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].

Summer Salads

I continue to be a lousy blogger, because it continues to be ridiculously hot out and the food I've been eating is (a) boring and (b) redundant. I did go berry picking in Maryland a couple weeks ago - blueberries, raspberries, black raspberries, and sour cherries. Most went straight into the freezer though, because I was heading out of town. I'll hopefully go pick a lot more blueberries soon.

Here are a couple of slightly more interesting (not lettuce) summery salads I've made recently.

This was roasted beets (I picked them at the U-pick berry farm!) with olive oil, garlic, onion, salt, and pepper. I let them cool then added red wine vinegar and fresh thyme.



Also in that picture was a really easy salad of brown rice, split peas, and homemade barbecue sauce. Would have been better with black-eyed peas or maybe white beans, but I didn't have time to cook them. I like this cold or at room temperature.

It would have been good with fresh oregano and scallions and maybe some cooked kale or fresh spinach. I'd missed the farmers markets the weekend before and was out of almost everything, unfortunately. For a dinner of desperation this turned out pretty well.

Last, a really easy tomato, basil, and corn salad. Just core, seed and chop a few tomatoes, add the kernels from one or two cooked ears of corn, add olive oil, a clove of minced garlic, maybe one finely chopped scallion, 10-15 leaves thinly sliced basil, salt, pepper, and either balsamic or red wine vinegar. I added some cooked white beans and chopped avocado at the end.



Bonus picture for reading to the end - check out this massive morel I found this spring! My weirdly short fingers make it look even bigger.

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!

Ode to my cast iron pan, and some random dinners

Not too long ago I finally got a cast iron pan, and I'm not sure how I cooked without one for so long. Somehow I didn't realize how non-stick and amazing cast iron is. I thought I'd share some action shots of my favorite pan, making magic with some farmer's market potatoes and kale. I've also heard that you actually get a significant amount of iron added to your diet from using cast iron, but haven't bothered to verify. I'd rather just assume it's true.



I'm also a relative newcomer to mushroom appreciation. I grew up a pretty hard-core mushroom hater, and it was one of the few childhood dislikes that survived into adulthood. But then I moved to the Northwest and tried wild mushrooms - chanterelles, oysters, and a few other crazy things that grow in the woods. Turns out they're not gross at all! I think foraging for something oneself will always make it taste better, and I credit mushroom hunting with my newly open mind. Not open to button mushrooms, though. They're still on the not-for-eating list.

I got 2 varieties of oyster mushrooms at the farmer's market a while back, and made a couple of things with them. This is oyster mushrooms and turnip greens with polenta. I just sauteed a couple of shallots and some garlic in a little olive oil (in my super awesome cast iron pan), added about 1.5 cups sliced oyster mushrooms, cooked them for about 10 minutes seasoned just with salt, pepper, thyme, and rosemary, then added a splash of white wine and a couple handfuls of chopped turnip greens and cooked another 5 or so minutes. It was really good.



This was just the rest of the mushrooms cooked similarly, but with onions instead of shallots, no turnip greens, and some roasted potatoes. The polenta was a better match, even though it was my first attempt.



I had leftover polenta, and after it firmed up in the fridge overnight, I sliced it and sauteed it, then put it on marinara sauce. It looks kind of silly I guess, but it was pretty great.