Transitioning to winter meals

The hurrier I go, the behinder I get. I now know exactly what that means.  Lately I've been too busy to sit down at my computer to write my regular posts, and I do have some things to write about.  In the meantime the weather has changed drastically, making all that I have to tell you about the garden old news. But, I'm just not ready to give it up.  Some things you have to do in order, so I will continue to tell the of the aging of our garden and our transition to a winter diet.

  Any of you who have been regular readers know by now that my M.O. is to wander through my garden until I receive divine inspiration regarding what to cook for dinner. That approach has worked so well for me this summer, although in recent weeks the pickings have been slim, indeed.  I have fought many an internal battle about food planning.  For months I have made trips to the grocer only when milk, flour, or some other essential was needed. Now I'm facing the need to plan and shop.  What a drag. Well, only if that's what I tell myself.  Finally I have taken on the challenge.  And, really, once I got started, it wasn't so bad.  It's true that we can still eat well in the winter.

Last week I finally spent a day drinking tea and pouring over some of my favorite cookbooks.  I organized myself, made a list of about 25 meals I wanted to make, sorted out some for the first week, and made a shopping list.  The following day I shopped.  Since then we have been eating, mostly according to plan, vegetables still provided by the garden, but supplanted by the grocer.

We still have very nice salad greens, carrots, leeks, and a few tomatoes that were picked when still green and have been slowly ripening in the house.  We also have cabbage and brussels sprouts.  For this meal I combined our lovely greens with gently blanched carrots from the garden, our tomatoes, hard cooked eggs from a friend, and Oregon-caught tuna for a  Salad Nicoise.  I tossed the greens with a vinaigrette and topped the tuna with a dab of dilled mayonnaise.  A few slices of fresh bread and a glass of red wine made a very nice meal.  November 11th, our very last summer-like dinner.

Great Recipes Soon

The November rush is on.  You may not have missed me, but then again, maybe you did notice that I've not been keeping up with my regular postings. November is always a complicated month for me. We have 4 birthdays this month, exactly 1 week apart.  In addition, I've been preparing for my annual Holiday sale, which has taken up most of my time.  I've still been cooking some tasty meals and have a few outstanding things to share with you, but it will have to wait one or two more days.  In the meantime you're invited to join me and my two cohorts  for our annual Artists' Holiday Sale this weekend. I'll also be teaching a free jewelry making class on Sunday, November 21st between 10 am & 2 pm.  Stop by if you'd like to design some jewelry for yourself or, perhaps get the start on your Holiday crafting.  Here's the skinny:

The Best Chanterelle Risotto



Risotto with Roasted Chanterelles

 In a Funk -I have to admit that I'm not doing very well on the Fall to Winter transition.  I have relied so heavily on my garden for so many months that I have gotten out of the habit of shopping, or even planning ahead so that I can have the necessary ingredients on hand to prepare a meal.  Until now I have embraced the idea of roaming around the garden looking inspiration for our evening meal.  I found it a challenge and a delight.  I never knew what would come out of my kitchen until I discovered what was available and abundant in the garden. But now things have changed. It's a little bleak out there - cabbage, Swiss chard, carrots, leeks and greens.  Not only that, it's dark, cold, and wet. The move out of Daylight Savings has also thrown me for a loop. It's no fun to be out there in the dark and rain trying to find greens for a salad.  I'm going to have to work this out.  My goal for this week is to face my dilemma head-on and get back in the groove.  We do have to eat, after all. 

In the meantime I thought you might like to hear about my best-ever recipe for Mushroom Risotto - it involves Chanterelles.  By this time all of our Chanterelle harvest has been prepared and frozen.  I'm missing those fresh mushrooms and am looking forward to another romp in the forest this weekend.  But first, I must document this recipe before I forget.  The Risotto is pretty straight forward with one exception, at the very end of the cooking process I added mushrooms that  had been roasted with garlic.  The flavor was spectacular.  The roasted Chanterelles were tender with a rich caramelized flavor; the tidbits of roasted garlic were divine. Well worth repeating.  Here's how I made it:

Risotto with Roasted Chanterelles

2 cups of medium sized Chanterelles, whole or cut in half
1 Tbsp olive oil
3 cloves of garlic, slivered
pinch of salt

1 leek, white part only, sliced
1 1/2 cups Chanterelles, chopped
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 cup arborio rice
3 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup white wine
salt to taste
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated

To roast the mushrooms:  toss mushrooms and garlic with olive oil and spread on cookie sheet or roasting pan.  Roast in 425F oven until the mushrooms are golden, have released their liquid and it has evaporated -about 20 minutes.  Any accumulated juice may be added to the risotto for flavor.

For Risotto:  Bring chicken stock to a simmer.  Keep at a low simmer while making the risotto.  heat olive oil in a  sauce pan over medium heat, add leeks and chopped mushrooms.  Saute until the leeks are limp and mushrooms begin to give up their liquid.  Add the rice and stir to coat.  Begin adding the simmering stock one cup at a time, stirring until the liquid has been absorbed each time. Add the wine and continue stirring and adding stock until the rice is opaque and tender, but still somewhat firm in the center. This should take about 20 minutes.  Adjust seasoning, adding salt to taste.  Stir in cheese and roasted mushrooms, reserving a few mushrooms for garnish.  Serve right away.

