Mushrooms with Sherry and Thyme

I realize that I claim bests a lot. And that this habit has led to deep philosophical conundrums in the past. But I can't help myself. These right here. These are the best mushrooms ever.

Make them. Eat them. Love them. We'll cross the conundrum bridge when we come to it.

Ingredients
1 tbsp pastured butter
Olive oil
About 10 oz. crimini mushrooms (whole if very small; halved or quartered if larger)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper 
1 small shallot, finely chopped
1 medium to large clove garlic, minced
1/4 tsp finely chopped fresh thyme
1 tsp finely chopped flat leaf parsley
A slosh (about 2 oz.) sherry
Fleur de sel or kosher salt

Heat a wide nonstick pan over medium-high heat (make sure it's wide enough to cook the mushrooms without crowding them, or they won't brown). When hot, melt the butter and add the olive oil. Swirl to coat the bottom of the pan, then toss in the mushrooms. Stir once or twice to coat lightly, then cook until the mushrooms turn golden on the bottoms. Toss or turn with a spatula, then continue cooking until golden again.

When the mushrooms are nicely browned, turn the heat down to medium or just below. Sprinkle the mushrooms with salt and freshly ground pepper, stir, and push to the side of the pan. On the other side, add a bit more olive oil, the shallot, and the garlic. Sauté for a minute or two until they soften slightly, then stir to combine with the mushrooms. Stir in the thyme and parsley, and cook for another minute or two.

Add the sherry, stir, and allow to cook off for about a minute. Serve hot, sprinkle with fleur de sel, and garnish with a sprig of parsley.

Serves 2-3.

Smoked Bacon and Mushroom Risotto

When I was young, my mother informed me that bacon is a vegetable. (So is chocolate.) As a loving and obedient daughter (note that comments from relatives have apparently been disabled on this post; no idea how that happened), I accepted this information without question and defend it to this day. Vociferously. Violently, if necessary.

Seriously, don't test me...I have a fork.

Unlike tomatoes and avocados and other bewildering plant products that vacillate daily between fruit and vegetable allegiances, bacon has always stayed true to its original vegetable classification. Possibly this is because I plug my ears when people talk about it as a (LALALALAICAN'THEARYOUhey can you pass the bacon, please?)

The secret to this most heroic of vegetables is Niman Ranch. Niman Ranch bacon is kind of like other bacon, only approximately six times more bacony and amazing and smoky and delicious. Which means that instead of six strips of bacon in a risotto like this one, you only need two to produce a doubly wonderful, rich, applewood-infused, creamy risotto with deep bacon undertones and silky mushroom overtones and...well, you should really just go make it yourself, and then we can rave about it together.

Ingredients
2 strips Niman Ranch applewood smoked bacon, sliced crosswise
28 oz chicken and/or veggie broth
Olive oil
1 shallot, chopped (about 1/2 cup)
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 clove garlic, smashed
1 tsp chopped fresh thyme
1 rounded cup Arborio rice
Few sloshes sherry
10 oz crimini mushrooms, sliced
5 oz shiitake mushrooms, sliced a bit thicker than the crimini
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup (1-2 oz) grated Parmesan cheese
3 oz baby arugula
1 tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley

Heat a dutch oven over medium heat. Add the bacon and cook about five minutes, stirring occasionally, until it starts to turn golden brown in places. Remove with a slotted spatula onto a plate lined with a paper towel. Use another paper towel to soak up a bit of the extra bacon grease, so that there's about 1-2 tbsp left in the pot.

Add 1 tbsp olive oil and the shallot and saute for a minute, then stir in the garlic, about two-thirds of the thyme, and a pinch of salt and saute for a couple minutes more. Add the rice and stir to coat the grains. After another minute, add a slosh or two of sherry and cook, stirring, until the rice soaks it up.

Begin adding broth by the ladleful, stirring routinely until the excess liquid is gone before adding more and adjusting the heat down a little if necessary (you want a definite simmer when you stop stirring, with small bubbles here and there, rather than a full-on boil).

Meanwhile, heat a wide pan over medium heat. When hot, add a glug of olive oil, then the smashed clove of garlic. Let simmer in the oil for about a minute. Add the mushrooms (you can add half now and half in a minute if the pan's a little too small for all at once) and stir to coat. Saute, stirring occasionally, for a couple minutes until the mushrooms start to brown a little. Add a pinch of salt, the rest of the thyme, and some freshly ground black pepper, and a little more olive oil if the pan has gotten dry. Continue to saute until the mushrooms start to release their juices. Add a slosh of sherry, stir to coat, and turn off the heat.

