Lobster Mushroom Bisque

  OMG…. Heaven in a bowl!!! I seriously couldn’t get enough of this stuff. When are we going mushroom hunting again??? Unfortunately lobster mushroom season is slowly coming to an end in the Pacific Northwest. This was my first season going mushroom picking and we had such a great time wandering in the woods! None of us got lost and we had a great haul (although we didn’t really get any of the really large chanterelles). We collected tons of yellow and white chanterelles, lobster mushrooms, and chicken of the woods. We pretty much ate mushrooms everyday of the week and we still have chanterelles in the freezer. The lobster mushrooms were definitely my favorite, but we had fun with the chanterelles and chicken of the woods too. We made this lobster mushroom bisque from One Tomato Two Tomato with only a few changes… mostly just to accommodate what we already had in our kitchen. The bisque turned out fantastic! You … Continue reading

Blood Orange Roasted Tofu and Asparagus

Spring is here!!! Which means asparagus is super cheap at the market. I dug and dug all over the internet for an asparagus recipe that wasn’t the same old same and came across this recipe from Eating Well. I loved … Continue reading

Prosciutto, Grilled Fennel, & Grapefruit Salad

Thank you Martha Stewert for this amazing salad!!!! My husband is now hooked on grapefruit… and it used to be a struggle to get him to eat it. The salad we made was pretty similar to Martha’s but we made … Continue reading

East Meets West Red Curry

I made an AMAZING curry for Steve and I last week. He was craving braised beef short ribs and I was craving Thai curry and Indian curry…. I really couldn’t decide. So I decided to combine them all into one … Continue reading

Healthy Lentil Soup

I’ve gotta be honest. I haven’t been eating alot of meat lately and I’ve been feeling a bit tired. And the weather has been pretty shitty, so I made a GIANT batch of lentil soup hoping that it would give … Continue reading

Spicy Thai Yellow Curry

After two weeks of craving curry, we finally took a Sunday evening to make our own curry paste….why did we wait so long? Ingredients for Thai Yellow Curry Paste Serves 3. 4-5 dried chilies (soaked in water for 10-15 minutes) … Continue reading

Toasted Hazelnut and Cauliflower Soup

Steve and I are always trying to find ways to incorporate more veggies into our diet and we’ve been on a cauliflower kick lately. We’ve made a cauliflower pizza crust…yum; and now we’ve made this AMAZING soup…I think it’s just … Continue reading

Lobster Mushroom Bisque

 

pacific-northwest-lobster-mushrooms

Mushrooms infected by parasitic ascomycete fungus….my favorite!!!

OMG…. Heaven in a bowl!!! I seriously couldn’t get enough of this stuff. When are we going mushroom hunting again??? Unfortunately lobster mushroom season is slowly coming to an end in the Pacific Northwest.

lobster-mushroom-bisque-crusty-bread

This was my first season going mushroom picking and we had such a great time wandering in the woods! None of us got lost and we had a great haul (although we didn’t really get any of the really large chanterelles). We collected tons of yellow and white chanterelles, lobster mushrooms, and chicken of the woods. We pretty much ate mushrooms everyday of the week and we still have chanterelles in the freezer. The lobster mushrooms were definitely my favorite, but we had fun with the chanterelles and chicken of the woods too.

We made this lobster mushroom bisque from One Tomato Two Tomato with only a few changes… mostly just to accommodate what we already had in our kitchen. The bisque turned out fantastic! You would never know that their weren’t any real lobsters in it. Steve and I both went back for seconds! And the leftovers were quickly gone!

Ingredients

Serves 4.

3 lbs lobster mushrooms, cleaned & thinly sliced
7 T. unsalted butter
1T. extra virgin olive oil
5 large shallots, chopped
2 large carrots, chopped
2 ribs celery, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 medium-large yellow onion, chopped
2 T tomato paste
1⁄4 cup vodka
10 sprigs italian parsley, plus 1 T. Chopped (set aside)
6 sprigs fresh thyme
2 large fresh bay leaves (3 if using dry)
2 cups Chardonnay
6 cups vegetable broth or chicken broth (we used 4 cups veg and 2 cups chicken)
1 t. tabasco sauce
1 c. heavy cream
Kosher salt & pepper, to taste

Instructions

1. In a large soup pot heat the oil and butter on medium high heat. Add the mushrooms and cook until all of the moisture is released and the mushrooms begin to brown. Then add in the shallots, onion, carrots, celery, and garlic and cook for approx. 15 minutes, or until the vegetables are cooked.

