One of my favorite cooking shows of all time is the original Iron Chef. No, not the modern version that plays over and over on Food Network right now, but the one taped in Japan with the silly English dubbing that always cracks me up. The episode that I drooled most over was “Battle Matsutake.” Matsutake Tempura?! Oh hello lover!

So since that episode, I’ve been pining for Matsutake mushrooms. I kept hearing that in Japan, it’s a seasonal, rare, expensive thing….so I just sorta passed it up as, “okay, one day…” type of food.

And a couple of weeks ago I found out that Matsutake mushrooms are harvested here in the Pacific Northwest (okay, not really “here” as I’m in Florida, but I mean here as in American soil!) and this year is one of abundance. My good friend Dave from Earthy sent me an email when they first started arriving, and I almost canceled the rest of my travel plans to come home so I could play with the ’shrooms.

But how to cook?

Marc of No Recipes and Stephan of Zen Can Cook came to the rescue with ideas and recipes. I had dinner with both of them a few months ago in NYC, but we don’t have a photo to prove it.

Because we were too damn busy eating, laughing and stuffing our faces at dinner. Oh and drinking lots too. No wonder!

So, if you’re lucky enough to get your hands on a few Matsutake mushrooms, remember to keep the recipe simple. The mushroom is so fragrant and earthy that you don’t want manipulate it too much. Keep it simple, with few good quality ingredients and enjoy its natural aroma and taste.

What is Matsutake Mushroom?

Fall is the season of Matsutake mushrooms. In Japan, it’s a highly prized mushroom, perfect specimens selling for as much as $250 for 6 small Matsutake mushrooms! I compare it to truffles – the Matsutake has a penetrating, deep earthy aroma. It’s texture is thick, meaty and hearty.

Matsu = pine
Take = mushroom

The Matsutake grows only under pine trees, and I’ve heard that the never grow in the same place twice. How frustrating for mushroom hunters, eh? American Matsutake is a little different from the Japanese species, but just as fragrant and delicious.

Hsiao-Ching Chou wrote, “In that regard, the matsutake resembles the truffle, which lends its perfume to any preparation it encounters. A broth with several slices of a pine mushroom would be served in a lidded bowl or pot, for example, so that the scent of earthy pine with a tinge of cinnamon swirls within the container until it is finally released.”

Hurry! Matsutake mushrooms are only available September through November!

How to make Matsutake Dobin Mushi

First, clean your mushroom with a damp cloth, wiping off as much dirt as possible. Cut off the tough bottom nub of the mushroom. Use a paring knife, turn the knife around so that you’re using the upper dull edge, and scrape off the thin outer layer on the stem.

Cleaned mushrooms and trimmed stems

We’ll be making dashi broth from scratch. You’ll need 3 ingredients to make dashi – water, bonito flakes and dried kelp.

To make dashi, use large bonito flakes or katsuobushi. They come in a big package at the Asian market. Look for the big flakes. The little flakes are for garnishing. Big flakes should be the size of a cornflake.

Look how beautiful these bonito fish flakes are! So light, airy, flakey. Don’t sneeze.

You’ll also need a 6-inch piece of dried kelp (seaweed) or kombu for dashi:

They usually come long, folded and then dried. You’ll only need 6-inches and just a single layer, so break it apart.

Do not soak the kelp or even rinse it. Just take a damp cloth and wipe it down to clean any dirt off the seaweed. Add the kelp to water and turn the heat to medium-low.

Just before it comes to a boil, add two big handfuls of bonito flakes, stir and turn off the heat immediately.

Then strain.

The kombu is still good! Don’t throw it away….

Just rinse and pat dry. Let dry on your counter top and then when the kelp is completely dry, store back in your pantry. You can reuse.

Now it’s time to make the dobin mushi. Ladle the strained dashi into a teapot.

Next, add the ingredients. Today, I had sliced fish, sliced carrots and sliced Matsutake mushrooms. I have also make dobin mushi with chicken, shrimp and ginko nuts. What you add to your dobin mushi is up to you. Below, I have a list of links to dobin mushi recipes that you can look at.

