Mushrooms in the box are always a treat for me. The earthiness they bring to any dish just fits this time of year. The weather has turned a bit cooler, and will continue to cool. So let's make some soup! Mushroom soups broadly fall into two categories, creamy and not creamy. In many recipes, a basic mushroom ragout serves as a foundation. I'll give you a ragout recipe at the end, but meanwhile let's talk about some soup.
Soups Without the Cream
I'm making mushroom barley soup with my mushrooms. It's really hearty and filling, and has been a family favorite for some time now. This mushroom and sausage soup is along a similar vein, although I don't think angel hair pasta fits too well. I use some small, round pasta, such as orecchiette, which works well. I also love this porcini mushroom soup recipe, the tomatoes really make it unusual as far as mushroom soups go. The mushrooms in the box are baby bellas, which can fit nicely in any of these recipes, either alone or mixed with other types.
Creamy Mushroom Soups
I've been on a quest for the perfect creamy mushroom soup recipe for what seems like forever. (Corny as it seems, I do think La Madeleine does a pretty solid job.) Some, such as this one, use heavy cream. Others, however, get their creamy texture from just the mushrooms and butter. Two good examples are here and here.
Mushroom Ragout
This is a chunky "sauce" made from mushrooms, and it's really a versatile fall recipe. You can add it to soups to bring in the creamy, earthy mushroom taste, substitute it wherever you use cream of mushroom soup to bring a richer, more complex taste, or (my favorite) use it to top baked or mashed potatoes. Adapted from this recipe.
Ingredients
Olive oil, for sautéing
4 ounces finely diced pancetta
2 tablespoons butter
1 1/4 pounds fresh mushrooms, any type or mixture, sliced
1 large shallot
2-3 large sprigs thyme
1/4 cup strong red wine
half-and-half, to taste
salt and pepper
Directions
Sautée the pancetta in the olive oil until crispy and golden, 5 minutes. Remove the pancetta to a plate, reserving the rendered fat in the pan. Melt the butter in the pan as well.
Cook the shallot until soft and transparent, then add the mushrooms and thyme. Cook until the mushrooms begin to release their liquid, 8-10 minutes.
Remove the mushrooms, discard the thyme, and deglaze the pan with the wine. Cook until reduced by half, then fold back in the mushrooms and pancetta. Season with salt and pepper. If using cream, add it 2 tablespoons at a time until you reach your desired consistency, then reduce slightly.
As I started bringing home my crop share box, I started to think about what was in it. Then, a lightning bolt from above: there are plum tomatoes and mushrooms in that box on the back seat! These being our first Romas of the season, I decided to convey upon them the greatest status a tomato can have: to become part of a Chicago Deep Dish Pizza. Quite an honor, little guys. You're lucky.
Origins
Pizza done properly isn't just crackers and cheese, you know. My native Chicago perfected the dish in the era of the Great Depression, when hearty Midwesterners decided to turn pizza into an actual meal. Thus, deep dish is born. The art of Deep Dish has actually been perfected in Champaign, Illinois. Papa Del's has been an institution at my alma mater (Hail to the Orange!) for decades. While in no way believe my efforts pay adequate homage to them, I try to model after their assembly. I originally got the idea to make my own from watching television, and I've tweaked the recipe along the way. You'll need a deep dish pan, and I use a bread machine for the dough. Here's what you do:
Ingredients Sauce:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon chopped fresh garlic
2 teaspoons chopped fresh basil
1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
healthy dash red pepper flakes
4 cups diced fresh plum tomates
1/2 can tomato paste
2 tablespoons dry red wine
1 tablespoon sugar
Dough:
1 1/2 cups warm water
1 (1/4-ounce) packages active dry yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
3 1/2 cups bread flour
1/2 cup semolina flour
1/2 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
Assembly:
8 slices mozzarella cheese
8 slices provolone cheese
1 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
Toppings of your choice (sausage, mushrooms, onions, spinach, et al.)
Directions
Sauce:
1. In a sauce pan, warm the olive oil. Cook garlic for 30 seconds, add spices and herbs and cook another 30 seconds.
2.
Add tomatoes, paste, sugar and wine. Bring to a simmer, reduce to low
heat and cook about 30 minutes until thickened. Refrigerate until ready
to assemble.
Dough:
Use the dough setting on a bread machine, putting ingredients in as your manual specifies.
Assembly:
1. Preheat oven to 425˚ F. Spray pan with cooking spray.
2.
Turn dough out onto a floured work surface. Flatten into a disk.
Working from the center out, stretch dough into pizza shape. It should
come up the walls of the pan and overhang the edge all around just
slightly.
