Name That Herb

Jerusalem Artichoke

Thanks to Simon, who dropped off these little gems. Congrats to Herrick Kimball, who knew: ..Those roots look like Jerusalem Artichokes. I have a bunch of them here. They are good sliced up raw on salads. That's the only way we have eaten them.

Some people call them Sunchokes, I guess because they look like and actually are sunflowers and the other common name, Jerusalem Artichoke is a bit confusing because many people assume that they are related to artichokes of the thistle family. In fact, Jerusalem Artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus) is a native American plant. The common name may have come from the Spanish word for sunflower, girasol...Jerusalem. I don't know.

What I do know is that they are delicious and filled with energy and good food value.

I roast them with other root vegetables and have shredded them for salads as Herrick does.

This week, here's how I cooked my gift from Simon.

Jerusalem Artichoke Scallop

In a skillet, heat 2 tbsp olive oil. Add 1 chopped onion and 1 cup chopped mushrooms. Reduce heat and cook, stirring frequently for 10 minutes. You can add fresh or dried sage, rosemary or oregano to this as it cooks.

Meanwhile, using a mandolin or food processor, slice about 6 Jerusalem Artichoke roots, 1 carrot and 1 parsnip.

In a greased casserole dish, arrange 1/3 of the sliced artichokes, carrots and parsnip. Spread 1/2 of the onion-mushroom mixture over. Season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle 3 tbsp flour over and pour milk into the casserole to cover the vegetables.

For this scallop, having just come back from the foodbuzz festival, I had a beautiful, triple cream Brie, which I sliced very thin and arranged half over the vegetables.

Like a true scallop, the second 1/3 of the sliced artichokes, carrots and parsnip are arranged over the brie. The remaining onion-mushroom mixture goes over that layer. More salt and pepper, flour and milk to cover the vegetables. Remaining brie and the final layer of vegetables, flour, small pieces of butter and milk to cover it all. Top with grated Parmesan cheese and bake in a 350°F oven for about 1 hour.

Pat Does Claudia's Baked Eggs

What was that thing that comes just before THE FALL?

Right. The PRIDE thing.

So. How did I get from this...

...to this?

This may not have disaster written all over it, but in MY world, a plate looking like this spells DISASTER.

The Big Guy ALWAYS cleans his plate. Especially at noon on a Sunday when the Saturday paper still holds lots of interesting tidbits. And today, it was the paper not the plate that had the interesting tidbits.

I thought, 'easy'. This will be an easy Sunday Brunch. My friend Claudia has her incredible 'Baked Eggs with Spinach and Pancetta' on her blog now, and since she loves this dish, and I do have spinach in the refrigerator, I thought, "this will be a snap and The Big Guy will be hungry by now since we both have been working. Well. He has been working, I have been on the phone with Claudia talking about the FoodbuzzFestival next weekend. (Is anyone out there going?)

First, I heated 2 tbsp/25 mL oil and 1 tbsp/15 mL butter in my favourite cast iron skillet, which btw, I'm still cleaning as you read this- no matter WHEN you are reading this.

Claudia uses onion and garlic sauteed in oil and some balsamic. Thinking, or NOT as the case turned out, "TBG likes potato", I'll add one here, so I shredded 1 onion- not the sweet Mayan, I only had yellow- and 1 potato. Add to the pan, stir constantly...because once the starch in the uncooked potato hits the hot oil, it is going to glom up the bottom of the pan. YUP. Big time! No problem. I will just take my sharpened fish lifter (my fave tool, btw) and scrape the bottom. Key is to tell everyone to keep the pan on LOW. EGADS. I've got it on medium-high. Oh well. This is why we TEST recipes, eh?

I rubbed in some of my just-dried sage and rosemary, now all safely inside for the winter. Claudia didn't add any herbs. OOOOPS. just checked her blog. She added balsamic vinegar, oh well, it's in the oven now. That little slip won't make a difference.

Claudia doesn't actually tell us how much spinach to use, but hey, I write cookbooks. I KNOW these things. I added a 6 oz/227 g bag to the pan because I love spinach. I forgot that The Big Guy isn't all that keen on spinach.

