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18 December 2005

what gifts come out of the air


Le Creuset, originally uploaded by shaunaforce.

For the past week, I've been keeping a secret. Giggling behind my hands, I've been wanting to share. But I have to admit, I've also been a little reluctant to shout this one out, because I feel a little guilty. I mean, what did I do to deserve such largesse? And am I compromising my standards as a writer by accepting such gifts?

But finally, I just can't stand it any longer. I just have to tell you.

Okay, back up. Last month, just after I broke my foot and had to miss my trip to New York, I splurged. Being a high school teacher, I don't have a lot of extra money. Especially for the kind of cookware I'd love to own. When I walk into Sur la Table, I ogle the pots and pans. I ooh and ahh over the lovely ladles and spoons. I wish for a patron to stock my kitchen. But slowly, over the years, I have been accruing the basics of a good kitchen, to support my insatiable cooking habit. Last week, after years of suffering with a dull one, I bought myself a truly fine knife. What I've been realizing this past year is that "luxury" is sometimes necessity. And for those of us who have to eat gluten free, who cook almost all our own food, sometime splurges are no longer decadence. Honestly, I can't imagine my kitchen without the wonderful Kitchen-Aid mixer I received as a gift a full decade ago. And now, the knife.

So, in that spirit, the week after I broke my foot, I bought myself a tiny little Le Creuset pot. For years, I have been coveting this cookware. It's cast iron covered by enamelware, and it's beautiful. My dear friend Tita received a set for her wedding, over twenty-five years ago, and she's still using it on a nearly daily basis. I'm not married, and there's no one in sight. So waiting for a wedding to receive some Le Creuset seems terribly far away. Hell with the wedding. I bought myself some. Of course, I could only afford the mini cocotte, which fits into the palm of my hand. But it was enough. I roasted garlic in it and wrote about it happily, back in November.

Well, here's where the secret comes in. You see, someone (who shall remain nameless) read that little joyful post of mine, and decided to take fate into her own hands. My fairy godblogger, without my knowing it, sent that little post to the people at Le Creuset. She told them about my gluten-free exploits, how I've been extoling the virtues of cooking at home, and specifically, how much I love Le Creuset. They read it, liked my site, and agreed with her. I needed some more pots and pans.

And so, dear readers, this is how an entire set of Le Creuset, gorgeous and shining twilight blue, showed up on my doorstep last week. Out of the air, just before the holidays, unbidden, and glorious. My gleaming metal kitchen shelves are now festooned with the most beautiful cookware I have ever owned.

I've just been bursting with joy ever since.

My friends in Seattle have heard all about this, and have even seen my lovely new pots and pans. (There was plenty of oohing and aahing at Sunday's party.) I even told my writing students about this: "You see? When you write from the heart, the images that need to emerge, urgently, goodness comes back to you." And I've been dabbling with dishes. Eggs slowly scrambled on my cast-iron skillet. The minestrone re-heated in the five-quart pot. Everything tasted so good.

mushrooms

But my last week has been so packed-in busy at school that I hadn't really had a chance to cook anything from scratch in my new Le Creuset. Last weekend, in preparation for the party, I cut my finger with my new, sharp knife, by making mushroom stock at 10:20 at night. I managed to finish making the stock, then stuck it in the refrigerator, gave up on the soup. The party survived its absence. But it had been plaguing me. I had to use this stock. It's rich and flavorful and full or porcini mushroom essence. So when do use it? When do I cook with my new Le Creuset? Why, today, of course. When I have 54 student evaluations and five more letters of recommendation to write. The perfect time.

Okay, so I decided to make a densely tasted, many-stepped mushroom soup to stave off writing evaluations. I've written some, others are waiting. It's going to take all day, and I'm balking. What else is new? I know the drill by now. Do some, then cook.

The sun was coming through the skylights, forgiving and kind. A soft, yellowy light, high northern light, Rembrandt light. And it feels good. It had been a raw week, as some of you already know. Stresses. Too much work. Overwhelmedness. Blah. By yesterday, I seemed to have blown most of it out of me, but there's still that little dance of tremulousness, the evaluations waiting.

carmelizing onions and mushrooms

So I'm in the kitchen, dancing with the light. Patty Griffin is on the stereo, and I can't help but singing. The onions are carmelizing in my mighty Le Creuset. Shitake and white mushrooms are searing in the skillet on the back burner. It's all coming together. I can feel it turning into food I'll want to eat. Perhaps even write about later. And I'm ready for the stock, to deglaze the pans. So I reach into the refrigerator for the giant tupperware container, and turn toward the stove....