When the broth is nearly gone and the risotto is al dente, add the Parmesan, arugula, bacon, and mushrooms to the risotto and stir to combine. Turn off the heat, add just a little more broth, and adjust salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot, sprinkled with parsley and garnished with a bit of baby arugula around the sides.

Serves 2-3.

Pappardelle with Mushrooms and Radicchio

I think that sometime in the last few months I may have suggested, somewhere between one and fifty-six times, that there is nothing better than homemade pasta. Correction: There is nothing better than getting home late on a weeknight, wondering what to have for dinner, and taking out the extra pasta you made last weekend for a quick and easy, throw-it-together dinner that tastes like you must have secret Italian house elves working away in your kitchen at all hours. So here is what you should do: Make a double-batch of this recipe on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Cut half the sheets of dough into pappardelle noodles and make the recipe below, but let the other sheets dry for a couple hours (so they're not sticky anymore) before running them through your fettuccine attachment. Carefully lay the noodles in wax paper in a wide tupperware, cover tightly, and stick them in your fridge. Later in the week, you can just drop them in a pot of salted boiling water for two minutes and toss them with some olive oil, garlic, sauteed greens, black pepper, and parmesan.

On Sunday, meanwhile, you have this:

Ingredients
2 servings homemade multigrain pappardelle
2 strips Niman Ranch applewood smoked bacon (or sub pancetta), sliced crosswise into strips
Olive oil
1-2 shallots, quartered and sliced
1 clove garlic, halved and slivered
2 cloves garlic, pressed
1/2 spoonful Aleppo pepper
3 small heads radicchio, bottoms cut off, sliced crosswise into ribbons, rinsed carefully and dried in a salad spinner (about 3 cups)
2-3 sloshes chicken broth
Scant 1/2 lb crimini mushrooms, sliced
Scant 1/2 lb shiitake mushrooms, sliced
Salt and ground black pepper 
Slosh of the red wine you're having with dinner
Small handful flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Bring a large pot of salted water to a rolling boil for the pasta.

Heat a wide saute pan over medium high heat. When hot, add the bacon and cook, stirring, until it begins to brown very lightly. Push to the side of the pan, turn the heat down to medium, and add the shallot and slivered garlic to the other side of the pan. Saute, stirring, until soft, turning the bacon once or twice as well. Mix together, add the pressed garlic and a pinch of salt, and saute for another 30 seconds or so.

Add the radicchio and saute, stirring, for a couple of minutes, then add a couple sloshes of broth, cover, and turn heat down to low. Simmer for five minutes. Uncover, adjust the heat up to medium, and boil off any excess liquid.

Add the mushrooms and drizzle lightly with olive oil, and saute, sprinkling with salt and pepper, for 2-3 minutes. Add a generous slosh of red wine and another slosh of chicken broth, turn the heat down to medium-low, and simmer until liquid is reduced by half, stirring occasionally.

Add the pasta to the pot of boiling water and cook for a few seconds less than two minutes or until al dente.

Meanwhile, add half the parsley and a bit of the parmesan to the sauce, stir once, and turn off the heat.

Drain the pasta, add to the sauce, toss, and serve. Top with grated Parmesan and parsley.

Serves 2-3.

Pasta with Mushrooms, Mustard, and Chard

If I were a swanky recipe book, I would note that the combination of mushroom and shallot in this recipe provides a rich undertone to the interplay of sweet chard and spicy mustard.

If I were me, I'd just focus on typing up this recipe while repeating, under my breath, "you do not need to go make a new batch of this now. You do not need to go make a batch of this now."

At the moment, however, it has been at least 15 minutes since we ate the last bites on our plates. Possibly 16 minutes, even. Maybe we should go make a new batch of this now...

Ingredients
Home made fettuccine noodles for two
Olive oil
1/2 tbsp Pastured butter (optional)
2 garlic cloves, smashed
2 medium shallots, halved and sliced
1/2 lb shiitake mushrooms, sliced
1/2 lb crimini mushrooms, sliced
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Splash sherry
Slosh veggie broth
3-5 leaves rainbow chard, sliced into ribbons, or several handfuls baby chard
3-5 leaves mustard greens, sliced into ribbons, or several handfuls red mustard frisee
Handful flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Shaved goat gouda or other hard goat cheese (optional)

Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil for the pasta.