2. Stir in the tomato paste until mixed well.

3. Deglaze the pot with the vodka. Use a spatula to scrape up any bits stuck to the bottom.

4. Bind the parsley and thyme together, add the bay leaves, wine and broth.

5. Simmer for up to an hour, allowing the mushrooms and vegetables to become soft.

6. Remove the bay leaves, parsley and thyme and then puree the soup in the blender in batches.

7. Add the puree back to the pot, add the heavy cream. And simmer for a bit longer.

8. Garnish with chopped parsley.

Note: We served ours with a crusty bread from the bakery and it was perfect.

The Case of the Disappearing Oatmeal Cookie

A few weeks ago I made a batch of oatmeal cookies. I was hoping I could put together a couple of really cute photos, but they disappeared. And this time it wasn’t Jedi (although he loves baked goods to a fault) it was Steve. He ate all of them!!!!

steve gremlin

You eat all the cookies before I can post about them….. I get to post a substitute photo!

Ingredients

1 cup unsalted butter at room temp.
2 cups packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 eggs

1 1/2 cups all-purpose whole wheat flour
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 cups Old Fashioned Oats

1/4 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

 Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 F
  2. In a large bowl using a hand mixer or electric stand mixer beat together the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add in vanilla and eggs (one at a time) making sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl as you go.
  3. In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon.
  4. In batches add the flour mixture to the wet mixture and then gently stir in the oats until combined.
  5. Scoop cookies onto a Silpat or lightly greased baking sheet a couple of inches apart. And cook for about 12-13 minutes.

Note: these cookies are more crispy than chewy or cakey.

Blood Orange Roasted Tofu and Asparagus

Spring is here!!! Which means asparagus is super cheap at the market. I dug and dug all over the internet for an asparagus recipe that wasn’t the same old same and came across this recipe from Eating Well. I loved that it had some of the asian flavors already in the recipe, but I thought it would be fun to add even more by upping the miso and swapping rice vinegar for balsamic. I had a blood orange in the fridge that I wanted to use up and it was SO amazing in this recipe. I don’t even know if I would make it with a regular navel orange.

Blood_orange_roasted_asparagus_and_tofu

Blood Orange Roasted Asparagus and Tofu

Ingredients

juice from one blood orange
16 oz. extra firm tofu, cut into 1/2 inch-1 inch cubes
1 1/2 lbs. asparagus, cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces
3 1/2 T. red miso
2 T. extra virgin olive oil
3 T. rice vinegar
1/4 cup fresh basil, finely sliced
2-3 teaspoons blood orange zest
salt and fresh ground white pepper, to taste
chili flakes, to taste

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 450° Fahrenheit.

2. In a large bowl whisk together 1/2 the olive oil, 1/2 the rice vinegar, and 1/2 the miso. Then add the tofu to the bowl and stir until generously coated.

3. Line cookie sheet with foil and spread the tofu out evenly on top of the foil. Roast the tofu for 15-18 minutes.

4. While the tofu is cooking whisk the remaining olive oil, miso, and rice vinegar with the blood orange zest and blood orange juice.

5. Once the tofu has cooked for 15-18 minutes mix in the asparagus and roast for another 10 minutes, or until the tofu is golden brown and the asparagus is tender.

6. Remove the asparagus and tofu from the oven, place in a large bowl and pour the sauce over it, then add the fresh basil. Stir it all together until evenly coated. Add salt, ground white pepper and chili pepper flakes until desired flavor.

 

Prosciutto, Grilled Fennel, & Grapefruit Salad

Thank you Martha Stewert for this amazing salad!!!! My husband is now hooked on grapefruit… and it used to be a struggle to get him to eat it. The salad we made was pretty similar to Martha’s but we made our own dressing and we brushed the fennel with olive oil when we grilled it.

Prosciutto Fennel Grapefruit Salad

So many flavors going on…. the bitterness of the rocket, the clean citrus flavor from the grapefruit, the saltiness from the prosciutto and olives and the richness from the cheese…

Ingredients

2 servings.