Place all ingredients into the teapot. Also add Japanese sake, a touch of soy sauce and just a sliver of lime peel.

Dobin mushi is steamed, not boiled directly on a flame. I have a wok here and have inserted a steamer stand. Bring water to a boil.

Place the teapot on the steamer rack.

Cover with lid.

Steam for 8 minutes.

Pour the aromatic broth into a teacup.

And then enjoy the goodies inside the pot.

Treasure hunting!

More Matsutake

Matsutake Mushrooms from Earthy.com

Fantastic Forage

A Recipe to Savor the Autumn: Kinoko Dobin Mushi

Matsutake Dobin Mushi Recipe

Mad About Matsutake

Introduction to Matsutake

Wild about Matsutake

Hunting for Matsutake Mushrooms

It’s the LAST WEEK of Summer Fest! Where did all the time go? We’re onto our final round of celebrating the garden and onto Tomatoes. If you haven’t yet heard about Summer Fest, it’s a four-week celebration of fresh-from-the-garden food: recipes, growing tips, even tricks for storing and preserving summer’s best with my co-hosts White on Rice, Away to Garden, Simmer Till Done, Paige of The Sister Project and Matt Bites. Of course, It’s not a party without your participation! And I’ll tell you how in just a bit.

When we first threw the idea of Summer Fest around, I was just ending my early Summer season of tomatoes. It’s just way too hot here where I live in Florida to grow much of anything in the thick of summer. I SHOULD be starting my tomatoes for our Fall/Winter-ish season (there’s no such thing as Winter here, it’s still like 80F in December) but I haven’t started, because this is what happens to my tomato garden when I travel too much:

Um yeah. So my Earthboxes are still empty.

Wait…you don’t believe me that I can harvest tomatoes in the winter? Oh let me show you what I picked on Christmas Eve in 2007:

Okay, so it was only 1 itty bitty leeeetle tomato. But still! Christmas Eve harvest!

But there are SOME things that are growing:

So I’ve got basil…LOTS of basil and had to cheat with the tomato and get that at a farmer’s market to make Caprese Salad with Basil Vinaigrette.

When tomato is THIS good, I hate to do anything other than enjoy it fresh in a salad. My Basil Vinaigrette is simple to make, takes 5 minutes in a blender. You’ll love it. I promise.

First, the Basil Vinaigrette ingredients: fresh basil leaves, shallots, sea salt, a couple slices of fresh chili pepper, good olive oil and a white vinegar (I’m in love with Dehydr8).

First you gotta chop up the shallots and the pepper in the blender.

Next goes in the torn basil leaves, salt, vinegar and 2 tablespoons of water. You need that liquid to get things moving in the blender.

Let that baby whirl while you slowly drizzle in the olive oil. Look at that gorgeous mossy green!

Once it calms down a bit, the color turns bright vivid green.

The makings of a Caprese Salad.

Wait. Another beauty shot of the tomato.

Since I’m stacking this Caprese Salad up, I want to make sure that the bottom layer (which uses the bottom of the tomato) is flat — so that the whole stack doesn’t fall over. So lop off the round butt of the tomato so that it has a flat ass to sit on.

Start stacking and layering your Caprese Salad!

Lastly…drizzle the Basil Vinaigrette over your Caprese Salad.

Love that drizzle action!

How you can join Summer Fest

Summer Fest 2009 is a four-week, cross-blog celebration co-created (alphabetically listed) by A Way to Garden, Matt Armendariz of Mattbites, Jaden Hair of Steamy Kitchen, and Todd and Diane of White on Rice Couple, with guest appearances from Shauna and Daniel Ahern of Gluten-Free Girl, Simmer Till Done’s Marilyn Pollack Naron, and Paige Smith Orloff of The Sister Project.’ And from you that’s critical. Your contributions are desired, and needed.

