Caviar on my mind

New Year’s Eve makes me think of sparkling celebrations with champagne and caviar. Not that we had either one when I was growing up in Chicago. Mom and Dad saw the new year in with oyster stew. Mom was a terrific cook, and I don’t have many negative food memories from my childhood, but oyster stew probably tops the list. Those gray things floating in milk? As an adult, I Iove oysters, often order them fried or Rockefeller, am a bit afraid of raw though I consider them a treat. Truth is, I have little reason to associate champagne and caviar with the New Year celebration.

But I am intrigued by caviar, and lately I’ve been reading a bit about it. We’re talking about two things here: caviar and roe. True caviar is the unfertilized eggs from a sturgeon fish—not just any fish, but a sturgeon. The most common types of caviar are:  Beluga, Ossetra, Sterlet, White Sturgeon, Amur Sturgeon, Kaluga, Hackleback, and Sevruga. I would venture that few among us have eaten pure caviar. To say it’s pricey is an understatement.

Most grocery stores offer small portions of caviar—only it is not real caviar but roe. Roe is the unfertilized eggs of any fish except sturgeon. Trout roe is common (and bright red). Lumpfish is one of the most inexpensive roe offerings. What’s confusing is that roe is usually labeled with the fish of origin and the word caviar. So at my upscale market, you can get about an ounce and a half of Ossetra caviar (enough for two people) for $200, but you can get two ounces of black lumpfish caviar for $10 and the same amount of red salmon caviar for $20. People who dine on caviar frequently and have large budgets can probably discern a distinct difference. My palate is not anywhere near that sophisticated.

Because the sturgeon population was decimated in recent years, caviar today is mostly farmed—raised in tanks or other enclosures and fed pellets of special food. Some, particularly roe, is wild-caught, or some may come from fish raised in a hatchery until they are strong enough to survive and then released into the wild. There are subtle differences in taste, probably too subtle for my palate.

Some people are put off by caviar—it has a snobbish association (even the inexpensive varieties), it is often strong in flavor, and many (some of my family) don’t like the idea of fish eggs. I happen to like seafood and strong flavors, and I enjoy caviar, even the kind I can afford.

Experts advise buying caviar in a tin, though it often comes in a small glass jar. Either way, it should be kept very cold until used, and once opened must be eaten within 24 hours.

So what do you do with it? The simplest way to serve is to put a dab of sour cream on a sturdy potato chip and top with a smaller dab of roe—bright red salmon is nice. It is often served on blini (tiny Russian pancakes), again with sour cream. A dab of caviar will brighten scrambled or hard-boiled eggs or even a lemony capellini. The New York Times has a recipe online for a caviar sandwich and another for a sour cream dip topped with caviar and served with potato chips. A classic caviar plate has caviar in a small bowl, set in ice, and surrounded by small bowls of chopped hard-boiled egg, diced red onion, sour cream or crème fraiche, lemon wedges, and thin-sliced good white bread.

When I used to do large Christmas parties, my favorite caviar spread was the hit of the buffet table. I am sure I used lumpfish caviar (roe).

Caviar spread

2 8-oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened

1 3-oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened (it is no longer sold in that size pkg. so just guess)

1 c. mayonnaise

1 small onion, grated

 1 Tbsp. Worcestershire

1 Tbsp. lemon juice

Dash of hot sauce

1 4-oz. jar black caviar

3-4 hard-cooked eggs, finely chopped

Chopped parsley

Mix first seven ingredients with electric mixer until smooth. Spoon into shallow serving dish. Top with caviar, eggs, and parsley. Serve with small pumpernickel breads.

Note that if you search caviar recipes online, you will be deluged with recipes for Texas or cowboy caviar. That’s a whole different thing, with an interesting story behind it. Watch for that in this blog next week.

 

Seeing 2020 out in style

New Year's Eve dinner

We had a great New Year’s Eve dinner tonight, but there’s a story behind it. We had roast beef. For weeks now, I’ve been campaigning for an oven roast. Christian makes roast frequently, but they are what I grew up knowing as pot roast. I was longing for one of my mom’s oven roasts. All I could remember about Mom’s roasts though was that she cut slits in the meat and stuck in garlic cloves. I had no idea what cut of meat she used. A lot of internet research didn’t leave me much smarter—there are, I decided, twenty names for any one cut of beef roast.

A week or so ago Jordan and I settled on a roast that looked doable. It called for an English roast. Nowhere else on the internet could I find any reference to an English roast. We chose a rump roast, which I know is not the most tender, but the selection at Central Market was either outrageously expensive tenderloin or a lesser cut.

The recipe specified to let the meat set at room temperature for at least half an hour, rub seasoning into all sides, sear on all sides in a hot skillet, and put under the broiler (5 inches under) with the oven door cracked for fifteen minutes for rare. Then let it sit and collect itself while you make the sauce of butter, red wine, and skillet drippings. Jordan protested it looked too complicated, and Christian would not be home with time or inclination to do it. I assured her I would do the prep, but she would have to take it inside to roast—the toaster oven was not going to do it.

As New Year’s Eve came closer there was more protestation. She finally decided though that all prep should be done in her kitchen, but I would have to be on hand for advice. As it turns out, both Christian and I were there, and she decided once she got into it, it wasn’t as complicated as she thought. A few tense moments when it appeared to be cooking too rapidly—you “roasted” it under the broiler, but five inches from the heating element and with the door left ajar. Meantime she was juggling boiled small Yukon Gold potatoes and asparagus. But all went smoothly. The roast rested, as it must to keep the juices, and she used red wine and butter to scrape up the browned bits out of the skillet and make a sauce.

The result was a roast that was, yes, a bit chewy but with absolutely marvelous flavor. The potatoes and asparagus were perfect, and it was a fit recipe for kicking out 2020 and looking forward to 2021.

Oven Roast

2 Tbsp. vegetable oil

2-3 lb. boneless English roast

1 Tbsp. Kosher salt

1 tsp, ground black pepper

1tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp, onion powder

1 tsp dried thyme leaves

2 Tbsp. butter divided

¼ cup red wine

About an hour before you plan to cook it, set the meat out of the refrigerator and allow it to come to room temperature.

When you’re ready to cook, preheat the broiler. Move the oven rack to a place where the meat will be at least five inches or maybe more from the heating element.

Press the seasonings into all sides of the roast. In a cast-iron skillet, heat the vegetable oil to high heat and sear the meat on all sides, about four minutes per side.  Place the meat, still in the skillet, in the oven and leave the door ajar. Roast for 15 minutes for rare, 25 minutes for medium rare. Use a meat thermometer, which should come to 135^o for rare and 155^o for medium rare.

Remove the roast from the oven, set on a cutting board or similar safe place to rest, top with at least one Tbsp. of butter, and tent with foil. Meanwhile, add remaining butter to skillet along with red wine, and, over medium heat, scrape any browned bits off the bottom of the pan.

Slice the meat thinly across the grain and pass the pan drippings with the meat. A treat for the tongue, though you may find a more suitable cut of meat than we did. Still it was a wonderful meal.

Sure, I know it’s still 2020 until midnight, but I seriously thought of this as a great way to toast out 2020, for all its pains and its few joys. To one and all, Happy New Year and may 2021 bring you peace, health, safety, joy, and lots of good food.