandwich shops in the nation.  And, he's got a wonderful selection of gourmet foods along with in-season fresh veggies and such.  Order by 4:00 on Thursday and pick up after 2:00 on Friday.  The lobsters were going to be a pound and a half or so, so we'd need three. 

Lobster dipped in butter, lobster thermidor, lobster with brie and wild mushrooms anda lobster roll.  Chris also listed manila clams on his email of what was available.  Neither Connie nor I had ever had manila clams. Time to research.

So, there we sat at 11:00 on Thursday night.  We'd gotten home from the theatre and I'd gone online to work for a bit.  Finally off to bed.  And we started talking about Friday and Saturday's dinners.  Downstairs went Connie and back upstairs with a load of cookbooks.  Cape Cod ones, Rays Boathouse, seafood ones...  Cookbooks piled all over our bed.  Hunting for a way to cook manila clams. And, to make sure we had everything we'd need on the grocery list.  I do believe I've turned Connie into a foodie :-)

This is the tale of Friday evening.  New Years Eve Eve.  Dinner with Mom. 

Here's our menu:

Manila Clams
Escargot, Ramp and Morel Broth
Lobster Thermidor
Lobster Dipped in Butter
choc


Rays Boathouse is a fabulous restaurant in Seattle.  We had an incredible meal there several years ago.  So incredible that I bought the cookbook.  That's where I found the recipe for manila clams.  They were perfect.  The broth was wonderful - and in fact has been saved to be the base for some clam chowder.  The clams were tiny and beautiful.

Everything we'd read said they were smaller and sweeter than other clams.  Best of all, they're farmed and are sustainable.  The three of us split a pound of clams.  It was the perfect amount.  And the perfect recipe.

Rays Boathouse Manila Clams

Ingredients:

3 lbs manila clams
1/2 c unsalted butter
1 t dried dill
1 t kosher salt
1 c Chardonnay

Directions:

Pour the wine into a large saucepan.  Add the butter, dill and salt. 

Simmer gently until you're ready to cook the clams and the butter is melted.  Rinse the clams well under cold, running water.  Bring the wine and butter mixture to a boil and add the clams.  Cover the saucepan.  Cook the clams for 5-6 minutes.  Shake the pan occasionally.  Discard any clams that don't open.  Serve immediately.

My eldest stepson, David, is working on what wines go with what.  When I saw a cookbook called Wine Mondays about the wine pairing meals served on Mondays at l'Espalier in Boston, I picked it up thinking he'd enjoy it.  Except for the fact that the recipes are in no way their kind of cooking.  For the most part the ingredient lists are as long as my will and the instructions are not for the faint of heart - or the average home cook.  For the most part it's very special occasion food.  Needless to say, I found a couple of recipes for our New Years Eve Eve.

The first was a soup.  They called it a broth.  Well, it was.  Kind of.  The broth is pureed with onions and garlic then some cream is added.  It's much lighter than your normal cream soup.  But, it's not a broth.  I made a couple of changes.  First, ramps just aren't available in December.  So, I used green onions.  You could also use a leek chopped very finely.  But, my guess is you'd want to sautee it briefly before adding it to the soup.  I also used a couple of dried morels and reconstituted them.  When time came to finish and serve the soup I thought it was a bit thick so I added the mushroom broth.  I cut the recipe in half and we had three lovely servings in my great-grandmother's soup bowls.

What did we think?  Spectacular.  Perfect. 


Broth of Escargots, Ramps and Morels

Ingredients:

2 T olive oil
1 Vidalia onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 c white wine
1/4 c sweet sherry
1 c vegetable broth
4 oz dried morels, or 2 oz dried and reconstituted
12 ramps, washed and trimmed, or 12 green onions, chopped
24 escargots, washed and drained
1 T fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped
1 T fresh chives, chopped
1 t fresh thyme
1/4 t ground nutmeg
1/2 t fresh lemon juice
1/4 c heavy cream

Directions:

Saute the onions in the olive oil.  When they're translucent, add the garlic and saute it for about a minute or two.  Add the wine, sherry and broth.  Simmer that for a few minutes then remove it from the heat and allow it to cool a bit.  Puree it in a blender and pour it back into the pan.  (nb:  the original recipe called for wiping out the pan then sauteeing the green onions, mushrooms and escargot in 2T of butter.  If you want to add those calories, go ahead.  I thought it'd be plenty rich without two more tablespoons of butter.)  Add the mushrooms, escargot and green onions and simmer until the onions are softened.  Add the parsley, chives, thyme, nutmeg and lemon juice.  If you've reconstituted the mushrooms, you can add that broth also.  Allow to barely simmer until you're ready to serve the soup.  Just before you serve it, add the cream and stir to combine.