Will you play along? Have a recipe or tip that fits any of our weekly themes? Starting today, with the subject of herbs, you can contribute in various ways, big or small. Contribute a whole post, or a comment, whatever you wish. It’s meant to be fun, viral, fluid. No pressure, just delicious. The possibilities:

Simply leave your tip or recipe or favorite links in the comments below a Summer Fest post on my blog, and then go visit my collaborators and do the same.

The cross-blog event idea works best when you leave your recipe or favorite links (whether to your own blog or someone else’s) at all the host blogs. That way, they are likely to be seen by the widest audience. Everyone benefits, and some pretty great dialog starts simmering.

Or think bigger: Publish entire entire posts of your own, if you wish, and grab the juicy Summer Fest 2009 tomato badge (illustrated by Matt of Mattbites).

Summer Fest 2009 Schedule:

• Tuesday, July 28: HERBS. Any and all.

• Tuesday, August 4: FRUITS FROM TREES (also known as stone fruits, but we won’t scream if you toss in a berry or another fruit, promise).

• Tuesday, August 11: BEANS-AND-GREENS WEEK (either or both, your choice).

• Tuesday, August 18: TOMATO WEEK. How do you like them love apples? (this week!)

What did my co-hosts make for the Summer Fest Party?

Simmer Till Done Made a Savory Upside Down Tomato Basil Bread

Matt Bites does Tomatoes 10 Ways

Away to Garden shows us her Quick Tomato Sauce Ever So Slowly

White on Rice tells us about their kiddie tomato thieves and makes Tomato Jam!

What a cute little girl! Paige from The Sister Project makes Curried Carrot and Tomato Soup

Gluten Free Girl makes Smoked Tomato Salsa

It’s week 3 of the Summer Fest! Last week we all made recipes using fruit from trees, and this week it’s all about Beans and Greens. If you haven’t yet heard about Summer Fest, it’s a four-week celebration of fresh-from-the-garden food: recipes, growing tips, even tricks for storing and preserving summer’s best with my co-hosts White on Rice, Away to Garden, Gluten-Free Girl and Matt Bites. Of course, It’s not a party without your participation! And I’ll tell you how in just a bit.

My choice in the greens category is Chinese Broccoli or Gai-Lan (guy-LAHN) my favorite Asian vegetable. Earlier this year, I grew gai-lan in our garden….and failed. The failure had nothing to do with the vegetable itself, it was just me traveling too much and giving very little garden love to poor gai-lan.

So, I’m going to give you step-by-step photo instructions on how to make this “most flavorful noodle dish in the world” recipe from Corrine Trang’s new book called Noodles Every Day.

Chinese Broccoli (Gai-Lan)

I have a modest garden, and there are some vegetables that my boys have laid claim to. One of them was regular broccoli and the other Chinese broccoli. They wanted to see how big the broccoli could get and refused to let me even touch them!

You have no idea the patience and willpower it took for me to NOT cut the broccoli! I had nightmares about this thing.

While the broccoli still tasted great, even after being plucked a bit past its prime…but unfortunately, that’s not how Chinese broccoli works. Once the Chinese broccoli stem starts shooting up, and before it begins flowering, that’s the time to pick and enjoy them.

If you wait too long and the flowers open up, the Chinese broccoli becomes bitter. You can also tell from the cut stems if the Chinese broccoli will be perfect or too old. See the bottoms of these cut stems? It’s milky-transluscent and smooth.

If the bottoms of the stem have a hard white circle in the middle (instead of smooth, milky and translucent) it will probably be past its prime and taste tough and bitter. Well, our home-grown Chinese broccoli grew VERY TALL and bloomed with small white flowers…but tasted so bitter. boo.

Photo below is store-bought Chinese Broccoli…see the beautiful stem-bottoms?

So, the lesson learned — I’m putting the kids in charge of a different vegetable this year…maybe something that grows super-fast and tall…corn?

