Creamy Morel Mushroom Soup

The sauteed mushrooms were great, but I wanted to try making a soup with the freshly picked morels. Again, you'll want to really clean the mushrooms and soak them in salt water for about an hour.

I modified this morel soup recipe here.

Ingredients:
3 medium potatoes (or 2 large), peeled and halved
1 leek, cleaned and sliced (toss the dark leaves)
2 cups water
2 T butter
2 cups fresh, chopped morels
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup white wine
1 cup chicken stock
1 cup heavy cream


Start by adding the sliced leek, halved potatoes, and the water to a soup pot or Dutch oven. Boil for 25 minutes or until the veggies are tender.


While you wait, in a frying pan or cast iron skillet, heat your butter on medium heat. Then, add your chopped morels and salt. Keep mushrooms moist with dashes of wine. Keep stirring. Then, after 15-20 minutes, mix in the chicken stock.


No, go back to the leek and potatoes. Those can be blended in a blender or food processor. When smooth, return the mixture to the Dutch oven or soup pot. Then, toss in the morels and liquid. Simmer for 10 minutes, and then finally add heavy cream. Stir.


Season with salt and pepper. Serve!

BBQ Pork in a Crock Pot!

While I am not particularly proud of the lazy photos taken for this recipe, I was very proud of how easy this BBQ Pork crock pot recipe was.  I decided on a Saturday morning a few weeks back that the pork that had been defrosting needed immediate attention, lest it wastefully go bad.

We can't be wasting food round these parts.  I can't stand wasteful things.  Like not recycling.  Or not finishing a glass of wine.  Or people who don't finish a plate of nachos.  Seriously?

Me and BBQ Pork are tight.  If there is BBQ Pork to be had on the menu, there's a very high probability that that is what I am ordering.  So, after consulting a few recipes on the intrawebs, I threw the pork in the crock pot and started adding ingredients.  Now, I could have used a bottle of BBQ sauce, but I didn't have any on hand.  However, all you need is a few ingredients to whip up a homemade BBQ sauce:

•  Ketchup - 1/2 cup
• cider vinegar - 1/4 cup
• brown sugar - 1 or 2 tbsp
• spicy mustard (optional) - 1 or 2 tsp

Mix it all up in a bowl, tasting as you go along.  Maybe it's too tangy - add more brown sugar.  Too vinegar-ish?  Add some more ketchup.  The spicy mustard is optional, but I liked the way it blended together.  Once you have a preferred BBQ taste, pour mixture over pork and into crock pot.   If I had had them on hand, I would have chopped up some onions and thrown them in here too.

Turn on your slow cooker and walk away.  You can do high for 6 hours or low for 8.  That's right.  Walk away and let the magic happen all on it's own.  Trust the slow cooker, it is your friend.

This is what I came back to.  I have to admit.  I was scared.  It was so dark and scary and I hadn't done ANY stirring or anything.  I was shocked - the sauce had gone from scarily red to scarily over brown.

Take two forks and start shredding the pork apart.  This is easy.  As this was happening, the sauces started blending back to a less burnt looking color.  It started to look like a BBQ sauce color.

 Once you've shredded, add to a sandwich.  I picked up a loaf of country wheat from Panificio in Beacon Hill.  So good.

Here's the final sandwich:

Stop judging. I was hungry. And it was BBQ Pork. Next time I make it, you'll see the ultimate BBQ pork sandwich, with onions, maybe some apple slides and a tangy slaw. But I have to admit, this pork, as lovely and plain as it was, did not last long in my house.

Mushroom Hunting

I've been intrigued by mushroom hunting ever since I read Omnivore's Dilemma. Have you read it? No? You should.

The BF took me out hunting for morels mushrooms (morchella esculenta) a few weeks ago in Red Wing, MN, and it was really fun. It was a challenge to find the first morel, but from there, we found lots of them! I'm glad that we found them because I just read that they've been hard to find this year. The BF taught me about the spores and how to properly pick the mushrooms without disturbing future growth.

Readers, are you mushroom hunters?

Here (below) is how we ate our mushrooms during the first meal. I'll post a soup in the near future.

First, you should wash the mushrooms thoroughly and soak them in salt water before cooking.


We modified this recipe.