Heat olive oil and butter in a wide pan with deep sides over medium high heat. When hot, add the garlic and press into the pan. Cook until lightly golden on one side, then push to the side of the pan, flip, and add the shallot. Turn the heat down to medium and saute until the shallot is very soft, adding a pinch of salt if needed to keep it from browning.

Add the mushrooms and toss with the olive oil and shallot to coat. Saute, stirring, for several minutes, adding salt and pepper as the mushrooms cook. (If the mushrooms end up seeming very dry, sprinkle them with a little more olive oil.) When the mushrooms have started to release their juices, add a slosh of sherry and stir until it mostly evaporates.

Fold in any big greens (the sliced chard and/or mustard greens), add a splash of vegetable broth and a little bit more sherry if desired, and cover the pan to let steam. After a minute or two, uncover and stir, then cover again to let simmer until the greens are tender (2-3 more minutes).

At this point, add the fresh pasta to the boiling water and boil for 2 minutes or until al dente.

Meanwhile, add any baby greens (baby chard and/or red mustard frisee) to the mushrooms. Add a little more broth if necessary (you want there to be a little bit of liquid at the bottom, but not so much that it's soupy), cover, and steam for a minute. Turn off the heat.

Reserve 1-2 ladlefuls of pasta water, then drain the pasta into a colander and shake just a couple of times (so the pasta isn't too thoroughly drained). Add to the pasta to the pan with the mushrooms, ladle in a little of the reserved water, and toss with the sauce. Add more pasta water if necessary -- you want the mixture to be very moist but not soupy (the pasta will absorb some water between now and when you get it to the table, and you don't want it to dry out).

Sprinkle in the Parmesan cheese, toss, and serve onto plates. Top with a liberal scattering of parsley and a few shavings of goat gouda. Serve hot.

Serves 3, and pairs well with Syrah or another red with a bit of heft and complexity.

Mushrooms with Sherry

The first thing you need to know about Korbel Champagne Cellars is that their deli, of all things, is phenomenal. It has phenomenal pasta salads, and phenomenal sandwiches, but most of all it has a phenomenal lunchtime experience involving tri-tip, caramelized onions, and gorgonzola inside warm bread that you can devour while seated blissfully on a sunny patio with light filtering down through the trees.

The second thing you should know is that their sherry is good, and that it does happy things to mushrooms.


Ingredients
Olive oil
1 clove garlic, thinly sliced
1/2 lb crimini mushrooms, brushed clean, stemmed, and halved or quartered
(depending on whether they're small or large)
Salt & black pepper
A slosh or two of sherry
1 tbsp finely chopped flat leaf parsley

Heat a glug of olive oil in a nonstick pan over medium heat (make sure the pan is wide enough that the mushrooms won't be crowded -- 11" or so will do). Add the garlic slices and stir, letting them simmer in the oil, for 1-2 minutes (you may want to turn the heat down a little to prevent them from browning). Add the mushrooms, stir a couple times, and turn the heat up to medium-high. Cook, stirring occasionally, and allow to brown on all sides.

When the mushrooms are golden, add a pinch or two of salt and some freshly ground black pepper, and cook for a moment longer.

Add a generous slosh of sherry (enough so that you can see a bit of liquid simmering in the bottom of the pan) and cook, stirring, until it's mostly but not completely evaporated. Stir in the parsley, and serve hot.

Serves 2 as a side dish or appetizer.

Pappardelle with Mushrooms, Sausage, and Greens

Here is what you should do: Make these, and make this sauce, and toss them together, and eat them. This recipe was inspired by a dish at Lucca that I have been slightly obsessed with for the better part of a year. Now I am obsessed with this version as well. Use good quality Italian sausage for this -- there's only a little bit, but it flavors the whole dish, so you probably want something snazzier than a supermarket variety.

We made this using greens from our CSA box, including baby red mustard greens and nettles...which, two stings later (from preparing them, not eating them), I'm not sure I'd exactly actively seek out in the future for cooking myself. If you do use nettles, a pair of powder-free latex gloves is a lovely thing to have on hand...literally. Rinse the nettles, pick the leaves off the stems carefully, and then soak the leaves in slightly warm water for a few minutes. Drain, then cook. Cooking takes the sting out, and they taste wonderful. But this might be an ingredient best enjoyed at a restaurant when someone else is handling the food preparation. (Pizzaiolo, in Oakland, is still one of our favorite pizza places ever, and they will put nettles on your pizza. And you will, in turn, declare your undying love for their pizza oven. Or at least, we did.) You could use baby arugula, spinach, and/or amaranth greens here as well -- pretty much anything that doesn't require a long cooking time.

