Posts tagged ‘mushrooms’

Jan 27

French Onion Soup

It has been a very long time since I have had a bowl of French Onion Soup, it’s one of my favorites but I rarely eat it. I don’t think I’ve ever made it either, at least that I can remember. This soup is not traditional, French onion soup is made using beef stock. Instead of beef stock I made a mushroom stock and honestly you cannot tell the difference. The stock was made a few days in advance by simply simmering dried mushrooms (I used cepe) with onion and carrot, strain and store in the refrigerator. I simmered it for about 4 hours so it was rich and meaty (without the meat). The soup came together pretty quickly, caramelizing the onions took a little time, about 30 minutes. All together it took a little over an hour to put this together. You can use commercially prepared broth of course, beef or vegetable and I am sure it would be just as good. The star of the show is the caramelized onions which give this soup it’s distinctive flavor. I served with wine, Syrah from Pug Wine, couldn’t resist the cute pug on the label and the wine is wonderful.

Mushroom Broth

4 oz dried mushrooms (shiitake, cepe or whatever you want to use)

8 cups water

1 onion peeled and cut in half

1 carrot peeled and cut in half

Season with salt and pepper if you like, I didn’t

Place all ingredients in a pot and bring to a boil, turn heat down to simmer and let cook uncovered for about 4 hours. Let cool, strain and place in lidded jar and refrigerate until ready to use. Save the strained mushrooms and freeze, you can use them for mushroom soup.

French Onion Soup

serves 3-4

4 small onions peeled and thinly sliced

4 tbs butter

2 sprigs thyme

1 bay leaf

1 tsp sugar

2 tsp flour

1/2 cup wine (white or red)

4 cups mushroom stock (or whatever you want to use)

1 1/2 cup water

salt and pepper to taste

baguette cut into slices

Gruyere, comte or raclette cut into think slices (I used raclette)

Some grated parmigiana

Caramelized onions

Melt butter in saucepan and add the onions, thyme and bay leaf and sugar . Cook stirring frequently on medium high heat. When onions are soft and starting to brown reduce heat to low and let cook until caramelized stirring frequently takes about 30 minutes.

Making the Soup

Add the flour to the onions and cook for approximately 1 minute, add the wine and when it starts bubbling add the stock and water. Cook on medium heat for approximately 30 minutes. Soup will thicken slightly. While soup is cooking heat the oven to 350 degree’s place the bread on a baking sheet and toast for about 15 minutes turning over after about 8-10 minutes. Remove bread from the oven and turn on the broiler.

Remove the bay leaf and thyme sprigs, ladle soup in bowls, add toasted bread one or two slices depending on the size of the bread. Top with the sliced cheese and sprinkle with a little parmigiana.

Place the bowls on baking sheet and broil for about 8 minutes until cheese bubbles and is lightly browned. Remove from oven let cool for a couple of minutes and serve.

Have to show a photo of the bottle of wine, love the label and the wine is so good.

pug Syrah from pug wine

Jan 8

60 Comments

Ricotta Polenta With Tomato Mushroom Sauce/Ragu

Creamy Polenta with Tomato and Mushrooms

I posted this back in January 2012, it’s really delicious and worth posting again, I am not really doing any cooking because of my injury so I thought it would be fun to go back into the recesses of my blog and re post some of my recipes. This is a wonderful, filling vegetarian dish, you can of course add meat to the sauce but I love it with just vegetables. Tailor to however you like it, adding lots of fresh herbs, different types of mushrooms, I think eggplant would be wonderful. You don’t really have to follow a recipe for this.

Serves 4-6 depending on serving size

4 cups whey or water

1 cup polenta (corn meal) I used stone ground

pinch of salt

1/2 cup ricotta (well drained)

2 tbs butter

black pepper (2 or 3 turns of the pepper mill)

In saucepan add the whey or water and pinch of salt, bring to a rolling boil. Whisk in the polenta, don’t dump it all in add slowly while you are whisking it thickens very quickly. Lower heat to low and continue whisking until its done. It takes approximately 3-5 minutes. Remove from heat add the butter and stir, now add the ricotta. Stir until its all incorporated. Cover pan and set aside while you make the sauce.

8 oz cremini mushrooms sliced or whatever type of mushroom you like

2 cups chopped fresh tomatoes or 1 28 oz can whole or chopped tomatoes

splash of white wine

2 clove garlic peeled and minced

1 whole shallot peeled and chopped

handful italian parsley chopped

olive oil for pan

salt and pepper to taste

Put some olive oil in a saute pan and heat on medium high. Add the shallots and cook until they become soft and translucent. Add the garlic and continue to cook until they start to caramelize. Now add the mushrooms and cook until the mushrooms lightly browned, add the tomato and wine and cook on med/high until sauce thickens approximately 30 minutes uncovered, I like to cook this in a large skillet. Season with salt and pepper and remove from heat. Add the chopped parsley.