3. On the bottom of the crust, tear half the provolone
and mozzarella into pieces and create as even a layer as you can.
Sprinkle half the Parmesan on top. Next, add a good layer of sauce.
4.
Arrange your toppings on the sauce. Tear up the remaining mozzarella
and provolone, then sprinkle the remaining Parmesan, making a layer on
the toppings. Finally, add a generous layer of sauce. (Chicago pizza
has sauce on top, otherwise the long cooking time would burn the
cheese.)
5. Tightly roll the overhanging edges and create a small
lip over the tomato sauce. Bake for 45 minutes, or until the edges
start to brown and sauce is bubbly. Let rest 10 minutes before slicing.
This week’s box features fresh, local kale. Wandering around the store today, I noticed that there were lots of Vidalia onions as well as beautiful white mushrooms.Vidalia onions have a mild, sweet flavor that just screams, “Caramelize
me!”While you can use these in any
recipe that calls for onions, you might want to save these for something where
you can cook them loooooow and sloooooow.A little butter, a small pinch of salt, and a good bit of time over a
medium-low flame turns them into magic.
Don’t crinkle your nose over plain ol’ white mushrooms,
either.Chefs around the world prize
these mushrooms, due to their versatility and flavor.Remember to never wash mushrooms.All
they need is a soft brush to remove any debris on them (a clean paper towel
works well too), and they’re ready to go.Quarter the big ones and halve the small ones, toss them in with your
caramelizing onions, and you’ll have a great side for steaks or topping for
brats.
Kale has become quite the nutritional star lately.It’s a great source of fiber and
vitamins.If you’d like to show off your
skills in the kitchen a bit more, make a frittata.Sounds impressive, right?
Just between you and me, that translates to, “Fancy Italian
omelet.”It sure sounds more impressive
to say frittata, though.Making them is
about as simple as an omelet, too.So,
your mushrooms and onions are done caramelizing, right?The kale goes quicker.First, tear off the leafy part from the firm
stems.You can save the stems for stock,
or even prepare them like a root vegetable.In a hot skillet, add a little olive oil and put in the leaves.Toss them with tongs, and in a minute or two
they’ll wilt.You still want them to be
bright green, so take them out as soon as they do wilt, and mix with your
mushrooms and onions.Now, the omelet
part.It’s meant to be shared, so figure
2 eggs per person and beat them all together.A splash of milk in the eggs makes it fluffy.With a frittata, you beat the eggs until
they’re a little foamy so that it’s lighter.The “fixins,” meaning your kale, mushrooms and onions, are mixed in with
the eggs, too.Don’t forget salt and
pepper.Pour into an oven safe skillet
(a cast iron pan is even better) over medium to medium-high heat and just let it sit.Yes, the bottom and sides will set up
before the top does.When all but the top
has set, sprinkle with parmesan cheese and place under a low broiler until the
top sets.See, now you’re impressing
everyone!
When I told one of my foodie friends what would be in the
box this week, she said, “Oooh, you have to tell them to make Sexy-Time
Pasta!”Pardon me…?Well, here’s the details:
Sexy-Time
Pasta
ingredients:
1-2 tbsp olive
oil
3-6 slices of thick
cut bacon, cut into bite size pieces
(the more bacon you
use, the less olive oil you'll need)
10 oz sliced
mushrooms
1 pint cherry
tomatoes, sliced in half
1 med onion, diced
small
1 bunch of kale or baby
spinach
1 lb short pasta (e.g.,
rotini)
3/4 c. grated Parmesan
(Or more. I love cheese.)
Salt & pepper to
taste
directions:
1) Heat olive oil and
bacon in skillet over medium heat until bacon is golden.
2) Bring a large pot
of salted water to boil. Add pasta and spinach, cook about 3 min until spinach
is vibrant green. Scoop out spinach and rinse under cold water to stop the
cooking. Drain well and set aside. Continue cooking pasta for another 7 min
until almost al dente. When draining, reserve 1 cup of pasta water.
3) Move bacon to
edges of pan and add mushrooms, onions and a pinch of salt to middle of pan, in
as close to a single layer as possible. Turn heat up to medium-high and cook
until mushrooms and onions start sizzling and turning brown (about 5 min). Reduce
heat to medium, add cherry tomatoes and stir bacon and mushrooms together, cooking
until mushrooms are tender. (5-7 min)
4) Reduce heat to
low. Add drained pasta to skillet. Gradually stir in 1 cup of pasta water. Toss
over low heat until sauce is silky and pasta is well coated.
5) Turn off heat. Add
spinach and cheese and season with pepper. Toss well. When serving, sprinkle
more cheese on top. (And then maybe some more. Because really, I love cheese.)
