Mostly pictures today! We went to the Dayton and Dundee area a couple of weeks ago and I took a lot of pictures. It was a beautiful day — sunny and not too warm. A great day for buying an olive plant and tasting some wine!

First stop, Red Ridge Farms, 5510 NE Breyman Orchards Rd, Dayton, OR. I love this place. I could wander around here all day.

Lavender plants.

More lavender.

Rosemary for sale!

Olive plants — they had three varieties that supposedly thrive in Oregon. A Greek one, a Spanish one and an Italian one. I believe we got the Greek variety.

More olive plants.

Fields of lavender.

Sokol Blosser winery. 5000 Sokol Blosser Lane, Dundee, OR. It’s actually just up the road from Red Ridge Farms.

Pinot Noir grapes.

Close-up of grapes.

A big tree at the winery.

Grape fields.

Grapes outside the tasting room.

They compost!

Argyle Winery drive-by.

We also went to Domaine Drouhin, 6750 Breyman Orchards Road, Dayton, OR. Again, right in the nearby area. This is a view from inside the tasting room, looking out at some grape fields.

Wine casks in the winery.

Outside the DD tasting room.

A fig tree!

More scenery.

More grape fields.

Domaine Drouhin tasting room.

Whew! Right in under the 10/31 deadline! Confessions of an Apron Queen is hosting this month’s Weekend Cookbook Challenge and the theme is Fall Vegetables. This is a great theme as far as I am concerned as I do love the Fall vegetables. This recipe is from the Williams Sonoma cookbook, Autumn. I believe I’ve drawn inspiration from it before for WCC.

This Coq au Vin does indeed have Fall vegetables — carrots, rutabaga, purple potatoes, and parsnips. It was also supposed to have a turnip but I was trying to hurry and get dinner ready (hungry!) and I didn’t feel like prepping that one. So sad. However, I think Mr. Turnip will show up in a soup shortly.

This recipe has many parts, many bowls, lots of steps (a lot of ins and outs) but only 1 pot. It’s a good Sunday night meal. Probably not a realistic Tuesday night meal.

I followed the directions from the book mostly, except that I added a diced onion and about 10 chopped cremini mushrooms. Oh and some rosemary. And more thyme. I also roasted my veggies because I like roasted veggies. And I used less chicken stock. And…Well, hell, it’s kind of based on the recipe, I guess.

Coq au Vin with Autumn Vegetables
2 tbsp olive oil
8 cremini mushrooms, sliced
1 small onion, diced
2 slices bacon, cut into small dice
8-10 boneless chicken thighs
1 bottle of red wine (Cotes du Rhone, Cabernet Sauvignon, etc…)
3 cups chicken broth
1 tbsp tomato paste
3 cloves garlic minced
2 bay leaves
4 sprigs fresh thyme
1 sprig rosemary
2 parsnips peeled, and cut into 1″ lengths
2 carrots peeled, and cut into 1″ lengths
2 purple potatoes (or small red skinned potatoes) cut into small wedges
1 rutabaga peeled, and cut into smaller wedges than the other vegetables
3 tbsp all-purpose flour
2 tbsp butter
salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. In a large, heavy pot over medium heat, heat 1 tablespoon of the oil. Add the onion and mushrooms and saute until soft and just starting to color — about 6-7 minutes. Remove and set aside in a large bowl. Return the pan to the heat and add the bacon and cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly golden, about 10 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer to a plate.

Sprinkle all sides of chicken thighs with salt and pepper. Raise the heat to medium-high and, working in batches, add the chicken pieces to the pot. Cook, turning as necessary, until lightly golden, about 10 minutes. I didn’t work in batches because I was hungry, so my chicken didn’t brown as well as it should have. So, work in batches people!

When all of the chicken is golden, return the all chicken pieces to the pot along. Raise the heat to high and add the wine, broth, tomato paste, garlic, bay leaves, and the leaves from the thyme and rosemary sprigs. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer 20-25 minutes.

Using tongs, transfer the chicken to a large shallow dish and keep warm.

