Mushroom magic of umami is yours at home

I’m trying darned near everything in the handy-dandy dehydrator I bought this summer and I really am having a good time with it. The tomatoes are simply awesome.

The other day, though, I got a whole lot of the fancy-schmancy mushrooms over at Whole Foods and took them home for the dehydrator treatment. They came out just swell and was putting them into a ziplok bag when it I thought about how good they would be ground up - like a spice or rub - that I could sprinkle on and into foods to enhance that amazing umami experience in addition to just intensifying that ‘mushroomy’ goodness… say in a sauce or gravy. Wow. What about Chicken Cacciatore?

The possibilities seemed endless. And I’d also just bought a jar of Demi-Glace aux Champignons (Mushroom Base) over at Williams-Sonoma. Yes, I know this stuff is horribly pricey, but it really lasts ( a little bit goes a long way) and you just can’t find anything better to add that indescribable depth to soups and such. Better Than Boullion also has one, but they have more sodium and I’m trying to avoid that, and the flavors can be a little off.

Back to my project. Here’s a look at my fragrant trove of dried mushrooms - loose and bagged.

 

And here’s the result after grinding - in a spice grinder:

I simply put the ground mushroom into a glass jar with a tight lid. But I couldn’t leave it there. I had to try it out. Surprised, huh? Snort.

Hmmm. What about some pan seared cod with a mushroom and herb rub, then plated with an awesome sauce piquant made from my homegrown tomatoes - with more mushroom demi-glace and powder? OMG.

Here is where I begin - sauteeing my tomatoes, onions and celery in my own special ‘base’ that I keep in the fridge. It’s a food processor blend of onions, garlic, olive oil, bay leaf and parsley. It’s also Heap Big Fast and Easy Foodie Magic that I will blog about in a separate post.

I let it cook down for about 15 minutes - having added a nice amount of white wine that I was drinking, a tablespoon of anchovy paste, a tablespoon of fish base, a chunk of butter, and about two tablespoons of the powdered mushrooms. I adjusted the salt and pepper, too.

Let me tell you, the sauce piquant was so damn good at this point that had I not already had the defrosted fish sitting there wearing a nice robe of the herbs, olive oil and mushroom powder on, I’d have just spooned this sauce over some pasta, rice or potatoes. It was heavenly.

Next came pan searing the fish in some olive oil - the baked spuds are in there to keep warm.

And the payoff:

You should know that Mr. Maven does not like mushrooms. Not at all. Ever. Right, Ronda?

He LOVED this dish. It was just that good.

See my post about umami - the fifth flavor element and try this at home soon.

Great seafood any night of the week, economically.

For some time, I’ve been buying the bags of frozen, individually packaged fish at Costco. Halibut, Orange Roughy, Cod and such. It’s pretty good, but kind of expensive, some of it coming in at around $15 - 20 per bag which provides maybe eight to ten portions, depending on the type of fish.

Today, needing to restock the freezer - and we eat a LOT of fish around here at Rancho Maven, at least three nights a week - I wandered into Costco for more of same.

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Cod with sausage and shellfish. Quick. Easy. Dinner

I’m doing something very similar to this tomorrow night for some friends. Where I’m going to vary it, is to give it a Moroccan twist with the addition of some fresh Merquez lamb sausage and some preserved lemon slices.

I’ll prep the cod steaks and have the bread crumbs at the ready with the oven preheated.

Just before the cod goes into the oven, I’ll start to pan saute the lamb sausage with some sliced sweet onions in some extra virgin olive oil and minced garlic. When that’s beginning to get happy, with a splash of white wine, I’ll put the cod into the oven.

Then I’m going to add the shellfish, the sliced preserved Moroccan lemons and a rich tomato broth made with seafood stock. The chef uses chicken stock which is also good, but I want a really deep oceanside taste going on. Knowing me as I do - and why shouldn’t I? - I’ll probably be tempted to toss in some sort of vegetable like chunks of zucchini and some dark olives to the mix. Probably a anchovy fillet or two as well to deepen the flavor components.

The plating and presentation will be the same.

We’ll have a green salad with fresh oranges and almonds - in my light, homemade viniagarette dressing to start, along with some freshly baked multigrain popovers. Accompanying the main dish will be some escalloped potatoes. The fish dish will be pretty rich, so pairing it with something very simple like the potatoes is key.

To finish, a twelve whole grain Meyer lemon cake with a lemon glaze and Peet’s coffee (of course!).

Wild cod baked in artichoke lemon garlic sauce

Having scored at Costco on a lovely package of wild, fresh cod fillets, company coming over last night for dinner seemed like the perfect opportunity to try out an idea about an artichoke based sauce that I’d been noodling around for a while. The fact that one of my guests is a Celiac (gluten intolerant) made it just bit more of a challenge in that I had to eliminate any gluten containing ingredients. This left me doing it all from scratch essentially.

The result was simply outstanding, or as Natacha said “tres magnifique!”.

I made this sauce in the food processor, and simply started adding the following ingredients to the processor bowl:

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Grilled cod with Morrocan cauliflower and Israeli couscous

Now. there’s a pairing. If people could only get along as well as foods do on a plate.

I grilled three nice halibut fillets with just a nice swipe of Greek olive oil, sea salt and some finely ground white pepper. Then plated it with the couscous ( see previous recipe) and the green cauliflower ( see previous recipe).

Everybody really loved it. Oh, and this is a 30 minute dinner.

I buy the cod in bags, individually frozen, at Costco. It’s a snap to defrost them in a hurry. I keep a stainless steel mixing bowl handy, and put the still frozen and vacuum packed fish fillets in it and simply run water into the pan. Within about five minutes the fish is thawed and ready to cook.

Pan grilled cod two ways. Simple. Delicious. Healthy.

We adore fresh cod here at Rancho Maven. It’s not unusual to have it at least once a week, and I’ve been seeing nice fresh whole and filleted cod of all sorts in the fishmongers counter at the local Whole Foods. I bought a whole Rock Cod the other day that was wonderful in a seafood based stew and I’ll be back after some yummy Ling Cod that I noticed.

Cod is so wonderful since you can cook it so many different ways. I love it as part of a boullabaise, a stew like cioppino or a gumbo … or grilled over a smokey fire outdoors, or grilled in my speed oven. I’m going to try this pan grilling technique soon.

The preserved lemon used in these recipes is a very unique flavor that you can’t really substitute for. Whole Foods in Reno has gorgeous preserved lemons in their olive bar. I usually pick up 2-3 and keep them in the refrigerator since they will last at least a month.

I like to serve fish like this with some sauteed greens like swiss chard and a few boiled Yukon gold potatoes or some brown rice.

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New items in the olive bar at Whole Foods

Oh, yum …. marinated figs with olives, right next to the big bin filled with preserved lemons. Get crazy with the North African cuisine, folks.

The figs are to die for. Sweet, savory, a little salty - love, baby, love.

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