Serve immediately for best results, but can also be served cool as pasta salad.
It’s a variation on pasta
carbonara, with tomatoes instead of the rich egg, and you could easily
merge the two recipes.Yes, I asked her
why it’s called “Sexy-Time” pasta.And
no, she wouldn’t tell me.
Oh,
did you see the cool
trick for slicing cherry tomatoes?What a time saver!
Despite my recent plague, I still took myself to the grocery store and for reasons I'm still not quite clear on, I apparently developed an all-Asian menu for dinners this week. Hey, I can't eat most of it out at restaurants (curse you gluten-hating immune system!), so why not make it at home. Lots of naps and pitiful coughs apparently lead to good things in the kitchen, because these noodle bowls I made last night may be one of my most favorite concoctions as of late. Loaded with good green veggies, it's like ramen but healthy and it leaves you feeling somehow full yet light. I used rice noodles, but you could easily use udon or any other of your favorite Asian-style noodles. This would also be fantastic with shrimp, chicken or tofu, if you're looking to add an extra hit of protein. Or throw all of it together into a pot with 2 cups of vegetable or chicken stock and 2 cups of water, and have yourself a noodly soup of goodness.
Sesame Vegetable Noodle Bowls
Ingredients:
1 package rice noodles, soaked in hot water until soft
1 tsp chili oil
1 leek, quartered lengthwise and sliced
4 oz Shitake mushrooms (or any mushrooms of your choice), sliced
1/2 bundle of kale, leaves removed from stem and rough chopped
1 cup cabbage, chopped
1 carrot, peeled and grated thin
2 green onions, greens chopped
1 Tbsp soy sauce (I use Kikkoman's wheat/gluten free version)
2 Tbsp sesame seeds
For sauce:
2 Tbsp sesame oil
2 Tbsp rice vinegar
2 Tbsp lime juice
4 tsp soy sauce
2 tsp Sriracha
1 knob ginger, peeled and grated
Prepare sauce first by whisking all ingredients together and set aside, and soak rice noodles in hot water or put in on the stove over medium heat (not enough to boil) until noodles are just soft.
In a large skillet, heat chili oil over high heat. Add sliced leeks and cook for about 2 minutes. Then add mushrooms and cook until they begin to brown. Toss in kale, cabbage and carrot and cook for about 1-2 more minutes or until kale is wilted. Add in green onions and soy sauce, and cook for an additional minute. Remove from heat and toss with sesame seeds.
Drain noodles and toss with veggies in skillet. Pour over sauce and toss until fully combined. Serve each portion with additional Sriracha and sesame seeds, if desired...and in this house, we do desire!
Last Friday I whipped up the Szechuan Noodles with Cabbage & Broccoli and you know if you've made it before, it makes a TON of sauce, so you always have about a l/2 pint of it in reserve to use for another dish. I'd always thought it would make an amazing beef marinade, so I gave it a whirl! Knowing we were getting green beans in the Crop Share, I couldn't resist grabbing a pint of mushrooms, to turn this into a spicy and fragrant version of some homemade Chinese take-away. So if you're looking at this week's green beans and all you can think of is green bean casserole, then plan to give your favorite Chinese restaurant the night off and whip up your own take-away at home!
Ginger Beef with Green Beans & Mushrooms
1.5 lbs thin sliced beef (I used eye of round)
Half of the Szechuan Noodles sauce (see recipe here)
2" knob of ginger, minced
1 pint mushrooms, washed and sliced
1 lb green beans (about half the bag from the Crop Share), rinsed and ends snapped
1 Tbsp chili oil
Noodles or rice for serving, we used rice noodles for gluten-free
In a large bowl, toss the beef, sauce and minced ginger to fully coat the beef. Cover and place in fridge to chill and marinate for at least 1 hour.
Once beef has marinated, remove from fridge and allow to come up to room temp while you prep your mushrooms and green beans.
In a large skillet or wok, heat chili oil over high heat. Once oil is hot, toss in mushrooms and green beans (taking care to watch our for oil splatters) and cook for about 1-2 minutes, continually stirring or tossing with tongs to prevent burning. Then add in your beef and all of the sauce and ginger, and cook until you can no longer see pink on the beef and meat is just slightly browned. It's best to use tongs to help stir and toss at this point. Remove immediately from heat and serve with rice or noodles. We stirred our rice noodles into the skillet and allowed to sit for a few minutes to allow the sauce to flavor the noodles.
I cannot get enough of this brussels sprouts recipe, it is nothing short of decadent, and chances are you already have a good bit of the ingredients hanging out in your pantry or fridge. Yet some more great comfort cooking while we're in the midst of this snowy tundra!