Meanwhile, right after you get the wine into the pot, toss your diced up fall veggies with the remaining tablespoon of oil. Salt and pepper and roast in the oven for about 20-25 minutes (while the chicken is braising), until almost done. You could also just skip this step and cook the veggies in the wine-broth completely. If you do this, give them about 25-30 minutes.

Next, add the almost cooked parsnips, carrots, rutabaga and potato to the wine. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until the vegetables are completely tender, about 8-10 minutes.

Using a slotted spoon, transfer the vegetables to the dish holding the chicken. And pour the wine sauce into the bowl holding the sauteed mushrooms and onions.

Melt the butter in your pot and add the flour. Cook for about a minute and then add the hot wine-mushrooms-onions mix back into the pot. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the liquid lightly coats a spoon, 2 to 3 minutes. Mine didn’t seem to thicken all that much but it was still mighty tasty!

To serve, pour the slightly thickened sauce over the bowl holding the chicken and vegetables. Garnish with thyme or rosemary sprigs. Recipe yields (at least) 6 servings. We had this with a big bowl of goat cheese polenta drizzled with a little fancy olive oil. Oh and the crusty bread. You must have crusty bread.

Thanks again to Confessions of an Apron Queen for hosting this month!

Oh! Oh! I totally forgot the “secret” ingredient! Based on the Fine Cooking recipe, I added about a tablespoon of honey in the sauce with the lemon, chicken stock & wine. I’ve amended the recipe below!

This was sort of one of those meals where I looked around at what we had and then figured out what to do with it. Chicken breasts? Yes. Capers? Right there. Lemons? Uh-huh. Wine? Well, duh. Feta stuffed green olives that I love-love-love? Oh yeah. So, here we go.

This recipe is also a combination of many different recipes I found online. The fried capers bit is from Fine Cooking magazine and the rest is a little bit Everyday Italian (Little Big Head) and a little bit I love my smoked paprika and I love my Parmesan cheese.

Chicken Piccata with Olives and Fried Capers
2 skinless and boneless chicken breasts, pounded flat*
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup AP flour
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1 tsp smoked paprika
3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 tbsp brined capers, rinsed
1 clove garlic, minced
Juice of 1 big lemon (should be about 3 - 4 tbsp, you may need another lemon if yours isn’t super juicy and/or big)
1/2 cup chicken stock
1/4 cup of white wine (I used a chardonnay)
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp butter
1/4 cup chopped green olives (rinsed) — stuffed with feta if you’ve got ‘em
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped

Combine flour, cheese, and paprika and pour onto a rimmed plate. Season chicken with salt and pepper. Dredge chicken pieces in the flour mixture and shake off excess.

In a large 10 or 12-inch skillet over medium high heat, add the olive oil. When hot add the capers and cook for about 60 seconds until they get a little color.

They will also expand a little, almost pop open a bit. Use a slotted spoon and remove the capers and let drain on a paper towel.

In the remaining oil, add the chicken and cook about 2-3 minutes.

When chicken is browned, flip and cook other side for 3 minutes. Check for doneness with a meat thermometer. You are looking for about 165. Remove and transfer to plate. Cover with foil to keep warm.

If you are making pasta to go with this, now is a good time to have your pot of boiling water and your pasta ready to go. We had spaghetti and some green beans. I added the pasta to the water when the sauce was about 8 minutes from being done and then the green beans to the pasta for the last 3-4 minutes of cooking time.

Okay, now back to the sauce. Reduce heat to medium and add the lemon juice, stock, honey, wine and garlic. Bring to boil, scraping up brown bits from the pan for extra flavor. Reduce for about 10 minutes. Check for seasoning and overall taste. Add more wine, stock or lemon as needed. I have to admit I fiddled a bit here. I added a bit more wine. Tasted. Then added a bit more stock. Then gave it a couple more minutes to reduce. When it is just where you like it, add the fried capers, the olives, parsley and butter. When butter is melted, it’s done.

To serve: plate up some drained pasta and green beans. I thought a large rimmed plate worked well but jwa thought a big bowl might have been better. Pfffftttt…whatever. Give each plate a chicken breast and top with the sauce, dividing it between plates.

This was really, really good. We will definitely be having this again. I was kind of sad I only used two chicken breasts and that there were no leftovers.