Ingredients
Multigrain pappardelle or fettuccine
1/3-1/2 pound mild Italian lamb sausage meat (or other sausage)
3/4 cups finely chopped shallot
2 cloves garlic, pressed
Slightly over 3/4 lbs crimini mushrooms, sliced
Slightly over 1/4 lbs shiitake mushrooms, sliced
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp sherry
1/4 cup veggie broth
2-3 handfuls of greens, chopped
2 handfuls flat leaf parsley, chopped
Shaved Parmesan cheese

Bring a pot of salted water to a rolling boil for the pasta.

Heat a bit of olive oil in a wide pan with deep sides over high heat. Add the sausage and brown lightly, breaking into pieces with a spatula. When the pieces are golden brown on one or two sides, push to the side of the pan and turn the heat down to medium. Add the shallot to the opposite side and stir, cooking, for about two more minutes until the shallot is soft. Add the garlic, stir once or twice, wait a moment, then add the mushrooms and mix everything together. Stir and cook, adding a couple pinches of salt and a liberal dousing of black pepper, until the mushrooms begin to soften and release their juices (you may have to sprinkle them with a little olive oil to get them going). Add the sherry, stir, and saute for a moment more. Next, add the greens and veggie broth and saute briefly until they wilt, then stir in most of the parsley (adjust amount to taste) and turn off the heat.

Meanwhile, add the pasta to the boiling pot of water, stir, and cover to bring back to a boil quickly. Boil for about 3 minutes (for pappardelle) or until al dente. Just before you drain it, remove a ladleful of water and reserve for the sauce.

Drain the noodles mostly but not completely, and then pour them into the pan with the sauce. Drizzle with a little olive oil, then toss gently to combine with the mushrooms, adding some extra pasta water if necessary.

Serve hot, with extra parsley and the shaved Parmesan sprinkled over.


Serves 3-4.


Pairs very, very well with Moshin Vineyard's current red blend, which is some sort of delightful Zin-meets-Syrah-with-a-splash-of-Pinot type of affair.

Beluga Lentils with Yellow Squash and Mushrooms

Found in our CSA box this week: Mystery squash, which were small and round and yellow and apparently a type often used in Indian cooking. This dish was not Indianish at all, but the squash were stars nonetheless.






Ingredients
Olive oil
1 yellow onion, halved and thinly sliced
3 + 1 cloves garlic, pressed (divided)
1 spoonful of Aleppo pepper (or a bit of hot pepper, minced)
1 cup beluga lentils, picked through and rinsed
1/2 cup vegetable broth
1 tsp sherry vinegar 
8 unidentified small yellow squash (could use pattypan squash or any summer squash), sliced into thick, half-inch pieces
1/2 lb crimini mushrooms, brushed clean and cut into quarters
1-2 handfuls baby arugula
1 large handful flat-leaf parsley, chopped
Salt and black pepper, to taste

Heat a glug of olive oil over medium-high heat. When hot, add the onion, and saute until reddish brown, turning down the heat a bit if necessary. Remove from pan and place on a paper towel to dry. Quickly add three of the garlic cloves (pressed) and the hot pepper to the pan with a bit more olive oil, stir a couple times, and add the lentils, broth, and 2 cups of water. Cover, bring to a boil, and turn down heat to simmer rapidly for 20-35 minutes or until tender.

Meanwhile, heat a nonstick pan over high heat, add a little olive oil, and lay the squash slices out in a single layer on the bottom of the pan. Cook until browned, shaking the pan from time to time to make sure they're not sticking (if they do, you can add a little more olive oil). Turn the slices over, turn the heat down to medium, and cook until the second side is well-browned and the slices are just tender (you want them to be browned without being at all mushy. If they're browning too quickly, before they've had a chance to cook through, you can either turn the heat down a little or cover the pan for a couple minutes). Remove from pan and set in a bowl near the stove so they stay warm.

