mini quiches

I was going to make myself a whole tray of mushroom & onion mini quiches because I'm a glutton like that. But we had still had some peppers in the fridge, so I figured I'd be nice and make some quiches that Kenny would like as well. Last time we made quiche was awesome, but this time I wanted to make the dough from scratch and use our muffin tin to make these cutesy little mini quiches. They make great hors d'oeuvres and the possibilities for the filling are endless!

Ingredients:
Crust:
2 cups all purpose flour
8 Tbsp cold butter, sliced into small pieces
3-5 Tbsp water
1 tsp salt

Add the flour, salt and butter to a food processor and pulse for a minute. Transfer to a large bowl and add 3 Tbsp water and begin to knead the dough and form into a ball. If the dough is not sticking enough, add more water one Tbsp at a time until it becomes easier. Form into a ball then put in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 425 degrees. When your dough is set up, flour a cutting board and rolling pin, and roll out the dough. Use a cookie cutter or a glass to cut circles in the dough. Press a dough circle into each well of a 12 well non-stick muffin tin, pushing the dough down to conform to the tin. Use a fork to poke holes in each mini crust.

We are going to blind bake the crusts so that they hold their shape. Rip off some squares of tin foil and press a piece into each muffin well then fill with dry rice or beans which will act as weights. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes at 425. Remove the tin foil and weights and return to the oven for another 10 minutes at 350. The crust should be dry and cooked through.

Mushroom filling:
1 Tbsp olive oil
4 oz white button mushrooms, quartered
1/2 onion, diced
pinches of oregano thyme, salt & pepper

Pepper filling:
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 gypsy peppers, small matchstick slice
1/2 onion, diced
pinches of red pepper flakes, salt & pepper

You can take care of this while you are waiting for your dough to set up & blind bake. Heat the olive oil in a pan over medium high heat and simply cook the ingredients together until just before the onions start to caramelize. Remember they will cook again in the quiche, so don't over do it at this point. Set aside in two separate bowls.

Quiche filling:
2 cups heavy cream
4 eggs
1 cup parmesan cheese
salt & pepper

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Whisk the eggs in a large bowl then, add the remaining ingredients and whisk until uniformly combined. Separate into equal portions using a measuring cup and add the mushroom filling to one portion and the pepper filling to the other. Pour the mushroom and quiche filling mixture into the first 6 mini pie crusts. Pour the pepper and quiche filling mixture in to the last 6 crusts. Bake for 40 minutes, turning the tin around halfway through if your oven doesn't bake evenly. At the end of 40 minutes, the mini quiches should be puffed up and beautifully golden on top. Allow to cool 10 minutes before removing the mini quiches from the muffin tin. Use a small spoon to run along the edge and pop them out.

balsamic cremini mushrooms and shallots over polenta

I should start out by saying that I absolutely love polenta. If it's on a menu, I'm ordering it. This recipe is very loosely inspired by a dish I had at Greens. It only makes 1 or 2 servings, but since Kenny hates mushrooms, that was really all I was looking to make anyway!

Ingredients:
6 oz. cremini mushrooms, quartered
1 Tbsp butter
1 shallot, peeled and trimmed
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp olive oil
pinches of sugar and dried rosemary
1/2 cup polenta
2 cups vegetable stock
1 Tbsp heavy cream
1/4 cup pecorino romano
salt & pepper, to taste

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Add the shallots to an oven-safe ramekin. If you don't have a small oven-safe ramekin, (we don't) just make a little bowl out of tin foil. Add the balsamic vinegar, olive oil and pinches of salt, pepper, sugar and dried rosemary. Bake for 15 minutes. The mushrooms should only take about ten minutes to cook, so you can prep them in the meantime. Melt the butter in a small non-stick pan, then add the mushrooms and a pinch of salt, cover and let cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. When the shallots are done, combine them with the mushrooms and be sure to pour in any of the delicious balsamic vinegar juices. Feel free to remove any stray pieces of rosemary. The shallots should be tender and the layers will naturally separate if you push down on them a bit.

To prepare the polenta, boil 2 cups of vegetable stock in a small pot, then whisk in the polenta and stir constantly until it begins to thicken. Remove from the heat and stir in the cream and cheese. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Plate and pour the mushrooms and shallots over top.

green garlic mash, mushroom gravy

I know the blog was a bit sparse last week. Only two recipes, even though we had planned for four. We still have beets and artichokes to use up from the last delivery. We have our recipe ideas all planned out but for whatever reason we just weren't in the mood to make them. There's a million excuses: not enough time, not even hungry, just don't feel like it! Whatever.

