soupnancy

Well at least here and now, with the weather hitting sub-zero, mussels on the mind, and doable with ingredients that are always handy..

Like with my favourite veg or smell, my favourite anything is always changing - a fleeting love affair, but this sauce, in all it’s variations is a keeper no matter what - so old school in essence, so versatile, so comforting, impossible to forget for long..

This week, I was craving mussels, so I made the sauce and while it was on the stove, I went out for mussels, it usually easy to find fresh specimens at this time of year, but didn’t find any worth buying, and so ate it with veal, the next night over pasta, delicious. I eventually got my mussels and made another batch – yum. Since, I’ve eaten it with bread and butter, rice and veg, ham and pintade. I know I’m a sauce girl, but wow does this one make me sing. It really hits the spot when you’re eating alone on a cold night, but it would equally fit in over a sexy dinner for two.

It’s more ‘cuisine de grand mère’ than modern, definitely bordering on classic French, which no doubt explains why you can’t go wrong.. I’m sure many of you have one like it in your arsenal, and if not, well you definitely should. In French cooking speak, I guess it would be a velouté, a riff on a poulette, but who cares, this is how it goes..

Keep in mind that many ingredients can be omitted or added; the basics are onions, white wine, stock, cream, mustard, plus aromatics of choice, a bit of bacon is always a good idea. You could always add more stock and make soup. Add potatoes and clams or corn, you have chowder.. You could bake chicken or pork in it too. Some tomato added in is a nice addition if in the mood. And yes, you could omit the bacon, add more veg, maybe some broccoli, and serve it with a nut studded pilaf for a winner meatless meal. As you can see, the options are endless.

Regardless of how you serve it, I recommend a green salad on the side for crisp, refreshing crunch to balance all that savoury richness.

The best sauce ever

For mussels, poultry, veal, pork, or just about anything

8 p+

 2 c mirepoix (1 small onion, 1 stick celery, 1 small carrot, 1 small leek), chopped

1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil and/or butter

3 strips bacon, chopped

200 g button mushrooms, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 tsp each thyme, fennel seed, chilli flakes

1 bay leaf, 1 clove

1 c white wine

1 L duck or chicken stock (or water), even beef or veal stock

½-1 c heavy cream

3 Tbsp old fashioned mustard or Dijon

s.q. (to taste):

lemon juice

Tabasco or hot sauce

Fresh herbs optional: dill, parsley, chives

Grated nutmeg

Salt and pepper

Sweat vegetables with fat, bacon and mushrooms in a big sauté pan or pot, ok to caramelize slightly too, then add garlic and dry herbs and spices. After a minute or two, pour in wine and reduce down. Add stock and simmer 10 minutes, add cream and reduce slightly, another 10 minutes or more depending on the consistency you desire. Season to taste with mustard and other seasonings. Depending on your stock, how much cream you used, how finely you chopped your veg, your pot and etc, the consistency will vary – you can adjust it by reducing down (watching the taste) or adding a little cornstarch slurry, although I don’t usually find it necessary. If you are using it to sauce fish or meat, then you might want it on the thick side, but if you are using it for mussels, then keep it on the brothy light side, throw your mussels in (make sure your pot is big enough) and crank it for 5 minutes or until they open. Enjoy.

What's cooking - The Ingredient: 

Snow crab and Nordic shrimp!
crab salad bouchée 

nordic shrimp asparagus radish salad with wild shoots

Now in season and widely available (not to mention a local, sustainable choice)..

I like both with just a drizzle of my Pettinicchi chili oil, or my black olive Belle Excuse oil, a squeeze of lemon and sea salt. With some good bread or garlic bread and a salad. For the first part of the season, it’s straight up.

Once the novelty fades, I’ll dress them up, mix and match. I most often make a composed salad, say with celery, dill and red pepper and lemon zest (my fave), and to make a meal, I’ll add a bed of tomato, asparagus, greens, olives, couscous, almonds, something like that… Or on a different slant, I might go for ginger, coriander and sesame, then add some peas or green beans, kimchi, egg, rice or rice noodles.