* To pound your chicken, Place some plastic wrap over a cutting board and put a chicken breast down. Fold the wrap over the chicken and pound with –
a: a pounding mallet
b: a rolling pin
c: some other instrument of choice

I actually have a metal tenderizing side/flat side mallet that I use. I like it because I can just throw it in the dishwasher. That’s one thing to remember, you might get a little raw chicken on whatever you’re pounding with so make sure that what you are using is washable. Then, pound each breast until it has pretty much doubled in size and is about 1/2 - 1/4 inch thick.

Until last April, I had never really tried clams or mussels. That changed when we stayed at the Winchester Inn in Ashland and our free chef’s choice appetizer coupon got us a big, steaming bowl of mussels and clams. And lots of hot bread. jwa and I both made slight faces and then each kind of shrugged and dug in.

Things I learned that night:

1. wine and butter make anything tasty
2. crusty bread is your friend
3. I like clams!
4. I am okay with mussels, but probably wouldn’t order a big plate of them

After being exposed to these four new tenets, I have been threatening to make some sort of clam dish at home ever since. jwa only encouraged this by getting me seafood forks as a stocking stuffer last Christmas. So, here’s some clams. But, it’s mostly salmon. But, hey, we’ve had it twice so far and both times it’s been pretty good.

The original recipe called for much more mint and saffron. I omitted the saffron the second time as I thought it overpowered the dish a little bit. I also decreased the mint a bit as it’s winter and I can’t get tons o’ fresh mint from the yard.

Salmon with Clams and Garlicky-Buttery Herb Broth
Influenced by a recipe by chef Michael Kornick of MK Restaurant in Chicago
2 tbsp fresh chives, chopped
2 tbsp fresh basil, chopped
2 tbsp fresh tarragon, chopped
2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
4 tbsp fresh mint, chopped
6 cloves garlic, finely chopped (separate into piles of four cloves and two cloves)
1/4 cup + 3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 salmon fillets, 6-8 oz each
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 medium fennel bulb, stalks cut off and discarded, and bulb cored and thinly sliced lengthwise
1 medium sweet onion, such as Vidalia, thinly sliced
1 cup dry white wine
3 tbsp unsalted butter
8-12 littleneck or Manilla clams, scrubbed

In large re-sealable plastic bag, combine chives, basil, tarragon, parsley, half the mint, the 4 cloves of chopped garlic, and 1/4 cup olive oil. Add salmon and seal bag, pressing out air. Turn bag to coat salmon, then refrigerate, turning bag over occasionally, at least 1 hour and up to 4 hours. You can also marinate the fish in a large dish.

Remove fish from marinade. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Preheat a grill pan or large skillet and grill salmon, turning once, until just opaque in center, about 4 minutes per side. Transfer to platter and cover loosely with foil to keep warm.

Now, I like to use the same pan that I cooked the salmon in, call me wacky. You could also, of course, use a new pan. Add the remaining olive oil, the fennel, onion and the remaining 2 cloves of chopped garlic. Sauté until just soft, about 2 minutes.

Add wine, butter, remaining mint, and clams, cover and bring to boil. Cook until clams open, about 8-10 minutes. Discard any clams that have not opened.

Place 1 piece salmon on center of each of 8 wide shallow bowls. Spoon clams, broth, onions, and fennel around salmon and serve immediately.

For an extra treat, cook some pasta or rice and place that in the bowl first, followed by the salmon and clams and sauce. Feta cheese makes a nice garnish, as does more fresh herbs. Also, (see lesson #2 above) you really can’t go wrong with slices from a crusty baguette on the side.

Resolution #1 — post more.
So, here we go. This was our stay at home, New Year’s Eve meal. Yep, instead of going out, we opted to stay in and eat a lot of beef. Mmmmm… I’ve wanted to make beef wellingtons for quite a while and finally, the time was right. Oh, was it right. Deliciously right.

In the original recipe, this was paired with a Madeira, beef demi-glace sauce but I just opted to use some tawny port that I already had and some beef broth. In a pinch, I would think you could also just use a cabernet in the sauce as well. Also, I heeded the advice of those on Epicurious who came before me and instead of pre-baking the beef (seriously?), I just seared it first in a pan. That was great advice and worked quite well.

