Simple Brown Mushrooms

I’m sure you must all think I live off of nothing but fish and mushrooms nowadays. It isn’t entirely untrue, but these are here simply because the boy (who likes fish and mushrooms waaaaay more than I do) is in China and there was an entire bag of mushrooms I was worried were going to spoil. These are quick, easy and really, really tasty. And good for you to boot.

Simple Brown Mushrooms– Serves 2

• 7-8 cups sliced brown mushrooms
• 1 1/2 tablespoons minced garlic
• 1/4 cup vegetable broth
• 1 teaspoon each minced parsley, rosemary, thyme and sage
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• Black pepper (and salt, if you need it- I didn’t use any) to taste
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Combine mushrooms, garlic, broth and herbs in a large saute pan over medium heat. Cook until the mushrooms soften and release their liquid.

Add lemon juice, red pepper and black pepper and stir until everything is mixed. Reduce heat to low and simmer until the sauce has reduced considerably.

Remove from heat and toss with olive oil (I maaaaay have also added another 1/2 tablespoon of lemon juice, but that’s entirely up to you). Serve hot immediately or let them chill in the refrigerator first, if that’s your thing. They’ll be delicious either way.

appetizer, vegetables

brown, button, garlic, herbs, mushroom, spiced

June 5, 2011

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Photo- Summer Squash

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food, photography, picture, squash, summer, zucchini

June 4, 2011

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Photo- Kumquats

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citrus, food, kumquats, picture

May 31, 2011

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Poached Sole and Mushrooms

I have a bad habit I must confess to you, readers. Sometimes, when entering unfamiliar culinary territory (like, say, poaching, or sole), I begin normally, cheerfully scouring the internet and winding up with no less than a dozen unread tabs relating to my new venture. Then, I skim maybe the ingredient plus half a paragraph of two of them, go “Nah”, and ignore everything I just read in favor of throwing random things in a pot and hoping for the best.

This is one of those times, which is why it really shouldn’t taste as amazing as it did, and exactly why it looks as ugly as it does. I spent most of the cooking process in a panic, because the sauce never tasted quite right. I’d ruined it! My little half a fish would have died in vain! Nothing was going to save this, and it would be all my fault if Judgement Day really did happen like all the Muni bus ads are so convinced it will.

Resigned to my fate as a culinary antichrist, I tossed the fish and mushrooms in anyways, and something magical happened, and suddenly it tasted fantastic. My boyfriend literally licked his plate clean. And then stole mine and licked it clean. And then told me to make sure I write about him licking the plates clean. So there you go.

Poached Sole and Mushrooms– Serves 2

• 3 tablespoons olive oil or butter, or a mix of both
• 3 large cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup yellow onion, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon flour (I used whole wheat, which is probably why my sauce looks so funky)
• 3/4 cup (nonfat) milk
• 3/4 cup white wine such as a Sauvignon Blanc
• A tiny pinch of cayenne pepper
• 2 teaspoons thyme
• 1-2 tablespoons lemon juice
• Salt and pepper to taste (I probably used 2 and 1 teaspoon[s], respectively)
• 1 large fillet sole or other white fish, cut to serving sizes (I think I had about 3/4 pound)
• 3+ cups button mushrooms, sliced

Heat/melt your fat of choice (olive oil, butter or both) in a last skillet. Add garlic and onions and saute over medium heat until they begin to brown.

Add the flour and mix to make a roux. Mix in the milk and then the wine. (Apparently if you add both of those at the same time without mixing some first the milk will curdle. Not that I’d know.) Add your cayenne, thyme, salt, pepper and lemon juice and stir until fully incorporated.

Add the fish and mix in the mushrooms so they’re coated in the sauce. Cover the pan and simmer over low heat for about 10 minutes, until fish is opaque and breaks apart easily. Remove the lid and turn the heat up, then let the sauce reduce for another 10 minutes or so. Serve to adoring dinner guests, boyfriends, or what-have-you.

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cream sauce, fish, mushrooms, poached, white fish, white sauce

May 18, 2011

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Photo- Carrots

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carrots, food, picture

May 14, 2011

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(Beer-Battered) Fish and (Garlic-Parsley) Chips

It’s been a looong time. How have you been, Internet? I’ve been really busy. So um, sorry about that.