Ingredients:
Morels (washed and cut in half)
Eggs (the amount depends on how many morels you pick)
Saltine crackers (again, the amount depends on how many morels you can find)
Butter (again, it depends)

Start by beating a couple of eggs. You can always add more eggs if you run out. This is your egg wash. Dip the mushroom halves in the egg wash.



Then, crush about 1 row of crackers to start (add more as needed). Dip the egg-washed shrooms into the crushed crackers.

Once completed coated, they can be sautéed in a pre-heated skillet with 3 tablespoons of butter. We had to keep adding more butter, but I think it's because we had a lot of morels.

Serve!

If you do not own wooded property, you can tag along on guided tours in Minnesota. An event called Fun with Fungi is scheduled for June 18th in Maplewood, MN.

Fun fact- morels are the state mushroom of Minnesota.

Flatbreads and Flatbread Pizzas

It's Friday!!!!!!!  And gorgeous to boot!  Oh, and three day weekend?  Don't mind if I do!  I hope all of you enjoy your time off this Memorial Day weekend.  I have a very exciting weekend coming up with outdoor drinks, a day of hiking, a picnic, a family BBQ and finally, the Sox game on Monday night.  Can a girl ask for much more?  Hooray!

While I am normally a very organized in my grocery shopping (I go in with a list, I come out with the items on the list, case closed), sometimes I pick up things here and there, without any regard tn how I will eventually use them.  This happened to be the case with a whole wheat pizza dough I spontanously threw into my cart a few weeks back.  Fast forward to last week when I was craving flatbreads and my mind flashed to the frozen pizza dough in my freezer and the rosemary hanging out down below.  Inspiration sprung and presto - homemade flatbreads were born.  Ta-Da!!!!!!

Homemade Flatbreads and Flatbread Pizza:

• chopped garlic
• pam cooking spray
• fresh parmasen
• onions
• arugala
• balsamic vinegar
• butter spray
• anything else that calls your name, herbs, cheeses, toppings, get creative

I split my dough into three pieces.  I spread each one out, as thin as could be.  When doing so, see if you can't channel some inner Italian heritage.  I gave whrrrling the dough a good spin, just like I have seen in the movies, but ended up putting a hole in my dough.  Oopps.  And I looked like a bit clumsy.  In the end, I just gently used my hands and fingers to spread it out on a pizza pan.  I finely chopped some rosemary and garlic and sprinkled onto the dough.  Then I used zero calorie butter spray and gave the entire surface a good coating.  If you like calories, you can use the real thing and though I know it's all chemicals, I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Spray is an exception to my guilty conscience. 

Make sure you poke holes into your dough using a fork.  Otherwise, it will puff up and you won't be able to call it flatbread.  Bake on 375 until dough starts to get a bit crispy.  At this point, I used more not really butter spray and sprinkled cheese all over. Back into the oven then went until the cheese melted and browned a bit.

 When it came out, I topped with arugala and drizzled with balsamic vinegar.  I then used all the willpower in the world not to eat this in one sitting.  Glorious. The rosemary infused into the crispy, perfectly crunchy dough and the garlic and cheese all complimented the delicious drizzle of balsamic. Holy Moly... I love flatbread pizzas.  I allowed myself half while I whipped up another flatbread- this time, using some very beautiful caramelized onions in addition to the rosemary and garlic. 

Of course I had to try the caramelized flatbread too, so there was another slice.  And then another.  I was trying to save me some calories, but alas, that backfired.  When all was said and done, I had "accidentally" eaten nearly two plate sized flatbreads.  I shoved the rest into some tinfoil and polished it off the next morning.  Opps.  I suppose these were that good that I was unable to have any self control.

**Note to self:  Apparently, along with ice cream and caramel, sista cannot have flatbreads in the house either.  Like, Whoa.

Pepper and Parm Crusted Halibut with Cherry Tomato Basil Sauce

Unexpected company is almost always a good thing.  Except when your studio apartment is destroyed after laundry day or you've been busy cheffing the night before, but too lazy to have yet done the dishes.  Which, I have to admit, dish laziness is becoming a real issue round these parts.  I love cooking, but seriously, I am so over doing dishes.  Eating by yourself + no dishwasher = real motivational problems.

So when I had unexpected company AND a relatively clean apartment, I was psyched.  But even more psyched because I looked like a domestic diva when I "spontaneously" whipped up this easy fish dish below.  That and I had a fabulous bottle of chilled white on hand to compliment it. 

