Chanterelles

Before I hurl myself completely into 2007, let me share one last bit of 2006 magic. I know, I know...I should have shared this little miracle when it happened, but other posts pushed their way past, and this was left in my “archives”. Coming upon it now, I still feel the mixture of joy and disbelief I first felt when I saw them...all cozy and earthy in their basket, propped up in the produce section of Santis Rockwell (a specialty food store that gladly takes my hard earned money). I grabbed the nearest salesperson, “Are th-th-those chanterelles?” She smiled and nodded.

You must understand, I love mushrooms. I buy them every chance I get. I can eat them everyday, in spite of dire warnings from yogis that “things grown in dark places” are not good for the chakras (or whatever it is yogis look after). I remember with longing the markets in Helsinki and Amsterdam…crates of wild mushrooms that looked like they had been only minutes from the forest….a burly purveyor in an old cap, a little dirt still on his hands, helping me pick out that night’s dinner.

Here in my sunny islands, you can get fresh mushrooms. Button is available, along with Asian mushrooms like shiitake, oyster, and enoki. More and more interesting finds are available in our markets. You may also find portabellos, but they will cost you. But wild mushrooms like chanterelles, morels, porcini, and trompettes des morts are only available dried…and not cheap either! Now, the mushrooms readily available in our local markets are absolutely delicious, and I do explore these guys extensively, but I miss those wild mushrooms.

So, you can imagine my delight when I saw these chanterelles. Never mind that they probably went on a long journey to get here and the forest was already just a sweet memory for them. Never mind that they came with a hefty price tag (just under P1500/kilo). They were fresh (not dried) and they were here! I eagerly picked out a small portion and rushed back home to peruse recipes.

I settled on a recipe by David Tanis from Saveur Magazine (November 2005 issue) in a feature called An American Cooks in Paris. I liked it for its simplicity, and as I had no idea when I would ever come across fresh chanterelles again, I wanted a recipe that would showcase the flavor of the mushroom, with no other distractions.

The recipe (actually it is more like a lesson as there are no exact measurements or volumes) is for Wild Mushroom Sauté and includes more than one type of mushroom. It’s an excellent basic recipe for any mushroom and is still one of my favorite ways to prepare them.

Wild Mushroom Sauté
(from Saveur Magazine November 2005 issue, page 72)

- Spread mushrooms out to dry and clean them. Trim of brown spots. Cut off bottoms and split them to remove dirt. If they are really dirty just swish them around in some warm tap water.
- Roughly slice the mushrooms.
- Heat some extra virgin olive oil in a sauté pan, add one clove of minced garlic, cook for a minute, raise the heat, and throw in the mushrooms (thickest first if using different types).
- Sauté for about 4-5 minutes.
- Season with salt and pepper then toss in some chopped parsley.
- Get the mushrooms off the fire and turn out onto a plate.

Simple and perfect…especially for my chanterelle “harvest” as this really highlights the mushroom’s flavor without much accoutrement. I was in mushroom heaven! This was one of those meals eaten with eyes closed, in hope that it wouldn’t end. Isn't it amazing how a single ingredient can transport you?

If the chanterelles and I ever cross paths again, I will be looking for recipes on The Flying Apple and Nami-Nami, two blogs that I know to have great ways with chanterelles (as I am usually at the comment box, green with envy at the mushrooms they find and cook).

***I asked the staff of Santis when they will have chanterelles again. They said that supply isn’t regular so they can’t predict. Sigh…I supposed some things are all the more magical because you never know when they will choose to grace your life again…

Porchetta

Happy New Year! A new year always has a feeling of hope and anticipation for me. No matter what has come before, or what will actually transpire after, when standing on the cusp of a New Year, anything is possible. Perhaps this sense of exhilaration also comes from a wonderful Christmas season. This Christmas was filled with such a feeling of peaceful contentment that, upon reflection, I realized I had missed for a while now. Aside from some last minute gift and food-prep, there was a distinct absence of the “hustle and bustle”…at least in my own mind. Long weekends were spent lazily wrapping gifts while watching C busy himself around the apartment with a hammer, hanging up our paintings. The time in-between Christmas dinners and get-togethers were filled with long naps and catching up on our reading. And the sense of family seemed stronger for me this year…stronger and more precious.

