Roasted Mushrooms With Braised Black Lentils And Parsley Croutons Recipes

ROASTED MUSHROOMS WITH BRAISED BLACK LENTILS AND PARSLEY CROUTONS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• For mushrooms, trim any woody stems, and clean with a damp kitchen towel as needed. Place face down on a sheet tray lined with parchment. Season assertively with salt and pepper. Generously drizzle with olive oil, and roast until tender, about 20 minutes. Set aside.
• Meanwhile, in a heavy-bottomed wide sauté pan, heat 1/4 cup olive oil over gentle heat. Add in the onion, fennel and garlic. Season with salt and black pepper and cook until tender, stirring often, about 10 minutes, taking care not to brown the vegetables. Add the lentils, stirring to coat them with the olive oil and vegetable mix. (Add more olive oil if needed to get a glossy coating on the lentils.) Cover just barely with cold water, add the bay leaves and fennel stalk and reseason with salt and pepper. Simmer, partly covered, until the lentils are tender but not mushy, stirring occasionally and adding more water as needed, as you might for a risotto. (You want to end up with wet-juicy cooked seasoned lentils but not lentil soup.) Turn off heat, remove bay leaves and cooked-out fennel stems or fronds, and finish with a healthy drizzle of olive oil.
• For croutons, over medium heat, melt the butter in a skillet large enough to hold the diced bread in a single layer. Add in the bread, stir to coat evenly with the butter and season with salt. Toast the croutons in the butter on the stovetop, stirring frequently, until golden brown and crispy. The butter will smell browned and toasted. Remove from the heat, season with salt and black pepper and allow to cool briefly before tossing with chopped parsley and lemon zest.
• Combine lentils with the roasted mushrooms and any accrued roasted mushroom juices, scatter croutons over top and serve.

BAR SNACK BRUSSELS SPROUTS STEEPED IN OLIVE OIL AND FISH SAUCE

Steps:

• Bring a large pot of water to a boil, and season with coarse kosher salt until as salty as the sea. We encourage you to actually get a spoon and taste the hot water for salinity. It's the only way to know what you've got in the pot.
• Add the brussels sprouts, and cook for about 10 minutes, until they are just cooked through. Still firm but not al dente.
• Drain sprouts, and quickly transfer to a heatproof shallow bowl, and while hot, douse them with good-quality olive oil and sprinkle fish sauce over them judiciously. Stir, and taste one. Add another splash of fish sauce, if needed, and let the sprouts cool completely, resting and steeping for an hour or so, before serving at room temperature.

WHOLE ROASTED BREAST OF VEAL

Steps:

• Vaguely trim breast - just the fat globs on the rib cage and any especially skanky skin, if it even exists. If the blue U.S.D.A. ink stamp on the flesh offends you, remove it.
• Place breast in a deep roasting pan large enough to accommodate it, and season meat thoroughly and assertively with salt, all over, turning the breast ribs-side up as well, seasoning with salt all over. Do the same thing, less assertively by half, with ground black pepper. Set breast back in pan ribs-side down, and season the flesh side extremely conservatively with both ground juniper and ground allspice. A light hand here, please. Strip a few pinches of fresh thyme leaves from their stems, and scatter over the veal. Drizzle generously with the oil, allowing some to pool in roasting pan.
• Let the veal sit at room temperature to shake the chill from the refrigerator while you prepare the potatoes.
• Peel and cut into wedges 4 Yukon Gold potatoes, and scatter around in pan. Peel and halve the onion, and slice into 1/3-inch-thick half-moons. Scatter onion around in pan on top of potatoes. Keep potato and onion under the meat, not on top of it, so that breast can fully brown and get a crisp skin.
• Fill roasting pan 2 inches deep with water and white wine, in equal parts. Set in 275-degree oven, and let roast for up to 12 hours, depending on weight. Remove when it is deeply golden brown and soft and tender. You don't want it falling off the bone, but you should be able to see how loose and relaxed it has become in the layers. You may need to tent the pan with foil for the first or the last 45 minutes of roasting to give it a little braise time for the deepest interior, recalcitrant parts. Conversely, you may want to turn up the oven and give it a 30-minute finish in a hot oven to get better color.
• Pick out vertebrae. Slice off ribs. Then portion as you wish, using a sharp knife big enough for the job. Include the potatoes and onions and the liquid from the pan when you serve.

TARAMASALATA

Steps:

• Place roe in the food processor with lemon juice. Microplane the garlic, and tap into the container.
• Purée until smooth and orangy-pink and "creamy."
• Add wet panko and a drizzle of olive oil, and purée until blended, now creamy and viscous.
• Transfer to a bowl, and with a tiny teardrop side of a box grater, grate in the potato. Whisk all together.
• Season with a little salt and more lemon juice to taste.

SIMPLE BRAISED MUSHROOMS

Steps:

• Heat a large straight-sided skillet over medium high heat. Add the oil and heat another 30 seconds. Add the shallot and 1/2 teaspoon of the salt to the hot pan and cook, stirring often, for 2 minutes or until fragrant and beginning to soften. Add the mushrooms to the pan along with another 1/2 teaspoon salt and the thyme. Cook, stirring often, until the mushrooms have let off some of their juices are beginning to brown, about 10 minutes.
• Deglaze with the Marsala, if using, and add the broth and remaining salt. Reduce the heat to low to maintain a gentle simmer. Cover and cook for 5 minutes. Uncover the pan, increase the heat to medium and cook until the liquid has reduced by half, about an additional 5 minutes. Discard the thyme sprigs, stir in the butter and serve.

GARLIC-BUTTER ROASTED MUSHROOMS

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
• Clean mushrooms with a damp paper towel and gently remove and discard stems.
• Drizzle oil into a large cast iron skillet to evenly coat. Place mushrooms into the skillet, cap-side down. Carefully sprinkle garlic into the mushroom cavities, taking care not to sprinkle directly into the skillet. Drizzle mushrooms with melted butter, then season with salt and pepper.
• Roast in the preheated oven for 15 minutes. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and return to the oven for 3 to 5 more minutes. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with parsley. Let cool slightly before serving.