Add just a little olive oil to the same pan, adjust heat to high, and add the mushrooms. Saute until browned on all sides, turning down the heat a little if necessary and adding a little more olive oil after they've started to brown, if they look a little dry. (To get your mushrooms to actually brown, make sure not to crowd them too much in the pan -- they should only be a single layer thick -- and don't add salt until after they're done cooking). When they're nicely browned and tender but still firm, push them to the side of the pan, turn the heat down to medium low, add a little olive oil on the empty side, and saute the last pressed clove of garlic in it for a minute or so until it softens. Stir into the mushrooms. Add a bit of the parsley and the arugula, stir once, and turn off the heat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and stir a couple more times as the arugula wilts.

When the lentils are tender, sprinkle in a couple liberal pinches of parsley and turn off the heat. Add the sherry vinegar, and salt and pepper to taste.


Serve in layers: lentils at the bottom, then some caramelized onions, then a layer of squash, then mushrooms, then a few more onions and a sprinkle more parsley if you'd like.


Serves 2.

Beluga Lentils with Mushrooms and Paprika

I came across this recipe and blog today, searching for something (probably lentil recipes, go figure), and thought it looked delicious enough to try. Plus, it calls for cherry tomatoes, and I had a basket sitting on the counter getting perilously close to going all mushy. Plus #2, he uses "glug" as a unit of measurement (as in, "saute with a good glug of olive oil") and I felt instantly that we must be kindred measuring spirits. Or maybe this is more common practice than I thought. But most (pre-blog) recipes I've written down have the words "glug," "handful," "liberal dousing" and "more than you would think" in place of more, um, traditional (read: normal) measurement terms, and given that apparently legitimate people do this too, I am seriously considering dropping all this tablespoon business in favor of my typical haphazard approximations. Feel free to lodge a complaint if you like the safe precision of quarter teaspoons. I get all excited when people leave comments.

Back to lentils: I suspect the original version is delicious, but I didn't have smoked paprika and did have some other things, so an adapted version is below. 

Ingredients
Olive oil*
Small yellow onion, chopped
3-4 cloves garlic, pressed
Scant 2 cups beluga lentils, picked over and rinsed
1 cup organic vegetable broth
Sherry vinegar 
Spanish sweet paprika
Aleppo pepper
Ground cumin
About a pound of mushrooms, half crimini and half shiitake, brushed and halved or quartered (depending on the size)
2-3 large handfuls amaranth greens, coarsely chopped (could substitute 2 handfuls spinach)
Salt & freshly ground black pepper
2/3 basket cherry tomatoes, halved
Basil chiffonade (6-7 leaves, rolled & thinly sliced)

Saute the onions in a pot over medium heat for 2-3 minutes until slightly softened, add garlic, and cook for an addition minute or two. Add the lentils and stir to coat with the onion-garlic mixture, then add the broth and 2 cups water. Cover, bring to a boil, and turn heat down to low. Simmer for 25-30 minutes or until just tender, stirring every ten minutes or so. (If you don't want to stir, add an additional cup of water at the beginning and then drain the lentils after they're done. I don't like having to drain them, so I often use less liquid, but this does mean you have to stir more frequently and it probably takes a little longer to cook.)

Turn off heat and add 1 1/2 tsp sherry vinegar, 1 tsp paprika, a spoonful of Aleppo (or adjust spiciness to taste), and a pinch or two of salt. Liberally dust with cumin, stir, and taste. Adjust seasonings if you'd like it to have more tang or more spice.

Meanwhile, heat a pan over high heat until very hot. Add a generous metric glug of olive oil and let that heat up too, then add the crimini mushrooms. Turn the heat down to medium-high and brown the criminis on each side. When they're about halfway done, add the shiitakes as well (these will cook more quickly). When the mushrooms are browned and just tender, add the amaranth greens and stir-fry for about a minute or until just wilted. Turn off the heat and season with salt and pepper.

In a small bowl, combine the cherry tomatoes, basil, about 2 tsp sherry vinegar, a slosh of good-quality extra virgin olive oil, and some black pepper.

Serve (lentils first, then the mushrooms, with a couple spoonfuls of the tomato-basil mixture on the top).

To round off the meal, add a crusty loaf of fresh bread (get something whole wheat and/or seeded if you want to make a complete protein, and skip the twenty-billion-ingredient variety in favor of something straightforward if you're going the Pollan route) and a glass of Spanish wine (pairs well with a 2007 Juan Gil Jumilla, currently on sale at Costco for a crazy low $11/bottle).

Serves 4, or 2 for dinner with leftovers for lunch the next day.


 *Incidentally, a ridiculous number of major brand olive oils are not actually extra-virgin as claimed...see p. 10 of the report from UC Davis to see whether yours is.