Anyways, fish and chips! I don’t generally like fish and chips. The fish is always really strong, the breading is always kind of boring, and french fries are just really hard to win against. But the boy likes fish and chips, and dammit, I was going to like them with him!

A few Google searches and lengthy referencing of my Flavor Bible later, I set to work. Five minutes after that, I threw most of what I’d found out the window because I apparently didn’t have a few key ingredients and ran wild from there. Whoops. It’s okay, it’s all better now.

Renegade Fish ‘n’ Chips– Serves 3-4

Beer-Battered Fish

• 1 lb cod or other firm white fish
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup cornmeal
• 2 teaspoons parsley
• 1 teaspoon each salt basil, thyme, garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne powder
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup dark beer
• Olive or canola oil

Cut the fish into strips about 1cm thick (you can make them whatever length you like, but four inches or less is easier to work with).

Whisk together the eggs and beer in a dish wide enough to accommodate the aforementioned fish strips. In a similarly accommodating dish, mix together all the dry ingredients.

Heat enough oil to fill the bottom 1/4 inch of a large skillet. Dunk fish strips one at a time in the egg mixture and then the breading (and feel free to repeat if you like a really thick bread coat, like, ah, me) and place in the hot oil. Flip each strip a few minutes into cooking- both sides should be golden-brown and the fish opaque (this is, admittedly, hard to check, but if your breading is cooked chances are your fish is too). Transfer strips to a towel or rack to drain while you finish the remainder.

Garlic-Parsley Fries

• 2lbs potatoes, carrots and/or sweet potatoes in whatever ratio you like
• Salt and paprika
• 3 or more tablespoons each garlic and fresh parsley, minced
• More olive oil

Cut your veggies in whatever fry size you like. (Mine where about 1/4 inch thick, so adjust your baking times accordingly).

On a large baking sheet, toss the fries in enough olive oil to lightly coat them, and however much salt and paprika you feel the need for (I used about 1/2 teaspoon each).

Bake at 450 degrees F for 35-45 minutes.

While the fries are baking, heat about 2 tablespoons olive oil in a pan. Saute garlic until lightly browned, adding the parsley near the end to soften it a bit. Or add it early on so you get crispy parsley, which is also awesome.

Toss the finished fries in the garlic-parsley mix and salt to taste.

Serve with battered fish and lots (and lots) of lemon juice and ketchup for dipping.

entree

chips, cod, fish, french fries, white

May 9, 2011

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Photo- Blood Oranges

I started doing more food photography around the beginning of the year and figured I may as well mix a few in here. If only to get back in the swing of posting, and mix things up a bit.:)

There will be recipes again very soon, I promise!

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citrus, fruit, picture

May 7, 2011

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Ginger Peach Crumble

This recipe has a much cuter backstory than most of my recipes. My gramma sends me cookies every so often (so does my mum, which leads me to think the family’s trying to fatten me up- not that I need the help). When I e-mailed my new address to my family, she e-mailed back asking if I wanted some.

Now, I’m not going to venture any guesses why, but my gramma sent the cookies to my old address instead. When I did pick them up (ginger molasses chews!), they came complete with a little tin and a note saying how good they were crumbled over canned peaches, a few cogs started turning, and I couldn’t get that back out of my head.

The peaches at farmer’s market are beautiful right now, and I’ve been bringing home bags and bags lately. They’re too fresh to need much else- a little heat, a crumble version of the ginger molasses cookies, and voila.:)

Ginger Peach Crumble– Makes 9 servings

• 3 large yellow peaches, sliced thin
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
• 2/3 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon each cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg and ginger powder
• 1/4 cup candied ginger, finely minced
• 1/4 butter
• 1 tablespoon molasses

Preheat oven to 350F and grease an 8×8 dish or pie plate with butter.

Slice the peaches, combine in a bowl with lemon juice and the first 2 tablespoons lemon juice. Layer in the pan.

Combine the sugar, flour and spices in a bowl. Add minced ginger and finally the butter and molasses. Mix until fully incorporated.