And in case you don't have everything already in your pantry, don't forget to take your Tauntaun with you to the store...
Aaaaaand, if you're just nerdy enough to need more wintery Star Wars humor, here's a little gem straight from Sochi. The Olympics are really getting intense!
All this cold weather is like a proper northeast Ohio weather, and when the temps plummet and schools are closed, we fire up our ovens and bake something filling and hearty. Williams-Sonoma had tempted me with an Instagram of this Baked Rigatoni with Fennel, Sausage & Pepperonata, and I vowed and drooled to make my own version. Naturally I went with what I had on hand, which was no fennel and no pepperonata. But I did have cremini mushrooms and a jar of roasted red peppers, so the following baked, ooey gooey goodness was born. We'll be serving up some cremini/baby bella mushrooms in this week's Crop Share, so beat that winter chill with this dish this weekend.
Baked Penne with Turkey Sausage, Mushrooms & Roasted Red Peppers
Ingredients:
12 oz penne
2 Tbsp olive oil (plus extra to grease baking dish)
1 Tbsp garlic, minced
1.25 lbs Hot Italian Turkey Sausage, casings removed and crumbled
1 pint mushrooms, sliced
1 cup red wine, plus an extra slosh for good measure (I used a pinot noir)
12 oz roasted red peppers, drained thoroughly
26 oz marinara sauce (I used Nature's Promise organic Garden Vegetable Sauce)
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
Pinch Kosher salt
1/2 cup plus 1 heaping spoonful more of Tofutti Better Than Ricotta (or regular part-skim ricotta), plus extra to crumble on top
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. And use olive oil to grease a 9 x 13 baking dish.
Cook pasta to package directions. In a skillet, heat olive oil over medium high heat. Add in garlic and cook for 1 minute. Crumble in sausage and begin to brown. Once sausage begins to brown, add in sliced mushrooms. Once sausage is cooked through and mushrooms have also browned, deglaze skillet with red wine, scraping any lovely bits off the bottom of the pan. Stir in drained red peppers and marinara sauce, season with black pepper and salt, cover skillet, and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to prevent burning.
After simmering for about 4-5 minutes, remove from heat and stir in ricotta of your choice. Then pour over drained, cooked pasta and fold in to fully incorporate. Pour into greased baking dish and dot top with additional crumbled ricotta.
Bake for 10 minutes until bubbly. Remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes to allow dish to set up. Reheats fantastic, seems to get better with each subsequent day.
Now that I've realized I love Brussels sprouts if they're cooked right (sorry Mama, steaming frozen ones in a butter sauce is a crime against B-sprouts), I can't get enough of them. One of our Crop Share members pointed me in the direction of Smitten Kitchen's Dijon Braised Brussels Sprouts, and I've been drooling ever since. Give me Dijon or give me death! I didn't have any broth or white wine on hand (SCANDAL!!!), so I whipped my own, raid-the-pantry version. I did mine dairy-free for the Mister by concocting unsweetened rice milk with melted dairy-free margarine, but having spent many a years with heavy cream running through my veins, I know it's a 1 for 1 substitution, so 2 cups of heavy cream is what you'll want for the dairy-full version. See the ingredients for my faux heavy cream directions if you'd like to or need to give the dairy-free version a whirl. I'm looking in the direction of a certain awesome mom & Crop Share member who's diving in head first to gluten & dairy-free cooking for her son. Trust me lady, you'll be rocking in the kitchen like a pro in no time!
Brussels Sprouts & Mushrooms in a Dijon Cream Sauce
Ingredients:
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 shallots, sliced
1 quart mushrooms, sliced
1 quart Brussels sprouts, ends trimmed and sliced
2 cups heavy cream (Trickling Springs heavy cream is TO DIE for, so snag some in store! Or if you need to make it dairy-free, a no fail replacement is just shy of 2 cups of unsweetened rice milk mixed with 2 Tbsp of melted Earth Balance margarine)
3 Tbsp Dijon mustard
Salt & pepper to taste
In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium high heat. Add in shallots and cook for about 2 minutes. Toss in mushrooms and allow to begin to brown before adding in the Brussels sprouts. You'll want to get some brown on the Brussels sprouts too, as it will bring out the natural sweetness. Once veggies are browned, gently whisk in your heavy cream and then Dijon mustard. Season with a pinch or two of salt & pepper. Bring to a simmer and reduce heat to medium low, and simmer until sauce is reduced by more than half and is thickened. Adjust seasoning to taste.
I served our's over rice to turn it into an entree, but this would also be great over noodles (it has a stroganoff thing going on with it), or serve it as a side dish or even a decadent topping to some grilled steaks.