Next up was lobster thermidor.  We've got a cookbook called Fish & Shellfish that takes you through the various types of fish and shellfish with great descriptions of the basics.  We decided we'd try their lobster thermidor recipe.  It was going to be one lobster tail split between the three of us. 

The whole process is pretty messy.  Cook the lobster.  Chop it in half.  Mix the lobster meat with a sauce.  Put the meat back in the shell and sprinkle it with cheese.  Broil it.  Now, the sad part about all of that work is that just plain old lobster dipped in butter tastes better.  Fortunately, we did that with the rest of the lobster and another tail. 


Lobster Thermidor

Ingredients:

2 live lobsters, cooked and cooled
3/4 c butter, divided
16 green onions, chopped
2 T flour
2 t English mustard (Colman's)
1/4 c white wine
1 c milk
1/4 c heavy cream
2 T fresh parsley, finely chopped
4 oz Gruyere, finely shredded

Directions:

Melt 1/4 c of the butter in a small saucepan.  Add the green onions and cook until they're softened.  Add the flour and mustard and cook for two minutes.  Slowly add the white wine, whisking continuously.  Add the milk and cook until the sauce is thickened. 

Add the cream and parsley.  Remove the pan from the heat and add the lobster meat.

Stuff the lobster shell with the mixture,

sprinkle with the Gruyere and broil for five minutes.  You're actually supposed to serve it in the shell but since I was dividing one among the three of us I opted for spooning a bit onto each plate.

Last but not least, dessert.  Bittersweet chocolate terrine with warm pumpkin sauce and shaved black truffles.  Since this post is already a mile long, I'm going to save the recipe for another day.  Suffice to say the terrine was heavenly. The pumpkin sauce amazing.  And, the truffles.  Blah.  They didn't taste like the truffles we've enjoyed at restaurants.  fortunately, they weren't terribly expensive - which is also why they were probably blah!  Here's a photo of our dessert:

Morel Grilled Rib Eye

Connie says, "This is why people eat steak."  My hubby who is so sweet to indulge my love of a good steak - a meat slab as he says - actually loved this steak. Amazing.  Thank you to Heartland by Judith Fertig.  I've been cooking from this cookbook for a week and am loving it.  It has earned a spot with my favorites.

My wonderful blogging friend, Liz from That Skinny Chick Can Bake (and, I might add she CAN COOK too!!) asked what my favorite cookbooks are.  It's a pretty short list, actually.  Winners and Back Home Again - both from the Indianapolis Junior League.  Park Tudor Treasures.  Smoke and Spice by Cheryl and Bill Jamison.  Greene on Greens by Bert Greene.  The Silver Palate.  Talk about an iconic cookbook!   The Complete Book of Breads by Bernard Clayton.  I'm not a baker but Bernard was a step-cousin and the cookbook was a first wedding present from his step-mom - my grandmother's younger sister.  Cooking with a Twist by Cat Cora.  She cooks like I do.  I grew up with the I Hate to Coobook - even though Mom loved to cook.  And, last, but not least, pretty much any cookbook by Jane and Michael Stern. 

Back to our regularly scheduled programming :)  We bought some morel mushrooms this summer.  I read up on how to preserve them.  Lots of great ideas.  But I was most comfortable with my own idea - refridgerators dehydrate and have very low temps.  I knew this because I'd bought some shitakes and they'd been put in the fridge in a paper bag and had turned into lovely dehydrated shrooms that way.  I proceeded to put about half a dozen morels on a bed of paper towels in a 9x13 cakepan and put them into the fridge uncovered.  In a bit over a week, they were dehydrated.  

When I saw this recipe I knew instantly that I had to try it.  We don't often do meat slabs but every once in a while I'll decide its time.  This was super easy to fix and there was just enough morel there to give the steaks a wonderfully earthy flavor.  This will be my new go-to recipe for the couple of times a year we have steaks. 

Morel-Grilled Rib-Eyes

serves 4

Ingredients:

2 T sugar
1 T kosher salt
5 large garlic cloves, minced
1 T red pepper flakes
1 T freshly ground black pepper
1/4 c dried morel mushrooms1/4 c canola oil (I used olive oil)
4 - 1" thick boneless rib eye steaks

Directions:

Grind the morel(s) to a powder in a coffee grinder (I cut the recipe in half and used one large morel and one teeny, tiny one.)  I took the lid off the grinder too quickly and was inundated with morel dust, so be careful.

  

Mix everything but the steaks together to make a paste. 
 
 

 
Coat both sides of the steaks, pressing the paste firmly onto the steak.  Allow the steaks to rest at room temperature for 30 minutes. 
 
 

 
Grill on direct heat, turning once.  Remove the steaks from the fire and allow them to rest for 10 minutes to allow the juices to redistribute.
 

from Heartland by Judith Fertig