This was something I prepared for a small Christmas lunch in our apartment. Just my mother, my brother, C, and myself. I came across the recipe long ago here, in Keiko’s amazingly beautiful blog Nordljus. The original recipe can be found here. The piece of pork belly I used was smaller than the original 5 kg (we were only four after all), and I didn’t have any fresh thyme (so I used dried), but it turned out delicious nonetheless. I also nixed the sautéed potatoes mentioned in the original recipe; instead we had a green salad.

Porchetta
(adapted from this recipe)

• 1 piece of pork belly - ask the butcher to remove the ribs (size depends on how many people you are serving)
• coarse sea salt
• leaves from a large branch of fresh thyme (or about 2-3 tsp dried)
• needles from a large branch of fresh rosemary, roughly chopped
• a large bunch of fresh sage leaves, roughly chopped
• 1 tbsp fennel seeds (if you can find wild fennel, use it instead, finely chopped – I didn’t find any so I had to use dried…but I’m still on the lookout!)
• 8 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 4-5 tbsp runny honey
• freshly ground black pepper

- Preheat the oven to 155C. Lay the pork belly skin-side up on your chopping board and score the skin across its width.
- Flip meat over so it is now skin-side down. Sprinkle the salt and coarsely ground black pepper over it, rubbing them well into the meat. Leave to rest for ten minutes so the salt and pepper settle well into the meat.
- Sprinkle the herbs, fennel seeds and garlic evenly over it.
- Next, tie up the meat. Carefully roll the meat up width-ways and tie it very tightly with string in the middle of the joint. Then tie at either end about 1cm/½ inch from the edge and keep tying along the joint. The filling should be well wrapped, if any excess filling escapes from the sides, push it in.
- With your hands, massage one tablespoon of the olive oil all over the joint. Then rub the remaining salt and some more black pepper over it.
- Grease the rack of a large roasting tin with the remaining olive oil and place the pork on the rack, while pouring some water in the tin itself. Roast for 2.5 - 3 hours.
- Increase heat to your oven’s highest setting and roast for 15-30 minutes more to sear skin and (hopefully) produce crackling.
- Remove the joint from the oven and coat with honey, drizzling some of the juices from the roasting tin all over it too. Insert a fork in either side of the joint and lift it on to a wooden board.
- If you want, you can make some pan gravy. Remove all juices and oil from the roasting tin. Return about 2 tablespoons oil with 2 tablespoons flour into the tin and place on the hob and stir with a wooden spoon until the mixture turns a nutty brown color. Return juices to pan and add some white wine and about a cup of water, scraping the pan to deglaze. Taste and season if needed.
- Slice the joint thinly and serve with the sauce. Alternatively, leave the meat to cool and slice when needed. It will keep for up to a week in the fridge.

This turned out much better that my first attempt at roast pork…primarily, I suspect, because I would rather be eating a pork belly then a pork loin any day. The stuffing was also incredibly aromatic and produced an amazing flavor…especially the fennel, which I think goes brilliantly with pork. And the honey is just the perfect crown for this dish. Most importantly, to me at least, there seemed to be the beginnings of crackling along the edges. Just a small cluster, fighting to surface, but enough to convince me not to give up hope!

I think the emergence of the crackling can be attributed to the change I made in the cooking temperature. A tip I got from Santos. Instead of a high-heat sear in the beginning of the cooking time, I did it at the end. I also put some water at the bottom of the tin, another recommendation from my first attempt. If anyone has more suggestions, please pass them on. Crackling…you will be mine yet!


Here are some pictures of our gift-opening that day. I got a pink cake stand (hooray!!!) which came with matching aprons for C and I…mine in a retro pink pattern and C’s was the front of a gladiator! I think this was one of the Christmas celebrations I enjoyed the most…so simple and intimate, where the quality of the company was the main player (along with a yummy porchetta) :)