My mama likes to say I get my cooking skill from my Da because she believes herself to be a paltry cook. Granted, being the crazy busy woman she is, time for cooking has always been thin on the ground for her, but come to one of her holiday dinners and prepare to feast like you've never feasted before. There are so many of her dishes that are total comfort foods for me, like her chicken & noodles, beef stroganoff, Thanksgiving stuffing, and of course, her stuffed mushrooms. Now there's one sad, frustrating ingredient binding all of those dishes together...gluten. So if I am going to enjoy these favorites of my childhood, I have to stop pouting, gird my gluten-hating loins, and make them in a way that's safe for me. The noodles and stroganoff were easy, the stuffing I haven't had the heart to try, but those stuffed mushrooms have been calling to me. Namely because the cremini mushrooms from the final week of the Fall round were eyeing me longingly every time I opened the fridge. So I called up my mama to get the run down of her recipe and set to work in hopes of contriving something that would generally taste like her version. While the texture was a tad different and being the nice wife I am I used the Mister's dairy-free cheese so I could share them with him, they turned out nearly identical to her's!!!! Squee!!!! So with the holidays coming up, these are a perfect appetizer to quickly whip up, and I'll provide the me version and mon mama's version so you can make them either way you wish. Oh and to truly enjoy these, you really should pour yourself a glass of wine. Cheers mama!
Mon Mama's Stuffed Mushrooms
Ingredients:
1 doz cremini mushrooms, stems removed and reserved
1/2 cup of breadcrumbs (make your own with the Petite Loaves in this week's share, or make them gluten free with Glutino bread crumbs -- also dairy & egg free)
1 Tbsp garlic, minced
1 tsp soy sauce (Kikkoman has a great gluten-free variety)
3 Tbsp butter, melted (use Earth Balance margarine for dairy free)
1/4 cup jack cheese (I used Daiya mozzarella shreds, which are a dairy free product that's also soy free)
1/4 cup dry red or white wine
Ground black pepper
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Gently wash your mushrooms by rinsing under water and lightly rubbing your fingers over them to remove the dirt. Don't scrub them as you'll actually lose some of the wonderful earthy, mushroom flavor. Pop the stems out and allow the caps to dry on a paper towel. Trim the soil end of the stems and then dice the reserved stems for use in the stuffing.
In a bowl mix together the diced stems, breadcrumbs, garlic, soy sauce, cheese, wine, and half of the melted butter. Mix well to combine and then season with ground black pepper to taste.
Place mushroom caps on a baking sheet and drizzle the remaining butter over top and around the mushrooms to prevent them from drying out. Then stuff each cap generously with the stuffing. I had a good bit of stuffing left over, so I rolled it up into 4 stuffing balls that I placed on the baking sheet too (they turned out tasting a lot like arancini -- fried rice balls). Bake for 10 minutes at 350. Then turn broiler onto high and move mushrooms to the top rack of the oven. Broil for 3-5 minutes or until slightly browned and you can see the stuffing start to bubble and pulsate. Keep an eye on them in the broiler as they can go from fine to smoking very quickly.
Transfer to a plate to cool slightly and enjoy with some wine...and maybe a call home to your mama.
Happy World Vegetarian Day! Whether you eat meat or not, I think we can all agree that more fruits and veggies are a good thing...a yummy good thing. I was a vegetarian for most of my life, but let's be honest, I'm too much of a foodie to restrict myself (I'm looking at you delicious, delicious bacon jam!), especially when so many items are already off the table due to the Mister's and my food allergies. But for the most part we practice Meatless Mondays in our home, and we would really be up a creek if it weren't for all those crafty vegan cooks, like Doron Petersan of Sticky Fingers Sweets & Eats, who come up with new and interesting ways to make desserts we can safely eat. So on this World Vegetarian Day, I give you a way to use up the mushrooms and most of that lone onion from this week's Crop Share...my version of Skinnytaste's Mushroom Stroganoff!
Mushroom Stroganoff
Ingredients:
1 Tbsp butter (I used Earth Balance Margarine for dairy-free)
1/2 sweet onion, chopped
2 Tbsp corn starch
2 cups reduced sodium vegetable broth
1 Tbsp plus 2 tsp soy sauce (I use Kikkoman's gluten-free soy, but you can also use 1 Tbsp only of Worcestershire sauce. My Mama always used soy sauce in her stroganoff, so that's why I went that route)
1 tsp tomato paste
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 pint mushrooms, gently washed, stems trimmed and sliced
1/4 tsp thyme
Ground black pepper to taste
2 Tbsp dry white wine
1/4 cup sour cream or plain Greek yogurt (I used Tofutti's Sour Supreme for dairy-free)
8 oz uncooked noodles (I use Schar's tagliatelle as it's gluten and egg-free, and you won't even know!)