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For this Broccoli Beef Noodle Stir Fry recipe, you can use ANY type of noodles. Really, spaghetti noodles are fantastic in this dish. I happened to have Japanese style egg-noodles, so that’s what I used! Cook your noodles according to package directions.

While the noodles are cooking, marinate the beef slices in soy sauce, cornstarch, sugar, oyster sauce and rice wine. If you don’t have rice wine, use dry sherry or any dry white wine will do. The sugar and the oyster sauce will help the meat caramelize.

You want beautiful, carmelized meat in your stir fry?

Here’s the secret. DO NOT CROWD THE MEAT! Single layer, ladies and gents!

Once you add it to the wok or frying pan, LEAVE THE THING ALONE. Resist the temptation to shake, move it around or flip…until the first side has a chance to caramelize. Then flip.

See the nicely caramelized bits?

Once the meat finishes cooking, remove to a plate. Now it’s time for Chinese Broccoli (Gai Lan).

Stir fry for a minute, scooping up the oils at the bottom of the wok all over the Chinese Broccoli. Bathe the oil over the Chinese Broccoli.

Now turn heat down, add 1/4 cup of water or browth and cover to let steam.

A couple of minutes later…test the Chinese Broccoli to see if done! A knife should pierce easily into the steam.

Now its the cooked noodles turn to take a bath in the sauce.

See it absorb all the juicy bits?

Now return the beef and broccoli to the wok and serve!!

Yum.

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How you can join Summer Fest

Summer Fest 2009 is a four-week, cross-blog celebration co-created (alphabetically listed) by A Way to Garden, Matt Armendariz of Mattbites, Jaden Hair of Steamy Kitchen, and Todd and Diane of White on Rice Couple, with guest appearances from Shauna and Daniel Ahern of Gluten-Free Girl, Simmer Till Done’s Marilyn Pollack Naron, and Paige Smith Orloff of The Sister Project. And from you -that’s critical. Your contributions are desired, and needed.

Will you play along? Have a recipe or tip that fits any of our weekly themes? Starting today, with the subject of herbs, you can contribute in various ways, big or small. Contribute a whole post, or a comment -whatever you wish. It’s meant to be fun, viral, fluid. No pressure, just delicious. The possibilities:

Simply leave your tip or recipe or favorite links in the comments below a Summer Fest post on my blog, and then go visit my collaborators and do the same.

The cross-blog event idea works best when you leave your recipe or favorite links (whether to your own blog or someone else’s) at all the host blogs. That way, they are likely to be seen by the widest audience. Everyone benefits, and some pretty great dialog starts simmering.

Or think bigger: Publish entire entire posts of your own, if you wish, and grab the juicy Summer Fest 2009 tomato badge (illustrated by Matt of Mattbites).

Summer Fest 2009 Schedule:

• Tuesday, July 28: HERBS. Any and all.

• Tuesday, August 4: FRUITS FROM TREES (also known as stone fruits, but we won’t scream if you toss in a berry or another fruit, promise).

• Tuesday, August 11: BEANS-AND-GREENS WEEK (either or both, your choice).

• Tuesday, August 18: TOMATO WEEK. How do you like them love apples?

What did my co-hosts make for the Summer Fest Party?

Diane and Todd make a salad with the TOPS of radishes, beets and carrots!

A beautiful Kale Frittata from Margaret of Away to Garden

Shauna joins us this week with her very first home=grown salad ever!

Simply gorgeous – Matt Armendariz shares one of his top 5 fav recipes of all time.

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Click through slideshow to see how I got my money shot (this photo)

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Click through slideshow to see how I got my money shot (this photo)

It’s week 2 of the Summer Fest! Last week we played around with herbs and this week it’s time for fruit from trees. If you haven’t yet heard about Summer Fest, it’s a four-week celebration of fresh-from-the-garden food: recipes, growing tips, even tricks for storing and preserving summer’s best with my co-hosts White on Rice, Away to Garden and Matt Bites. Of course, It’s not a party without your participation! And I’ll tell you how in just a bit.

