Where do you get your Inspiration?!

A couple of years ago, two friends and I were stranded in New York on a Friday night while trying to make our way back home from a 2 day business trip - my role on the trip was a little bit in question, but that’s an entirely different story. So while two of us hovered a little ways back from the ticket clerk at JFK, the Travel-God amongst us tried to MacGyver a way back to the Nation’s Capital - minutes later, as he broke the erstwhile news that an overnight Amtrak to Montreal, early morning flight to Ottawa, was no longer an option, two of us did our best to show sympathy while secretly thinking about a freebee in the Big Apple. . . on a Friday night. . . expenses paid!

A little while later the three of us were seated at the community table - seated with 8 others - at Lupa, Mario Batali’s second restaurant in New York; a distinctly more dressed down establishment from his other New York haunt, Babbo.

This was one of those nights that I’ll always remember - one that can’t be recreated. It was a terrific meal, I was accompanied by good friends, and there were celebrity sightings. . . and Mario himself was one of them.

Inspiration comes in many different ways. This morning I was watching Anita Lo challenge Mario Batali in Battle Mushroom from an old episode of Iron Chef America. This was a great episode featuring some of my favorites - Chanterelles and Porcini most notably, but also Lobster mushrooms and the ubiquitous truffle.

One of the best places that I have found to get wild mushrooms in Ottawa is Byward Fruit Market (which, by the way, just launched a new website). Today they had Black Trumpet mushrooms, two types of chanterelles (yellow-footed chanterelles and golden chanterelles), hedge-hog mushrooms, honey mushrooms, and locally found Lobster mushrooms. Some of these are fairly expensive - $9.50 for a hundred grams - but f you’ve ever picked up a few chanterelles, particularly black trumpet or yellow-footed, you’ll know that 100 grams nets a lot of mushrooms. So I picked up about 50 grams of each and was on my way.

Whipping in to La Botegga I picked up some dried pasta - rustichella d’abruzzo; and here I was particularly lucky - on sale, for $8.99 (down from $12.99) was some Laganelle al tartufo.

I started dinner by searing two half chicken breasts - skin side down to crisp up the skin - finishing them in the oven at a 350 degrees for 20 minutes. I cleaned the mushrooms, and then pan-fried them in olive oil and butter, creating a sauce from the juice of rehydrated porcini mushrooms, butter and cream - salt and pepper to taste!

As I served the mushrooms and sauce on top of the pasta, slicing the chicken to the side and surrounding it with more of the sauce, I was particularly struck by the pasta. When I picked it up this afternoon I was a little skeptical of the “al tartufo” labeling. I was concerned that the sauce, based on porcini mushrooms, would dominate any hint of truffles in the pasta. But I was pleasantly mistaken. In fact, the underlying hint of truffles was obvious in the pasta and a brilliant complement to the rich sauce that accompanied it. With the wild mushrooms, the rich sauce, exquisitely crispy skin on the chicken, this was an inspired meal.

I often start a weekend rising early, making a pot of coffee, flipping on the laptop to catch up on what I‘ve ignored over the course of the week, and watching my good friend on Iron Chef in search of some inspiration for the evening ahead. Today, it didn’t let me down.