A Tale of Tomatoes

Tomatoes in November - One of the more pleasant surprises our garden has provide this Fall is simply that it is still providing us with food.  It's the beginning of November and I have yet to purchase produce.  I know that will change very quickly, but as for now I'm just grateful.  The cucumbers have finally given up, the squash are history, but there are still salad greens to be had each day, and, best of all, tomatoes. The tomatoes are lovely.  As you may know, in the Northwest, this was not a great year for tomatoes.  Others have said the same. We got a late start, we then hit by cold damp weather and the tomato plants didn't like it.  Our plants were smaller than usual, and much later to produce.  Every year Reyn plants close to a dozen tomato plants.  His favorite variety is  Early Girl.  They are vigorous plants which produce an abundance of very tasty fruit.  We also grow a few varieties of cherry-type tomatoes and maybe some Romas.  This year we were excited to try something new.

My mother had mentioned our garden when speaking to her 90 year old brother who lives in Missouri.  He and his wife still live in the country and grow a garden every year.  They kindly sent my mother some of the tomato seeds from their favorite tomatoes, Arkansas Travelers, to be shared with us.  They have been saving seeds for years.  The Arkansas Travelers have now made it to the Northwest.  Now, mind you, the growing conditions in Missouri are quite a bit different from those in the Willamette Valley, but how could we pass up the opportunity to try these beloved seeds.

Reyn planted the seeds, then moved the plants into the garden.  They looked kind of scrawny and not happy with the cool weather, and by late summer had not really produced much fruit. The tomatoes were fairly small in size and a kind of a pinkish/red color.  The flavor was good, and quite different from the Early Girls, but they were late in ripening, with lots of green tomatoes on the vines as Fall approached.  Well, Fall is here, Winter is approaching, and we are still eating Arkansas Travelers.  They have been ripening a few at a time, long after our Early Girls have given up. Whenever cold rainy weather was predicted I headed out to the garden and harvested any tomatoes that were beginning to turn toward red, bringing them inside,before they could be damaged by the rain.  I've been doing that for weeks.  The tomatoes on the vines have held on, undamaged.  No rot, not splitting.  Still giving me very nice, tasty tomatoes - in November.

 Reyn has been cleaning up the garden beds and needed to pull the tomatoes to make room for his cold-frame.  I brought in the remaining Arkansas Travelers hoping that the green ones will also make it to red.   I think we'll plant them again next year. Thank you Uncle Loyd.

Freezing Wild Mushrooms

Too Many? - It's so hard to pass up a nice looking mushroom, even if your basket already weighs 15 pounds.   Those of you who are lucky enough to live near a good picking spot know what I mean.  Where we pick the woods are dense and usually wet, and the hillsides steep.  It is not easy going. We climb over downed old growth stumps, through masses of vine maple branches, and poke around under thick beds of ferns and Salal. All for the pleasure of spotting the beautiful golden, trumpet-shaped Chanterelle coming up out of the moss and fir needles. The mushrooms were plentiful this year and the recent rain had caused them to be full of moisture and , thus, very heavy. 

So, what does one do with 25 pounds of Chanterelles?  We brought ours home and cleaned them right away.  We did this by quickly dipping each mushroom in water and brushing off the forest debris.  We then sorted them by size and spread them out on towels to dry overnight.  Of course, we eat fresh mushrooms in everything we cook for several days.  So far we've enjoyed a fritatta and Chanterelle risotto.  Tonight we're looking forward to a great mushroom soup.  Meanwhile, I've been preparing lots of mushrooms for the freezer.  We've found that unlike many frozen foods, the flavor of Chanterelles seems to improve and become more concentrated once frozen.  I use them often throughout the year.  I usually freeze the mushrooms in three different forms: 1) chopped and sauteed with shallots or onions and maybe a little Marsala - these are great mixed with rice, in stuffings, or with baked chicken breasts; 2) made into duexelles - which are finely chopped then sauteed, also with shallots -  these I use for flavor in soups and sauces, they are also nice as a filling for rolled fish or chicken and roasted whole or in large pieces; and 3) oven roasted whole or in large pieces - these maintain their shape and are very nice in rice and grain dishes or as a garnish in soups or with meat or chicken.

This year I have chosen to oven roast most of the mushrooms mainly because roasting imparts a wonderful flavor and color to the mushrooms, they become almost caramelized.  It is also nice to end up with some large and shapely pieces.  I've roasted the mushrooms two different ways, whole or halved, and chopped with garlic  Here's how it's done:

Oven Roasted Chanterelles

Set oven to 425F. Clean mushrooms, sort by size. I like to roast small or medium mushrooms whole or cut in half, depending on how large they are.  They shrink during cooking, and my goal is to obtain something that still looks like a mushroom, but is small enough to eat in one or two bites.  Place the prepared mushrooms in a large bowl and drizzle with 1-2 Tbsp or olive oil, and a little salt.  Toss the mushrooms to coat.  Spread mushrooms out on a large baking or roasting pan.  Place in oven  until they release their liquid, it evaporates, and the mushroom become a dark golden brown color, about 30 minutes. The smell will be wonderful.  You can now eat them or place in freezer bags and freeze.

Oven Roasted Chanterelles with Garlic

I used the same technique for these except that I chopped the mushrooms into smaller pieces and added several large slivered garlics along with the oil and salt.

Watch for more recipes to come.