1 bulb of fennel, green stalks removed, sliced into 1/3-1/2 inch slices
4 slices of prosciutto
1 ruby red grapefruit, slice off the rind and then pull apart and remove the tough skins that separate the segments, then cut into bite size pieces
6 garlic stuffed green olives, sliced
2 large handfuls of rocket greens (or arugula)
fresh shaved parmesan
1 T. olive oil for brushing the fennel

3 T. grapefruit juice
3 T. olive oil
2 T. sherry vinegar
1 T thinly sliced shallot
1 t. honey
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Heat up the grill to medium heat. Brush the fennel with olive oil and season with salt and pepper and grill for about 12 minutes, flipping every three minutes or so. Make sure you don’t burn the fennel… burnt fennel is pretty nasty!!! You may need to brush the fennel with  more olive oil to keep it from sticking to the grill.

2. Grill the prosciutto for a few minutes so it gets a nice smoky flavor.

3. Prepare your salad dressing by combining grapefruit juice, olive oil, sherry vinegar, honey, shallot, salt and pepper and whisking it well.

4. Prepare your salad by arranging the rocket greens, green olives, grapefruit, prosciutto, fennel and parmesan on salad plates. Drizzle with the grapefruit vinaigrette and enjoy.

 

East Meets West Red Curry

I made an AMAZING curry for Steve and I last week. He was craving braised beef short ribs and I was craving Thai curry and Indian curry…. I really couldn’t decide. So I decided to combine them all into one amazing dish.

East meets west red curry

We devoured this Thai-Indian fusion… I had no idea it would be so delicious!!!

Ingredients

Serves 3-4.

1 1/2 pounds beef short ribs
1 head of cauliflower, cut into bite size pieces
1/2 of a large eggplant ( 1/4 inch slices if you’re going to grill it, 1/2 inch cubes if you’re going to roast it)
1 1/2 onions, chopped
5-6 cloves garlic, minced
3 cups coconut milk
3 cups beef broth
2 tablespoons of tomato paste
1 teaspoon garam masala
1 teaspoon ground cumin seeds
1 teaspoon cayenne
fresh ground sea salt and black pepper to taste
3 dried bay leaves (2 fresh if you have them)
1-2 star anise ( I love it, so I put two in, but one is probably plenty)
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon coconut oil or vegetable oil
2/3 cup of green onions, 1/4 inch slices
3/4 cup of fresh basil, sliced
homemade red curry paste

Red Curry Paste

5-6 dried thai chilis, soaked in water for 15 minutes
1 1/2 tablespoons lemongrass, chopped
1/4-1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/4 teaspoon coriander seeds
1 1/2 teaspoons galangal, chopped
1 teaspoon ginger, chopped
1/2 teaspoon lime zest
1 shallot, minced
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon salt

Instructions for Curry Paste

1. Combine all Red Curry Ingredients in a mortar and pestle, and pound it until it’s a paste like consistency.

2. Will make between two and three Tablespoons of curry paste. I used all of it for the East Meets West Red Curry.

Instructions for East Meets West Red Curry

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and move the oven rack to the middle.

2. Sprinkle eggplant with salt and place it on a cutting board lined with paper towels, this will draw some of the moisture out of the eggplant.

3. Prepare your short ribs. On a cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil (and lightly greased) place your short ribs. Next, season the short ribs on all sides with the cumin seeds, cayenne, garam masala and salt and pepper and really rub the spices into the short ribs.

4. If you will be roasting your eggplant toss it lightly in oil, salt and pepper and go ahead and place it on the cookie sheet with the short ribs.

5. Cook the short ribs (and eggplant if you’re roasting it) for about 20 minutes, until the short ribs are browned.

6. While the short ribs are cooking you can grill your eggplant, brush it with oil and season with salt and pepper before placing it on the grill. Grill for 4-5 minutes on each side on medium-high heat.

7. Now is the time to prepare your red curry paste, if you haven’t already, this takes about 10 minutes.

8. In a dutch oven (over low-medium heat), add one tablespoon of oil, tomato paste, and the red curry paste. Saute for 1-2 minutes to bring out the flavors and then add the onions. Saute the onions for about 4 minutes until soft and then add the garlic and saute for another 2-3 minutes.

9. Add in the coconut milk, beef broth, bay leaves, star anise and fish sauce. Bring to a simmer.

10. Remove the short ribs from the oven and place them in the dutch oven with the curry (set aside the eggplant for later) and turn the oven temperature down to 300 degrees Fahrenheit.

11. Cover the dutch oven and place it in the oven for 3 hrs.; after about 1 1/2 hours you may need to rotate the short ribs to make sure they are evenly cooking in the curry. If you do it right the meet will fall right off of the bone.

