Etoufee with a Rainforest Twist

Etoufee is a classic Cajun and creole dish. “Etoufee” translates roughly to “smothered.”

Traditionally, etoufees are made with shrimp or crawfish but faced, one day, with an abundance of chanterelle mushrooms and some unexpected vegetarians at my table, I thought I’d try a vegetarian version, replacing the shellfish entirely with cleaned and sliced chanterelles. Despite the regional wrongness -- a classic Southern US favorite made with mushrooms most often found in the rainforest -- the dish was a big success.

Another replacement: classically, where I’ve indicated olive oil, the Cajun and creole versions would use butter. I like the foresty flavor the olive oil adds, plus that simple swap makes this dish not only vegetarian, but completely vegan. However the dish works equally well -- and is perhaps even a little richer -- when made with butter.

Mushroom Etoufee

Ingredients:

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil or butter or a combination of both
1/4 all purpose or unbleached flour
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1/4 cup finely chopped celery
1/4 cup finely chopped bell pepper
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup diced tomatoes, fresh or canned
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon black Ppepper
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1 teasp dried thyme
1 teaspoon basil
1 teaspoon oregano
2 cups vegetable or mushroom stock
1 tablespoon hot sauce
4 cups fresh sliced chanterelles or 2 cups dried mushrooms

If using dried mushrooms, start by adding boiling water to mushrooms to cover. Cover with lid and set aside for at least one hour.

Meanwhile, heat 1/4 cup olive oil in a heavy bottom pot over medium heat. Add flour and whisk until the roux turns a dark golden color, between 15 and 20 minutes. Add onion, celery and bell pepper and continue to whisk until the vegetables start to soften. Add garlic, paprika, black pepper, cayenne, thyme, basil and oregon and continue to whisk for a further two minutes. Still whisking, add the tomatoes and stir. When the liquid has all been absorbed, add the stock, a little at a time, until it as all incorporated. Finally add the mushrooms, reduce heat, cover with a tight-fitting lid and simmer 20 minutes.

You should now have a thick, rich-looking stew. If it seems too thick, add a bit more liquid: stock, if you still have some, or even a bit of water, a 1/4 cup at a time. If it’s too thin, leave the lid off, raise the heat slightly and stir while the sauce thickens.

Serve over long-grained white rice.

Serves 6

Spring is Sprung: Nettle Chocolate Chip Biscotti

Stinging nettles offer the first peeks of green after winter’s grey-brown. They offer a promise, but not without bite. This year, a nasty cold raged through our house days after I saw the first spiny shoots. I hastened to make a healing broth, adding finely chopped baby nettle leaves to the tonic right before serving. They are so full of everything you need to recover from winter, that cold didn’t stand a chance once I’d hit it with a mittfull of nettle leaves.

By now, in my neck of the woods, the nettles are beginning to grow tall and strong. I pluck only the very tender tips of the plant, and only in the brightest part of spring. When first picked, they smell exactly as they look: bright green and filled with promise.

The problem in our house is that, even though we know stinging nettles are super good for us, no one here likes them very much. It’s something about the fine fuzz on the leaves. Even though even light cooking takes the sting out, the fuzz is unpleasant to certain palates; mine among them. I do a very finely chopped creamed nettle-type of dish that I don’t mind very much. It’s inspired by the Austrian preparation of spinach that my mother used to do: very finely chopped nettles are added to a roux (in this case, equal amounts of butter or olive oil and flour) with water as needed and seasoning to taste. This creates a bright green paste that is slightly evil-looking, but surprisingly delicious.

These Nettle Chocolate Chip Biscotti are about as far opposite of that evil green gruel as can be imagined. If you like biscotti, you’ll love these: and never mind if you like nettle or not. Even though I use quite a bit, you can’t taste anything beyond a slight and pleasant earthiness.

Nettle Chocolate Chip Biscotti

3.5 cups unbleached flour
2.5 cups sugar
½ teaspoon baking soda
1.5 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
3 eggs
1 cup chopped, boiled nettles, with liquid squeezed out
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 300F.

Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt in food processor. Blend dry ingredients. While processor is running add eggs, then nettles. Blend until ingredients are roughly blended. (Some of the flour mixture will appear bright green, some will be pale but moist from the eggs.) Turn out into a large bowl. Add chocolate chips and mix until roughly blended and holds together when packed. If the mixture does not hang together, beat another egg and add it to the mixture a very small amount at a time until the a dough forms when handled.

Turn the dough onto a floured surface and form a large ball. Separate into two even pieces and form a log from each, about 1-inch high and three or four across. Pack each log portion very tightly, to remove excess air or cracks. Transfer to a heavy parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, until the logs are dry and firm. Remove to a wire cooling rack and allow to stand for up to half an hour, until logs are cool enough to handle. Using your best bread knife, cut the logs into 1-inch pieces and transfer to a baking sheet. Reduce heat to 265F and bake for 10-15 minutes, turning the biscotti halfway through baking.

Remember: the longer the second bake, the sturdier, harder and drier the cookie will be, so adjust this to your own taste.

A Wedding Meal Without Compromise

In one of those odd turns of fate that life hands us, during a full calendar of wedding catering in the summer of 2010, we at Foodisima prepared not a single wedding meal that included meat other than -- in certain cases -- some wild and sustainably caught salmon.