Tonight we got home from work and we both knew we had to cook. No more putting it off. So we sat down and took a good look at the produce we got this week. I believe the conversation went something like this:

Katie: We could make green garlic mashed potatoes?
Kenny: Yeah... but no one needs us to write a recipe for mashed potatoes. We need to take it to another level.
Katie: What about using the cauliflower instead of potatoes? Like... make a cauliflower mash.
Kenny: [light bulb above head] I know what to do!


Ingredients:
2 lb Yukon gold potatoes
1.5 lb cauliflower, roughly chopped
6 pieces green garlic, first four inches only, sliced on a bias
2 cups extra virgin olive oil
1 cup soy milk

Mushroom gravy*:
6 ounces white button mushrooms, roughly chopped
4 Tbsp Earth Balance
6 Tbsp all purpose flour
4 cups vegetable stock
3 tsp dried thyme
1 1/2 tsp rosemary powder
salt and pepper to taste

Start the 2 cups of olive oil on VERY low heat in a small sauce pan. Add in the chopped spring garlic and allow to cook for 12-15 minutes, about the time when your kitchen smells nice and garlicky, but don't let them fry and get all brown and hard. We are going for caramelizing, keep the heat REALLY low. Strain garlic out and reserve oil for later use in, well, everything! We make this oil with regular garlic a lot, and reference it often on here. It adds really awesome roasted garlic flavor to any dish in a pinch.

Put a large pot of salted water on the stove. Add potatoes, and turn on the heat. When the potatoes are almost fork tender and have about 5 minutes left to go, add the cauliflower to the pot and finish both of them. Strain and add back to the pot. Toss in your spring garlic confit, the soy milk and beat 'em! (Use a beater, use a masher. Your choice. Make them kind of chunky, or super smooth- hey, your eating them. Do it just the way you like 'em.) Season with salt and pepper, and eat! Wait, I am forgetting something, gravy!

Melt the Earth Balance in a large sauce pan over medium heat. Add in the 6 Tbsp. of flour and stir until incorporated, making your rue. (I know. This isn't your regular rue ratio, but mushrooms give off A LOT of liquid, and you will need this flour later.) If the rue is not coming together as usual, add a few splashes of stock to help it along. Cook the rue for 5 to 7 minutes, until its golden brown in color and smells toasty. Whisk in the rest of your stock slowly to incorporate the rue. Add in the mushrooms and herbs, and stir regularly until they are cooked about 10 to 12 minutes. You will notice that the gravy is also thickening up now. Let it bubble, while stirring until it reaches that velvety gravy texture we all know and love. At this point you can leave it chunky and just smother your potatoes, or you could do what we did and let it go a couple rounds with your immersion blender. Season with salt and pepper, and go for it!

*A little side note about this gravy recipe: It makes a little more than a quart of gravy, which is usually enough for about 8 people, or 1 Katie. So if you want leftovers for biscuits and gravy in the morning, open faced tofurky (or turkey) sandwiches- or whatever, go ahead and make the whole thing, it will last for a good 4 or 5 days in the fridge if cooled properly, and it reheats pretty well. If not, I would play it safe and half the recipe.

mushroom and brown rice casserole

Kenny is working late tonight so, I'm cooking with mushrooms again! Hooray for me, I never get sick of 'em. I didn't have anything planned so I typed "mushroom" into the wonderful Super Natural Recipes Search Engine and the very first result was mushroom casserole from 101 Cookbooks. The author of 101 Cookbooks, Heidi Swanson, is also the creator of the search engine, by the way. Some other recipes that struck me while looking through the results were for mushroom quiche and mushroom soup. But for tonight I thought the casserole would work best and I had most of the ingredients already. I've tweaked the recipe just a bit.

Ingredients:
1 pound white button mushrooms, quartered
1 red onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups cooked brown rice, room temperature
2 large eggs
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
1 Tbsp lemon juice
salt, pepper, thyme to taste
1/4 cup panko breadcrumbs
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a pan over medium-high heat, saute the mushrooms in 2 Tbsp of olive oil and a pinch of salt. Stirring occasionally, cook until the mushrooms have browned a bit and begun to released their liquids, about 6 to 8 minutes. Add the onions and cook for another 4 minutes or so, then add in the garlic. Saute together for another 3 minutes, then take the pan off the heat. Add the rice to the pan and stir until combined.

