Recession Special Recipe: Miso Risotto

Welcome to the first installment of the Recession Special Recipe. As I mentioned in a previous post, I'll be taking pricey and delicious dishes from restaurants and deconstructing them so they're easy, and above all affordable for all of us to make at home. The first recipe is my version of a dish served at David Chang's newest offering, Ko, the twelve seat restaurant said to be revolutionizing the food scene. I recently splurged with a meal there, and have to say that it's one of the best I've ever had. There are no favors at Ko, where reservations can only be made at 10 am via computer, and every seating is booked by 10:01. Luck and determination are the only things that can buy you a seat that's (in my humble opinion) well worth the effort. Twelve lucky folks are sat for a 3 to 4 hour lunch, as are another twelve for dinner. Fortunately, all twelve seats are arranged around the open kitchen so that in between courses (all 17 of them) you're able to sneak a peek at how each of three chefs makes a dish. There are no waiters or busboys and each dish is served via chef, crossing the threshold from kitchen to table. The kitchen is quiet as the meal is made, all swift motions and silent communication among chefs. The atmosphere however, is anything but austere as a combination of classic and modern rock blares over speakers while the hostesses refill water glasses with ninja-like stealth.

Although there were many dishes worthy copying, this one was by far the simplest served that day, packed with flavor and perfectly balanced. It also had the least expensive ingredients and seemed the easiest to replicate. It was a miso risotto topped with crispy guanciale and grilled maitaki mushrooms. The miso was extra creamy, with a smooth sweet-and-salty flavor that contrasted really well with the crunchy texture of the guanciale (an unsmoked bacon-like cut of pork from the jowl). The guanciale's smoky flavor was only enhanced by the pillowy soft, lightly charred grilled mushrooms. I decided that to bring the price point down on the dish, the guanciale should be replaced by thick cut bacon. After all, the point is to provide that smoky pork goodness, a little fat, and lots of crunch. The only real sacrifice of ingredients here is in replacing the maitaki mushrooms with another type. I used regular button mushrooms, but almost any kind will do. An excellent replacement would be oyster mushrooms, which are also somewhat pricey, but are actually a little cheaper this time of year, so if you feel the urge to splurge, that's where I would do it.

Figuring out the recipe (or my closest approximation) was surprisingly easy. After some research I found out that Ming Tsai (one of my favorite East-meets-West chefs) has already done an excellent miso risotto, and his recipe answered some of my main questions about how exactly to go about making the rice (do I stir in the miso paste at the end? Do I use miso broth?), my only real point of confusion. After that I just dry grilled the mushrooms on my grill pan (it's no open flame like in the restaurant, but I tried), and rendered the bacon, which I cut into nice chunky pieces. After I assembled it all, I drizzled the dish with a little bit of rendered pork fat, because I figure, what's better than a little fat during these lean times? Here's the recipe I came up with, I hope it feels like an indulgence, it certainly did for me. 

Miso Risotto

4 cups warm low sodium chicken or vegetable broth

3 Tbsp light miso paste (shiro miso)

1 1/2 cups arborio rice

1 shallot, finely diced

1 garlic clove, minced

1/2 cup shiao hsing wine or sherry

2 Tbsp malt vinegar

2 button mushrooms, sliced

4 slices thick-cut bacon, sliced

3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

2 Tbsp butter

1. Dissolve the miso paste in hot broth and set aside.

2. Heat oil, shallot and garlic in a large non-stick skillet and sweat until softened. Add rice and toast until white and opaque. Add wine and vinegar, cooking until absorbed.

3. Add enough broth/miso mixture to just cover rice (about 2 ladlefuls) and stir until absorbed. Repeat until rice is cooked through and creamy.

4. Meanwhile, heat a grill pan or small non-stick skillet and grill mushrooms until browned and charred. Remove to a plate and set aside. Cook bacon in the same pan until crispy. Remove to a plate and reserve pan drippings. 

5. Plate risotto and top with bacon and mushrooms. Drizzle with 1 teaspoon of the reserved bacon drippings and serve. Enjoy!

