My PagesLogin PortletSearch Site |
Autumn recipes from Alsace
|
Next
WARM SALAD WITH WILD MUSHROOMS
It’s good if you can find a nice assortment of wild mushrooms (e.g. chanterelles (yellow or grey), horns of plenty, hedgehog fungus, shitake, ceps etc.) for this lovely autumn salad, served over mixed salad leaves. Otherwise make up the weight with cultivated mushrooms. The hazelnuts and the lardons are both optional, but provide a nice bit of crunch.
Serves 6-8
optional: a handful of whole, shelled hazelnuts or 100g lardons a selection of mixed salad leaves (frisée, lamb’s lettuce, rocket etc.) 200ml vinaigrette (salt, pepper, mustard, 150ml oil, 50ml vinegar) 500-600g assorted wild mushrooms 1 tbsp olive oil 1 shallot 1 clove garlic 2-3 tbsp Melfor or Balsamic vinegar + a little extra for sprinkling chives, and nasturtium and borage flowers to garnish If using hazelnuts, toast them first: heat the oven to 200C. Put the nuts in a small tin and toast/roast them for about 10 minutes – be careful, they burn easily. Rub and blow away any husks that will come away easily. Roughly chop the nuts and reserve them. If using lardons, fry them gently without extra fat till golden and crispy. Drain on paper towels.
Toss the salad in the vinaigrette and arrange it in soup bowls. Clean the mushrooms, rinse briefly in cold water and spin briefly in a salad spinner. Slice or quarter them depending on size. At the last minute, fry the shallot and garlic gently in hot oil for 4-5 minutes without allowing them to brown, add the mushrooms and cook a further 5 minutes or so. They will make a lot of juice. Raise the heat and cook till the juices evaporate. Add 2 tbsp of vinegar and cook down hard till reduced. Scatter a selection of mushrooms on top of the salads. Garnish with chives, flowers and toasted hazelnuts or lardons and sprinkle with a few drops of vinegar.
GAME GESCHNETZELTES
A seasonal version of the classic Swiss dish Geschnätzlets (diced veal with mushrooms in a cream sauce). Here, diced tender game is seared, mixed with mushrooms – include some wild if you can - and finished in a red wine butter sauce. As a variant, you can put the game in individual pie dishes or a single pie dish, cover with puff pastry and bake.
Serves 6-8
3 tbsp flour salt and pepper 1 kg trimmed, tender game (e.g. venison, hare, wild boar), cut in small pieces 25g + 50g butter 1-2 tbsp oil 2 shallots, finely chopped 600g mushrooms, sliced (include wild mushrooms if available) 300ml red wine 300ml game or beef stock (or 300ml water + 1 stock cube) 6 juniper berries, crushed salt and pepper 2 tsp redcurrant, crab apple or quince jelly Put the flour in a plastic bag with some salt and pepper. Add the game, shake well to coat in the flour, then tip the game into a colander and shake off the excess flour. Heat 25g butter and the oil in a wide, heavy frying pan or sauté pan and sear the game in 3 or 4 batches. Do not crowd the pan, otherwise the meat will not brown (good for colour and flavour). Lift the meat out with a slotted spoon as it is ready and transfer to a dish or bowl. Continue with the rest of the meat, adding a little more oil if necessary each time.
When the meat is all done, soften the shallots in the same pan (add a little more oil if necessary), without allowing them to brown. Add the mushrooms to the pan, season to taste with salt and pepper, cover and cook gently until the juices are rendered. Uncover, raise the heat and cook hard to evaporate the juices. Tip the mushrooms out of the pan into the dish or bowl with the meat. Add the red wine to the pan with the juniper berries. Boil down hard to reduce by half. Then add the stock and reduce again by half. Stir in the jelly, check the seasoning, adjusting if necessary. Finally, whisk in the 50g butter, cut in pieces. The sauce will thicken lightly. Return the meat and mushrooms to the pan and simmer for 5 minutes to heat it through. If not to be used immediately, cool the mixture and chill it.
Reheat gently for serving, either in a pan or in the microwave.
UPSIDE-DOWN PEAR TART A variation on Tarte Tatin, for which you need a heavy, deepish baking pan with sloping sides (i.e. a moule à manquer), or a frying pan which will fit into (and stand the heat of) the oven. The pears are first cooked in red wine, the wine is reduced and poured back over them. The whole thing is topped with pastry and baked. Serve tepid, with best vanilla or honey ice cream.
Serves 4-6
4-5 pears 3 tbsp sugar a pinch of cinnamon about ½ a litre of [drinkable] red plonk 300g puff pastry Peel the pears, halve and core them. Place them rounded sides down in the pan, covering the surface completely. Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon and pour the wine over. Put the pan on the stove and bring the wine to a boil. Simmer the pears gently for about 20 minutes or until just tender (the timing depends on the type of pear you use, some take longer than others). When just tender, place a plate on top which fits snugly. Carefully invert the pan and tip all the juices into a second pan. Boil them down hard to reduce to a syrupy juice. Be careful not to let the syrup burn. Drizzle this back over the pears.
Heat the oven to 200C. Roll out the pastry to a circle slightly larger than the pan. Roll it up over the rolling pin, then unravel it over the pears, tucking in any overlap and crimping the edges if you wish. Snip a couple of holes in it to let steam escape. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the pastry is golden and fragrant. Remove from the oven, place a serving plate on top and carefully invert the pie.
|