(But we all know that this sista is a planner.  Shhhhhhhhh.... I prefer to bask in spontaneous adoration.)

Pepper and Parm Crusted Whitefish with Cherry Tomato Basil Sauce (as adapted from Rachael Ray)

Sauce

• 2 Tbsp EVOO
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 large shallot
• 1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
• a few basil leaves, torn
• salt and pepper

Fish

• 2/3 cup of cornmeal, or parmesean bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup grated parm-reggiano cheese
• course black pepper
• 4 8 oz halibut fillets or other white fish
• EVOO
• balsamic vinegar

Ready to get after it?  Let's go.

 

Heat 2 tablespoons EVOO over medium heat. Add the garlic and shallot and stir for a couple of minutes to saute and get some aromas going to get your mouth watering. Add the tomatoes and basil and saute for 10 to 15 minutes.  The goal here is to break down the tomatoes, getting a sauce 'ablending.

Mix the cornmeal with the cheese and black pepper.  I realized that corn starch and corn meal aren't substitutes for each other, so I made a game time decision and went with bread crumbs.

Side note:  Anytime I say bread crumbs, I start giggling.  In Thailand, there was a menu that listed one of the ingredients as "Bread Grumbs".  BREAD GRUMBS!  Ha.  There was also a menu item called Cream Cheese Magaroni and Fried Chicken, kentuky style.  bahahahaha.  Oh Thailand, your english interpretations crack me up.  I know, you kinda had to be there, but trust me, we couldn't stop laughing our asses off.  Then we proceeded to have the second worst meal of the trip.

You can cook the fish one of two ways:

As Rachael Ray does:
Add the fish (to corn meal mixture) and turn to coat. Heat a thin layer of EVOO in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the fish and cook, turning once, until crisp and brown all over, 8 to 10 minutes.

Or as Kelley does:
Coat fish in bread grumbs and bake at 375 for 8 to 10 minutes.  Rachael goes for crispy, I go for baked. 

Once done, top the fish with the tomato deliciousness and drizzle with some balsamic.  Done and Done.

I was too hungry to appropriately take anytime to plate this for pictures, but there was a bottle of Kim Crawford calling my name.  Anyone who knows me knows that Kim is my favorite bottle of wine and I cannot be stopped in it's consumption - even if you're on glass 5 at $12 a glass on a Tuesday night.

However, you'll have to trust me, this was more YUM-O that the pictures indicate.


 

 

 

 

 

 

Portobello Mushroom Stroganoff

I'm addicted to the Haymarket Farmer's Market.  Yes, you Bostonians know which one I am talking about.  The one near Fanueil Hall that trashes up the streets and brings that dead fish smell to the city.  Yes, that one.  Now that my typical grocery trip is comprised primarily of produce, I am at an advantage having this market so close to both my work and home.  This market has a reputation for having some less than desirable produce.  In fact, in past experience, I myself have fallen victim to cutting open moldy bell peppers and having produce go bad the very next day.

But I am telling you folks, it's hella cheap.  Insanely cheap.  Out of your mind, are you Shaw's folks fricken' kidding me cheap. 

I have gotten less than desirable produce from Shaw's as well.  And paying $4 for eggplant is hot damn ludacris.

Anyways, long story short.  I grabbed a $20 from the ATM and headed over to Haymarket last Friday.  I left the market with two dollars and about four bags of groceries.  Everything from red/yellow/green peppers to more basil than you can handle to 2 pounds of tomatoes to rosemary to portobello mushrooms and scallions to onions and more.  At Shaw's this loot would have easily run you $30+.  Conservatively.  I love a good deal.  And because I am more familiar with produce now, I can easily spot the good stuff, over the stuff about to expire. 

Haymarket, I love you.

I took those portobellos and whipped up a stroganoff.  Because the real recipe is loaded with butter and sour cream, I adapted it to be less calories.  I barely noticed the difference.

Portobello Mushroom Stroganoff (All recipes.com)

• 1 tbsp butter or EVOO
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 3/4 pound portobello mushrooms, sliced (About two large)
• 1 1/2 cup vegetable broth
• 16 ounces plain yogurt
• 4 tablespoon all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup fresh parsley
• 8 ounces egg noodle, or other swirly noodle. 