-Laura

gnocchi

There are some days that I want something decadent and delicious. After a few days of leftovers and lighter food, the time finally came to splurge. The problem was that even though I was looking for something on the opulent side, I didn't want anything that was all too heavy and would weigh me down. I'd recently been discussing the delicious homemade gnocchi at Max here in NYC with a friend and couldn't get the little buggers out of my head. So after days of ignoring my craving and avoiding the sense memory of the excellent Gorgonzola gnocchi special I last ate at Max, I finally caved and decided to make an easy, yet impressive gnocchi dish for myself.

I recently decided to splurge on some lovely mushrooms that I don't normally use, like woodears and oyster mushrooms, adding a few fresh shiitake's to the mix as well for a meatier texture. I wasn't quite sure what application or dish I'd be using them in, but they seemed like a perfect thing to match with some fresh sage I'd just bought. I didn't want to bother making the Gorgonzola sauce from Max's (it'd be such a let down if it wasn't as good as theirs) so I went with my own light cream sauce and threw in a few of the mushrooms I'd purchased. I'd been toiling away in my head trying to figure out how to make a combination sage butter sauce with a little more body, and traditional cream sauce. I ended up testing out a sauce that used quite a bit of butter, a splash of white wine, a little chicken stock and just a tad bit of cream.

It turned out great and came together incredibly quickly. The flavor had some complexity to it and wasn't as flat as other thicker cream sauces, plus it didn't have heaps of cream. It's even possible to make this dish with half and half or a mix of cream and milk (which is basically half and half). Even though I didn't make the actual potato gnocchi myself (I bought fresh gnocchi), it still tasted like eating little pillows of heaven. The mushrooms were also a delicious addition, especially paired with the sage.

Gnocchi with Mushrooms and Sage Cream

1 package fresh gnocchi
4 sage leaves (6 if they're really small)
8 Tbsp butter
1 cup of your favorite mushrooms, sliced (anything but button mushrooms)
1/3 cup white wine
1/3 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup heavy cream or half and half
salt
pepper

1. Heat 3 Tbsp of butter in a non-stick skillet with sage leaves and cook on medium-low heat until sage becomes fragrant. Add mushrooms (salt and pepper to taste) and sauté until cooked through. Remove mushrooms to a plate and set aside.

2. Add the remaining butter to skillet and melt. Add wine, stock and cream and cook until reduced and slightly thickened.

3. Meanwhile, cook gnocchi according to package directions in a large pot of salted, boiling water (usually about 2 minutes).

4. When sauce is ready, add gnocchi and mushrooms to skillet. Toss to coat and serve immediately. Enjoy!

-Laura

Everything's Better With Bacon

As I mentioned earlier in the week, I am forever on a quest to get people over their food fears. I happen to love most of the weird green veggies with bad reputations, but I can understand one's trepidation when faced with mountains of spinach, brussels sprouts and lima beans. One of my favorite not-so-popular veggies is asparagus, which works in several preparations from appetizers to main course, and even works extremely well on the grill. I will personally eat it any way I can get it, whether it's steamed and dipped in mayo, oven roasted with tons of fragrant spices, or grilled and drizzled with dressing.

Asparagus is in season now and incredibly delicious. When it's cooked just right there's a subtle sweetness and a wonderful crunch to it. When it's overcooked it's limp and disappointing, which is one of the worst food faux pas that I could imagine, and probably the root of many a child's distaste for it. I've always found that it pairs best with slightly salty ingredients that compliments its sweetness, and I'm sure this will surprise no one, but I usually go with pork products. For parties I often wrap asparagus in prosciutto and roast it, then shave some Parmesan cheese over it. It's quick to cook, easy to eat, and definitely a crowd pleaser. This time I decided to pair the asparagus with bacon and shiitake mushrooms. I kept the asparagus whole and sautéed it with the chopped bacon and mushrooms, but it could definitely be cut on the diagonal and tossed with pasta or folded into an omelet. Any type of bacon (pork, turkey, or fake bacon) will do so long as it has that smoky flavor and slight saltiness associated with traditional bacon. Any meaty mushroom would work as well, but I'd avoid button mushrooms since they lack texture and flavor. This would certainly work as a vegetarian dish as well, I'd just add a little extra seasoning if you'd like to leave bacon out altogether. Here's my recipe:

Asparagus with Shiitake Mushrooms and Bacon

1 bunch asparagus, ends trimmed
8 shiitake mushrooms, chopped, stems removed
3 strips bacon, chopped
1 small shallot (or half a large one) minced
1 garlic clove, minced
juice of half a lemon
extra virgin olive oil
salt
pepper

1. Cook asparagus in a large pot of salted boiling water until tender-crisp, about 3 minutes. Run under ice water to stop cooking. Dry and set aside.