In any case, I find both Nordic shrimp and snow crab best eaten cold. I don’t really understand why people fry or serve these hot at all, unless out of the shell. Nordic shrimp are only available cooked but you can get the head on (great snacking food), or peeled and neat. Crab is best fresh and very alive, it takes about the same amount of time as lobster to cook in simmering salted water. This is obviously the best option if you want to eat them hot with butter crab-boil style where everyone gets messy cracking their crab. If you’re serving it cold, you’re still best cooking it yourself, but you can also buy it cooked. It’s a pain to clean, messy and labour intensive, but well worth it, especially if you have someone who likes doing it like my François des bois. Figure 140g of meat per crab and 1 crab per person, or as an entrée 2 portions per crab.

Just make sure you’re buying absolutely fresh (of the day, not frozen and thawed) from a reputable fish monger like La Mer or from the Gaspé stalls or fish stores at the markets (Jean Talon, Atwater).

A recipe for crab salad I posted last year around this time..

http://soupnancy.squarespace.com/whats-cooking-recipes/2007/5/9/snow-crab-or-lobster-salad.html

What's cooking

The dish - Gravelax

It’s spelled so many ways I don’t know which is right. But what it is, is cured salmon, (or any fish nowadays) that gets a salt/sugar/spice treatment and is eaten as such, somewhere between cooked and raw, silky and toothsome, easy to love.

This was one of the first recipes I gravitated towards and attacked as a young cook; my first experiments date to even before cooking school. So it was also one of the first dishes I felt I mastered because I made it so much, and maybe because my boyfriend at the time LOVED it. The original recipe involved a cure of fine salt and sugar, some brandy, pepper and allspice, lots of dill of course, pressed for three days. Served with some mustardy homemade mayo with dill and some blinis or toast (at the time), I didn’t think it could get any better.

Nonetheless, as I grew as a cook, I had a lot of fun playing around with the recipe and eventually did get bored.. In fact, I broke up with the dish when I broke up with the guy, suddenly having no desire to go there anymore. It also happened that at that time in nineties restaurant food trends, ‘smoked’ was coming back in, as was everything raw, and so all the restaurants I was working in were into smoking their salmon or serving it fresh in tartare, cured was out. I was all about it. To shake it up every now and again, I’d riff on the smoked, even go to gravelax, but with gin and juniper, with mirin, soy, ginger and coriander, with vodka, citrus and fennel, with maple, cider and tea, with coarse salt and brown sugar instead of regular salt and sugar, I’d go for a shorter intense cure, a longer un-pressed cure, anything but the classic I once loved. Most were successful, but somehow, none measured up to that first taste memory. I suspected it had more to do with matters of the heart than my evolution as a cook, but no matter.

Fast forward ten years. In parallel with my current tendency towards tradition and simplicity, and because enough time has elapsed that the original association with that ex-boyfriend is dead, I am ready to revisit that old recipe.

The only thing I’m doing differently is using arctic char, and maple brandy and some maple syrup (it is maple season after all). And I’ll probably serve it with a maple enhanced mustard condiment and something crunchy and fresh, maybe glaze it, we’ll see.. but that’s only because this is a restaurant and so a few extra touches are in order; it should be great on it’s own. With toast and mustardy mayo like in the old days.

Gravelax off to cure

cured char (end pieces ready first)

char, maple cured and smoked, root veg remoulade with crinkleroot maple mustard, amaranth and pickled daisy buds

Gravelax

Enough for a party (or breakfast and lunch for a week for two)

1 Salmon filet (around 3lb net), preferably wild or organic

3/4 c sea salt

1 c sugar

1/2 c maple syrup

2oz brandy

2 bunches dill

3T peppercorns, crushed

1T allspice, crushed

Clean filet if it’s not already done (debone, trim). Slice filet in two. Mix salt, sugar and spices together with brandy and maple syrup to make a slurry. Layer filets with salt mixture and dill (make a sandwich with skin outward) with some slurry and dill in between, under and over. Cover with saran wrap and weigh down with another baking dish with tomato cans or whatever you have. Let sit for 2-3 days, flipping at least once. For a thick salmon filet or a whole fish, 3 days is better. My char is thin, so two will be enough. Rinse off, dry and slice. It will keep for a week or so.

A la minute version:

Slice fresh (sushi-grade) salmon thinly on a plate. Add a generous splash of maple syrup, a scant splash of brandy, and a tablespoon or two of olive oil. Brush on (with a pastry brush) to evenly distribute. Sprinkle with sea salt, a generous amount of cracked pepper and a scant crack of allspice and some chopped fresh dill. Cover with saran wrap and press down so that there is no exposure to air. Let sit for an hour or two, serve. Squeeze with lemon or serve on side.