Marvelous, Magical Morels

I am going to clue you into a little secret here. Morels are big news in Southern Indiana. Come each May, the Morel Hunters run amok. Now these people mean business. Don't even think of trying to follow one of these dedicated Morel Hunters to their preferred hunting grounds. Why, stories have been told of shot gun-wielding property owners standing guard over these precious plots.

I was so very happy to see that my local, upscale Kroger had a bin of morels. I have to say that I did have to pick carefully through the bin, but given that these beauties were priced at $49.99 (yes, you read that correctly) a pound, I can see why they might be in danger of going bad.

Botany lesson for the day: morels are fungi, but are not mushrooms as they have no gills and spores.

Please note that morels should never be eaten raw as they contain a poisonous toxin and even cooked morels can affect sensitive individuals. Still hungry? Good. Your patience (and bravery) will be rewarded.

Now, I purchased eight morels, or 0.14 pounds (or 2-1/8 oz.). This translated to $7.00 for these elusive fungi. But hey, nothing is too good for my dear readers.

All right, I need to have food to go along with these delectable morels. I don't know why. I was told that once, so I have to believe that that is true.

Once again, I just grabbed a bunch of ingredients out of the pantry and fridge to come up with a marinade. What can I say? Unlike some pedigreed chefs, I really don't see the need to get all uptight about the ingredients or percentages in a marinade.

So, here we have:

red pepper flakes

black pepper

whiskey

a decent mid-grade balsamic vinegar (remember, the farther you are from the end process, the lesser quality the balsamic vinegar can be)

honey

whole grain mustard

flank steak

As is normal for me, I played mad scientist and added marinade ingredients until I was satisfied with the flavor combinations. I look for a balance of flavor, of sweet/tartness, of yin and yang. This balance will vary, depending upon the cycle of the moon, of my moods and whether my favorite guy is currently leading the points race in NASCAR.

Once I was happy with the balance of flavors, I poured the marinade in with the flank steak and sealed that in a bag. This then sat in the fridge for a few hours.




Since we needed a balanced meal, I decided to make a variation of my Bacon, Broccoli and Craisin Salad. This time out I substituted carrots for the craisins. Sounds reasonable to me, right? C for C?

Ah, and now we move on to the good stuff. I melted one tablespoon of unsalted butter and one tablespoon extra virgin olive oil in a non-stick pan. I added the dry (shaken, but not stirred - and please do not rinse your mushrooms or fungi!) morels to the pan. These sauteed for a few minutes before being removed to a serving dish. At this point I added a sprinkling of a delicate French Sea Salt to the morels.

Viola, dinner is served.

The delicate, earthy morels needed nothing more than butter, olive oil and sea salt to bring out their sensuous, woodsy goodness.

Even something as simple as changing out an ingredient made a noticeable difference in this dish.

The marinade for the flank steak was pure inspiration. Even my discriminating foodie daughter was left raving about this dish.

I only wish that

1) morel season was longer

and that

2) I could actually afford for morel season to be longer.

If you ever have the chance to try morels, please do. You will be amazed. And if some one else is paying, that is even better.

Rainbow Foods

While shopping at Sahara Mart last week, I found some organic produce that I just had to buy. Then I just had to figure out how to prepare this different food as well as what I would serve with it. Decisions, decisions.

A quick expedition into my freezer yielded a flat iron steak. That will work. Then it was off to the computer to find a recipe for this cut of beef.

Well, this recipe sounds like it would be right up Sandra Lee's alley. With a name like Drunken Flat Iron Steak, it seems like a natural. Oh wait, there are no seasoning packets or extracts used in the recipe. I guess Sandy wouldn't like it after all.

Here I have the ingredients for the marinade: garlic powder (how can I be out of garlic and onion?), kosher salt, black pepper, red wine (I have Shiraz wine on hand) and Dijon mustard along with the flat iron steak.

Since this recipe was developed for the restaurant industry, I had to cut the recipe for the marinade down roughly by a factor of 24 (give or take a bit). That translates to 1/2 cup red wine, 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard, 1/2 teaspoon black pepper, 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder (I would have used an entire clove if I had one) and a pinch of kosher salt.