Apr 26

13 Comments

Featured Recipe: Green Garlic Stuffed Mushrooms

Green Garlic Stuffed Mushrooms photo by In Pat's Kitchen

Who doesn’t love stuffed mushrooms and what an ingenious was to use the bounty of beautiful spring vegetables that we are so fortunate to have this time of year. I think Pat hit the nail on the head with this lovely recipe. What a great appetizer and the flavors are so perfectly balanced and delicious. The bi-weekly contest on Food52 is all about alliums and I saw this submission and instantly fell in love! You can use white or brown for appetizer size but I was thinking how wonderful this would be as a vegetarian main course using big, meaty portobello mushrooms. You can find Pat’s recipes on her wonderful blog, In Pat’s Kitchen or on Food52 where you can see an abundance of delicious recipes. You might want to use some tender celery to make Roasted Celery Soup which just recently won the contest for best celery recipe or her utterly delicious A Tribute To Woody (Homemade Gingerale Float).

Makes 24 stuffed mushrooms

Green Garlic Confit (Molly Wizenburg’s method):

1 1/2 cups quarter inch sliced green garlic stalks (I had about 14 medium)

2 tablespoons butter

1/4 cup water

1/2 teaspoon salt

In a small sauce pan with a lid, melt the butter and add the sliced green garlic, water and salt. Cover and gently cook the mixture over medium-low heat, stirring often until the liquid is almost all evaporated. This should take about 20 minutes. Set aside to cool a bit while you prep the mushrooms.

For the mushrooms and stuffing:

24 white or brown button mushrooms, caps about 1 1/2 to 2 inches in diameter

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

4 ounces softened cream cheese

3/4 cup panko bread crumbs

2 tablespoons finely grated parmesan cheese

The green garlic confit

Extra virgin olive oil for drizzling

Remove the stems from the mushrooms (save for another use) and then clean the mushrooms with either a mushroom brush or wipe them with paper toweling.

Place the mushrooms in a bowl and toss them with the 2 tablespoons of olive oil and then place them, cap side up on a baking sheet. In a pre heated 425F oven, roast the mushrooms for 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and turn them over. Lower the oven temp to 350F.

In a small mixing bowl, combine the cream cheese, panko, parmesan and green garlic confit. Distribute the filling into the mushroom caps and then drizzle a little extra virgin olive oil over each mushroom.

Roast the filled mushroom caps at the 350F temp for about twenty minutes or until the filling just begins to brown. Let cool for a minute or two before enjoying warm.

Jan 30

3 Comments

Ricotta Polenta with Mushroom Tomato Sauce

Creamy Polenta with Tomato and Mushrooms

I made home made ricotta the other day and had 4 cups of the delicious whey left, discarding it was not an option, adding to breads, cakes are all great options and I will definitely do that for my next batch. I used Jennifer Perillo’s recipe for ricotta and it’s amazing. I wanted something quick, nutritious and easy to prepare. Polenta is creamy and comforting and is a nice change from pasta or potatoes. I used all the whey that I had and also added the left over ricotta. If you don’t have whey using water works just fine. The sauce takes only minutes to make I had some pretty nice tomatoes and cremini mushrooms I needed to use so I incorporated them into this quick sauce with some shallot and garlic and finished with a nice handful of fresh italian parsley. The parsely give it a fresh taste that I really love. Grate some cheese on top and you have yourself a quick and delicious meal in minutes.

4 cups whey or water

1 cup polenta (corn meal) I used stone ground

pinch of salt

1/2 cup ricotta (well drained)

2 tbs butter

black pepper (2 or 3 turns of the pepper mill)

8 oz cremini mushrooms sliced

1 1/2 cups chopped tomatoes

1 clove garlic peeled and minced

1 shallot peeled and chopped

handful italian parsley chopped

olive oil for pan

salt and pepper to taste

Put some olive oil in a saute pan and heat on medium high. Add the shallots and cook until they become soft and translucent. Add the garlic and continue to cook until they start to caramelize. Now put the mushrooms in and continue to cook until the mushrooms become soft and lightly browned, add the tomato and cook until the tomato becomes soft and cooks down. Season with salt and pepper and remove from heat. Add the chopped parsley.

Spoon some polenta on the plate and top with the sauce. This is a great meatless Monday option, I am making some sauteed kale to go with it.