Mostly Mushroom Mini-Mu Shu
Ingredients:
1 egg, scrambled
4 large portobello mushrooms, cleaned and sliced into 1 inch x 1/2 x 1/2 inch strips.
Marinade:
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup mirin
1/2-1 tsp hot chili oil
2 TBL dry sherry
Veggies:
2/3ds cup of wood ear mushrooms, rehydrated if necessary (Chairman Java may provide for fresh wood ears for her chefs, but most people can’t get the fresh ones…reserve the mushroom water, but run it through a cheesecloth or coffee filter first!)
3 cups shredded napa cabbage
1/3d cup shredded carrot
1 cup tiger lily flowers/bud (again rehydrated if possible)
2 tsp minced garlic
1 1/2 tsp minced ginger
4 scallions, shredded
Sauce:
1/4 cup vegetable (or chicken) broth
1/4 cup mushroom water (see above)
3 tbsp. soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp cornstarch mixed with 1/4 c water
1/3 cup hoisin sauce
4 crepes/Chinese Pancakes/tortillas
(Either buy tortillas or (better) packaged crepes. If you want to make your own, here’s a recipe.)
Heat wok, add a bit of oil, pour in scrambled egg. Allow to cook as flatly as possible (you don’t want it fluffy!). Once cooked, remove the egg, and slice up.
Pour the marinade over the portobellos. Let sit for a minute or so. Pour off remaining marinade (these things are like sponges…you don’t want them to marinate longer).
Reheat wok, add oil, cook portobellos on high, stirring constantly until they’ve shrunk by about 1/3 to 1/2 in volume. Set aside.
Reheat wok again! Add oil. Put scallions in first. Once they start to change color, add the ginger and garlic. The second they begin to change color, add the rest of the veggies. Cook until heated through and cabbage begins to wilt just a tiny bit. Add egg, portobello mushrooms. Cook a moment longer. Add sauce. Cook until sauce begins to boil. Slowly add the cornstarch-y water, a little at a time until sauce is very thick (stirring constantly so everything’s coated). Remove from heat.
Take a 1/2 teaspoon full of hoisin sauce and spread on crepe. Take about 2 tablespoons of filling from the wok and put on the crepe in a line about a third of the way from the center. Fold the bottom and top edges in. Then fold the long edge nearest to the filling over. Roll up crepe. Add a dab of hoisin sauce to seal edges. Slice in half, at a 45[sup]o[/sup] angle.
Truffle Fritatta
8 oz black truffles, cut into chunks
4 oz white truffles, slivered
8 large eggs, beaten
1/4 C cream
1/2 C parmesan cheese
1/2 c onions
1 bunch chives
Butter
Preheat oven to 350[sup]o[/sup]
Butter a large, heavy-bottomed oven-proof pan. Saute onions until slightly golden. Mix cream, egg, black truffles 1/2 the parmesan cheese and pour into pan. Stir once or twice, getting onions
incorporated. Sprinkle remaining cheese on top, put into oven
Let cook for 30 minutes, 'till slightly puffy. Slide fritatta onto plate, cut into wedges using a pizza cutter. Sprinkle with white truffles and snipped chives.
**
Beef Wellington**
The mushroom pate (there’s a word for this that I can’t remember…duxettes??)
4 shallots, finely chopped
8 TBL butter
1 1/3 pounds of mushrooms finely chopped. We’re using Crimini, Porcini and Shitake for this. Use equal portions.
Melt 6 TBL of butter, on a low heat, slowly cook the shallots until translucent. Add the remaining butter and the mushrooms. Cook for at least an hour: until very dark and mushrooms are very dehydrated. Let cool completely. Deglaze pan with 1/2 cup burgundy, set aside
Meanwhile, take:
1 5 LB Beef Fillet
Butter
Salt
Pepper
Garlic Powder
Cognac
Rub the beef with butter, add salt, pepper, garlic powder. (Don’t trust your instincts. Go much lighter than you’d want to on the garlic powder. Maybe 2/3ds tsp? 1 tsp? depending on the size)
Put the beef in on a rack in a roasting pan and put in a 425[sup]o[/sup] oven until it reaches 120[sup]o[/sup] internal temperature…Yeah, I know it’s nearly raw. It’s going to cook again,
so that’s ok. Add a bit more salt. Take a clean spray bottle (like a mist-er), add about a half cup of cognac and spritz the hell out of the beef to coat evenly, and flambe the sucker. Allow to completely cool down. Deglaze pan with another 1/2 cup burgundy, also set aside
Everything cooled off? Great.
Take
1 or 2 sheets of frozen puff pastery, thawed, enough to completely enclose the fillet. If you have to use two sheets, put the two sheets together, and push the edges up, like you were doing a demonstration of how plate tectonics build mountains. Pinch about 1/2-2/3s inches of the pushed up edges together, smear with a little bit of beaten egg and water and then fold over onto one side or the other pushing down gently (you don’t want to smoosh the edge into the main puff pastery, or it won’t puff and what would be the point of that?
Smear with:
A thin coating of
Pate De Fois Gras (optional for the home chef, but this is IRON CHEF, dammit! It’s Chairman Java’s budget, not mine!)
Add the Mushroom pate (recipe above)
Place the fillet slightly off center of the puff pastry. Bring the edges of the pastry together. Moisten with egg whites, and secure. Seal it like an envelope.
Carefully roll the thing onto a piece of foil and use the foil to lift it back in a roasting pan. Cut out decorative shapes (I chose leaves, to match the plate) out of the remaining puff pastery and use egg white to glue the decorations on. Get an egg yolk or two and brush the
whole thing. Bake at 425[sup]o[/sup] for 8-10 miutes. Lower heat to 375[sup]o[/sup] for another 20 minutes. Crust should be golden brown.
Let stand for 10-15 minutes before transferring (gently!) to serving plate. Sprinkle with chopped parsley and thyme.
Mushroom-Burgundy Gravy
Remember those two 1/2 cups of burgundy that you deglazed the pans with? (see above…) Get 'em.
Take 1/4 C chopped onion
1/2 pound mushrooms (we’re gonna use Crimini, Porcini and Shitake again to match the meat), chopped very finely
1 black truffle chopped
5 TBL butter
1 TBL flour dissolved in 1/4 cup cold water
Salt and pepper to taste
Saute the onion in the butter until translucent. Add mushrooms/truffle and saute until all liquid is gone (takes about an hour). Add burgundy. Bring to boil. Gently pour in flour water, adding a little at a time, stirring constantly until thickened.
"Well, at least it’s not Fish-Sperm Ice-Cream" Orange-Mushroom Dessert.
For each person: take 3 white button mushrooms and peel, so no brown remains. Remove stems and gills. Soak in Grand Marnier for 3-4 minutes.
Allow to drain slightly.
Just before serving, roll mushrooms in granulated sugar. Spritz lightly with Cognac. Bring to table and ignite. Warn the diners that they have to allow the sugar to cool for a moment before eating.