12. Carefully remove the dutch oven from the oven and put it on the stovetop on medium/medium-high heat. Skim as much fat as you can off of the top. Add the cauliflower and eggplant and cook for another 5-6 minutes or until cauliflower is fork tender.

13. Reduce the heat and stir in the basil, green onions, salt and pepper. A squeeze of lime is delicious too.

14. It’s finally done!!! And it’s so worth the wait.

Serve with brown rice.


Healthy Lentil Soup

Healthy Lentil Soup

Yum!!! Perfect soup for the cold weather we’ve been having.

I’ve gotta be honest. I haven’t been eating alot of meat lately and I’ve been feeling a bit tired. And the weather has been pretty shitty, so I made a GIANT batch of lentil soup hoping that it would give me the protein and vitamin boost I’ve been needing. This recipe would be easy enough to make vegetarian or vegan, but I’m not that picky. This soup is a hodge-podge of different lentil soup recipes I’ve seen around the internet…. if I saw an ingredient I liked I just added it to the Crock Pot. I love Crock Pot meals because sometimes I really don’t have the energy to cook up a big meal…. and this recipe makes so much food I was able to put half of it in the freezer.

Ingredients

10-12 servings.

16 oz. green lentils
1 large onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
3 celery stalks, 1/4 inch slices
3 carrots, 1/4 inch slices
2 leeks, sliced, white and light green parts only
1/2 bunch of swiss chard, stems removed and sliced
1 28 oz. can of organic tomatoes in juice, diced
4 cups of vegetable broth
4 cups of chicken broth
1 T. olive oil
2-3 bay leaves
1 1/2 t. dried thyme
1 t. chili pepper flakes
sea salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
sour cream or plain yogurt, for garnish
fresh cilantro, for garnish

Instructions

1. In a large saute pan heat up the olive oil over medium heat, add the onions and saute until they “sweat” and are slightly translucent (took about 5 minutes), then add the minced garlic and cook for another minute or two being careful not to burn the garlic. Adjust the heat if necessary.

2. In a large Crock Pot combine all of the other ingredients except the salt and pepper. Add in the onions and garlic and stir it all up.

3. Set Crock Pot to low heat (cook time 8-10 hours) or high heat (4-5 hours).

Note: We do not have a large Crock Pot, we have a smallish one, so if you also have a smallish one, cut the recipe in half. Or do what I did and let it finish on the stove top in a dutch oven. I cooked it for about two hours covered on low-medium heat, at a simmer. And it turned out perfectly.

Save 54% On the Scanpan Everyday Pan, a Five-Star Favorite – Now Only $79.96 + Free Shipping at SurLaTable.com! Ends 2/18

Spicy Thai Yellow Curry

After two weeks of craving curry, we finally took a Sunday evening to make our own curry paste….why did we wait so long?

thai yellow curry

Love this stuff!!!!

Ingredients for Thai Yellow Curry Paste

Serves 3.

4-5 dried chilies (soaked in water for 10-15 minutes)
2-3 fresh Thai chilies
1 1/2 teaspoons galangal, peeled and minced
1 1/2 teaspoons of tumeric, minced
1/2 stalk of lemongrass, minced (or about 1 T.)
1 1/2 teaspoons of ginger, peeled and minced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/3 teaspoon of ground cumin seeds
1/3 teaspoon of ground coriander seeds
1 1/2 teaspoons yellow curry powder

Ingredients for Thai Yellow Curry

1 large chicken breast, thinly sliced
1 13.5 oz. can of coconut milk
1- 1 1/2 cups of water
1/2 onion, chopped
2 cups, chopped sweet potato, pumpkin, or other potato
2-3 green onions, chopped
1- 1 1/2 Tablespoons fish sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons of sugar
cilantro or thai basil for garnish
fresh lime, sliced for garnish
salt to taste

Instructions

1. Put all of you curry paste ingredients in a mortar and pestle and pound them until they’re as smooth as possible…this will probably take longer than it will take to cook the curry, but atleast you’re getting a good arm workout.

2. In a medium pot combine the chicken, onion, yellow curry paste and half a can of coconut milk and bring to a low boil.

3. Once the chicken is almost done cooking (this will only be a couple of minutes) add in the sweet potatoes and a cup of water.

4. Reduce heat to a simmer and allow the curry to reduce a bit. The sweet potatoes will take about 12-15 minutes to cook. At this point you can add in the rest of your coconut milk, fish sauce, sugar, and salt. If you need to thin the sauce now is a good time to add the remaining water.