When she say's "break 2 eggs into the 'nest' of spinach", I thought, aha, I'll clear out little spots right down to the pan so that the eggs nestle in the vegetables while they cook. I used 3 eggs: 2 for The Big Guy, he's working today. This could be where I began my descent...or was it way back when I decided to add the potato?

I was going to serve it with my Red Pepper Sauce- Tune in next blog for the recipe.

I added a bit of Turkish Paprika, but only to MY egg. The Last thing I wanted to hear was, "hm. What's that red stuff?". Oh, no. This dish was going to be my Sunday Brunch House Special, just like Claudia makes...

I Was SO PROUD! It looked GREAT.

What is YOUR little red flag when you know people are just telling you they like what you just cooked? Mine is "hm. What's that green stuff?"

Today I sort of snapped, "It's spinach. Just like that green stuff, pesto that you guzzle by the gallon."

So, right then I knew it had to be spectacular or TBG wasn't going to go back to the gallery raving.

It was OK. Perhaps not a FALL, but a stumble for sure.

The egg yolks were too hard (I like them runny) and I definitely added too much spinach. For success and raves, you will need to follow Claudia's recipe.

And if you have any questions about how to do this better than I did, ask her. I'm still trying to figure out how she gets the yolks to stay runny...

It Starts with Stock II

Mushroom Soup

So here I was with this Moroccan-Spiced stock, quite possibly the finest I have made [it likely won't come together quite like this ever again]. And mushrooms always being in season, lucky for me because I had a hankering for Mushroom Soup.

See that monogrammed 'C' on the soup spoon? A long time ago, when life was a lot simpler and I was about 8 or 9, I saved–I don't remember how many–Campbell's soup labels and sent them away for 6 spoons. They actually had them engraved with any initial you wanted and, well our last name being Crocker, I just naturally went with the 'C'.

Now I have the spoons and I don't think I have told anyone that story in a very long time.

Mushroom Soup is always different [let's be honest: every recipe is different for me, because I find it just so darned hard to follow a recipe- even/especially my own.] Anyway, today being EARTH DAY and all, I thought an earthy, brothy, rich brown soup would help celebrate the day in down-to-earth style.

Here's my LOOK and COOK* Recipe

In a large saucepan or soup  pot of some heft, heat 3 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat. [Don't put the oil away, you may need a drop or two later.]

Meanwhile, in a food processor, chop 3 cloves of garlic and  a piece of candied ginger. 

[The garlic is essential, the ginger is not, but ginger and garlic are part of my herb triology, thyme being the holy ghost here because I didn't happen to have any fresh or dried.]

Leave the garlic and ginger in the bowl of the food processor and add a red onion, peeled and quartered. [just because I didn't have any yellow cooking onions, or I would have used one of those and kept the red onion for a salad.]

Chop and add to the pan and sauté for 5 minutes over medium-low heat.

Chop rutabaga. Wait! Rutabaga? Trust me. No one will know and you will have boosted the nutrient quotient way up. Here I cut the rutabaga in half, then cut 4 3/4-inch slices, peeled and coarsely chopped them before chopping in the food processor. 

Add to the pan. Cook and stir constantly for 5 minutes. [Here you may have to add some more olive oil to keep the onions and the rutabaga from sticking to the pan. And here is where a heavy-bottomed pan and low heat are your 2 best friends.]

Add 1 or 2 tablespoons butter to the pan. [this is optional but I do like the nutty flavor of mushrooms sautéed in pure butter.]

Add chopped mushrooms [about 2 lb mushrooms/6 cups chopped], cook, stirring constantly for 3 minutes

Add chicken stock [8 cups here- I got carried away with taking the photograph and might have only used 6 cups of this most precious nectar, ah well, so the soup was slightly thinner than I might have liked, but TheBigGuy never put his spoon down]. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes or longer.

Add salt to taste.

Serves 6 or 8

**Look and Cook Recipe- a sneaky/ recipe format where I really need to re-test for exact amounts, but just don't have the time or inclination. It's hard to develop, test, style and shoot recipes solo [winge-winge]. Don't get me wrong, I can do it, it's just that the weakest link gets dropped. And for me the tedious testing link is the first to go.