Tag Archives: Chanterelles

Leek / mushroom / eggplant pasta

16 Nov

An easy weeknight two-pot meal combining a range of fall ingredients I like.

  • Wash, trim, and chop two leeks (keeping most of the green part as well)
  • Put them in a skillet with a pat of butter on low heat, salt, cover, and let slowly cook for about 30 minutes as they give off water and reduce, until creamy-soft and sweet (stir once every 5 minutes or so)
  • While they’re cooking, skin and dice eggplants (I used 6 tiny eggplants from the garden, could also use one medium eggplant). Add them to the leeks for the last 15 minutes or so of the cooking time.
  • Clean and roughly break up chanterelle mushrooms, add them for the last 3-4 minutes.
  • Boil salty water for pasta, cook the pasta, throw diced green beans in for the last minute.
  • Drain the pasta, add to the skillet, and cook another minute. Serve.

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Cod Baked in Foil (Chanterelles, Yuzu, Ginger)

23 Sep

Alas, not a great success, but okay:

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I’ve cooked fish in foil once before, and tried something along those lines again at a friend’s potluck. I even got to make this version twice in one night, as we expected a late dinner guest.

The first time through:

  • Preheated the oven to 400
  • Laid out about 3/4 pound of cod on a double-size piece of foil (one layer of cod)
  • Covered it with two sliced shallots, rough-sliced ginger root, sliced chanterelles (my favorite mushroom), pats of clarified butter, and about 1 Tbsp of white miso
  • Folded over the foil and crimped it together, like a large empanada…
  • Baked it for about 25 minutes
  • Sprinkled yuzu (a japanese citrus) juice over it and let it rest 10 minutes

It smelled delicious, and the fish was pretty good– but the shallots and especially ginger were still fairly raw and strong, and it wasn’t salty enough (and it sat in a pool of butter I drained). I’d give it a C.

The second time through I made a few changes:

  • Minced the shallots and ginger fine, sauteed them in butter for about 5 minutes until they turned golden brown, then put them on top of the fish
  • Used about 4 Tbsp of white miso instead of 1, added a tiny amount of water to turn it into a smoother paste, then rubbed it on both sides of the fish
  • Added black pepper and a bit of salt to the fish as well
  • Baked it for about 18 minutes
  • Added yuzu and served immediately

This time was better, I’d give it an B. I still think more texture and flavor (something more caramelized, a fish marinated for a while, maybe a fish like salmon) would be better.

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