5. Serve with rice and garnish with green onion, cilantro (or thai basil) and fresh lime.

Enjoy!!!

 

Homemade Vegetable Broth

Since Steve and I returned from Asia we’ve been trying to reduce our waste, which has meant using cloth napkins for all meals, making food from scratch, natural cleaning products and skin care, naturally fermented food and drinks, vermiculture composting, and trying to reduce the amount of pre-packaged stuff we buy…. it’s been a big lifestyle change for us, and we have to make a CONSTANT effort.

Anyway, here is a link to an AMAZING homemade vegetable broth from Simply Recipes. It’s such a great way to use up vegetable scraps too.

When I get home from Portland I am going to make a huge batch of it and put it in the freezer! I’m loving soup season!

Toasted Hazelnut and Cauliflower Soup

Cauliflower hazelnut soup

Steve and I are always trying to find ways to incorporate more veggies into our diet and we’ve been on a cauliflower kick lately. We’ve made a cauliflower pizza crust…yum; and now we’ve made this AMAZING soup…I think it’s just as good as the fennel kabocha squash soup that we make, but this soup cooks up way faster. The hazelnuts really give this soup a rich, creamy texture. It’s perfect for this cold, winter weather we’ve been having in Bend.

Ingredients

1 head of cauliflower, florets only
3-4 large shallots, sliced into 1/4 inch ribbons
2/3 cup toasted hazelnuts
4 roasted garlic cloves, minced
7-8 cups of chicken broth (veg broth would be tasty too)
1/2 T. olive oil
2 T. butter (totally not necessary, but I love butter)
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Toast the hazelnuts in the toaster oven or regular oven. Our toaster oven gets nice and hot and it took less than 8 minutes to get them a nice golden color. Be careful not to overcook (ie. burn) the hazelnuts. Once the hazelnuts are toasted remove the skins by rolling them between your hands.

2. Heat oil and butter on medium in a large soup pot. Add shallots and saute until soft and then add garlic being careful not to burn the garlic.

3. Add the cauliflower florets to the pot and saute for a few minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

4. Now it’s time to add the chicken broth. Start with 5-6 cups. Bring it to a boil, then let it simmer uncovered for about 20 minutes. Depending on how much liquid cooks off you may want to add another cup or two of broth, so your soup won’t turn out like baby food.

5. Once the cauliflower is tender and the broth has simmered down let it cool slightly, then add it to your blender or food processor with the toasted hazelnuts. Blend until the soup reaches your desired consistency. We were able to put the entire batch into our blender, but it might be necessary to blend in batches.

 

Vietnamese Grilled Sesame Beef

When Steve and I were in Hoi An, Vietnam we took an amazing cooking class and this was one of our favorite dishes. If you ever find yourself in Hoi An and have some dong to spare take a class with Gioan Cookery. We ate so much food we were nearly comatose by the end of our class…it was amazing!!! We unfortunately misplaced our recipe book, so this is our version of Vietnamese Sesame Beef…and it turned out delicious!!!

Steve and I with our cooking instructor.

Steve and I with our cooking instructor.

1 lb. top sirloin, thinly sliced
1 T. oyster sauce
1 T. rice wine vinegar
1 T. fish sauce
1 t. soy sauce
1 t. sesame oil
2 lemongrass stalks, cut into 1 inch piece
5 dried red chilies, (more or less to taste)
4 cloves garlic
1 fresh red chili (optional)
3 green onions, minced
1 T. sesame seeds
1 t. sugar
2 t. ground ginger or fresh, peeled and minced

 Instructions

1. Blend lemongrass, garlic, dried chilies and fresh chilies in food processor.

2. Combine oyster sauce, rice wine vinegar, fish sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar and ginger in a large bowl. Add in the beef then the blended mixture, sesame seeds and half of the green onions.

3. Allow beef to marinate in the fridge for an hour minimum.

4. Grill in a grilling basket (or cook in a skillet) over high heat for approximately 5 minutes per side.

5. Sprinkle the remaining green onion over the beef.

Voila!!! Vietnamese Style Sesame Beef!!!

P.S. Sur la Table is having a spiffy sale on cookware and bakeware!!!

Veteran’s Day Sale! Save 20% on American-Made Cookware & Bakeware at SurLaTable.com! Offer ends 11/11.