soupnancy

What's cooking - The ingredient:

Asparagus!

André Cormier (our local guy) had his first asparagus out on May 9^th, exceptionally early this year; normally they come after, not at the same time as the fiddleheads.. But what an exciting time the first Quebec asparagus sighting is! Just about every night since, I’ve eaten asparagus in some form (and so yes, my pee smells). My favourite way with asparagus is sautéed in a hot pan (or grilled) with olive oil, then deglazed with a good balsamic or lemon, salt and pepper. Sometimes gratinéed with a hard cheese afterwards (like Valbert, Tomme de Kamouraska, Alfred, Piave or Parm..) I also like it steamed or blanched with a bit of butter for a more ‘au naturel' taste, maybe with a poached egg and tomato.  Or in vinaigrette with EVO, lemon zest and almonds, or yet another favourite, thrown into a sauté of mushrooms at the end. Now that the green is a given, I'll be moving on to Daigneault's white asparagus this week.

Daigneault's white asparagus

More asparagus recipes from the web:

Jamie Oliver’s potato asparagus tart, Jamie Kennedy’s classic asparagus vinaigrette..http://gremolata.com/asparagus.htm

Butter braised asparagus with peas, oyster mushroom and tarragon http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/07/dining/071arex.html?ref=dining

Easy Asparagus with lemon and parmesan http://www.elise.com/recipes/archives/001146asparagus.php

Potato Asparagus frittata

http://bitten.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/02/recipe-of-the-day-potato-asparagus-frittata/

Tons of asparagus tips and recipes from the NYTimes: http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/a/asparagus/index.html

And a couple of 'non-asparagus', but timeless recipes ..

Taking out the ‘Q’? Try Beer can chicken from America ’s Test Kitchen http://www.americastestkitchen.com/cookstv/preview/?extcode=L8EN1AE00

Also from Cooks Illustrated :

Almost no knead bread http://www.cooksillustrated.com/recipe.asp?recipeids=4748&bdc=56976&extcode=L8EN1AF00#topOfPage

More spring recipes (for nettles, ramps, morels, asparagus..) 

http://starchefs.com/features/farm_fresh/spring/2008/html/index.shtml

What's cooking - The ingredient:  Fiddleheads!

The season kicked off the first week of May, and now it’s peaking, I have hundreds of pounds in my fridge, I’m pumped, overwhelmed to be honest. I will be cooking them in a myriad of ways in the weeks to come. Because it’s early in the season, and green is fresh and exciting, I will tend towards cold, light and fresh recipes, but the truth is I like them better cooked, even a long time(!), or pickled. As a cook, keeping a green vegetable crisp and bright green is something that has been ingrained in me, but I have since come to appreciate the long cooked green, a different flavour all together, more deeply savoury and long en bouche (unami rich I'm sure). Think sag aloo or sag paneer or stewed collard greens. I’m still timid in serving them this way at the restaurant, but at
cleaned fiddleheads
Fiddlheads and hamhome I’m sold. When you’re sweating them in butter maybe with some garlic and tamari or meat jus, just let them go a little longer, you’ll see. Or try the old Quebecois recipe below, and let it cook some after reheating. They are also great in a punchy vinaigrette, although again the colour goes if you toss them in sauce early; but if you sauce à la minute, the taste doesn't penetrate, so somewhere in between is best, say 20 minutes before serving. Fresh fiddle talk aside, it’s time for me to get preserving. Mason jars of my pickled fiddleheads will soon be available at the market (alongside the fresh of course). 

François told me that from his two days at the market, he has gathered that most people don't know how to cook fiddleheads (some reaching for them raw - a no no!) despite them being a popular rite of spring, which of course is why a few morons get sick every year, and the government issues an annual warning, advising people to cook them 15 minutes.  This long cooking is hardly necessary especially if you get them from a good source, but in any case, a first cooking in boiling water is a must.  We do a double blanch (2-3 minutes each time), changing the water in between.  Refresh and they are ready to cook or eat.  Proceed to sweat them in butter with garlic and seasonings of choice, or to dress in vinaigrette to serve cold.