Begin to bring your pasta water to a boil so that you can cook your noodles while you prepare the sauce. If you want to mix your noodles into the stroganoff, then undercook them to allow them to finish in the sauce. I prefer a larger noodle to sauce ratio, so I fully cooked the noodles and then spooned the amount of sauce I wanted on my portion.
In a skillet, melt your butter over medium high heat until it's bubbly. Add in you onion and saute for about 3-4 minutes, until onions are translucent. Stir in your corn starch and fully coat all the onions, allowing to cook for an addition 30 seconds. Slowly add your vegetable broth, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Add in soy sauce and tomato paste, making sure to fully mix in the tomato paste. Bring up to a simmer and add your mushrooms, thyme and ground black pepper. Simmer for about 4 minutes or until sauce has thickened up. Stir in your white wine (and here would be where I had an oops, I thought 2 CUPS of wine -- wishful thinking -- so thankfully I only had a 1/2 cup at my disposal and caught myself before I added more, so if you'd like a more "winey" sauce, then add a half cup of white wine and then an addition 2 tsp of soy sauce) and bring sauce to a low simmer.
Once noodles are cooked either drain and mix in to the sauce, or set aside and toss with a splash of olive oil to keep them from sticking.
Before serving, stir sour cream into the sauce and leave on heat for an additional minute to bring it all up to the same temperature.
**You'll be easily able to convert this into a beef stroganoff by starting with 1 lb of beef round or chuck cut into 2 " cubes (my Mama always asked the butcher to run them through the meat tenderizer to make the pieces melt in your mouth even more) and brown that up in butter or olive oil before removing and adding in the onions and mushrooms to brown up. Then add the beef back in, stir in your corn starch and add your liquid to loosen all the lovely browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Proceed from there and simmer everything for about 30 minutes before stirring in the sour cream.**
With tomorrow's opening of our Pumpkin Tunnel we had a late, after-hours staff meeting, which means I fell asleep while writing the previous post. So if things cease to make sense, that's why. To keep things short and sweet and get sleepy self to bed, here are two recipes I'm dying to give a try this coming week! Yum and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...
Having a gluten-allergy means that most take-away is off the table for me. It's a good thing I love to cook, and I'm sure in the long run my waistline and my heart will thank me, but sometime you just want to pick up the phone and order pizza or Chinese without a care in the world. Thankfully Moo Goo Gai Pan was always my favorite Chinese take-away dish and is the one dish that is actually safe for me. But man a good Beef with Broccoli, or beef in any of that wonderful sweet, salty, yet mildly spicy brown sauce is sooooo yummy, and sooooooo off limits for me.
But, the day that local snow peas arrived in the store, Valerie began to celebrate in the office because that meant she was making The Pioneer Woman's Beef with Snow Peas and thanks to gluten-free soy sauce this recipe would be within my reach. So I too grabbed snow peas the the rest of my supplies, tweaked the recipe a bit (I just can't leave any recipe well enough alone), and that night I treated the Mister and myself to homemade Chinese take-away. It was BETTER than take-away, and I wanted to eat it ALL! Oh Ree Drummond, you are a ginger angel of food loveliness (which by the way, leave it to a fellow ginger to come up with a recipe that relies on lots of lovely fresh ginger, oh how you rock woman)! So this meant when broccoli made its way into last week's share, I knew what had to be done...sub out the snow peas and throw in that broccoli! Let's just say I ate leftovers for breakfast this morning. Go ahead and judge, I care not!
So give your favorite Chinese restaurant delivery guy a break tonight, and make your own Beef with Broccoli at home. I recommend prepping all your ingredients first, as once you start, this recipe goes super fast. So I always make the sauce, get the meat in it to marinade, and then get my rice started so that's cooking away when I start to cook the veggies. The sauce for this recipe is a great base, so feel free to sub in lots of different veggies. I always throw in mushrooms, but think this would be great with sliced carrots, asparagus, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, cabbage, and eggplant. You can even leave out the meat and make a hearty vegetarian version with lots of veggies.