2. Cook bacon in a medium sized skillet until crispy. Remove bacon from skillet and set aside, leaving rendered bacon fat in skillet.

3. Add olive oil (about 3 Tbsp) to skillet, along with shallot and garlic. Cook for about a minute then add lemon juice.

4. Add mushrooms and sauté until tender. Add bacon to skillet along with asparagus, tossing to coat. Remove from the heat and drizzle with a bit more extra virgin olive oil. Plate asparagus topped with bacon/mushroom mixture . Enjoy!

-Laura

Rescue Me

This weekend I executed a rescue mission. Unlike my last mission, where I feigned injury to get a friend out of an unfortunate first date, this mission involved saving food from an ugly and untimely demise. You see, despite my best attempts at overeating in the days before moving from my old apartment to my new one, there were still plenty of ingredients left in my fridge and freezer. Chicken, ground beef, frozen veggies and several expensive condiments were left stranded on the east side, just days from seeing the inside of the new tenants garbage can. Inspired by the action stars of my childhood (which all appear to be popular again), I set forth to rescue my food and veggies and cart them to my new home across town. While we're semi on topic, why were people always stranded or held captive in the jungle in the 80's? And why are they all involved in politics now? What's next, Senator Jean-Claude Van Damme?

Anyway, back to the food. My mission ended with a plop on the sofa after a few pulled muscles and a cab ride I couldn't afford. But, my new fridge (and I do mean new--no more 1970's appliances here!) was now stocked, as was my freezer. I was finally able to plan a few meals for the week ahead...or at least that's what I should have done. Instead, I went to a big fabulous Oscar party and schmoozed, while only occasionally leaving the snack table to see who'd won. So it's no surprise that as I awoke the next morning, it occurred to me that I'd probably be spending a fair amount of time standing in front of the fridge figuring out the night's dinner. Having not yet made my morning coffee, I stood with one foot on the other, in my pj's, staring at the contents of my fridge. Cold, tired, and terribly under caffeinated, I reached in with both hands, grabbing the two closest ingredients: chicken and spinach.

It was only after I'd gotten to work (and two cups of coffee into my day) that it occurred to me...I've never actually used those two ingredients in tandem. Throwing ideas around with Alyssa, my fellow home cook, it was suggested that I roll the chicken breast around the spinach, a method I'd never tried. A quick recipe search gave me a few ideas for the spinach stuffing, which included mushrooms (already about to die in my crisper), almonds, and the Spanish contribution to the recipe, chorizo (I had to sneak in pimentón and pork products somehow). I ended up veering from all of the recipes I'd found, but I did borrow the idea of using a compound butter to keep the thin chicken breast moist as it roasted in the oven. The dish turned out great, and I even made a quick pan sauce while the chicken rested. So in the end, despite all of the exhaustion and strained muscles, the rescue mission was worth the effort. Now if I could only find someone to rescue me from all these dishes... Chuck? Arnold? Anyone?

Spinach and Mushroom Stuffed Chicken with Chorizo

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, pounded thin
1 1/2 cups frozen spinach, thawed, excess liquid drained
2 cups mushrooms, chopped (I used shiitake and oyster, but anything will do)
1/2 cup chorizo, chopped
1/4 cup white wine
2 Tbsp butter

Compound Butter
4 Tbsp butter
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tsp red pepper flake
2 tsp parsley

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Combine all of the ingredients of the compound butter until well incorporated.

2. Melt 2 Tbsp of the butter mixture in a skillet. Add the mushrooms and sauté until tender. Add the chorizo and sauté another minute. In a small bowl, set aside a tablespoon of the mushroom and chorizo mixture.

3. Add spinach to skillet and cook until warmed through. Set aside.

4. Take half of the remaining butter mixture and spread onto one side of each chicken breast. Spoon 3 tablespoons of the spinach filling onto each piece of chicken (buttered side) and roll to close. Place on a baking tray and top each rolled piece of chicken with the remaining butter mixture. Cook in the oven for 20-30 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through.

