Potatoes, Chanterelles, Shallots in Red Wine Sauce - Recipe

Potatoes, Chanterelles, Shallots in Red Wine Sauce

I'd been ruminating on how I was going to use these heirloom Rose Finn fingerling potatoes from our garden. My first thought was to glaze them in butter with shallots and preserved lemon. Then the whole plan changed when I was walking past our co-op and spotted a huge bin of beautiful local chanterelles.

Sometimes all of the chanterelles I can find are either half dried up, or else soggy and on the verge of rotting. Not these - they were plump and firm and fully arresting. My coworkers were a bit amused when I veered off from our afternoon coffee run directly into the store and returned to work with a big bag of mushrooms.

So: out with the preserved lemon, and in with a red wine pan sauce. I should cook like this more often. Ridiculously simple, earthy, rich, and delicious. A very French feel. I particularly liked having the potatoes in the dish, because after I ate all of the mushrooms and sweet shallots, I mashed the spuds into the sauce and mopped it all up.

Potatoes, Chanterelles, Shallots in Red Wine Sauce
Vegetarian and gluten-free
Serves 2 as a major side or up to 4 as a few bites; or me for my whole dinner

• 4 tablespoons butter, divided
• 2 cups small (or cut) fingerling potatoes
• 1 cup or more chanterelle mushrooms, thoroughly wiped clean
• 4 medium or 2 very large shallots, cut into large bite-size chunks
• 1/2 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 3/4 cup red wine
• minced fresh flat-leaf parsley
• black pepper

1. In a medium skillet with a lid, melt 2 tablespoons of the butter over medium heat.
2. Add the potatoes, mushrooms, shallots, rosemary and salt and toss to coat. Cook for about 8 minutes, trying to get a little browning going but without burning anything.
3. Add 1/2 cup water, put on the lid, and reduce the heat to a simmer.
4. Cook until the potatoes are tender, adding more water as needed to keep it from burning.
5. When the potatoes are cooked, remove the top and raise the heat to cook off any remaining liquid.
6. Remove all of the vegetables to a platter, and then deglaze the pan with the wine. Raise the heat to medium high. Scrape all of the browned bits (the fond) off of the bottom of the pan into the sauce. Break up the remaining butter and whisk it vigorously into the sauce, which should have a nice sheen. This whole step should take just a couple of minutes, reducing and thickening the sauce slightly.
7. Spoon the sauce over the vegetables (either on a platter or individual plates), garnish with parsley and a grind of black pepper and serve.

Puntarelle and Tiny Potato Salad - Recipe

Salad of Puntarelle, Tiny Potatoes and Teleme

Sarina and I both fell in love from afar with these tiny little potatoes from Olsen Farms. We spotted them from a few booths away at the farmer's market, and even though we have several rows of potatoes growing at home, we had to have them. I know it is hard to see the scale, but each one was just a bit bigger than a large marble.

On the same day, I found this puntarelle (the leafy green you see in the picture). It looks a bit different than any pictures I found on the web with the same name. Possibly it was younger. Apparently it is in the chicory family. Certainly quite bitter, to the point where I wouldn't really eat it raw.

This wilted salad was my idea of how to pair these two beautiful ingredients. I added radishes, which accentuate the sharpness of the greens, creamy Teleme cheese and roasted garlic to tame them, and peaches and fine balsamico for a bit of sweetness. Toasted walnuts would be an excellent addition. Another soft cheese, a blue cheese or even feta could replace the Teleme

This same concept could be applied to other bitter greens, especially in the chicory family (escarole, radicchio, etc). If it was a head type instead of individual leaves, grilling would be a fine option.

Salad of Wilted Puntarelle, Tiny Potatoes and Teleme
Serves 4
Vegetarian and gluten-free; vegan if you omit the cheese

• 1 head of garlic
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 2 cups tiny potatoes (or cut up larger ones)
• 1 bunch of puntarelle, tough part of the stem removed
• 1 peach, peeled and cut into 8 sections
• 4 small pieces of Teleme cheese, room temperature
• 8 small radishes
• 8 slices of baguette
• salt
• balsamico

1. Slice the top 1/8" off the top of the head of garlic, wrap in tin foil, and roast in the oven or toaster oven at 375 F. for 30 minutes or until tender.
2. In a large skillet, heat the 1/4 cup of olive oil over a medium-high flame. Add the potatoes and 1/4 teaspoon of salt, and cook, stirring occasionally in a single layer until tender and the skins are beginning to brown. Blot with paper towels.
3. Drain excess oil from the skillet and add the puntarelle along with a pinch of salt and cook until it is beginning to wilt, about 1 minute.
4. Brush the baguette slices with olive oil, toast them, squeeze roasted garlic cloves on them and spread.
5. To assemble the salad, divide the greens among 4 plates. Top with the potatoes, peach sections,, cheese, radishes and roasted garlic toasts. Sprinkle on a bit more flaky sea salt and give them each a drizzle of balsamico.

Ultra-Local Homefries, Tomatoes and Eggs - Breakfast for Dinner! - Recipe

Everything but the salt and olive oil was local on this one. Purple Viking potatoes and Purple Cherokee tomatoes from our backyard, chili de arbol from Alvarez farm, onions from the farmer's market, and crowned with eggs from my friend Dan's backyard chickens.

This was so good I made it for dinner two nights in a row. I think everyone loves breakfast for dinner because it almost feels like you are getting away with something.

Home-made homefries (is that redundant?) are infinitely better than you find in most restaurants, because you can get them really crispy and serve them while they are still crispy. In restaurants, homefries are usually cut too large and cooked in a big pile on a flat-top griddle, where they mostly steam. Bah.

Here's how I make homefries; I'll leave it to you to slice the the tomatoes and fry eggs. Sunny-side up, of course. The yolk mixed with the potatoes and the tomato juices is just ridiculous. Hit the whole thing with some flaky sea salt and fresh ground pepper before serving.

Homefries
Serves 2 as a major part of a meal
Vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free (obviously not vegan if you serve it with the eggs above though)

• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 white onion, 3/8" dice
• 1 fresh chili de arbol or other hot pepper, seeded and thinly sliced (optional)
• 1.5 pounds potatoes, any kind, skin-on, 3/8" dice
• kosher salt

1. Heat your biggest skillet, preferably cast-iron, over a medium-high flame. You want a really big pan to maximize surface area. Add the oil and onion, and the chili if using, and saute for 30 seconds.
2. Add the potato and two big pinches of salt, and stir to coat with the oil. Distribute into a single layer, or as close as possible. Every 3 minutes or so, flip them with a spatula, trying as much as possible to get uncooked surfaces onto the skillet, and of course maintaining the single layer.
3. Fry until deep golden brown; taste and add salt as needed.
4. Serve while still hot and crispy. Awesome topped with a fried egg and slices of garden tomatoes.