One of the most delightful things about this savory, silky custard-like soup is the surprise at the bottom. This version of a favorite soup lured you in with toppings of sweet spot shrimp fished from nearby waters and salmon roe ikura. Once you spooned your way through all that deliciousness, you would have been surprised by a nice bite of smoked salmon at the bottom of the bowl. In order to make this first course easy to transport to a Thanksgiving potluck, we made them in four-ounce canning jars. They were cooked bain marie, instead of the traditional steaming, which worked quite well.
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These little custards were baked in two-ounce canning jars and are awaiting the finishing touch of a caramelized top. They are the perfect size for a dessert bite at a potluck.
Tis the season for pumpkin pie. Ten years ago (wow, 10 years!!), we posted a recipe after making a fall pumpkin pie and found ourselves with leftover filling. You know the problem, not enough filling to make a whole second pie, but the idea of tossing the extra unthinkable. We decided to bain-marie the remainder. When the little custards came out of the hot water bath, they seemed to want a bit of crunch. Out came the kitchen torch and a little sugar for a satisfying brûlée finish. And so, a new recipe for our repertoire was born.
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One of the first foraged finds of our “summer” is fiddleheads. You can see by the canning date, these were harvested in May. They are tender and delicious and best served just-picked and lightly sautéed. Up here in the Upper 1 (as opposed to the lower 48), we love to figure out ways to preserve our summer finds so we can enjoy them all throughout the year. Freezing, drying, and pickling are all very popular methods.
During this past summer, we cracked into our winter pantry and sampled one of these jars. The first savory sour bite flashed me straight back to an all-time favorite meal – Raclette. This flavorful and delightfully fatty cheese originated in Switzerland. It is traditionally served by heating the cheese over a flame and scraping the melted cheese atop boiled potatoes and pickles. There is no better meal to warm you up at the end of a chilly day!
Wanting to put an Alaskan twist on this Swiss favorite, we’ve been trying to figure out how to acquire this specialty cheese in our fairly remote part of the world. After failed attempts of getting an Anchorage cheese shop to mail us some or having visiting friends hand carry us a couple of pounds, we gave up.
For weeks now, I’ve been grabbing things from our walk-in pantry. Every time I enter, I am met with those jars of pickled fiddleheads. Any normal person would just eat them in some other recipe. But I can be stubborn tenacious. Last weekend, I decided to try Amazon. Darn it all if there weren’t options for ordering Raclette cheese! Not deterred by the extra shipping cost, we decided to go for it. The cheese shipped out from the seller on October 29 and arrived today! It was well packed and arrived perfectly. Tonight’s menu is set. Melty raclette cheese served with boiled potatoes (traditional), pickled fiddleheads, pickled fireweed shoots, Alaskan reindeer sausage, and homemade sourdough bread. A nice bottle of Willamette Pinot Noir should be a perfect accompaniment. Cheers to tenacity!
Fall forest walks are full of fantastic foraging. At the end of a lovely walk, we came home with a basket of hedgehog and yellowfoot chanterelle mushrooms – perfect for a wild mushroom quiche. We added in a few sulphur shelf mushrooms from the freezer to make an extra wild recipe. The mushrooms were mixed with sautéed leeks and shallots, and the usual cream and eggs. The filling was baked in a smoked gouda pastry crust. It could be a perfect centerpiece to a champagne brunch, or a decadent dinner aside a wild foraged salad. Bon appetit!
Audrey Hepcat is ready for her lunch. Sorry kitty, this is my lunch.
What a sandwich! A Po’Boy is a fried oyster sandwich. A Peacemaker is a fried oyster and fried shrimp sandwich earning it’s name as it was used by repentant husbands as a peacemaking gift to their wives.
This sandwich kicks it up – and no one was in trouble! Fried oysters, fried shrimp, and fried yelloweye rockfish atop sunomono cucumbers served on a toasted tartar slathered bun. The combination of the fat of the fried food and the acid on the cucumber salad was perfection. What in the world shall we call this one? Ideas?
One of the many, many things we love about Cordova is receiving a notice that someone is selling freshly caught seafood down at the harbor. Yesterday’s “catch” were beautiful yelloweye rockfish. The meat is firm, white, and flakes beautifully. The collar, grilled, pan-fried or broiled, is reminiscent of lobster tail. What’s your favorite seafood?
If you’ve been following along, you’ll know I avoid superfluous or single use kitchen gadgets. When friends suggested adding a steam juicer to our arsenal, I borrowed one to see what the fuss was about. I first tested it on rhubarb and high bush cranberries with good results, but when I steam juiced wineberries (aka nagoon berries) I was sold. This device simplifies the process of cleaning and sorting, and quickly produces pure, unadulterated juices ready for immediate use or for canning. Highly recommend!
We are having quite a berry season. It was easy to gather premium wild blueberries and wild salmonberries for this tart. Look at the size of those golden berries! There’s a lot of things you could do with freshly picked berries…but nothing says “fresh berries” like fresh berries.
Chef Jack doing his magic. Preparing halibut on a bed of chopped venison sausage to be grilled en papillote. So grateful for the kindness of sharing neighbors.
CutterLight 