salmon baked with dill, with a white wine/shallot/mustard sauce, butternut squash bisque, and the possibility of a snowstorm next week

Last night, after coding for awhile and completing my main task for that work session, the desire to cook up a storm carried me to the kitchen, as it so often does. This was one of those work-with-what-we-have cooking adventures. We have at least a gallon of stock made from our vegetable scraps, and we have more carrots and celery than we can handle. Not to mention Squash Mountain, the central geographic feauture of our dining room table. No meat defrosted, but we did have a nice thick salmon fillet in the freezer, which I knew would defrost quickly.

For the sauce: Sweat a quarter cup or so of shallots in butter, gently, for a few minutes. Add about a cup of white wine, and reduce by two-thirds. Prepare two cups of velouté (see: 4 October, 2008 post). Fish stock would probably work just great, but I used vegetable stock. And, I must say, it's often the case that a velouté tastes fine on its own. This did not! And after I stirred in the white wine/shallot infusion (note: next time I will use onions for a mustard sauce), the taste was not improved. But once I stirred in the half tablespoon of white sugar and the tablespoon and a half of Dijon mustard, it was perfect (with a little salt and pepper, of course). Before adding the seasonings, be sure to simmer the sauce for 10-20 minutes. After adding the mustard, do not allow the sauce to come to a boil again.

For the salmon: Brushed the salmon with olive oil. Rubbed in salt and chopped dill. Stuck it in an oven at 350 degrees F. I began checking it at 12 minutes. The filet was about an inch and a half thick, which meant it should have been done at 15 minutes (reading 120 -125F on a meat thermometer). After 15 minutes, this had not yet been achieved, so I turned the oven up to 450F. Another six minutes after that was required. And the salmon turned out perfect--this is the second best fish I've ever prepared, I think.

For the butternut squash bisque: Prepare a mirepoix by sauteéing a half to three quarters of a cup each of chopped onions, chopped celery, and chopped carrots. After the onions are getting translucent, add about four cups of cubed butternut squash flesh. Let this sauteé for a few more minutes, then add three cups of vegetable stock and simmer until the vegetables are soft. When they are, let the mixture cool. Then pureé in a blender. At this point, the mixture can be refrigerated or frozen. Any amount that is to be used should be reheated, seasoned with salt, pepper, and nutmeg, and finished with an appropriate amount of heavy cream.

Two days ago, a nasty storm started showing up in the long-range runs of the GFS (Global Forecast System) model. The two runs I saw for that day strongly suggested an intense precipitation event, likely involving freezing rain and snow. The later run put better chances on the snow (using both the 540 dam 1000-500 hPa thickness contour as well as the 850 mb 0C isotherm as proxies for the snow line). Quite naturally, I find this disturbing. It looks like the GFS runs for today have amplified the disagreement on this point. Both have pushed the storm somewhat to the west, but one definitely gives us rain, while the other gives us winter precipitation. The Canadian CMC model runs from today mostly agree with the rainy version of GFS. By tomorrow the WRF (Weather Research and Forecasting) models--which go out to 84 hours--should offer another view on how the storm will evolve.

taproot gratin and Bauern Frühstück, and how I'm starting to get this whole Solstice thing

Having realized taproots can be substituted for potatoes in many different recipes, thus altering the flavor of the dish, I have succeeded in two experiments.

Gratin is a sort of casserole involving layers of potatoes, cheese, and béchamel (or just cream or milk), baked to perfection. My most recent gratin cleaned out our refrigerator some. First, I grated enough butternut squash to coat the bottom of a baking dish by slightly less than an inch or so. Then a layer of thinly sliced turnips, followed by a layer of thinly sliced rutabegas. A layer of thinly sliced potato on top. I made a sauce mornay (see my earlier post on béchamel) with Parmesan and Jarlsberg cheeses. Poured the hot sauce into the baking dish, so that the layers of vegetables were barely covered...I think I made three cups of sauce for a gratin that was 10" x 18" x 1.5". Oven preheated to 350 degrees F, sprinkle some grated Parmesan on top, cover with aluminum foil and bake for a little less than half an hour. Then remove the cover and continue baking for another twenty minutes or so. Be sure to begin checking on it after about 45 minutes. You generally want the top to be browning, and a stainless steel butterknife should slide cleanly in and out of the gratin. Sprinkle with parsley as it cools.

Bauern Frühstück or German Farmers' Breakfast is one of those "garbage eggs" or "refrigerator velcro" kind of dishes. I diced a cup or so of turnip and potato (the potato had been left in the refrigerator half-used and needed to be finished off), about three quarters of a cup each of green bell pepper and onion, and sliced some large cloves of garlic. Whisked several eggs into a more homogenous mixture. Pulled out some sliced, cooked turkey ham that had been in the fridge for almost two weeks. I think I put a few mushrooms in there, too.

I sauteéd the green peppers and onions and mushrooms in bacon grease on medium-high heat. The green peppers were undercooked, so next time I'll add those first, then the onions and mushrooms. When I judged the onions done, I transferred the vegetables to a bowl and kept them warm. Then another tablespoon or so of bacon grease, and browned the root vegetables. Shredded ham was sprinkled on this, along with the slices of garlic. A minute or so later the other vegetables were added back to the main dish. Then I poured the eggs over the entire mixture. Next time I will add the spices to the eggs before adding them--adding the spices while trying to scramble the mixture proved inconvenient. For spices, I went with rosemary (because we had some drying above the sink so it was within reach) and rubbed sage (because we have a big bag of it that needs to get used). The original recipe calls for parsley, but I elected against that partly because I would like to use our parsley for other purposes, but mostly because I had not prepared any of the parsley. Anyway, scramble for a bit (lowering the heat to medium or lower) and when it seems done, remove it from the heat and coat it with a layer of grated cheese (sharp cheddar works great!).

So that's how we are using our winter vegetables. One of my favorite things about my life right now is that almost all of my food comes from local producers, and that this requires my diet to be in tune with the seasons. I still find myself going to the grocery store for out-of-season produce, but that happens less and less, and when it does, it's because I'm making a dish showcasing some seasonal vegetable. This is one of the many ways I'm learning to cope with--even appreciate!--the winter. (If I haven't mentioned this before, I really, really hate the winter...especially snow!)

I've been quite sluggish recently. I blame this on the latitude. By 6pm, it's as dark as night here. Not to mention that at high noon the sun seems to have barely risen, so long are the shadows. I miss living in a subtropical latitude. But one thing about this whole experience up North is that I'm really getting to understand what I call the "natural holidays." Take winter solstice, or Yule. That will be the longest night of the year. It heralds at least two more months of darkness and cold, snow and ice. Yet that day is the promise of the new summer. The night will swallow not another minute of the daily cycle; the sun pushes warmth and light back into our lives. I can see why they used to include the Divine Infant in the images for the celebration of Yule (still do, I guess).