Mushroom-Onion Tart

I wanted to make something special with the chanterelles and hedgehogs I brought back from Mt. Hood (I figure tofu scramble is not exactly their best and highest use), so I made this tart.



I used a cornmeal crust, and got the recipe from here, with earth balance in place of the butter, and it turned out well even though my cornmeal:flour ratio was a bit off (I was running low on cornmeal). It was just the tiniest bit crumbly.

For the filling, first I caramelized one medium-large yellow onion and about half a red onion, sliced thin with a mix of olive oil and EB and a teaspoon or so raw sugar.

Then I sauteed about a cup and a half of mushrooms (chopped pretty small) with probably 6 cloves of chopped garlic for 15 minutes or so, added thyme, salt, pepper, and a couple splashes of white wine and a couple of handfuls of spinach once it was all cooked.

Once the spinach was wilted and the wine cooked off, I mixed about half the onions in, spread this over the par-baked crust (baked acc to the crust recipe linked above), then added the rest of the onions on top. Baked for about 30 minutes at 350.



So good! Would also have been good with tomatoes, other greens, etc. Next time I plan to try a creamy layer - seasoned silken tofu or something with beans - under the vegetables.

I miss Oregon!

You can take the girl out of Oregon, but you can't take the Oregon out of my carry-ons.





I'm amazed at how much beer I crammed into my backpack at the airport without totally destroying the chanterelles and hedgehogs I brought back from Mt. Hood. We had a really successful mushroom hunt, and Jane made amazing duxelles with a lot of the haul.



I made something pretty darn good with some of the ones I brought home, too - next post!

Okra and Risotto

I've never really known what to do with okra, and always worry it'll turn out slimy. But I had a few pieces of it in a CSA share my roommates couldn't use, so I thought when in doubt, fry. I dipped it in soymilk, then a mix of flour, cornmeal, chickpea flour, salt, and pepper. I pan-fried it and seasoned with more salt and pepper. It didn't turn out slimy at all! But it definitely could have used a little more oil in the pan.





So that was last week.

Today I bought some oyster mushrooms at Eastern Market, as well as a couple of shallots and a bunch of fresh thyme, because I've been wanting to make some risotto. I rehydrated some dried morels and chanterelles in veggies broth, then strained them and added them to sauteing oysters. In a separate pan I sauteed shallots and garlic in a mix of EB and olive oil, then added arborio rice, stirred a couple minutes, added about a cup of white wine, stirred til it was absorbed, repeated with veggie broth, and so on, until risotto was born.

I added the mushrooms fairly early on, once they were cooked, and periodically added some thyme. Then at the end a little nutritional yeast. Chef roommate said it was good, especially because it didn't have any [insert long list of dairy products here].

Farro Risotto with MORELS!

Morels! It's still early in their short season up here in Minnesota, but today I went with my friend Anna to her parents' woods to hunt for morels, and we found some! Not a lot, but enough to make some amazing farro risotto. It was so good. This was actually the first time I've eaten a morel, and it kind of blew my mind.

Farro Risotto with Morels

- 1 C farro
- 1 onion, diced (we used half a red and half a yellow - shallots might have been even better)
- Several cloves garlic, minced
- 2/3 C dry red wine
- A few tablespoons olive oil and/or earth balance, divided between two 10" or so saute pans
- 1/2 C - 1 C morel mushrooms, rinsed and chopped
- 1/3 C oyster mushrooms (I just had some I really needed to use up)
- 2 C vegetable broth
- Fresh or dried thyme, oregano, chives, or other herbs to taste - we used dried thyme and fresh chives and oregano, because that's what we had
- A little bit of dried chopped chanterelle or other mushrooms dissolved in your hot vegetable broth (I just had these from some fall picking, and thought why not make it as wild-mushroomy as possible. They added a lot.)
- 8 or so kale leaves, chopped with tough stems saved for later
- 2 T or so nutritional yeast
- Truffle oil

Here's a not very good picture of farro:


1. Soak the farro in water for 20 min, then drain and rinse
2. Simmer the farro in water with a bit of olive oil for 20 min, then drain and rinse
3. Heat a couple T of the olive oil/earth balance (I recommend a mixture) in one nonstick wide, shallow pan
4. Add the diced onion and minced garlic to the pan, stir on medium-low for a few minutes with a little salt and pepper
5. If using dried mushrooms, heat veggie broth and add them to rehydrate
6. In second pan, heat another T or so of oil/EB and when hot, add chopped morels (and oysters, if using) and season with salt and pepper
7. Cook the mushrooms on medium or so heat until they're a little browned and smell amazing
8. When the onions are cooked, add the farro and wine, cooking and stirring on medium until almost all the liquid is gone.
9. Add the broth one cup at a time when the liquid is almost gone, stirring frequently. Add the kale at this point too.
10. When the mushrooms are cooked, add them to the risotto as soon as possible so their flavor is infused into the whole dish.
11. When the second cup of broth is almost absorbed, add the nutritional yeast and take it off the heat.
12. Drizzle with truffle oil to make it an over the top intense four-mushroom experience.



This isn't like a traditional arborio rice risotto - the farro doesn't make a creamy starchy sauce while you stir it, but it does get tender and delicious. It's a chewy, hearty grain that goes incredibly well with earthy, rich mushrooms, red wine, and kale. It was like eating a forest (in a good way).

One more unnecessary mushroom shot. Cute, right?



We ate this with a mixed green salad with carrots, oregano, and a pumpkin seed oil/red wine vinaigrette. Also really good.



I'm already so excited to go morel hunting again next weekend - I want enough to cook some and dry a lot. We'll see!

Down by the river

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, so I went to the hardware store down the street to buy some decently protective work gloves. Then I went down to the woods on the river bank, just a few blocks from my house, to look for nettles. And I found some!

I also picked some dandelion greens, violets, and mint, just because it was there and off the beaten path enough that I think it's all pretty clean. I saw a lot of yarrow, but since I'm not sure what to do with it other than make some tea I doubt I'd like, I left it alone.



The dandelion greens will probably end up in a salad with the violets, and the mint will end up in tea and/or mint juleps, depending on where the weekend goes. The nettles might be made into pesto, or maybe just braised, put in soup, or sauteed like spinach. I blanched them for a couple minutes to take the sting off and make them friendlier to handle when I'm cooking them.



Most people treat this stuff as weeds, but I love eating foods I know weren't cultivated for size, color, shelf life...pretty much anything but taste and nutrient value. Wild foods are good for you! I mean, so long as you're sure about what you're picking.

I was hoping to find some fiddleheads or ramps, but no such luck. I'll try someplace a little less disturbed in the next couple weeks.