5. Meanwhile, warm the mushroom and chorizo mixture that was set aside in a skillet. Add the white wine and cook until reduced by 1/3. Remove from the heat and whisk in butter until combined.

6. Plate the chicken and drizzle with wine butter sauce. Enjoy!

-Laura

Artery Clogging Goodness

In my continued attempt to use everything in my fridge, it occurred to me that I'd bought some beautiful mushrooms at the green market and completely forgotten about them. I've been trying to perfect a mushroom ragu for quite some time now, and intended to test my final recipe a few days ago. But, I've been so busy apartment hunting and actually socializing (have I mentioned that I'm on a volleyball team now?) that I didn't get the chance until late last week.

A ragu is traditionally a meat sauce (like a bolognese) served with pasta and cooked slowly in a tomato based sauce. I don't care for very many tomato based sauces and happen to be particularly picky about how they're made, so I decided to change things up a bit (for my own sanity). First, I replaced the meat with a trio of mushrooms in various shapes, colors and textures. I started out with a few cups of crimini's because of their "meaty" texture (they're young portobello's), then a few shitake's for a hint of tartness, and lastly, a handful of long, slender white beech mushrooms. Then, I replaced the chunky, veggie filled tomato sauce with vast amounts of fruity olive oil and rich French butter. I didn't really want to add any other veg, so I decided to go with a lot of delicious and fragrant herbs--thyme, parsley and sage--instead.

For a bit of heat and added flavor I added a few teaspoons of red pepper flake and several turns of freshly cracked white pepper. Now, I realize that this will just look like sautéed mushrooms floating in heaps of butter and olive oil, but it's so much more than that. First, it doesn't actually feel or taste overly oily, and that's for a few reasons. Because the mushrooms are cooked slowly, over low heat, they release their juices into the sauce as they cook. Secondly, I started the whole thing in tons of minced garlic and shallots which perfume everything and absorb a lot of the oil and butter (as do the mushrooms). And thirdly, it's basically a sauce that needs to coat whatever pasta it's served with, so you need lots of liquid, and what's better than silky olive oil and butter? I like serving it over long pasta noodles like buccatini, or even simple flat egg noodles. Recently I've also tried stirring it into couscous, where the butter and olive oil help to fluff up every last grain. Here's the recipe I came up with:

Mushroom Ragu

4 cups crimini mushrooms, sliced
1 cup shitake mushrooms, sliced
1 1/2 cups beech or enoki mushrooms
2 shallots, minced
4 garlic cloves, minced
5 Tbsp butter (the best butter you can find would be great)
1/4 cup, plus 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp ground sage
1 tsp ground thyme
1 tsp chopped parsley plus extra for garnish
2 tsp red pepper flake, plus extra for garnish
1/2 tsp white pepper
1/4 cup white wine
salt

1. Sauté shallot and garlic in 1 Tbsp each butter and olive oil on medium low heat until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Season with a pinch of salt.

2. Add the mushrooms, remaining butter and olive oil, and turn to coat. After the butter has melted, reduce heat to low and add sage, thyme, parsley, pepper, red pepper flake and season with salt to taste. Cook about 5-7 minutes until mushrooms are soft and almost done, then add white wine. Continue cooking until mushrooms are cooked through. Serve over pasta, couscous or lentils, and garnish with parsley and red pepper flake. Enjoy!

-Laura

Olive Tree Mail Bag #2: Three Mushroom Sauté

In this, the second installment of the Olive Tree Mail Bag, we tackle a request from Julie, who is looking for a fun vegetarian side dish that she can bring to her family's Thanksgiving dinner. I figured I'd go for a less traditional vegetable, but stick with spices that would still echo those used in the rest of the holiday dinner. After running it by Julie, I learned that she happens to love mushrooms, which is exactly what I intended to use for her dish.

Although I haven't found any evidence to support this, I am convinced that mushrooms were present at the original Thanksgiving dinner. After all, they grow in the wild all over the US, (unlike other delicious Thanksgiving treats) and they make appearances in cuisines the world over. Okay, so I don't have much of a case. But trust me, mushrooms will give your family a really nice break from all of the green and orange stuff at the table.