The best thing about this recipe, though, is it’s make-ahead-ability. We came home from the store on Dec 30th and put the wellingtons together and kept them in the fridge until New Year’s Eve night. Tackling it that way, I’d think this would even be a great main course for a big dinner party. If you’re into sharing your beef wellingtons like that…

Beef Wellingtons with Gorgonzola & Mushrooms
Adapted from Gourmet magazine
2 center-cut beef tenderloins or filet mignons to the fancy-pants (about 6-8 ounces each)
1 tbsp canola oil
4 large mushrooms (about 1/4 pound total)
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tbsp finely chopped shallot
1 tbsp tawny port
1 clove minced garlic
1 large egg
1 puff pastry sheet (from a 17 1/4-ounce package frozen puff pastry), thawed
2 tbsp Gorgonzola cheese

Heat the tablespoon of oil in a heavy skillet and get it really hot. Salt and pepper each piece of meat and sear the steaks about 60-90 seconds on each side (salt and pepper the other side before turning over). Remove from the pan and let cool down a bit.

Thinly slice the mushrooms for the beef wellington and in a heavy skillet cook in butter with shallot, garlic, and salt and pepper to taste over moderate heat, stirring, until mushrooms are lightly browned. Add the port and stir until it has mostly evaporated. Transfer mushroom mixture to a bowl to cool completely. In a small bowl lightly beat egg to make an egg wash.

On a lightly floured surface roll out puff pastry sheet into a square. Cut in half and roll out a bit more as needed to make it big enough to fit each tenderloin.

Put a nice layer of mushroom mixture and about 1 tablespoon Gorgonzola in center of each square. Top mushroom mixture with a piece of beef, pressing it down gently, and wrap 2 opposite corners of puff pastry over the beef, overlapping them. Seal seam with egg wash or just dip your finger in a little water and seal that way.

Wrap remaining 2 corners of pastry over the beef and seal in same manner. Seal any gaps with egg wash and press pastry around the beefy goodness to enclose completely. Chances are, this will not work out exactly as described. There will be some wrapping and then perhaps a pause for a few sketches, calculations or whatnot and more wrapping and eventually, you will end up with a nicely enclosed beef wellington. Hang in there, it’ll happen.

Use any leftover pastry scraps and cookie cutter (or just mad knife skillz) to decorate the top. jwa made a giant eyeball on his.

Wrap up the beef wellingtons for chilling. I set them on a plate that I had lightly floured and covered with plastic wrap. Chill at least one hour and up to one day. Like I mentioned in the intro, we did these the day before and that worked really well.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees with your baking sheet in the oven. When you are ready to bake the wellingtons, arrange them, seam side down, on the hot baking sheet. Brush top and sides of each beef Wellington with some egg wash (you can save your leftover egg wash from the day before) and bake 20 minutes, or until pastry is golden. Twenty minutes should yield beef that is medium rare. You will have to adjust this time based on your doneness preference and the size of your wellington. If in doubt, medium rare is 145 degrees, just give it a quick check with the meat thermometer.

For sauce
5 mushrooms (button or crimini)
1 shallot, diced
1 1/2 cups beef broth
1/3 cup Madeira (you can also use plain red wine here or a port)
1 tbsp fresh thyme leave

To make the sauce (and this is doable the day before too), heat a pan with a little oil. If you are super smart, you can make the sauce in the same pan that you seared the beef in. Alas, I did not think of this at the time. I am sad.

Anyway, saute the shallot and mushrooms until soft and add the wine of your choice to deglaze the pan. Next add the broth and reduce by about half, 15-20 minutes. Stir in the thyme; salt and pepper as needed. Refrigerate (if you are making this ahead of time) and reheat with the beef as needed.

Other Optional Condiment
1 tbsp horseradish
1 cup Greek yogurt (regular yogurt will work too — the Greek kind is just extra creamy)

Mix and serve on the side. The sauce was very tasty but I think the horseradish-yogurt was my favorite. What else did we have on the side? Well, scalloped potatoes and braised Brussels sprouts. Then we retired to the couch and rang in the New Year with some season one Buffy.