We did some beautiful weddings, too. They were mostly gorgeous affairs that included white dresses, rented tuxes, perfectly turned-out bridesmaids, elegant cakes and weeping mothers of the bride. In short, from the outside looking in, they were mostly somewhat traditional, beautiful weddings. And the food we prepared for these weddings was beautiful and, in some ways, traditional, as well. That is, looking at the food what you would see is elegant, well-prepared and served wedding fare.

Foodisima Catering & Chef Services have always prided ourselves on local food that is, as much as possible, handmade. We make our own stocks and sauces, our own breads. Our polenta begins with cornmeal and when we serve scones or sorbets (and a lot of other things!) they are made by hand.

Over the years, our own awareness of local, organic food has grown to the point where we are very sensitive of carbon footprints, not only for ourselves but for our clients: we recycle, of course (doesn’t everyone?), but we also expend a lot of effort thinking about how we can not only reduce our own waste, but that of our clients, as well. It turns out that if you think like that long enough and hard enough, it trickles down into everything you do. Which, one way or another, led to the summer of 2010: all those weddings. No meat.

In the middle of what I think I will look back on as a watershed summer, Chelsea Clinton got married. And it happened that while I was busy preparing stocks and sauces and dressings for what would be a mostly vegan wedding, I was hearing about how Clinton -- who is vegan -- would be serving some vegan cuisine at her wedding, but also organically raised beef. The thought of this very prominent vegan serving meat at her wedding sort of appalled me. After all, this would be her day. Well, her and her (presumably also vegan) groom. If you can not, on that very special day, ask that your friends and family respect your choices, when can you? The rationale I heard (though admittedly not from Clinton herself) was that people have traditionally offered vegetarian options at carnivorecentric weddings, so why should vegan weddings not offer meat for attending carnivores? And my answer to that is... well, it’s different.

It isn’t that we at Foodisima don’t like meat or have a problem with it. In fact, aside from the watershed wedding thing, we prepared meat for a lot of other types of functions last summer. We don’t mind doing it and we do it very well. Also, if you want meat at your wedding -- if that’s part of your personal design brief for your special day, or even if it’s just that you always dreamed of filet mignon at your wedding, or chicken kiev, that’s just what you should have. But if what you really want is a different kind of wedding, well... nothing need stand in your way.

See, here’s the thing: for many people, their wedding will be the largest party they ever host. And it’s meaningful, this party. It represents a new beginning, in a way. And the birth of a new aspect in a special relationship. A whole new day. A party like that -- an important party, heavy in symbolism and sharing -- should stand for something. Especially if the wedding couples have made choices of conviction in their lives.

And here’s the other thing: even while I was hearing about Clinton’s compromise at her own wedding, I knew from experience that it was a compromise not worth making. And why? Because by that point I had helped create a special and meaningful day for several vegetarian couples and had watched while guest after guest not only ate happily of the vegetarian and vegan food on offer, they raved about it: this including grumpy looking uncles and obviously meat-eating dads. That’s because we’ve discovered that really good vegetarian and vegan celebration food is not about what isn’t there. It’s truly about celebrating what is.

Somewhere during that watershed summer -- somewhere between Chelsea and eight or ten happy brides -- I came to a place of conviction about what a wedding meal should look like. Truly, it can take many forms: it can be a stand-up affair, with luscious tidbits handed round by cater-waiters. It can be five courses beautifully served while the wedding party sips and toasts. Or it can be a bountiful buffet. But whatever it consists of, it should reflect the convictions of the wedding couple, whatever they happen to be.

This is your special day. The most special day ever. It need not be a day for compromise: it’s the day that will take you forward into the next phase of your life. Having that day -- and that beautiful party -- perfectly reflect your beliefs is not too much to ask.

Warm Beet Salad with Beet & Red Wine Emulsion and Feta Cheese over Arugala

Though I’ve been evolving this dish over the last several years, I created this particular version for a wedding Foodisima catered earlier this month. The bride’s colors were “fig” and green and the gorgeous red of the beets on the bold green of the arugala fit the bill perfectly.

It’s fun when you can tailor a wedding menu to not only suit the wedding couple’s lifestyle and tastes, but the colors they’ve chosen for their special day, as well.

This salad is at its most delicious when served just slightly warm. Warmth brings out the earthy sweetness of the beets and the rich, salty flavor of the feta while arugala’s sharp bite provides a welcome counterpoint. Vegans take note: without the feta, this is a gorgeous vegan first course.

2 pounds beets
1 cup red wine
½ cup balsamic vinegar
sea salt
freshly ground pepper
4 wedges feta cheese

Scrub beets, remove greens and roast beets in a casserole with a tight-fitting lid at 425 F for 90 minutes or until beets pierce easily with a fork.

Allow beets to cool before removing skins. The cooked beets should slide easily from their jackets. Slice beets in ¼-inch rounds, set aside reserving approx. one quarter of the cooked beets. Place the reserved beets in a medium-sized pot with the wine and balsamic vinegar. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to simmer and cook until liquid reduces by half: approximately 15 minutes.

Puree beets, wine and vinegar with an immersion blender or food processor, adding salt and pepper to taste. When puree is very fine pour mixture through a fine sieve, pressing with a wooden spoon until as much liquid as possible has been pushed through. Set aside.

To assemble, warm cooked beet rounds slightly.

Arrange a bed of arugala on the plate. Mound one quarter of the sliced beets at the center of the plate. Surround this with about two big tablespoons of the beet and wine emulsion. Top with wedge of feta and serve.

Photo by David Middleton.