Happy New Year

Farewell, 2011! 

It was another interesting year for food, celebrity cook-types, wine, The Phils and of course, music.

A VERY quick wrap of some of my 2011 favorites.  

Dinner at Amis after ONE of the blizzards in February.  Guinness Export: first time in the states since- 1940s? Dope.  Eleven Madison Park and Rotis cookbooks.  

In concert, Aimee Mann, OMD and English Beat.  On TV: Portlandia, Workaholics, and Beavis and Butthead.  

2011 Philadelphia Phillies- 102 wins, 5th consecutive NLE Championship.  And on that note, Vance Worley's pitching.  Wilson Valdez's winning pitching effort in the 19th against the Reds! What the WHAT? Cliff Lee's first major league HR.  Hunter Pence (Good Game! Let's Go Eat!).  And following it all on Twitter was pretty fun, too.  

Beer got more delicious.  Produce got more local.  Good cheese became more available.  In addition to my 4 year old's penchant for seaweed, olives, bacon, salmon, and soba, we added shrimp and octopus!  Three or four dozen delicious Sunday dinners at M&D's (right?).  

The Chef's Table revival at the UWC.  Shigoku oysters from the West Coast (holy mother of God- over the top).  Foie gras and shrimp toast together in one dish.  Scallop dumpling and squab consomme.  Amazing locally foraged mushrooms- and monstrous porcini from Oregon. Kabocha squash (don't know how I missed this).  Barely Buzzed coffee-rubbed cheddar from Bee-Hive Cheese Co.  And, home-made Orange Grappa from Italy.  

Domestic sparkling from Argyle in Oregon and Gruet in New Mexico.  Robert Stemmler Pinot Noir, Estate.  Merry Edwards Sauvignon Blanc. Mission Estate Pinot Noir.  Barricadiero, carried all the way back from Italy (MiMi!).  Just about every wine I drank from Moore Brothers, especially the wines from Mas Amiel.  

Gabrielle Hamilton's Blood, Bones and Butter and the return of non-fussy food. Amazon's Cloud Player and Kindle App. for the Android.  

I caved in and for the first time watched episodes of Top Chef: Texas and Harry Potter.  I liked both.  

To anyone I cooked with, ate with or drank with in 2011, I'm looking forward to lots more in 2012.

A Fungi to Be Around: UPDATED

Below are some photos of the final dishes from last night's mushroom dinner.  Thanks to everyone for joining us and sticking around to route the Phillies on to another pennant title!!

Yesterday we began putting things together for tonight's Mushroom dinner.  I always get excited when product starts to arrive for these dinners.  And yesterday the kitchen was burning on all cylinders to get ready.  Here are some shots of a work in progress to get you excited, too.

Some perspective on what 10 pounds of wild maitake's look like.

Gorgeous chicken of the woods, also wild.  These, along with the stems from maitake's make up the first course soup: chestnut and mushroom bisque with mapled double-smoked bacon

 

More maitakes, cleaned and ready for roasting.  The aroma was nothing short of dizzying.

 

These are the feathers, or gills of portobello mushrooms.  When dried, they bare a strong resemblance to truffles.  We'll use them in the sauce for the lamb sirloin.

 

 

 

Beech, Royal Trumpet and Shiitakes

 

Royal trumpets get a roasting for the lasagnette, along with beech and maitakes.

Building the lasagna.

 

 

A robiola bechamel with hand-packed sheep's milk ricotta and fresh herbs binds the layers together.

Layer 2

 

Final layer #3

Into the oven and...

 

Finito!

P

Pumpkin creme brulee waits for its caramelly, crunchy top.

Today, we'll be working on the lamb sirloin with Brussels sprout leaves and truffle demi-glace.  Also, the hors d'oeuvres of portobello satay, lobster and sausage stuffed crimini mushrooms and shiitake spanakopita.  

These dishes are paired with the Spanish portfolio of Jorge Ordonez wines, including rose, rioja blanco, tempranillo, monastrell, old vines grenache and muscat.  

Time to get back in the kitchen!  See you tonight...

Lobster and Andouille Stuffed Mushrooms

 

S

Shiitake spanakopita was filled with feta and sauteed spinach

P

Portobello satays marinated for 24 hours and then were grilled and served with a horseradish cream

chestnut and chicken of the woods bisque with maple double-smoked bacon

The finished three mushroom lasagnette with robiola.

 

Sirloin of Lamb with rosemary and Brussels sprout leaves was heaped with black truffles

 

Pumpkin creme brulee

The wines were all dynamite with the courses.  Thanks to Kevin Malarkey from the Country Vintner and the crew from Frank's Union Wine Mart!   

A Foraging We Will Go

Mushroom season is fast upon us, and on Wednesday, we'll be feasting on 10 different varieties of mushrooms for the 1st Annual Exotic Mushroom dinner at Union City Grille.  

One delightfully unexpected development occurred last week.  I got a call from a gentleman who is  a forager of local mushrooms.  His specialty is maitake, or hen of the woods, and chicken of the woods.  Both are large, feathery, but meaty mushrooms.  And, he assures me they are from within 3-4 miles of Wilmington.  Mind you, it's a nice bonus they're local, but when you see and taste these beauties, you won't much care where they came from. 

Mushroom foragers are understandably vague about where their mushrooms are grown.  When you find a reliable spot, you want to keep it secret.  I'm not even going to tell you his name, only that he supplies to Le Bec Fin, Lacroix, and Vetri in Philly, and locally to most restaurants you'd consider of high caliber. 

I taste-tested the hen of the woods last night in my dinner of braised chicken thighs with onions, garlic, tomato, white beans and of course, mushrooms.  They were so meaty and chewy, it was like someone sneaked beef tips in my dish.  I've decided to put them in our second course lasagnette on Wednesday and we're going to make soup out of the chicken of the woods, notoriously textured and flavored just like- well, you get it.

If you're thinking about coming, here's some more about the dinner.

Of the Earth

It's time for mushrooms, food fans.  The new fall menu is in place at UCG, and it's crawling with mushroom-centric dishes to get you thinking about fuzzy sweaters, ruby red wines and wavy mounds of risotto studded with pumpkin and earthy mushrooms.  If you haven't been to one of our wine dinners, here's one for your calendar.  Our 1st Annual Mushroom Dinner at Union City Grille.  

Union City Grille

And

Frank’s Union Wine Mart

present an

Exotic Mushroom Dinner

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Reception

Shiitake Spanakopita, Portobello Satay,

and Lobster-Sausage Stuffed Mushroom Caps

Borsao 2008 Rose ~ Campo de Borja

Muga 2008 Blanco~ Rioja

First Course

Chestnut and Chanterelle Bisque

with maple lardons of double-smoked bacon

Protocolo 2007 Tempranillo ~ Manchuela

Second Course

Three-Layer Mushroom Lasagnette

beech mushroom, royal trumpet and crimini

bound with robiola cream and baked with sheep’s milk ricotta

Wrongo Dongo 2008 Monastrell ~ Jumilla

Main Course

Rosemary Crusted Lamb Sirloin

over Brussels sprout petals, hen of the woods mushrooms

and black truffle demi-glace

Bodegas Ateca 2008 Garnacha de Fuego ~ Calatayud

 Dessert

Pumpkin and Rum Crème Brulée

Jorge Ordonez 2008 Botani Muscat ~ Malaga

The Usual- $75 includes gratuity