Tuesday, January 8, 2013

January 6, 2013 Dinner-Cod, Potato, Mushroom and Spinach Casserole

January 6, 2013 Dinner-Cod, Potato, Mushroom and Spinach Casserole

We were shopping at Costco today and saw fresh cod filets for $5.99/lb. and bought a 2 ½ lb. package which turned out to be two nice sized filets.  We also stopped and discussed wined with a gentleman by the name of Pachmann, who was working in the Costco liquor department.  He was selling the featured Cameron Hughes wines, which he told us were essentially non-vintage, non-commercial distributor wines that are bought up and bottled and marketed under the Cameron Hughes label.  They are given a lot number rather than a origin label, because they are combine the same varietal wines from many different growers in a region.  So we bought a bottle of Lot 259, which was labeled as 2010 Riesling 70% and Chenin Blanc 30% from Columbia Valley for $7.99 and bottle of rosé from the Nimes Appellation of France for $9.99.
On Friday I had stopped at the newly refurbished greengrocer on Lead and Columbia that ha lovely produce and bought fresh bunches of cilantro, parsley ($.59), spinach ($.99) and a few white mushrooms ($2.99/lb.).

At around 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, I opened my Swedish Cookbook and showed Suzette the recipe for Fish and Potato casserole with Duchess mashed potatoes and mushrooms, but Suzette said she did want to make another dish with mashed potatoes.  Also we had eaten a bowl of the Pasilla Squash Cream soup for lunch and a melted cheese sandwich for lunch and had the pot still sitting on the stove with about 1 cup of the soup left, so Suzette said she would prefer to make a casserole with a cream and cheese sauce using the PPI Pasilla and Squash soup as a sauce base and sliced potatoes and the spinach. Suzette asked if I wanted to include some mushrooms and I said, “Yes.  I love mushrooms in a cream sauce with fish”.  
We discussed whether to include some garlic and Suzette vetoed that idea, so I peeled our last four potatoes while Suzette stemmed the spinach and then I sliced four or five mushrooms while Suzette ran the potatoes through the Cuisinart slicer blade and then grated about 1/2 cup of raclette cheese.  Suzette then blanched the potatoes to soften them and I sautéed the mushrooms in butter and olive oil and then after about three to five minutes, added a dash of Amontillado sherry and then covered the mushrooms with the spinach to sweat and blanch them covered with a wok lid for a few minutes. 

Suzette buttered a deep medium pyrex baking dish and made two layers by alternating fish, potatoes, and then the spinach and mushroom mixture.  Then Suzette poured the sauce she had made by adding whipping cream and the grated raclette cheese to the soup/sauce plus the residual liquid from the sautéed mushrooms and bit of white wine.  After baking about thirty minutes in the oven at 350˚, the casserole was still not hot throughout, but we ate it anyway with glasses of the Cameron Hughes Riesling and Chenin Blanc.  I thought the wine had too much residual sugar (not stated on the bottle), but Suzette liked it. 

The casserole was lovely with its strips of green and white.  Blanching the vegetables had made the flavors combine nicely and greatly reduced the cooking time.
l ate the last of the fresh blackberries with Greek yogurt and a dollop of honey for dessert.  

Bon Appètit

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