My contribution to this week’s “fruit from trees” is a warm salad made with juicy, sweet caramelized plums… barely sauteed fresh chanterelles, crumbly blue cheese and crisp savory bacon. This was a recipe that I made two nights in a row…it was such a hit.

Chanterelles may be hard to find, but any type of mushroom would do…from sliced, meaty portabello to velvety white button mushrooms.

And of course any type of stone fruit would work in this recipe. Please don’t limit this to just plums but experiment with peaches and nectarines.

The bacon? Oh honey, there’s no substitute for the bacon. Do 10 push-ups tomorrow.

My Friends at Earthy.com surprised me with a pound of beautiful trumpet-shaped Michigan chanterelles.

After trimming the ends, the smaller ones get halved…and the larger chantrelles are quartered.

Chanterelles are so beautiful that I’d hate to drown them in any type of sauce. Michael Ruhlman suggested that I keep them pretty simple with minimal ingredients so that I would enjoy the full flavor of the wild mushrooms. Simple? Sure, I could do that. Sauteed ‘em in bacon drippings. Can life be any simpler than warm bacon drippings?

Okay I’m going to teach you how to cut stone fruit into nice, even wedges. The problem with stone fruit is that there is a pit in the middle. And sometimes it’s a bitch to get out without tearing up the flesh. So here’s how I do it. Listen good, because it involves a highly technical term called plum asscrack. Find the plum’s crack – STOP LAUGHING – and hold your knife parallel to the crack, about a little more than 1/4-inch to the SIDE of the asscrack. See the crack? It’s just to the left of my knife.

Now cut. The The seat of the plum is oval-ish and cutting it this way is the most efficient method.

Now turn the plum around to the other side and 1/4-inch to side of the plum asscrack, cut again.  Now you’ve got two nice, big, plum asscheeks.

Cut these babies into wedges.

Oh but we’re not done yet! That middle section with the seed? Angle your knife and cut around the seed for two more wedges.

Can you imagine me trying to explain this process without photos? You think I was nuts!

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How you can join Summer Fest

Summer Fest 2009 is a four-week, cross-blog celebration co-created (alphabetically listed) by A Way to Garden, Matt Armendariz of Mattbites, Jaden Hair of Steamy Kitchen, and Todd and Diane of White on Rice Couple, with guest appearances from Shauna and Daniel Ahern of Gluten-Free Girl, Simmer Till Done’s Marilyn Pollack Naron, and Paige Smith Orloff of The Sister Project. And from you that’s critical. Your contributions are desired, and needed.

Will you play along? Have a recipe or tip that fits any of our weekly themes? Starting today, with the subject of herbs, you can contribute in various ways, big or small. Contribute a whole post, or a comment-whatever you wish. It’s meant to be fun, viral, fluid. No pressure, just delicious. The possibilities:

Simply leave your tip or recipe or favorite links in the comments below a Summer Fest post on my blog, and then go visit my collaborators and do the same.

The cross-blog event idea works best when you leave your recipe or favorite links (whether to your own blog or someone else’s) at all the host blogs. That way, they are likely to be seen by the widest audience. Everyone benefits, and some pretty great dialog starts simmering.

Or think bigger: Publish entire entire posts of your own, if you wish, and grab the juicy Summer Fest 2009 tomato badge (illustrated by Matt of Mattbites).

Summer Fest 2009 Schedule:

• Tuesday, July 28: HERBS. Any and all.

• Tuesday, August 4: FRUITS FROM TREES (also known as stone fruits, but we won’t scream if you toss in a berry or another fruit, promise).

• Tuesday, August 11: BEANS-AND-GREENS WEEK (either or both, your choice).

• Tuesday, August 18: TOMATO WEEK. How do you like them love apples?

What did my co-hosts make for the Summer Fest Party?

Margaret Roach of Away to Garden ditched the flour and made a super simple Peach Clafoutis, that old friend Martha Stewart taught her.