In a large bowl, mix together the eggs, sour cream, ricotta and lemon juice. Season with salt, pepper and thyme to taste. Add the rice mixture to this bowl and stir until well combined. Spray a casserole dish with your Misto, then pour the mixture into the casserole.


Mix the breadcrumbs and Parmesan together in a small bowl, then sprinkle over the casserole. Cover with foil and place in oven for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake for another 20 or 30 minutes, until cooked throughout and golden along the edges.

mushroom bourguignon

I've wanted to make mushroom bourguignon ever since I saw it on Smitten Kitchen. I read her post and my immediate reaction was "That's what I'm making next time we get mushrooms!" I didn't want change the recipe much, except well... I did, accidentally. I grabbed what I thought was the tube of tomato paste and squeezed it in, only to realize that... Oops! I had grabbed the harissa! It added a hint of smoky heat that was nice, so it turned out to be a happy accident.

This recipe calls for a cup of a full-bodied red wine. I usually avoid cooking with wine just because I don't drink it and it seems wasteful to buy a whole bottle and then only use a cup. I was pleasantly surprised when Kenny got home from work (Whole Foods), and he had brought home a little one cup plastic bottle of Sutter Home. Yeah, that's pretty crappy wine but whatever, it's good enough for me! Kenny doesn't like mushrooms so he ate his egg noodles with half a can of baked beans. Yup, Sutter Home in a plastic bottle and canned baked beans... boy, are we classy or what?!


Ingredients:
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp Earth Balance, or butter
1 lb button mushrooms, halved
1 carrot, finely sliced
1/2 an onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup Cabernet Sauvignon
2 cups vegetable broth
2 Tbsp harissa (optional)
2 Tbsp tomato paste
1/2 tsp dried thyme
2 1/2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1 cup frozen pearl onions
1/2 lb egg noodles

In a large pot over high heat, sear the mushrooms for about three or four minutes, then remove them from the pot and set aside. Heat 2 Tbsp olive oil and 1 Tbsp butter in the pot. Lower the flame to medium, toss in the carrots, onions and thyme, and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onions are lightly browned. Add the garlic and cook for an additional 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Add the wine to the pot, bring to a rapid boil and let reduce in half, about 10 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste, harissa and veggie broth. Add the mushrooms and once the liquid begins to boil, reduce the heat so it simmers for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, get a pot of water boiling for the noodles and prepare according to package directions. They should only need about 4 to 6 minutes to cook.

Add the pearl onions and simmer for 5 minutes. Don't be alarmed if the sauce looks thin up until this point, it will quickly thicken up with the additon of the flour. Add remaining 1 Tbsp butter and the flour into the stew. Lower the heat and simmer for 5 more minutes, or until it reaches your preferred consistency. Season to taste, and spoon over egg noodles to serve.

mushrooms in sour cream sauce

Every year my family eats Thanksgiving diner at my Aunt Ginger's house. All year long, I always look forward to my favorite part of the meal- my Aunt's mushrooms. Since I moved to the west coast I haven't been able to make it back for Thanksgiving. My Aunt's recipe is (according to her) very simple- mushrooms, garlic, sherry & sour cream. But it's one of those special recipes that just doesn't taste the same when it's made by someone else. So rather than try to recreate her recipe, I decided to come up with my own.


Ingredients:
2 Tbsp butter
2 leeks, white & lightest green parts only, sliced lengthwise then chopped into 1/4" slices
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb white button mushrooms, quartered
1/2 cup water
1 tsp rosemary
1 tsp sage
1 cup sour cream
salt and pepper

Melt the butter in a sauce pan over medium heat. Add the leeks and garlic and simmer until they are soft, about 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms and water, bring to a boil, then turn the heat back to medium low and allow to simmer for 10 minutes. Add the sour cream and seasoning and cook for an additional 5 minutes. The sauce should be hot, but do not allow to boil. Let stand a few minutes before serving, sauce will thicken slightly.

mushroom alfredo

Back to basics! Alfredo sauce is super simple and super adaptable. The perfect meal for me to make for myself when Kenny's working late.

Ingredients:
10 white button mushrooms, quartered
4 Tbsp butter
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup parmesan cheese

Rinse and quarter the mushrooms. Melt the butter in a saucepan on low heat and cook the mushrooms in the butter for a few minutes. Add the cream, then the cheese. Simmer, but do not boil. If the sauce is thin, adding a pinch of flour will thicken it up.

To season, I prefer salt, white pepper, garlic powder & Italian seasoning. Like I said, it's super adaptable- you can season however you like best, and serve with your favorite pasta. Mine is capellini!