and it spills from my hands. No, it tumbles. No, it rushes, dances, spins, and then, SPLAT! It crashes to the floor, the lid pops off (perhaps it wasn't on, really, and that's why it fell, but no matter), and mushroom stock splashes up. No, it fountains up. No, it surges, leaps, dances, then spins. All over the kitchen. We're not talking a tiny spill. A little bobble. I mean, the entire floor is suddenly puddled in rich shitake stock. My sheepskin slippers have dark splotches on them. My orange pants are a wet sienna. The coffee pot drips brown. My face is splattered with stock. And of course, the pan is now deglazed, because there's stock all over the stove.

I pause for a moment, frozen in my spot. And then I start to laugh, as stock drips down underneath my shirt. I start to giggle, then move and almost slip in the pool of brown liquid at my feet, then roar at my own almost pratfall. So I stand in the middle of the kitchen, dripping, stock gone, the morning possibly ruined, except it's not. Because I'm laughing, in waves of giant giggles, then deep belly laughs. Waves of laughter, strong enough to knock down any of my remaining walls of resistance, anxiety, silliness, and worry. Rolls of hoarse, from-the-core-of-me laughter, bouncing off the windows, extending to the Olympic mountains.

And I'm fine.


Because that's how life works for me. A magnificent gift, a bounty from the world I love, and then I spill stock all down the front of me. And I'm laughing. How could I not?

And the soup? Well, I just used some leftover beef stock from a carton instead, and it tasted fantastic. I could taste the Le Creuset gift and the laughter in it. And I could taste the first splatterings of winter-vacation freedom on my tongue.

mushroom soup

Winter Mushroom Soup, adapted from Fields of Greens

I first made this soup years and year ago, when I was first learning to cook. At the time, it felt like an all-day accomplishment, a feat to be conquered. And the taste of the soup only justified all that work. Now, it's many years, and innumerable meals cooked, later. And I decided to throw it together on the spur of the moment. Without spilling stock all over the floor, the recipe takes far less time to make than I had remembered. The only lengthy part is making the stock beforehand and carmelizing the onions. (For great tips on how to carmelize onions, check out Rachael's post.) Remember, great food doesn't come from speed. Spend some time in the kitchen, dancing with the light, if possible. Hours later, your tongue will be happy.

This is adapted rather freely from the most excellent Fields of Greens, which has, in my opinion, the best recipes for soup of any cookbook out there. Every single one tastes decadent, even though they come from simple sources. I've used far more mushrooms than the original recipe calls for, because I like a thick mushroom soup, where every spoon has chewy bites of different mushrooms. The original also called for soy sauce, but wheat-free tamari substitutes quite well. Perhaps even better.

6 cups of mushroom, vegetable, or beef stock (preferably homemade)
1 ounce of dried wild mushrooms, soaked in warm water for fifteen minutes first
3 tablespoons of high-quality extra virgin olive oil
2 large onions, sliced thin (try this on the mandoline, but watch your fingers)
salt and pepper to taste
8 garlic cloves, sliced thin
2 pounds of white mushrooms, caps only, sliced rather thickly
1 pound of shitake mushrooms, sliced thick, stems included
1/2 cup of dry sherry
a splash of wheat-free tamari
1 medium-sized potato, peeled and sliced (Yukon gold will work well)
1 tablespoon chopped fresh herbs: basil, oregano, or Italian parsely
crumbled goat cheese

Heat one tablespoon of the olive oil in your best stockpot on medium heat. Add the sliced onions, a pinch of salt, and a dash of pepper. Saute the onions until they begin to soften, then add the soaked wild mushrooms (but not the water) and half the garlic. Turn the heat down to medium-low and allow the onions and mushrooms to slowly carmelize. This should take about half an hour. Stir once in awhile to avoid the onions sticking to the bottom of the pan.

Meanwhile, saute the white mushrooms with olive oil in a skillet on high heat. Add a pinch of salt and pepper. Then, step back and let the mushrooms sear. You're going to worry that they're burning, or that they'll be stuck to the pan permanently. Wait. Keep searing them over high heat until they are golden, or until they begin to squeak. Stir them, gently, then keep cooking for one more minute. Add the shitake mushrooms, several tablespoons of the sherry, and a splash of tamari sauce. Cook for a minute or so, until the shitake mushrooms are quite tender. At this point, they'll smell like the essence of mushroom. If they are stuck, a bit, deglaze the pan with some of the stock.

