Creamy Mushroom Polenta with Scallops

For this dinner I made a creamy, cheesy mushroom polenta topped with scallops and a garlic avocado puree.

Creamy Mushroom Polenta
1/2 cup yellow grits (not instant)
3 cups water
2 cups roughly chopped shiitake mushrooms
2 tbsp heavy cream
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
Salt & pepper to taste

Cook the shiitake mushrooms in a hot pan with a little bit of olive oil until they release and re-absorb their water.  While the mushrooms are

cooking, put the grits and water in a saute pot and bring to a boil before turning the heat to low and covering.  Whisk the polenta every 5-10 minutes to ensure it doesn't stick or burn.  Once the polenta has begun to thicken, add the mushrooms and the salt and pepper.  When the polenta has finished cooking, remove from heat, stir in the cream and cheese and serve!




I cooked the scallops in a very hot pan with butter in order to get a nice crusty and caramelized finish on the scallops which still allowing them to be cooked correctly.  I served them over the polenta and topped with an avocado puree.  Try it and enjoy!

Seafood, mostly, dinner!

After three weeks in a row on the road, eating steak, I was craving some seafood.  Now, for me, craving seafood does not always equal healthy ... but I think I did pretty well with both for this meal.

For the first course I did melted cheddar toast points topped with a pan fried clam.

 For the second course I grilled up a bunch of shrimp and calamari tubes with asparagus.  Little salt, pepper and lemon juice is all you need here.

For the next course I lightly poached some oysters in a butter wine sauce.  This is a very simple way off cooking oysters where they still maintain that almost raw consistency, but you don't have to worry about that whole "raw" thing. 

 Shishito peppers, pan fried, tossed with sweet chili sauce and sriracha.  A little messy to eat, but most tasty food is!

Remember when I said this dinner was seafood?  Well, pork belly is basically a seafood, right?  RIGHT?  Even if it's not, I grilled up a couple pieces of pork belly and served them with taco shop guac! 

 Scallops wrapped in bacon?  Nope!  Scallops wrapped in pork belly?  You say it's the same thing, I say potato.  Either way, who cares?  They were grilled and awesome!

For the last course, I stuffed some morel mushrooms with a shrimp, scallop, avocado and red bell pepper.  I then grilled the mushrooms until cooked through and then served them with a bit of the mushroom broth that I had warmed up.

Overall this was not a complex dinner, but man was it tasty.  Give it a try and see for yourself, enjoy!

Mushroom gravy is an underrated thing!

For those of you who have read this blog for a while, you know what can happen when I go to Whole Foods with no direction or pre-existing inspiration.  It should be no surprise then that I went out the other day and came home with some amazing looking veal loin chops.  The loin chop is a cut very similar to a porterhouse with a ny-strip style cut on one side and a tenderloin on the other.

I had a bunch of reconstituted morel mushrooms left over from dinner the night before that I wanted to use so I decided to make a "gravy" to go with the chops.  The gravy was very simple but had an awesome earthy flavor.

Mushroom veal "gravy"
2 cups veal stock
6 medium morel mushrooms (reconstituted)
1 tbsp soaking water
salt & pepper to taste

To reconstitute the mushrooms, put them in a bowl with 1/2 cup warm water.  I like to put a small, light, plate on top of the mushrooms to keep them submerged.  If the mushrooms aren't completely submerged, you may want to rotate them after a few minutes to make sure the dry parts are submerged.  If all of the water is absorbed, add additional warm water by the tablespoon.  Once mushrooms are fully reconstituted (~30 minutes) remove them from the soaking liquid (remember to reserve at least 1 tbsp), drain and set the mushrooms on a cutting board.

I brought the veal stock to a simmer in a saucepan over medium heat.  Chop the mushrooms (I cut into rings, but any chop will do) and add to the veal stock with the tbsp of soaking water.  Allow the mixture to simmer for about 15 minutes and then transfer to a vitamix (or other blender) and puree well.  Return to the pot and keep warm on the lowest setting until ready to serve.

I served the grilled chops with the mushroom "gravy," a grilled artichoke half and a dollop of my special garlic "avotaters."  Heat up your grill, give it a try and enjoy!

Veal ... the other, other white meat!

I know that veal can be a divisive food, but it is so TASTY that I just don't care.  I went to Whole Foods with my heart set on a steak, but when I saw these beautiful veal rib chops I just had to get them instead.  Veal in hand I went back and grabbed some asparagus and figured I would serve it with some polenta, but it just felt like maybe I needed something more!

Mushroom sauce, that's what I was going to need!  Back to the veggie aisle I went and grabbed a large handful of Shiitake mushrooms and a box of Kitchen Basics veal stock (you know, because why not?).

Mushroom Veal Sauce

1 container Kitchen Basics veal stock

1/2 lb Shiitake mushrooms

Salt & Pepper to taste (you don't need much salt as the stock has a good bit in it)

For this sauce I put about 2 cups of stock into a saute pan and then tossed in all but 1 large mushroom (washed and stems removed of course).  I put the pan on low heat and went to watch TV for about an hour.  Ok, I did check the pan occasionally to ensure the liquid wasn't boiling off.  After the hour was up I transferred the contents to the Vitamix, added the salt and pepper, and blended until smooth.  Back to the pan the sauce went and I returned it to a burner with a "warm" setting to keep it warm while everything else finished cooking.  Take the reserve mushroom and slice thinly, and using either a saute pan or a broiler cook until lightly crispy and then serve on top of the veal to accompany the sauce, eat and enjoy!

More Morel Mushrooms Makes My Meal Magnificent!

Yes, I apologize for the alliteration but once I had written "more morel mushrooms" I just had to see if I could complete the entire title using only words starting with M!

I did one of our old favorites for this dinner: broiled dry-aged NY Strip steak, rice and sauteed greens and so in an attempt to jazz it up, I decided to do a Morel mushroom au jus to top it off.  Morel mushrooms are a great, flavorful, mushroom that has a fun shape for stuffing (as I have posted about before) as well as a great texture.  Beware though of two things (which do kinda off-set each other): Morel mushrooms are almost always sold dry, and are quite pricey (although you will be surprised how much you get for a little money) and they can give you a bit of a tummy ache if you eat too many.  I buy them at the bulk section at Whole Foods and can usually get 10 - 12 of them for about 5 bucks.

Morel Au-jus
6-8 large dried Morel mushrooms
1 cup beef stock (Veggie stock can be used here too!)
Little bit of butter

Put the mushrooms and stock in a 2 cup measuring cup and then weight them down with something like a smaller measuring cup or bowl so that the mushrooms are as submerged as possible in the stock.  Allow the mushrooms to re-constitute in the stock for about an hour.

Once the mushrooms have softened, remove them from the stock being careful to allow excess liquid to drain back into the measuring cup.  Begin heating a small saute, or sauce, pan over medium high heat. Put the mushrooms on a cutting board and chop them shortways, so that they make rings.

Put the butter in the pan and allow it to melt around the pan (you should use just enough butter that spreads around the base of the pan). Put the mushroom rings into the pan and saute for about 2 minutes, using a wooden spoon to keep moving them and making sure they don't stick.

Add the stock that you have retained and allow it to cook down to about half of what it was before turning the heat to the lowest setting (or melt setting if you have that one).

(Optional Step) If have allowed your steak to rest on a cutting board and some juices have leaked out (and if you had an juices in the pan from the broiler) ... you should definitely add these juices to the stock and mushroom mix and stir well before serving.

Your Au-jus is now ready to go on top of your meal, try it and enjoy!