The next part of this recipe is the Soy-Balsamic Reduction. Again, I had to cut down the amounts. I reduced 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar and 1/4 cup sugar in a small pan. Just before I pulled the pan off the heat, I added 1 tablespoon Less-Sodium Soy Sauce. This is a personal preference as I don't like to reduce soy sauce as it concentrates the salty flavor of the sauce.

Thick and rich and delicious.

Hmm, maybe a bit too thick. This is a sauce that needs to be kept warm.

I opted to skip the fruit salsa from the recipe, and as I didn't have any onions on hand, obviously I wasn't going to be making any crispy onions either.

And now, on to our featured item on the menu...

Certified Organic Rainbow Bunch Carrots. Aren't they cute? My daughter didn't believe me when I told her what I had found. "They make purple carrots? No way!"

Yes, way.

This lovely bunch of carrots only cost $1.99. Not bad for organic Rainbow carrots.





So the inside of a purple carrot is white. Interesting. I have four different colors of carrots here.

I preheated a grill pan for the steak. Flat iron steak should be cooked rare to medium.

This is starting to smell wonderful.

While the steak continued to cook, I heated some canola oil in a small pan before adding the chopped carrots. I like my vegetables tender-crisp, so this didn't take long at all.

A sprinkling of kosher salt and a whisper of honey was drizzled over the top after the carrots were taken from the pan.

The flat iron steak is cut across the grain after it has rested for a few minutes. It is usually at this point that I have to put some of the meat back on the heat for my husband who doesn't like to eat rare or even medium-rare meat.

My dinner is ready now.

I made a Broccoli, Bacon and Cranberry Salad to accompany this meal.

The carrots were tender-crisp with just a hint of sweetness.

The meat was moist and flavorful. My husband liked it even without the Soy-Balsamic Reduction.

This was a very good meal and my husband asked me to put the meat dish into the menu rotation. I love it when a plan comes together.

Turkey Day Preparations

Each year we travel to Ohio to celebrate Thanksgiving with my husband's family. As such, I need only prepare a few dishes, rather than an entire feast.

Ah, it is a beautiful, cold morning.

Time to get busy. Last evening I played sous chef for my daughter, who made Outrageous Brownies. This morning it was time to cut them and put them in a container for traveling.

Then it's on to the Broccoli, Bacon and Dried Cranberry Salad. I clean and chop broccoli, celery and red onion. Cooked bacon is chopped and added to the salad. Dried cranberries are tossed in. Mayonnaise, white vinegar and sugar are mixed to taste. The dressing is stirred into the salad. Two dishes down.

Being such a nice mom, I chopped some green onion and beef for my daughter, who will later be making the cheese ball.

After making the cheese ball, she worked on breakfast for tomorrow. The dear daughter made a double batch of pie dough and rolled it out. A bit of milk is spread out and sugar and cinnamon are generously sprinkled on top. She then carefully rolled the dough up along one long side before cutting the roll into 1/2 to 1-inch pieces. The rolls were placed, cut side up, in a greased baking dish and baked at 375 degrees for about 30 to 40 minutes. These rolls will never really brown, so watch carefully and pull them out of the oven when the dough has cooked through.

And here are the cinnamon rolls as well as our three dishes that will travel with us tomorrow.

And now, on to dinner. I still have a few pomegranate arils left over from earlier this month and decided that I would used these in a vinaigrette for my salad. Here I have black pepper, salt, white wine vinegar, extra virgin olive oil and the pomegranate arils.

First I push the arils through a sieve to extract the juice. The remaining pulp and seeds are discarded.

I then whisk in the olive oil and season with a bit of black pepper and salt. A splash of white wine vinegar is added to the mix.




After tasting, I decide to add a bit of honey.

Very nice. And this is just enough for one salad. My family is so relieved.

Well, dinner is finished, the kitchen has been cleaned and we are ready for our trip tomorrow.






And now I wish you all a very happy and safe Thanksgiving Day.

Happy Turkey Day!