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Smoked Salmon Canapés on Potato Crisps

27 Dec

It’s been a literal number of years since my husband and I have done anything at all to celebrate New Year’s Eve.  The last time we agreed to venture out on that particular evening, we were holed up at the house of some people we knew, constantly checking the clock to see how much time had passed since we got there, and if it would be terribly rude for us to bid a hasty retreat, let’s see…right now.

It’s not that we are averse to spending time with other people, and it’s not as though we hold any particular grudge against New Year’s Eve as a concept, but it’s just that, in a celebratory sense, I think New Year’s Eve is one of those holidays that sets people up to feel disappointed.  Much like Valentine’s Day, the only holiday I think should be actually stricken from existence (seriously—kids not getting Valentine’s Day cards, people thinking their significant other is duty-bound to shower them with trinkets, the horrible, terrible movies—intentionally or not, it’s just designed to make people feel bad about themselves), there seems to be an unnaturally high amount of expectation surrounding New Year’s Eve.  As the calendar year begins anew, people are led to believe that so go their lives, their opportunities, and their accomplishments.

It is understandable that some people may find it helpful to assign a specific day as the starting point for their goals, but why resign yourself to thinking that there is only one day a year that allows you to make decisions regarding how you’d like your life to change?  If you’re going to develop resolve to become a more invested parent, why wait until a particular day to begin that challenge?  If you want to become more involved in charity work, it seems wise to start offering your time sooner rather than later.  Do you want to save more money?  Start now.  Go back to school?  Okay, so you’ll have to wait until the start of a new term, but, still, if you want to go back to school, go back to school.

My feelings about certain foods fall very much in line with my feelings about holidays that are meant to boss people around.  I know that Thanksgiving is the holiday of eating turkey and giving thanks, but, really, can’t I have turkey and feel thankful year round?  I think I can.  And, being as though I hold a particularly strong affection for what my husband refers to as “little bites” (tiny sandwiches, tiny cookies, tiny pies, cracker bites, you get the idea), I think that, cocktail/holiday/New Year’s Eve party be damned, if I want to eat canapés for dinner and ponder the myriad of ways I’d like to help make the world a better place for my son, his son (or daughter) and all those who come before and after, I should go ahead and do so whenever I please.

So here’s to the start of not just a new year, but a new way of thinking about the new year and what it means.  Your new year can start any time you want it to.  And your dinner of smoked salmon on crisp discs of olive oil roasted potatoes, joined by a creamy dill spread that’s topped with an absolutely heavenly relish of shallots and rice vinegar?  Yeah, that can start at any time.

Smoked Salmon Canapés on Potato Crisps

Potato Crisps

1 pound Yukon gold potatoes, which generally works out to 2 large potatoes

4 tablespoons olive oil

salt and pepper

Shallot Relish

¼ cup finely chopped shallots

heaping ¼ teaspoon sugar

2 teaspoons rice vinegar

Creamy Dill Spread

2 tablespoons cream cheese

3 tablespoons sour cream or crème freche

½ teaspoon dried dill

pinch of salt

Plus:

8 ounces smoked salmon (you can make your own!)

To make the potato crisps, preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.  Move one oven rack to the upper third position, and one rack to the lower third.

Slice potatoes into ¼-inch rounds.  You can use a mandoline slicer to do this, but I find that a very sharp knife works just fine.  Divide the olive oil between two baking sheets, drizzling the oil over as much of the surface as possible.  Arrange the potato slices on the oil baking sheets, turning the potato slices over and moving them along the surface of the baking sheet to make sure each slice is well oiled on each side.  Sprinkle the potatoes with salt and pepper.  Bake the potato slices for 25 minutes, flipping each potato slice halfway through, and also swapping the positions of the baking sheets (so the bottom one is now on top, and vice versa).

When the edges of the potatoes are crisp, browned, and sizzling, remove the potatoes to a paper towel-lined plate and set aside to cool.