(If you don't have a large skillet, it will probably be necessary to sautee the mushrooms in this way in two batches. In that case, use half of each ingredient for the process, then repeat.)

Back at the stockpot, add 1/4 cup of the sherry, and the potato slices. Cover the pot, turn the heat back up to medium, and let it all bubble away for fifteen minutes, or until the potatoes yield easily to a fork. At this point, transfer the contents of the stockpot to your blender or food processor, and puree it until it's a dark-brown mushroom color, one consistent liquid. (And if you're lucky enough to own one of those wands you can put directly into the pot, well, you know what to do.) Pour the puree back into the pot.

Add the sauteed mushrooms, as well as the stock of your choice, into the puree in the stockpot. Throw in your favorite chopped herbs. Cook for another 30 to 45 minutes, allowing the soup to take on its own rich taste.

Season the soup with salt and pepper to taste. Ladle it into bowls, and swirl in a small splash of especially green, vegetal olive oil. Dabs of crumbled goat cheese on top make this complete.

25 Comments:

At 2:26 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

that's so awesome Shauna! Congratulations for a much-deserved holiday surprise!

 
At 3:39 PM, Blogger Winslow said...

Congrats! What a wonderful gift, just in time for the holidays. May your Le Creuset ware give you many wonderful gluten-free meals for years to come. :) And you definitely took your shiitake stock loss much better than I would have in the same situation. Write on!

 
At 11:21 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

What a lovely and wonderful surprise. I am green with envy ;) Your Le Creuset pots look beautiful and I can't wait to read more of your posts using them.

 
At 11:49 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

As i said before in the original post, you never regret the investment. In this case I think the company will never regret their investment in you. To have a product that is truely loved and used with joy must be their best reward (and hey, a little product placement never goes astray :)

Enjoy your bonanza :)
ps: love the fact you write about kitchen disasters.

 
At 2:34 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Congratulations indeed. We're lucky down here in Portland to have the Le Creuset factory store and I've splurged on two items there, the oval 7 qt and the 5 qt buffet casserole. My two favorite pans. If they weren't so heavy, I'd probably use them even more.

 
At 3:28 AM, Blogger Peggy said...

Wow -- what a great gift and story! (I'll stop short of saying, "It's a Christmas MIRACLE!", but you know what I mean...) Can't wait to hear your tales of using your new treasure.

 
At 5:25 AM, Blogger Michèle said...

Shauna, what a fabulous gift! As soon as I saw the picture I felt a twinge of homesickness because I have a set of those very same blue pots in storage back in Canada. Oh, you lucky lucky girl!

 
At 7:15 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Fantastic! The best present I've heard of yet. And such a lovely color! Have fun cooking - you'll see that le Creuset will make everything so easy! Don't I sound like an infomercial...

 
At 7:28 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oh you sweet, sweet girl. This is a fantastic post and it gives me as much pleasure to read as those beautious pans have given you. (Disasters and all)

As I said, it just seems like something you deserved and with just a little moxie it was a done deal. I'm just so super glad they agreed...

Keep up the spectacular blog and don't forget that Menu of Hope donation! (wink)

xoxo
Your Fantastically Glittery Fairy Blog Mother

 
At 9:51 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

What an inspiring tale, especially the concept of speaking our truth and embracing the goodness that comes. The image of messiness in the midst of splendor is such a good image and metaphor for so many other areas of all our lives.

 
At 10:10 AM, Blogger Pille said...

What a wonderful gift indeed - congratulations! You do have a brilliant fairy godblogmother indeed:)
Looking forward to reading about your future encounters with Le Creuset pots and pans - and mushroom stocks, of course:)
Pille, still totally lecreusetless

 
At 11:10 AM, Blogger Michelle said...

No one could be more deserving, Shauna. Both of the gift of such glorious cookware, and of the laughter born out of difficult times. I can't wait to hear more...

 
At 3:23 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

What a wonderful surprise! I can't imagine a better gift for the holidays. Congratulations.

 
At 11:20 PM, Blogger Shauna said...

Hey Josh, thanks. We'll have to have a metroblogging dinner over here someday.

Thanks, Winslow. Oh, I've been known to give in to stress in pressed-in moments, but when life grows truly absurd, I just have to laugh. Makes life better.

Ah, Foodfreak, don't be green. They're blue pots, after all. Seriously, do try to find one, if you can. They're just fabulous.