 

Fire up a salted pot of water and get your pasta going.  Once that's going, heat 1 tbsp of butter or EVOO and start sauteing your onions.  Go about five minutes and add in your sliced mushrooms.  Saute until soft, remove from pan and set aside in a bowl.

Add your vegetable broth to the pan and be sure to scrap up all of those scrumptious brown bits from the pan.  Bring this to a boil and let it reduce by about 1/3.

Add back in your onion and mushroom mixture.

 

In a side bowl, mix your yogurt and flour well.  Add to broth mixture.

 

Allow mixture to thicken slightly over a medium to medium low heat.  This should just take a few minutes.  Add in chopped parsley and salt and pepper to your tasting. 

Serve over noodles and presto - dinner is served. 

 

 

 

Pork Medallions with Peppers

This one is going into my regular rotation.  I can't believe how fast, healthy and tasty this pork recipe was.  Pork has been my go-to meat lately and with recipes like this, I don't see that ending anytime soon!  It comes from a 20 minute cooking recipe, so this recipe is a multi-tasker. 

Pork Medallions with Peppers (Cooking Light, January/February 2011)

• 1 pound pork tenderloin, trimmed and cut crosswise into medallions (or two pork chops)
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp fresh black pepper
• 1 tbsp EVOO
• 1 1/2 ts chopped fresh rosemary, divided
• 4 canned anchovies OR 3 tbsp minced calamata olives (I used calamata olives in my recipe)
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1 red bell pepper, cut into strips
• 1 yellow bell pepper, cut into strips
• 2 tsp balsamic vinegar

 

 

This one is easy - get chopping.  Once you're all chopped, it's go time.

 

Heat EVOO in a pan, let it heat up and add in your pork chops (or medallions) and let them get a sear on them - about 5 minutes.

 

Flip and add in remaining ingredients (except for balsamic).  Let saute for about 7 minutes or until peppers are soft and pork is cooking all the way through.

 

 

And done.  Drizzle with balsamic vinegar and a bit of rosemary.  I was so hungry I didn't take anytime to really plate this in any sort of appealing looking way.  I let the porkchops sit to ensure the juices stayed in the meat (5 to 10 is appropriate), and below is the result.  

Awesome! 

 

Quinoa and Bean Salad (5 ingredients!)

Need a quick, delicious and light in calories weekday meal?  Or maybe something to pack in your lunch?  Or something light and refreshing as a side dish to dinner?  I got ya covered.  

Quinoa and Bean Salad (straight from Rachael Ray)

• 20 oz can of kidney beans
• 2 cups cooked and cooled quinoa
• 1 red onion, chopped (rinse with cold water to take away some of the bite)
• 2 bunches basil, stems discarded and leaves chopped
• juice of 2 lemons
• 1/2 cup of EVOO

I have been wanting to try quinoa for a while now.  For those of you who aren't aware of Quinoa's ass kicking health benefits, check out more information from Whole Foods here.  It's nearly gluten free, for all you out there adverse to gluten.  It also has a nutty flavor.  Since this was my first go about with Quinoa, I carefully followed the instructions on the back of the package.  It called for a bit of heat to take away some of the bitter taste and release the nutty aromas.  I don't have anything to compare it to... but I have to admit, I was petrified of ruining this $6 bag of Quinoa, so I watched it very carefully.

First Seitan and now Quinoa.... while I am getting adventurous here kids, don't expect me to go all that much more crazy.  Well maybe.... with my MBA and my freelance job behind me, I have a lot more times on my hands.  

Prepare quinoa as directed and cool.  In a large bowl, mix together beans, quinoa, onion and basil.  In a small bowl, whisk together the lemon juice and EVOO.  Season with salt and pepper.  Pour the dressing over the salad and toss evenly to coat.

And just like that, you're all set.  Serve as a meal (has a ton of grain and protein and fiber, so you can get away with this.) or as a side dish to a white fish or chicken.

I packed up about four tupperwares for lunches that week.  I didn't bother freezing any - this salad is made for eating fresh.  I have to admit, I rather enjoyed my first run with Quinoa.  In fact, the thing that ruined this salad for me was the basil.  I must have had a funky batch because I ended up trying to pick most of out it.  As someone who breathes basil, this was rather disappointing.   I couldn't put my finger on it, but something was just off.  Once the basil was out, I gobbled up this salad.

Chef 'em up!