Quail and fiddlheads, wild ginger and sesame

Piglet loin, fiddlheads with ham, Rassambleu potato cake

nordic shrimp, fiddleheads, wild ginger, sesame

My two favourite recipes for fiddleheads – oh so simple..

Fiddleheads in an Asian inspired vinaigrette

with wild ginger mustard, chili and sesame

Yield: 8 servings

6 c (1 lb) Fiddleheads, cleaned and double blanched

Vinaigrette

1 French shallot, minced

30 ml wild ginger mustard (or 1 tsp minced ginger and 15 ml Dijon )

1 tsp minced garlic

1 red pepper, finely diced

30 ml Tamari

50 ml cider or rice wine vinegar

30 ml maple syrup

10 ml toasted sesame oil

125 ml olive oil

s.q. salt, pepper

s.q. chilli paste

Garnish:

2 Tbsp toasted sesame seeds

Method:

1. Clean fiddleheads, removing dark tip. Blanch twice in lots of boiling salted water for 2 minutes each time. Refresh each time. Reserve.

2. Make vinaigrette by blending all ingredients.

3. Toss fiddleheads with vinaigrette and sesame seeds and serve. As an accompaniment or entrée. Would go with tofu, shrimp or seafood, chicken duck or pork..

Façon Bas du Fleuve (ie long cooked with salt pork and onion)

(adapted from Yves Cloutier’s family recipe)

8 portions

1lb (6c) fiddleheads

1 chopped onion

1 bouquet garni (thyme, bay, parsley and/or celery leaf)

1 c salt pork strips (200g)

2 c water or chicken stock

s.q. salt, pepper

Method:

1. Wash fiddleheads well in several changes of water, trim ends.

2. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, add fiddleheads and blanch once for 2-3 minutes, chill in ice water.

3. Meanwhile, bring the onion, water, bouquet garni and salt pork to a boil, lower heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Add the fiddleheads, turn off the heat and let sit overnight. Refrigerate.

4. Shred the salt pork or remove, reheat and serve.

What's cooking

The dish - Polenta fries

While everyone else is in a rush for spring, I’m holding on to winter.. This week though, I had no choice but to get thinking ahead. The Voir needed my thoughts on maple, so I pumped out my menu for the sugaring off season, and then for another upcoming media event, I had to deliver my spring menu.. I let myself get all dreamy and put myself there momentarily. Knowing me, I’ll want to change it all when the time comes – I hate making menus so far in advance.

Besides, the reality is that it’s still full-on winter, which I actually have no problem with. I’d rather stay put and celebrate that, make the most of it. There are so many winter activities I haven’t yet fully taken advantage of, and many favourite winter dishes I never got around to cooking. One of those is Polenta..

polenta fries (oven baked)

venison two ways, wild mushrooms and polenta fries

I love polenta, aka cooked cornmeal mush. It’s one of my comfort foods in every form, whether soft like porridge, firm and fried, creamy and rich with cheese, or layered with roasted veg and mushrooms in casserole form.. Every time I make it, I end up eating a ton before the dish is even done; burning my fingers and tongue with my over eager taste tests is always a part of the polenta process.

However, I’ve noticed that polenta is generally not a winner menu item, so I don’t make it as often as I would like. Even if I know that I could turn people around, the fact is, polenta is never going to be as likeable as mashed potatoes here, so why fight it too much. I do need to put it on my menu every now and then though, and since its perfect winter fare, I decided to go for it before the snow started melting, but to put it out there in one of its most approachable forms – as fries!

Basically, you make a rather neutral and stiff polenta (between 2 to3:1 ratio of liquid to polenta), cool it, cut it and fry or bake. The polenta sticks could be breaded (flour, egg wash, breadcrumbs) before frying for extra textural crunch, which is probably best if you’re making it on the creamy side. Polenta is a blank canvas, in that you can use the amount of liquid you want depending on the desired texture, vary the type of liquid, and add whatever flavourings depending on your inspiration. The more liquid, fat and added ingredients, the softer it will be. For a stiff polenta (the kind of inedible roll you see in stores) something along the lines of a 2:1 ratio of fine cornmeal and water is at play. A decadent molten version in a high end restaurant may involve something closer to a 4 or even 5:1 ratio, including perhaps stock, cream, butter, truffle oil etc. Because polenta is bland, it’s tempting to load it with cheese, fat and flavourings, and to push the 3:1 ratio, which is fine if you’re serving it soft, but then it gets trickier to make fries.