Homemade Take-Away: Beef with Broccoli
Ingredients:
1 lb sirloin, flank steak or thin sliced top round
1/2 cup low-sodium soy sauce (use gluten-free soy or tamari to keep it wheat-free)
2 Tbsp sherry vinegar
2 Tbsp local honey
2 Tbsp brown sugar
2 Tbsp corn starch
1 Tbsp heaping, minced ginger
1 tsp heaping minced garlic
Dash of crushed red pepper (optional)
1 head of broccoli, chopped
1/2 lb mushrooms, gently washed & sliced
2 Tbsp scallions, chopped
3 Tbsp olive oil
2 tsp sesame seeds
4 cups cooked jasmine rice
In a bowl, mix together soy sauce through red pepper, making sure there are no cornstarch lumps left, and set aside.
Cut beef into thin strips and add to bowl with sauce. Allow meat to marinade while you get your rice on to cook, as from here, it's going to go pretty fast.
In a large skillet or wok add oil and heat over high heat. Not medium high heat, but face melting high heat. So wear an apron or a riot shield if you're worried about oil splatters on your clothes.
Once oil is nice and hot, carefully add broccoli and mushrooms and cook for about a minute to a minute and a half, stirring continually to prevent any burns. Once mushrooms have started to brown, transfer veggies to a separate plate.
Using tongs, carefully add in beef and if your skillet isn't large enough, you'll want to add it in stages. Cook meat for 45 seconds. Toss in scallions and give everything a quick stir. Pour in rest of sauce and add back in veggies. Cook for an additional 30 seconds at most, until sauce has started bubbling. Remove from heat to prevent beef from over cooking and becoming chewy. Stir in sesame seeds for an added garnish and serve over jasmine rice. Should make enough for 4 generous portions.
So, unfortunately, my brain hates freedom tonight and no amount of Advil or Tylenol is touching it. I am actually blogging in sunglasses at the moment. Classy. Thus, for now at least, this week's posts will be rather short and sweet. In the Spoiler e-mail we linked you to our favorite, simple preparation for Sauteed Swiss Chard, which doesn't exactly scream Labor Day picnic food, but thankfully with this week's bounty of fruit you'll be able to throw together a wonderful fruit salad, fruit crisp, or even go all-American with some apple pie (or tart it up a bit!). But I've got two preparations for those sweet potatoes for you. One (an oldie but a goodie from our Crop Share vault) that will be a healthy, yet filling game day recipe now that football season is upon us (I might as well draw ire where I can...Go Colts!) and then another to take you from the gridiron to the grill and have you set for this weekend's picnic circuit. Happy Labor Day weekend everyone! Now where's a nice, dark and quiet room for me to hide?
I'm a big fan of mushrooms. If a dish contains them, it's a pretty safe bet I will order it or see if I can add mushrooms to it. So while I'll have a hard time NOT making the Skinny Mushroom Risotto from Skinnytaste yet again, I figured I would give you a veritable pu-pu platter of some of our recent favourite mushroom dishes we've had on the blog. Plus, I'm just waaayyy too engrossed in SyFy channels marathon of epically cheese shark movies tonight to do much justice with the blog tonight. Nerd alert!
Don't forget we long to know what's cooking in your kitchen, so send your recipes (mushroom containing or otherwise) to cropshare@nallsproduce.com!
During my time in Ireland I became obsessed with stuffed potatoes. No, not just the broccoli & cheese or "loaded" baked potatoes we have here, these were stuffed potatoes on a whole other level. The Irish call them jacket potatoes, and think huge puffy winter jacket kind of jacket, because they are stuffed to the gills and then some with all sorts of yumminess. Basically what we'd normally reserve for an elaborate salad bar, they will shove into a fresh baked potato. So when I stumbled upon this recipe in the fall, it was love at first sight. A stuffed potato that would make the biggest jacket potato blush! Being chock full of veggies, this will be a great recipe to come back to through all seasons, and the perfect way to use the zucchini we're giving you this week. I've even made it with baked sweet potatoes, so if you still have some leftover from last week, stuff them up!
Veggie & Chicken Sausage Stuffed Potatoes
Ingredients:
4 baking potatoes or sweet potatoes
2 Tbsp olive oil, plus 1 tsp, divided use
4 links of apple chicken sausage, sliced into 1/4 rounds
1/2 sweet onion, sliced thin
1 cup crimini or baby bella mushrooms, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 red bell pepper, sliced thin
1 zucchini, sliced thin
1 yellow squash, sliced thin
1 14oz can diced tomatoes, some juice drained off but not all
1/2 tsp dried dill or 1 Tbsp fresh chopped dill
1/2 tsp Kosher salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Rub potatoes with olive oil, stab a few times with a fork to allow for ventilation when baking, and place in middle rack of oven to bake for 50-60 minutes. While potatoes bake, prepare all the sausage and veggies.
