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!)

Leaving You, Honey

Tapping into Maple Syrup

By the time I was 6 years old, I had discovered that maple syrup made almost everything my mother cooked taste better. It wasn’t that my mom was a bad cook, it was just that when I tasted that lush golden syrup on pancakes and French toast, I wanted it on everything [...] over oatmeal and omelets, on cooked carrots and peas and even drizzled her over chicken and fish. As I look back, my creative use of maple syrup might well have been the beginning of my culinary career.
[...]
I started by sauteing sliced carrots in a mixture of butter and syrup. As they cooked and the sauce reduced, the carrots took on a deep golden glow. When I tasted them, I was wowed by the complexity and depth of flavors the syrup produced.

I duplicated the combination with cauliflower, broccoli and Brussels sprouts. Although the pairings sounded odd, as each vegetable cooked and caramelized, the flavors became deeper and more complex. Unlike honey and brown sugar, reducing maple syrup enhances its flavor but doesn’t necessarily make it sweeter.

–Marlene Sorosky Gray, San Francisco Chronicle

I got excited when I read this article and ran out to buy some maple syrup. Seek the Canadian brands, as Marlene warns us about Mrs. Butterworth or Aunt Jemima – their sweetness comes not from maples, but corn, and they use maple extract for flavor. “Maple Joe” is one brand of pure maple syrup we get here in Finland.

I tried frying some cooked Brussels sprouts and red pepper using a little maple syrup and liked the outcome, but here’s my own recipe, as served to our saturday dinner guests, along with some lamb steaks and red wine sauce:

Sweet Rosemary Potatoes (serves 4)

6 Potatoes (the floury type, I used the big, red-skinned Rosamunda)
2 tbsp Maple Syrup
1 tbsp Butter
4 Fresh Rosemary Sprigs
Salt (ground Sea or Mountain Salt)
Black Pepper (freshly ground)

Wash the potatoes, leaving the skin. Cut into quarters (or smaller if the potatoes are big). Melt the butter in a pan. Fry the potatoes on medium-high heat until they brown slightly. Add the maple syrup and fry a while longer. Pour the potatoes and the mixture of butter and syrup into an oven pan, add the rosemary sprigs, salt and pepper. Bake, covered or wrapped in foil, in the oven under medium heat for an hour or until the potatoes are soft. (It’s not easy to overcook them.)