My dear Outspoken Female, thanks for saying you like hearing about kitchen disasters. Oh, there are plenty of them around here. Having an imperfect kitchen makes everything taste better, I think.

Ah, but extramsg, lifting Le Creuset is good bicep work! You should have seen me trying to lift the package when it arrived!

Dear Peggy, you can call it a miracle, if you want. It kind of feels like that to me!

Michele, oh my dear, you have to drag them out of storage. Just think of all the fabulous Parisian dishes you could make in these.

Oh, Luisa, that's all right. I pretty much feel like an infommercial with this post too. But they are so good...

Dear, dear anonymous fairy foodblogger: a thousand hugs and kisses to you.

Beastmomma, oh yes, I agree. There's so much messiness in life, and that's part of its ineffable beauty.

Dearest Pille, you never know what could happen. I would have signed myself lecreusetless before last week too!

Michelle, my dear, thank you. The gift just blindsided me, and I'm grateful. The laughter? ah, that's there for me any time I want.

Eva, thank you too. It has been wonderful fun to cook these past few days.

Angie, I never stop being amazed by life, I have to say.

 
At 10:36 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Geez, I had to buy mine, but congratulations, Shauna! You deserve to have great tools to do your thing.

Uh, you didn't have to sell your soul or anything, did you? Not that it wasn't worth it...

 
At 1:19 PM, Blogger Dawn said...

I can't believe it! That is so awesome!!! It always amazes me what a difference it makes when people take the time to do something nice. I'm really happy for you, that is a great way to start Christmas!!!

 
At 7:03 AM, Blogger Fran said...

That is the most beautiful cookware! Congratulations on such a wonderful gift. Believe me (I'm a teacher too), if I could ever afford it I would have exactly what I see in your photo--even the blue color. I hope you enjoy many wonderful meals prepared in these most perfect utensils. You are a most deserving recipient. Merry Christmas!!!

 
At 10:14 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Whoa! An awesome gift, and one that you _fully_ deserve. Congratulations!

 
At 2:31 PM, Blogger Sam said...

bah!
and all i ever got were some hefty servenstore platesone time .

Well not true. the niice people ingenuitea sent me cool stuff too/

I have a blue le creuset "marmite" which they don't make any more. I brought it in my luggage over the atlantic. I got a 'heavy' label stuck on my bag because of it, but it was worth it, i wouldn't want to live without it!

congratulations!

free stuff is all good!

 
At 2:27 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Shauna, what an amazing story! I bet you never expected food blogging would lead to this and no doubt other future rewards yet to come (no doubt it's just a matter of time before we hear about a gluten-free cookbook). I have one Le Creuset pot, which just so happens is also blue. I absolutely adore it! It's a good-sized one that I use for braising, soups and the like. I'm a big fan of cast iron and if I could afford it I'd probably get a whole set of their pots and pans.

 
At 8:45 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I am so happy for you!!! I, too, have wanted Le Creuset--I was at Sur La Table today buying Le Creuset silicone spatulas for my mother-in-law (I discovered Christmas day that she had only melted plastic spatulas--this can not wait until the next holiday!), and I spent a lot of time oogling their pots. I am married, but we did not have a conventional wedding, party or gifts, so we are lacking a little in the kitchen goodies that some get as wedding presents. I am working on changing that, little by little. Enjoy them! You deserve wonderful things!

 
At 1:45 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

oh, my god! That mushroom soup recipe is the one where I learned years and years ago how to torture mushrooms for intense delight! That line about not touching them even if you think they are burning, till they squeak...so amazing. I'd forgotten which cookbook that was in. Thank you for so vividly reminding me. And I'm wildly jealous of your Le Creuset...

 
At 3:59 PM, Blogger ferdi said...

Hi, just got the news that I am gluten, soy and casein sensitive. Happy to get the news because it makes sense of so many things. i would like to oerder your cookbook but wondered if it has substitutions for milk? Are you also casein sensitive? thanks for your work, it is beautiful i am grateful to have found you. keep up the great and informative work! Ferdi

 
At 7:16 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wow what an awesome story. I am not green at all just curious. I know you say they are twilight blue, but you describe the sky to the west, as twilight blue :-)

What is the color as described by the crueset company, because they don't look like a cobalt piece my mom has, and they are not like the aqua color either.

 
At 11:56 AM, Blogger Michelle Black White said...

Great story and even better recipe! I just finished making the soup in my blue Le Creuset stockpot and can't wait for dinner. Great tools and cookware make spending an afternoon in the kitchen even better.
Thank you.

 

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