In a large skillet, heat 2 Tbsp olive oil over medium-high heat. Add chicken sausage and onions, gently tossing and cook until the sausage begins to brown. Then add the mushrooms and garlic, and allow for mushrooms to begin to brown. Add in red pepper, zucchini and yellow squash, and cook for about 2 minutes. Then add in the tomatoes with a little bit of the juice from the can, the dill and your seasoning. Cook for an additional 2 minutes and then remove from heat while you wait for the potatoes to finish baking.
Once potatoes are done, carefully remove them from the oven (wooo hot potato!!) and allow them to cool slightly. Then slice lengthwise down the potato and fluff the the inside with a fork to loosen everything from the skin. Drizzle with a bit of olive oil and season with a dash of salt & pepper. Then generously top with the sausage and veggies. Serve with a dollop of sour cream if you so desire.
If there's one thing I remember from the Summer Olympics in London this past year (aside from that Phillip Phillips song that was used for every USA women's gymnastics intro video) it's this fantabulous mushroom recipe. Watching the Opening and Closing Ceremonies are a big deal for me and yes, I always cry from world-coming-together happiness. And big deals equal lots of yummy food. So I ran across this recipe from Herbivoracious for Mushrooms Sauteed with Sherry Vinegar, and decided they'd make a great appetizer while the Mister and I watched the start of the Games. In retrospect, I'm not entirely sure many mushrooms even made it out of the pan and onto a plate where my husband could enjoy them, as I seem to remember just eating them over the stove, because they were just that darn good. So whip these up for a quick and easy appetizer, and be sure to have some crusty bread on hand because you are going to want to sop up all of the remaining sauce. Oh yes you will!
Mushrooms Sauteed with Sherry Vinegar
Ingredients:
1 Tbsp olive oil, plus more for garnish
4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 lb small button or crimini mushrooms
1/2 tsp Kosher salt
3 Tbsp sherry vinegar
1 handful of cilantro leaves (or parsley if you're cilantro phobic)
Several weeks ago, when we had spring Vidalia onions in the Crop Share, I found a recipe by Jamie Oliver on Food & Wine for a Chicken and Leek Stew. So I figured, why not give it a try with the spring onions in place of the leeks? This was one experiment that turned out fantastic, and it was even reminiscent of some of the flavors in my Mama's stroganoff. We served ours over rice, but this would be perfect with noodles or even tossed with pasta. This dish will be the perfect fit for the local spring onions coming your way this week!
Chicken & Spring Onion Stew
Ingredients:
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 bundle of spring onions, bulb and green parts thinly sliced
1/2 lb cremini mushrooms, thinly sliced
Salt & ground pepper
1 lb skinless, boneless chicken tenderloins
All-purpose flour for dusting (can substitute gluten-free flour)
1 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 Tbsp chopped thyme
2 Tbsp sour cream (we used Tofutti Sour Supreme for dairy free)
If you have yet to make the Skinny Mushroom Risotto we posted back in February, then this time around it is a must! It would be the perfect accompaniment to a roast chicken or a baked fish entree for your Easter dinner.
I've yet to meet a Skinny Taste recipe I haven't liked, and that's saying a lot, as in our house with dairy, egg, gluten, peanut & cashew allergies (whew!) we have to do A LOT of alterations, and they don't always turn out so great. But this mushroom risotto was perfect for swapping in our vegan margarine and faux parmesan (trust me, it's actually yummy). So this is one risotto we can all dive into...unless you don't like mushrooms, and in that case, well, I'll be happy to take them off your hands and make even more of this for myself.
I have been loving Skinny Taste recipes lately! It's a great place to find lighter versions of your favorite comfort foods. This is the perfect side dish for grilled chicken or your favorite fish.
Ingredients: 2 cups mushrooms, sliced 2 cups arborio rice 1 tsp olive oil 3 tsp butter 2 shallots, minced 1 cup white wine 8 cups fat free chicken stock (or vegetable stock) salt and pepper 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese 4 tbsp chopped parsley
This week, you'll have just about everything you need to make this wonderful pot roast. There's something about egg noodles that makes a hearty dinner just right. Ingredients: 3 to 3 1/2 pound boneless beef chuck 1 (750mL) bottle red wine (I used Zinfandel) salt and pepper 2 Tablespoons olive oil 1 (10.5 ounce) can beef consomme 1/4 cup tomato paste 1 Tablespoons herbes de Provence 1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard 3 cloves chopped garlic 2 bay leaves 1 onion, sliced 4 carrots 4 parsnips 2 cups cremini mushrooms 2 stalks celery 1/4 cup flat leaf parsley To view the rest of this recipe, please visit: http://bakedbree.com/wine-marinated-pot-roast
.JPG)
.jpeg)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
+(1).JPG)
.JPG)