To make the shallot relish, combine all the ingredients in a small bowl, mix thoroughly, then set aside for at least 15 minutes.

To make the dill spread, combine all the ingredients in a small bowl, and mix thoroughly.

To assemble a canapé, place a small amount of dill spread on top of a cooled potato crisp.  Top the dill spread with a small dollop of shallot relish.  Place a chunk of smoked salmon on top of the relish.

Makes about 24 canapés.

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Roasted Portobello Mushroom Caps with Apple Pecan Stuffing and Caramelized Onion Mushroom Gravy

2 Dec

Recently it occurred to me that when I entered (and subsequently lost) that cooking contest, lo those many weeks ago, I created a recipe that I came to love so much, I just don’t think it would be right to let the recipe languish on the contest’s website.  I don’t think it is against the contest’s rules to take my recipe back, so, if nobody objects, I believe I will.

My hunch is that, if you never mention its absence, nobody will even think to bemoan the lack of meat in this meal.  It really is that fulfilling, and in a way that I think all vegetarian and vegan food should be.  I am not making any substitutions for meat here, I am simply celebrating and building upon what these fresh, natural ingredients have to offer.  No meat required.

The best kind of vegetarian and vegan food, I think, is the type that doesn’t need to be specified as being either.  When you eat something delicious, it should just be delicious, plain and simple, no matter if you eat beef steaks or tofu cakes (or both).  When I was developing this recipe for stuffed portobello mushroom caps, one of my main goals was to make this a dish that could be set upon a big holiday table and entice every single person at that table, omnivore, herbivore, or what have you.  Portobello mushrooms, with their undeniably meaty texture, provide a satisfying meatiness for those who call for such with their meals.  Topped with sautéed cubes of artisan bread, savory apple bits, and crisp, flavorful pecans, you can easily make a main dish out of this.  Add in a rich, thick gravy of caramelized onions, sautéed mushrooms, and heavenly mushroom stock, and the celebratory meal is made complete.

Roasted Portobello Mushroom Caps with Apple Pecan Stuffing

2 large Portobello mushrooms, scrubbed clean

3 tablespoons olive oil, divided

1 ½ cups crusty bread cubes, about ½ inch in diameter

¼ cup finely diced onion

¾ cup chopped, peeled apple pieces, about ¼ inch in diameter

1 teaspoon chopped fresh sage

1 teaspoon chopped fresh Italian parsley

¼ cup mushroom broth (if you can’t find any, vegetable stock will do nicely)

¼ cup roughly chopped pecans

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.  Lightly oil a medium-sized baking dish and set aside.

Remove stems from scrubbed Portobello mushrooms and reserve stems to use later.  Using a spoon, gently scrape out the gills from the underside of each mushroom cap.  Lightly brush both the top and bottom of each cap with olive oil and set aside.

In a medium skillet, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat.  When oil is hot, add bread cubes and sauté until crisp and browned, about 4-5 minutes.  Remove bread cubes from pan and set aside.

In the same skillet, heat remaining 1 tablespoon of oil over medium-low heat.  When oil is hot, add onions.  Cook onions, stirring occasionally, until softened and just beginning to brown at edges, about 3 minutes.  Add chopped apples, stirring and sautéing until lightly browned and just beginning to soften, 4-5 minutes.

Add bread cubes back into skillet and stir to combine.  Reduce heat to low and add sage, parsley, and mushroom broth, stirring to combine.  When broth has been absorbed, about 1-2 minutes, remove skillet from heat and stir in pecans.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Fill each mushroom cap with stuffing, dividing as evenly as possible.  The stuffing will mound up quite a bit.  Place stuffed mushrooms in prepared baking dish, and roast in oven for 25-30 minutes, until mushrooms have darkened a bit and the stuffing has become quite crisp on top.

Serve with caramelized onion mushroom gravy.  Serves 2 as a main dish, 4 as a side dish.

