Ray Gillespie and me

Last Saturday, Raymond Gillespie, chef at Salumeria Italiana in the North End, and I sacrificed a perfect beach day to demonstrate Rubio Aged Balsamic at Shubie’s in Marblehead. Here we are (Ray is the cute one on the left).

Most of the customers were busy gathering provisions for boating excursions (lots of chips, takeout, beer, and cheeses). But plenty stopped by to sample Rubio over ice cream — even the skeptics were won over– straight up, and in a cocktail with vodka, bitters and soda water. Shubie’s is a beautiful store, and we had fun talking to people, changing their views about vinegar. Of course, there were some who’d recently been to Italy or were already customers of the North End store. Those we didn’t have to convince.

When the Highland Park Scotch tasting started in late afternoon (hard to compete with free Scotch), we packed up our recipes and brochures, and shopped for wine and French cheeses — a little cross-cultural exchange is always good in food.

Porcinis gathered by Benjamin Maleson

I’ve been on a writing hiatus while my husband recuperates from a knee replacement. Not a hiatus from cooking — that I’ve been doing regularly. (One bit of advice — major knee surgery is a very good appetite suppressant for the patient, and not good at all for the home nurse. Maybe that’s because I’m a much better cook than nurse. Anyway, I digress.)

Right before Steve had surgery, I ran into the mushroom man on Hanover in the North End. As any restaurant chef knows, that’s Bernard Maleson, forager extraordinaire, who provides wild funghi to many restaurants all over Boston. He works out of his car, so if you see a small stationwagon with lots and lots of mushrooms in it, and a man with a long beard, long hair and the look of having just appeared from under the forest canopy, you may be meeting up with the Mushroom Man.

That day, Benjamin was delivering to his regular customers and also selling porcinis and morels that he had just gathered. I bought a couple of huge porcinis (in photo above).Then I walked around to Salem Street to Mercato del Mare and bought halibut. The dish I made was simple: I sliced the porcinis, sauteed them in good olive oil  (Frantoia from Salumeria Italiana),  a little butter, and chopped, fresh garlic, and then added lots of parsley and a touch of balsamic vinegar to finish. The porcinis went on top of halibut, into a very hot oven, with a splash of white wine in the baking pan. About 25 minutes the fish was perfect, and the perfume of the dish filled the house. 

It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve seen Benjamin and his mushrooms. I wonder what he’s found lately?