CHEF DEZ ON COOKING – Food for The Wilkinsons

BIG POCKETS FOR MY SOLE

Their latest CD Home offers something for everyone and since it has become a cherished part of our collection of music, writing a recipe for them seemed very natural. “When (our publicist) mentioned it” Steve relates, “I thought this will be ok, but there’s a lot more creativity in what you’re doing than I anticipated”.

We sat discussing many ideas of how to gear the recipe, and I felt like I was welcomed into their family realm. This trio really loves to be in the kitchen as well as the studio. “We had to learn how to cook” Amanda confesses, and Steve relates, “I love my wife. She’s the hardest working woman I know, but she can’t cook to save her soul.” Amanda continues jokingly, “That’s why we’re so short. My Mom cooked for the first part of our lives and we were stunted”. Tyler jumps in and states, “She makes a mean butter tart, though… from scratch”.

We initially poked fun at the idea of writing a vegetarian recipe reflecting on their song Nobody Died. “Nobody died vegetarian meal – I love it,” laughed Steve, but decided this would take away from some of the relative seriousness of this latest single.

Going with the song Big Pockets was the natural second choice. With lyrics stating “I’ve got big pockets for my soul”, it made it extremely obvious to use sole in pockets of some type of pastry. This being decided upon, I still wanted to venture further into the recipe creating process by combining some of their favorite flavours into the dish. They all admitted to loving mushrooms, “Portabella, crimini, shitake… anything mushroom” Steve declares.

Tyler confesses, “Use anything but dill. Olives (I don’t like)… I’ll eat ‘em… black olives I’ll eat. Amanda adds her dislike “Just green beans for me. It’s just the texture I don’t like”. While Steve affirms, “I’m pretty much good with anything except parsnips”.

“I drink beers from Holland” Amanda responds, “Hoegaarden, unfiltered beer that kind of has a citrus taste. It’s Belgian, actually. Maybe with white fish, that will be really good?”

With further discussion, I discovered that they all love the taste of cilantro, Tyler enjoys white wine sauces with fish, and Steve likes wild rice. “We can be meat and potatoes on a given day, but then other times we like to step out a little bit” Steve tells me as he also admits their love for fiddleheads.
As the end of our conversation approaches, Amanda states, “This will be very cool – I’m excited”. Steve finishes by saying, “I will be very eager to see what you come up with, and I guarantee we will make it”.
On my way to the kitchen, I decided that I would stuff the pockets of sole with a combination of mushrooms and wild rice, and make a complimenting garlic cream sauce infused with the taste of Hoegaarden beer and cilantro. Through various testing/tasting stages of the recipe, puff pastry was chosen for the pockets over sheets of phyllo dough. Although phyllo made a nice presentation, puff pastry offered more richness and substance to the finished dish. Puff pastry can easily be purchased from the frozen food section of your local main grocery store, and all one needs is a bit of flour and a rolling pin.

I suggest plating the finished pockets with a green vegetable to not only offer further nutrition, but also contrasting colour appeal to the presentation. I used steamed fiddleheads, but asparagus tips are more readily available and would work just as well.

Steve, Amanda and Tyler, I hope you enjoy this dish that, in my opinion, celebrates a part of you are. Thank you for the wonderful music and I look forward to meeting up with you again… maybe next time in the kitchen.

Big Pockets for My Sole – Makes 6 portions
Recipe created by Chef Dez/Gordon Desormeaux www.chefdez.com
“Don’t be intimidated by this lengthy recipe. Basically there is 3 parts to making this dish: the sauce, the mushroom & rice filling, and the assembly of the pockets.”

Hoegaarden Garlic Cream Sauce
2 heads garlic, cloves peeled & left whole (approx. 20-26 cloves)
1 - 330ml bottle Hoegaarden beer (or other light bodied beer)
2 cups whipping cream
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp fresh chopped cilantro
Wild Rice & Mushroom Filling
½ (one half) cup wild rice, rinsed & drained
1 ½ (one and one half) cups water
½ tsp salt
2 tbsp canola oil
2 portabella mushrooms, thinly sliced
6 crimini mushrooms, thinly sliced (or regular button mushrooms)
Salt & fresh cracked pepper
Remaining Ingredients
1 – 397g package frozen puff pastry, thawed (approximately 1 pound)
All purpose flour
1 egg mixed with 1 tbsp water
6 small sole filets
Salt & pepper
2 lemons
Fresh cilantro sprigs
Steamed fiddleheads or asparagus tips

Sauce Instructions
1. Put garlic cloves and beer in a heavy bottomed medium-sized pot, and bring to a boil over medium heat.
2. Turn the heat down to medium/low and simmer until all the liquid has evaporated, approximately 30 to 40 minutes, stirring occasionally. Be careful not to burn the garlic. The garlic cloves will become syrupy and coated in the reduced beer.
3. Add the cream and bring to a simmer. At that point, turn down the heat to low and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Puree the mixture with a hand-held blender (or in a separate blender or food processor) until the garlic cloves have fully blended into the cream.
5. Add the salt and continue to reduce/thicken over low heat for approximately 5 minutes.
6. Add the chopped cilantro just prior to serving/plating.

Wild Rice & Mushroom Filling Instructions (make while the sauce is cooking)
1. Stir the rice, water and salt together in a small pot and bring to a boil over high heat.
2. Cover and simmer over low heat for approximately 35 minutes. Strain off excess water through a wire mesh strainer. The wild rice is done when some of the grains have cracked open and it has an “al dente” texture (remember it will also cook in the oven as well). Set aside.
3. Heat a large non-stick pan over medium-high heat. Add the oil and then the mushrooms and season generously with salt and fresh cracked pepper. Sauté until tender, approximately 3 to 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. They will reduce in volume and the liquid from the mushrooms will almost be completely evaporated.
4. Remove from the heat and stir in the cooked wild rice. Taste and re-season with salt & pepper if necessary.

Assembly & Cooking Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. Cut pastry into 6 equal portions. On a lightly floured surface, roll out pastry portions into rectangles large enough (approx. 10 x 7 inches) to enclose each piece of fish (filet folded in half). Dusting with extra flour when needed.
3. Lightly season the sole with salt & pepper. Place each piece of fish (folded in half) on a portion of pastry, and top each one with 1/6 (one sixth) of the mushroom/rice mixture.
4. With a pastry brush, moisten all of the edges of the pastry with egg mixture. Enclose each portion by folding up the sides and tucking underneath to completely enclose/seal the sole and filling.
5. Place sealed pastry pockets on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and lightly brush them with more egg mixture.
6. Bake for approximately 25 minutes until golden brown.

Plating Instructions
On each of the six plates:
1. Place a mound of seasoned, freshly steamed fiddleheads or asparagus tips on the center of each plate.
2. Spoon the heated sauce around these mounds.
3. Gently cut each pocket in half and place on the fiddleheads/asparagus.
4. Squeeze fresh lemon juice over the entire dish, and top with a lemon slice and some fresh sprigs of cilantro.

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