Caramelized Onion Mushroom Gravy

2 tablespoons olive oil

½ small yellow onion, sliced into thin ribs

reserved stems from 2 portobello mushrooms, chopped medium-fine

½ teaspoon balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon unbleached all-purpose flour

2 cups mushroom broth (if you can’t find any, vegetable stock will do nicely)

½ teaspoon chopped fresh sage

½ teaspoon chopped fresh Italian parsley

salt and pepper to taste

In a large skillet, heat olive oil over low heat.  Add onions, and slowly caramelize over low heat, 15-20 minutes, stirring frequently.  When onions are soft, brown, and caramelized, add chopped mushrooms.  Cook, stirring frequently, until mushrooms have softened and darkened, 2-3 minutes.  Add balsamic vinegar, and stir to incorporate until vinegar has been absorbed, about 1 minute.

Move onions and mushrooms to the edges of the skillet, leaving an open space in the middle.  Turn heat up to medium.  Sprinkle flour in the open space in the middle of the skillet, and cook flour, stirring frequently, until browned, 3-4 minutes.  Slowly whisk in mushroom broth, incorporating the broth and flour into the onions and mushrooms and whisking to eliminate any lumps of flour that might initially form.  Simmer over medium heat, whisking frequently, until gravy thickens, about 5 minutes.  Add sage and parsley and whisk to incorporate.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Makes a tad more than 1 1/2 cups of gravy.

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Recipe Roundup

10 Nov

When compiling and sorting these articles and recipes, it took me a moment to realize that, though I will be sharing five links below, those links actually contain a total of nine separate recipes.  I’m crediting Portland Farmers Market for that unexpected burst of recipes, as the very nature of my writing relationship with them dictates that I will attempt to make as much food as possible with the smallest amount of funds required (note: all six of my recipes for them came in at well under $20–that’s for all six recipes combined.  You want frugal?  I can give you frugal.)

As an added bonus, these dishes would all fit in nicely atop your Thanksgiving table, especially if you are looking for recipe ideas that fall well outside the basic realm of turkey and potatoes.

Pear-Stuffed Acorn Squash; Kidney Bean and Sweet Potato Soup

Butternut Squash Gnocchi with Three Sauces (Sage Brown Butter, Caramelized Shallots and Thyme, and Garlic Chips with Sauteed Spinach)

This sage brown butter sauce was so good that I ate it until I felt a profound sense of discomfort.

Indie Fixx continues to provide Savory Salty Sweet with a great place to share more recipes with more people. These three recipes are my most recent contributions, and they happen to be some of my favorites.  That dark chocolate zucchini cake is absolutely magical.  It’s rich, complex-tasting without being complicated to make, and it just so happens to be vegan (and secretly stuffed with a vegetable, which you’d never, ever be able to tell by eating it).

Linguine with Slow Roasted Tomatoes and Garlic

Dark Chocolate Zucchini Cake

Blueberry, Orange, and Cornmeal Pancakes

On an unrelated note, a couple of months ago I made zucchini muffins with some fantastically fresh zucchini, straight from our garden.  As I was scooping the batter into the muffins tins, I noticed that things were looking a little firmer and more robust than they normally should.  Undaunted, I moved on, baking the muffins anyway.  It was only after the muffins had been removed from their tins and cooled that I realized why the muffins looked rather unusual.  I forgot to add the sugar.

Surprisingly, I actually sort of liked the muffins without sugar.  They were still very moist, but they were definitely sturdier, without the fine crumb usually found in a muffin.  They actually tasted more like a bread, less like a muffin, and closer to what I prefer these days when I gravitate towards a snack.  I am debating whether or not to share the recipe.  I am not sure if these muffins would be anyone else’s cup of tea, since I happened to be the only person in the house who ended up eating them (and I live with a carb-loving child and the Perfect Eating Machine, so that’s saying something).

Still, I am sort of fond of them in all their sugar-free, cinnamon-filled glory.

Jeez, that looks healthful.  Like some sort of nutrition nugget that zoologists develop as a snack for panda bears.

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