Marilyn of Simmer Til Done shows us her gorgeous Ginger Peach Pandowdy…what’s a pandowdy? Go find out!

Paige of Hey Little Sister tells us a tale about The Perils of Pie…oh the pie crisis!

Only Matt of Matt Bites can pull off an Apricot Ice Cream while RAPPING to Supersonic.

Peach Cooler! Look at those perfect peaches from White On Rice’s garden! It’s even kid friendly (sshhh…I’m adding a bit of rum to that drink!)

While Shauna is on vacation, Margaret snuck into her blog and pulled out a Gluten Free Fruit Crumble from 2007!

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Andrew just celebrated his sixth birthday last week, and like many little boys, he’s obsessed with Star Wars. We’re currently at the height of the Lego craze and for Andrew’s birthday all he wanted was go to the Lego store inside Downtown Disney, you know, the free part of Disney where everything is double the price, which makes it not-so-free I guess. But no boy as young as Andrew should be allowed to own a Star Wars Republic Attack Gun Ship with 1,034 itty bitty Lego pieces, especially a boy whose mother is neurotic, a father who’s intensely by-the-book-must-follow-instructions and who’s younger brother who loves to tinker, smash, crash and explode things.

Can you even imagine the four-letter and fifty-eight letter curse words that pierces the air every time I step on a stray, plastic, sharp-edged Lego? Or little brother Nathan’s curiosity that compels him to find out what happens he breaks these 392 pieces off and put them on the other side? Well let me tell you what happens. It no longer functions as a $129.00 Star Wars Republic Attack Gun Ship. Birthday boy cries, Dad’s frustrated because he can’t find missing pieces and I storm into the garage to take the shop-vac out to suck up every single crack of dignity Lego Luke Skywalker ever had.

And then for the first time in the Steamy Kitchen, I grabbed a cookbook and followed a recipe exactly. No substitutions, no tinkering, no eyeballing measurements. And it turned out wonderful.

How to make Potato Dominoes

Well, first ya gotta cut your potatoes into a rectangular cube shape. Be prepared to have LOTS of potato scraps. But please don’t be a douche and just throw away the scraps – just plan to have skillet potatoes tomorrow morning and use the scraps in the recipe. See how nice and cubular this is?

I was sent a Aroma Electric Mandoline Slicer from Aroma to check out, which worked perfectly to slices those potatoes into super-thin slices. That’s Nathan right there, he was fascinated by the see-saw back and forth motion of the mandoline. That’s Nathan in the pic. He’s a mischevious one. Gotta keep an eye on him. That look? You know he’s thinking about what he can stick in that machine to slice.

What do I think about this Aroma Electric Mandoline Slicer?

• YAY: Smaller, lighter than a food processor. Easy to use, easy to clean. Saves your fingers and knuckles from sharp blade standard mandoline. If you’re a kitchen klutz, this is important. Small, nimble.
• NAY: Loud, pretty pricey. If you’re spending over $60, you might as well get a food processor with different blades if you have the room in your kitchen. I’ve just been advised that this Aroma Electric Mandoline Slicer is only $39.00 at Target.

So obviously the lighting in my kitchen sucks (some days I feel like grabbing a ladder and cutting a sunroof) I brought these perfectly sliced potato cards closer to the light.

The potatoes are pretty starchy, so you kinda want to separate them a bit and stack them like a deck of cards – messily, like so:

You’ll use the scrap potato ends to prop the domino (or cards) up so that they don’t fall over while you’re assembling the stack

The longer it takes you to do this domino stacking business, the more discoloration you’ll get on the potatoes. But don’t worry, it’s still all good – I promise that the discoloration will disappear once it’s baked.

Don’t stack too many potatoes – give it some breathing room – otherwise it will be difficult to cook evenly. Just a nice, loose stack of potatoes.

Ready for the sexy food shot??? Now feast your eyes on that!

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Hey, there’s still time to enter to win a signed copy of Martin Yan’s Cookbook!