First of all, a fine to medium polenta (cornmeal) is best for this kind of recipe. For straight up polenta, I prefer a coarsely ground type. For the liquid, I personally like to use a mixture of water and milk because the taste is clean, not too rich, it lends a firm texture without being ultra stiff. I use a little cheese, just enough to pump up the umami, not enough to make the mixture rich or difficult to work with. After all, it is a side to be served with meat and sauce. I might take a different approach if it was in a starring role. But then again, I don’t really like flavouring my pasta dough either, leaving that to the sauce, both for the sake of practicality and for contrast. Same goes here.

Either way, making polenta is easy, but you can’t stray too far from the stove. Bring your liquid to a boil, add some flavourings, stir in the polenta in a steady stream while mixing constantly with a whisk. I generally add some butter or good oil, a pinch of chilli, maybe some sautéed garlic and some thyme or not. Switch to a wooden spoon once it thickens up. Keep stirring regularly over low heat for 10-20 minutes or until the polenta pulls away from the sides of the pan. Then you add the cheese and season to taste and pour it out into a container to cool.

Polenta is great with meat and meat jus, so to accompany a juicy steak, a braised dish or stew, also with sausages, anything tomato based, mushrooms or just on it’s own. It’s fun to play around with too.. Polenta, a true comfort food, and a dear winter companion, is there for you.

Polenta fries

4 p

1 c fine cornmeal

1 1/2 c water

1 1/2 c milk

pinch chillies

pinch salt

1 Tbsp butter

½ c grated Parmesan or other sharp aged cheese

s.q. lemon juice

Prepare an oiled or buttered 8x10’’ baking dish. Bring liquid to a boil, add butter, chilli and salt. Slowly pour in polenta while whisking. Lower heat and stir regularly for about 10 minutes. When polenta has lost its gritty texture, is holding together and pulling off the sides of the pan, add the cheese and season to taste with a squeeze of lemon, salt and pepper. If it’s unmanageably stiff, add a touch of milk or cream, but it should be thick. Pour quickly into a greased hotel pan, cookie sheet, or glass dish, cover with saran wrap and smooth surface with a spatula or another baking dish on top. Put in the fridge until cool and solid. Cut into sticks 1cm wide. Dredge in flour and fry at 350F or space out on a baking sheet with a little extra olive oil (or boletus oil) and put in a hot oven (400F) for 20min or so, turning once or twice until crusty and golden.

Other polenta recipes :

• Increase the liquid and add extra, butter, cheese, or heavy cream to make a soft purée to replace mashed potatoes with a meat dish.
• Or add 1/2 cup cream or milk, some sautéed mushrooms, roast vegetables or sausage in a casserole dish, top with extra butter and cheese and bake for a hearty vegetarian meal.
• A mushroom polenta dish I posted last year:

http://soupnancy.squarespace.com/whats-cooking-recipes/2006/11/1/more-mushroom-recipes-home-style.html

What’s cooking

Ingredient – Winter Squash

assorted winter squash

pink banana

squash salad: raw, marinated and fried, some greens, cheese and pickled day lily buds, cider crinkleroot vinaigrette

It might seem late for squash to be a source of inspiration, but not really.. You see, now that winter is here and nothing fresh and local is coming in at all, I have no choice to look to the piles of winter squash and roots from the last harvests waiting to be transformed. Because our winter is so long, I often wait to the last minute to start my long affair with the stuff that keeps. When the squash first come out, there is still plenty of other stuff around, so I’ll use them a little, but save the royal treatment for when they can be the star. Once the squash is knocked off, the roots will get their turn at being the center of attention veg wise, and by the end of winter I will be quite tired of both, yearning for crisp and green. Let’s forget about that for now..

