Tuesday, to mark the 9th anniversary of our move to Haines, I needed a real homemade meal, something that draws upon the resources of our land and its surrounding waters.
A freshly caught salmon seemed to be the most obvious choice, but, as often happens in this part of August, typhoons in Southeast Asia pushed windy, wet weather across our region. Fishing off our rocks would have been very perilous, and not very fun. Besides, we have mushrooms to eat (see Our Pick of Mushrooms)!
Mushroom Roast (Photo: Mark A. Zeiger).
I’d been imagining roasting the big mock matsutakes. We like to roast boletes like potatoes, brushing them with olive oil and sticking them on the rack in a hot oven. I felt like it might be a good idea to roast the bigger mushrooms in a cast iron Dutch oven along with chunked vegetables, as if they were a pork or beef roast.
Michelle and I went out to the garden, where we harvested a few new potatoes, some onions, carrots, and beets, a large zucchini, and a head of elephant garlic. I cut these into large chunks and arranged them in the pot with the oil-brushed mushrooms. I drizzled more olive oil and some red wine over them, ground some sea salt over it all, closed the lid and put it in the oven for about half an hour.
I had high hopes, but the resulting meal exceeded all expectations. What a feast! We each felt stuffed full after two small helpings apiece, which means we had plenty of leftovers the next night.
I took a chance, and it paid off well. Such an easy, delicious dish will surely become a new “homestead” standard.