As much as I love mushrooms on their own, I think they taste best when multiple types are cooked together. This makes for great depth of flavor and texture, in addition to adding to the languid, tangled look of the final dish. Of the mushrooms that are available in (most) grocery stores, I chose my three favorites: shitake, oyster (Julie's fave), and crimini. These all have distinctly different flavors that layer really well together, some being sweeter than others. As I mentioned earlier, the herbs and spices include traditional Thanksgiving flavors like sage and thyme, which not only work well with mushrooms, but can be found in almost every version of stuffing, and in most brands of poultry seasoning. Much to my mother's horror (we're strictly a Spanish olive oil family), I like finishing off this dish with a pat of butter. It adds some body and gives the finished dish a nice glossy sheen. What can I say, sometimes traditional French techniques creep in.

So as you can see, if you're looking for something different to add to your Thanksgiving repertoire, this is a good dish to try. Please remember that mushrooms shrink quite a bit from raw to cooked, and what you see in the photo started out as 4 cups (ending in about 2), so don't be afraid to multiply the recipe if you're cooking for a big group. Here's how to start:


3 Mushroom Sauté

4 cups mushrooms (I used shitake, oyster and crimini)
5 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 1/2 tsp red pepper flake
1 tsp parsley
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 sage
1/4 tsp rosemary
3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp butter
salt

1. Thinly slice all of the mushrooms after removing stems from the shitake's and oyster's, making sure to clean any grit off with a damp paper towel. Grind all of the spices (I used dried) and set aside.

2. Heat olive oil and garlic in a medium pan. Add mushrooms, red pepper flake and the ground spices to the pan and sauté. Salt to taste. If the mixture starts to look dry, add a tablespoon of olive oil.

3. When the mushrooms are cooked through, turn off the heat and add the butter. Mix until melted and serve. Enjoy!

-Laura

Rice Rice Baby

It seems like this week nothing that I plan on cooking ever happens. Evidently, squid is in short supply in Murray Hill, the raging fires in California make it difficult to buy iceberg lettuce, and my local supermarket no longer carries Yukon gold potatoes. So, what's a cook to do? Adapt, I guess. Luckily, I had a few back-ups when I took to food shopping yesterday afternoon. I'd narrowed down today's dish to three options, and settled on a French style chicken liver dish (vetoed by nearly everyone I mentioned it to) that I make about twice a month. But, once again the fates conspired against me and my supermarket did not have all of the ingredients necessary to make the refreshing salad that tops the dish. This time I was less annoyed. By the time I got home I wasn't really in the mood for liver anyway, so I took advantage of my stocked fridge and made another back-up meal-- risotto.

Risotto seems to have a bad rap, mostly because it has a rep for being complicated and time consuming. Not so! Even the simplest risotto, say, a saffron scented one with no extra add ins takes only 22 minutes, and it's just a matter of stirring. Pop in your favorite Cd, grab a wooden spoon, and before your Cd's done playing, you've got risotto. The one thing to keep in mind is that you use the correct type of rice. Arborio is a short grain rice. The shorter the grain, the starchier it is. And it's that starch in the rice that creates risotto's creamy texture. If you have to add cream or milk, well...you're doing it wrong. So long as you routinely stir the risotto as it cooks, each grain of rice will be encouraged to release it's starch, leaving you with a super creamy final product. I went with a mushroom, green pea and prosciutto risotto and it turned out great! That's not being pompous, trust me, I've seriously massacred many a risotto recipe in the not so distant past. But if I can master it, I'm sure you can, so give it a go. It's a great thing to have in your cooking repertoire for using up leftover ingredients. Here's how this one went:

Mushroom Risotto with Green Peas and Prosciutto

Olive oil
3 cups mushrooms, sliced
1 cup arborio rice
3 cups chicken or vegetable stock, warmed (I just heat it in the microwave)
1/4 cup frozen peas
2 sheets prosciutto, sliced
1 garlic clove
1/2 tsp red pepper flake
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
salt
pepper

1. Sauté mushrooms in olive oil along with garlic, thyme and red pepper flake. Salt and pepper to taste. When mushrooms are a quarter of the way cooked through, add the rice and more salt, and sauté until opaque, about 2 minutes.

2. Add a half a cup of stock (I used chicken) and stir until absorbed. Repeat until risotto is cooked through (about 22 minutes). Right before it's done stir in the green peas, Parmesan, and prosciutto. Enjoy!

-Laura