Over the past month, I’ve made slaw, salad, mash, polenta, latkes, soups and several desserts with a variety of winter squash. Here are some simple examples with guidelines:

Squash slaw : Raw, marinated butternut squash (or acorn or pink banana) in a salad:

Julienne the squash and toss it with a pinch of salt, of sugar, a good cider or white wine vinegar, and a shot of olive oil and or nut oil. Serve it in a salad with almonds and herbs, or as an accompaniment. .

Spaghetti squash comme ça

Slice in two, seed, cover and microwave for 10 min. Scrape the ‘spaghetti’ off with a fork. Sauté in butter and garlic, a few chilli flakes. Or add a touch of cream and grated cheese and cook as a gratin..

Pancake, latke or roesti: Buttercup, Pink Banana or something starchy works best.

You could actually use any squash, but with a watery one, you would need to add potato or more flour. With a starchy variety like this, you get the full squash flavour and no gumminess. Grate it, mix it with a handful of flour, a pinch of salt and spice (I like curry and chili), some grated onion (squeezed dry) or minced shallot and a scant pinch of baking powder. Add a few beaten eggs just to bind. Drop into a hot pan with oil and sear on both sides cooking it like a pancake. Finish in oven if necessary. Serve as an accompaniment or as an appetizer or hors d’oeuvre topped with something like sour cream and smoked salmon or chutney and yogurt.

buttercup polenta, sautéed spaghetti squash

marinated pink banana

Fried pink banana

Soup: Use Hubbard or any combination of winter squash

Halve or cut into big pieces, seed and roast the squash in an oven at 400F until tender. Meanwhile, sweat a mirepoix (chopped onion, carrot, celery, leek if you want) in a little butter or oil. Add some garlic, some ginger, a pinch of chilli. Deglaze with a splash of white wine, cider, cider vinegar or sherry vinegar. Scoop out the squash meat and add, along with poultry stock (and/or water) to cover, but barely. Cook for another 20-30 min. Blend. Add a little cream or milk or water to rectify the consistency. Add salt and pepper, a spoonful of honey or more likely a squeeze of lemon to taste. Strain if you’re feeling fancy.

Purée : A starchy one is best, otherwise, add some mashed potato.

Roast in the oven, scoop out the flesh and pureé in a food processor (or pass through a food mill), adding a good measure of butter, maybe a splash of stock or milk or cream (not usually necessary especially if you have a squash with some water content). Season to taste (salt, a squeeze of lemon, a shot of Sambal or Tabasco ).

Fried: The starchiest ones again are best. If it’s too sweet, it will burn. You can always give them a water rinse or soak (but dry well) if you want to cook as fries. Squash is great in pakora, tempura works well too, but you can also just coat in flour and/or cornstarch and fry at a lower than usual temperature (275- 300F ). Too high a temperature and they will darken too much (and lose their sweetness), too low and they won’t be crisp. You also have to be able to leave them in long enough in order for them to crisp up.

Dessert : A firm, sweet one works in a dessert where you use them as you would fruit, as in a pie filling or crumble. The softer ones are best used puréed as in pumpkin pie, in compotes, or flan mixtures. Flavour wise, squash or pumpkin pairs well with apple, pear and spice.

My colleague, Isabelle brought in an apple-squash crisp as a staff treat, and I was then inspired to make a chausson. Either way, you want a squash that you can cut up raw, that cooks up well and somewhat retains its structure. Butternut works well. Almost any squash will work, you just may need to add a tablespoon or two of flour to the mix. You just add the diced squash to your apple mixture. At least that’s what I would do at home. But at the restaurant, you want everything to be cooked just so, so I sautéed the apples and squash cubes separately to make sure they were both cooked properly. I was looking for something aldente because the chaussons would finish in the oven. I added butter, sugar, honey, lemon, spices like cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger among some other wild things, some almond powder to bind (a good pinch of flour would have been fine too) and stuffed my phyllo pastry, cooked it at 400F for the first 10 min. and another 20min at a lower temperature. You could also just top the mixture with crisp topping or biscuit dough for a cobbler type thing.

I’m sure it would make a good ice cream too (in purée form), as it certainly makes good crème brulée, mousse and pannacotta.