Crumble the mixture evenly over the top of the peaches. Dust lightly with flour and top with a few pats of butter.

Bake at 350F for 15 minutes, or until the peaches are as tender as you like (I like my peaches as uncooked as possible; you could put the peaches in for a bit before topping them if you wanted). Served on its own this is amazing; served with a little vanilla yogurt or ice cream just makes it that much more irresistible. Enjoy!:)

dessert, fruit, summer

baking, cobbler, crumble, ginger, peaches

July 28, 2010

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Sweet Curry Corn

Here’s something I love about corn: it’s one of those things that’s tasty, easy to cook with, and stores well when it isn’t in season. So in the summer you can have corn on the cob, chilled corn salads (like, say, this one) and salsas, and so on, and in the winter you can have chowders and spicier corn dishes (like, say, this one).

Originally I was planning on making a more traditional curry with corn, because I wasn’t quite sure why people don’t make more of those. And then I looked it up, remembered from the two-page list of ingredients why I never make curry from scratch, and went whimpering back to the drawing board.

So god bless the random encounters with old friends that slam a must-have recipe right in your face. My mum and I went with a friend to this place called The Slanted Door, which is in the same building as my farmer’s market, and they had the most amazing corn dish in the whole world. Sweet and savory, rich and light all at once. I had to steal it.

So out came the Flavor Bible, much scouring of the online menu (remarkably unhelpful- “corn with chantrelle mushrooms”. Gee, thanks.), and a considerable amount of creative liberty on my part.

That being said, this is one of my favorite things I’ve mostly made up so far. It hits all the high points of flavor, it’s healthy, it’s useful year-round, and all the flavors just work together. What’s not to like about that?

Sweet Curry Corn– Makes 2-4 servings

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 large cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup sweet onion or shallot, finely chopped
• 2 1/2 cups corn kernels (about 4 ears)
• 1/4 cup mushrooms, finely chopped (use whatever you like best- I used shiitake, chantrelles are also great)
• 1/4 cup red bell pepper, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon basil, chiffonaded
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon mirin
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon each ginger powder and yellow curry powder
• Cayenne pepper to taste

  Combine soy sauce, mirin and brown sugar and set aside.

  Heat the olive oil in a large skillet on med-high heat and add the onions and garlic. Cook until soft and just beginning to brown.

  

  Add the corn and cook for five minutes, stirring once or twice to keep it from burning. This is extra good if you can get the corn to caramelize just a little, but I don’t have the right pan so I couldn’t put it off.

  Add the mushrooms, bell pepper, and basil, along with the soy sauce mixture and spices. Stir until well-combined and then cook for another five minutes or until the mushrooms and pepper are softened to your liking.

  Serve immediately or chill for a great cold appetizer as well.

  

  appetizer, summer, vegetables

  bell pepper, corn, mushroom, vegan, vietnamese

  July 17, 2010

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Mint Peach Salad

I went back home to visit family for a few days around fourth of July weekend. Now, home is plenty rural as is, but we were camping (sort of- there was a tent trailer involved) all but two nights, and while I was exploring the surrounding area I found a pretty sizable patch of wild mint. (There are also bay laurels galore up there, but mine got lost between there and San Francisco… oh well.) I gathered a pretty generous amount, lost half of it to oxidation in the 48 hours between picking and getting back to SF, and still have enough to be at a loss for what to do with all of it.

Then I remembered a mango-mint salad some folks I know served at a party once. My farmer’s market has approximately zero mangoes, ever. Then there was the ginger-peach cobbler that I had extrapolated from a recommendation of my grandma’s and sworn to make. Maybe I could use peaches instead? Yes. Yes I could.

This salad is about as refreshing as can be, and the pepper adds just enough heat to remind you that it’s still summer (unless you’re having hot cocoa weather like I am, but that’s neither here nor there).

Mint Peach Salad– Makes two servings

• Two large peaches, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 10 large mint leaves, minced
• 2 teaspoons honey
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• Salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients and stir to combine.

fruit, salad, summer

mint, peaches, refreshing

July 16, 2010

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