Weekend Dinners, Pt. 2

This dinner I cooked for two vegetarian friends, so it was vegetarian food combined with influences from dishes we had on a recent trip to Paris. Which, considering the meat-based French cuisine, was actually quite interesting, given the simplicity of the combinations here. The trip to Japan a year back also had its effect – especially as I still have left some dried seaweed I brought back from there.

I was a vegetarian for many years, and frankly I wouldn’t know anything about cooking if I hadn’t. You can easily get away with a simple steak and steamed vegetables for a meat eater, but the typical veggie version of the same dish would just mean removing the steak – and steamed vegetables, good as they might be, simply won’t cut it when you want a nutritious meal that’s a joy to eat. Variety is the key, especially when you leave the meat, poultry and fish out. And variety doesn’t mean changing the filling of the filled peppers from meal to meal.

That’s not to say you cannot have themes on a vegetarian menu: we had mushrooms all the way through this dinner, except with dessert…

Menu

Seaweed Konbu with button mushrooms

Shiitake-Roquefort-Walnut Quiche on a Leek Mat
Raspberry-Wasabi Sauce
Sunflower Sprouts

Fried King Oyster Mushrooms and Sweet Potato-Chestnut puree
Roasted Eggplant Slices with Pine Seeds
Black Currant-Red Wine Sauce
Avocado-Cream
Pea Sprouts
Sugar Leaf Decoration (for the puree)

Cherry Tartalets with Vanilla Ice Cream
Chocolate Sauce
Raspberry-Wasabi Sauce

The dried konbu I just cooked in water for an hour, then discarded it and added sliced mushrooms, some soy and miso paste. This was the Japanese part of the menu, although on the next dish we had cranberry sauce with wasabi in it. Just give the fresh raspberries a spin in the blender, sieve, and add a little wasabi. It looks really good on the plate with the greens.

The quiche I’ve done at least five times now, and it keeps getting better and better (and looking nicer!) There’s some cognac in the mushroom-blue cheese-walnut-filling, and the base is simply flour, butter, salt and some ice water, pre-baked for a few minutes.

The king oyster mushrooms are grown in Estonia. They’re very meaty when just fried on a pan and, unlike some mushier and wetter mushrooms (most of them), king oysters serve great as a main dish.

I was interested in cooking a vegetarian meal that incorporated a red wine sauce, because you never see that anywhere. It worked just great; the king oysters are a natural companion for a red wine sauce. I used burgundy red (the same we drank with it) and black currant jam – and vegetable stock instead of meat stock, of course.

All these mushrooms are mild enough in taste so they didn’t overpower. Had we had just one course with mushrooms in it, I might have chosen a variety stronger in taste.

The idea for the puree came from the menu of one Montreal restaurant. They served it with ostrich, and even used the sugar leaf decoration, so I added that as well. The chestnut/sweet potato combination is delicate, made even softer with some cream.

The tartalet pastry was made from equal amounts of butter, sugar and flour, which nearly turns into fudge when baked. It’s firm enough to hold the cherry jam and a whole cherry inside without leaking red on the outside, so the end result will look clean and nice. Served warm/hot with a little ice cream and chocolate sauce. The raspberry-wasabi sauce made a re-entry here, but merely to add a small spot of colour on the plate.

(Sorry, there’s no pictures at this time – sometimes I feel that taking photos distracts from the atmosphere and turns the focus into the food too much, away from the conversation with the guests. I’ll try to add them the next time I prepare these!)

Weekend Dinners, Pt. 1

…And speaking of time (and not only lack of it), timing is everything when cooking a menu. Generally, cooking a dish, even a complicated one, doesn’t represent a challenge even for a chef of modest experience; cooking starters, mains and a dessert and serving them all hot, the pasta al dente, and the steaks just right is a lot more likely to cause problems, and then you also want to be able to enjoy the food and the company.

Of course, thing’s will be easier if you have two chefs (like we had here) or if you can cook in between courses. It’s best to prepare everything you can beforehand, so it’s easier if you plan the menu the previous day. Setting the table should be done first.

Menu

Snails with Blue Cheese

Slow-braised Lamb Shanks in Red Wine
Oven Root Vegetables
Green Beans

Pear Pie with Vanilla Ice Cream

The lamb was going to be in the oven for at least two hours, so it was the first thing to get going. Brown the lamb in butter on a frying pan, adding salt and pepper.

 

 

 

Butter an oven pan. Peel and halve the shallot onions, peel the garlic cloves and put in the pan. Add the browned shanks and pour the red wine and add meat or vegetable stock until covered. Add a couple of rosemary sprigs. Put in the oven (200°C).

 

 

Prepare the pear pies. Mix wheat flour, sugar and butter (1:1:1). Don’t knead too much.

Individual portion pans are easier with this course, as cutting and transferring the slices onto another plate with this pie isn’t always easy. Press the dough to a 5 mm layer at the bottom of the pan. Add half a cubed pear, a little lime or lemon juice and a little cinnamon. Put in the refrigerator.

Potatos and yellow root go in next. Peel and cut in quarters or eighths. Put on a buttered pan, add olive oil, honey or maple syrup, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. Fry until tender (which is about an hour, or 15 minutes more than we did!)

You can cover the pan for half of the time.

 

Then snails. The queue to the cheese counter was about 25 people, so we stuck with Bleu D’Auvergne for the snails. Rinse the snails and fry on a pan with a knob of butter and a little pepper. Put some butter in the snail pans, add the snails and a little blue cheese on top, and fry until the cheese starts to brown. (Our oven started to get quite crowded at this point…)

 

The snails here might have needed a teaspoon more of the butter, but they were great nonetheless… Bleu D’Auvergne worked just fine. Serve with champagne/sparkling wine and white bread for cleaning the pan!

 

 

 

Steam the green beans, add a little butter.

Put the potatos and yellow root at the bottom, add the shanks, onions and garlic. Put the beans on top. Serve with a cabernet or pinot noir.

 

 

Put the pear pies into the oven before starting the main course. Turn the heat down to 150°C. They should be done by the time you’ve finished your lamb. The bottom starts picking up caramel flavors at the same time the pears start to brown. (The one in the picture here is maybe a little too brown.)

With two table spoons, form a ball out of the vanilla ice cream, lay on top and serve.

Ingredients

Snails with blue cheese

1 can of snails (6 per person)
Blue cheese
Butter
Pepper
White bread for serving

Lamb in Red Wine

1 kg of lamb shanks (3 per person)
1/2 bottle (375 ml) red wine
Shallot onions and garlic cloves (3 per person)
Stock (vegetable or meat)
Rosemary sprigs
Butter
Salt, Pepper

Yellow Root and Potatos

Potatos (2 per person)
Yellow root (2 per person)
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
Honey or maple syrup
Salt, pepper

Pear Pie

Flour, sugar, unsalted butter (one part each; I think we used about 100 grams each for four pies)
Pears (1/2 per pie)
Cinnamon
Lemon or lime juice
Vanilla ice cream