Big Breakfast at Night

I have posted similar “All Day Breakfast” before but it is so good that it is worth to post another version.
As I noted before, this meal is a snap to make in restaurant or diner environment with their big steel hot plate and deep fryer always at ready but at home it involves quite a juggle act and few utensils. However, this time I cut it down to just one small sauce pot for canned maple syrup beans even though they could have been heated up in microwave oven and one large (12” flat bottom) non-stick frying pan that comfortably cooked 3 pineapple rings cut in half, 2 thick slices of smoked ham, 3 large cremini mushrooms cut in half and 3 eggs (scrambled). Frozen and seasoned potato quarters were crisped up in toaster oven. From start, including all the prep, to plating in under 30 minutes, a lot faster than my previous version and a definite repeat. That big frying pan was a huge asset and so was the fact that ham, pineapple and mushrooms could be cooked on same heat and at the same time and that the eggs were scrambled just at very end in the same pan. Of course, I had to move the ham, pineapple and mushrooms to one side.

Oven Baked Chicken Thighs and Veggies

Yes, another chicken recipe, but this time using most flavorful part of chicken, the thighs. They take much, much longer to cook then a breast but they are also so much more flavorful.

With the exception of mushrooms and chicken, of course J, all other ingredients that formed the sauce were from my garden: onion, eggplant, red and green peppers, tomatoes and garlic. Prep time is reasonable 20 minutes or so of chopping and slicing. As is the case with all of my recipes amounts given are for 2 people plus good leftovers for next day lunch. I served it with orzo (rice shaped dry pasta) but it can be served with any other dry or even fresh pasta, boiled potatoes, mashed potatoes or rice.

Ingredients

4 chicken thighs (bone in and skin on)

1 Tbs. olive oil
1 Tbs. butter
1/2 medium onion
1 Oriental eggplant or 1/2 regular eggplant
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
2 Roma tomatoes
1 cup sliced cremini or white mushrooms
3 cloves garlic, smashed
2 tsp. olive oil
2 tsp. butter
Salt and pepper
1 tsp. dried basil or 2 tsp. fresh chopped basil

 Preheat oven to 350 °F and place rack in middle.

Generously sprinkle salt and pepper on all sides of chicken thighs and set aside.
Slice or chop onions, eggplant, tomatoes and peppers.
In oven-proof skillet (avoid non-stick pans) heat oil and add butter. When the foam subsides place thighs skin side down and cook until skin starts to brown little bit. Turn the chicken thighs over and cook another 3 minutes. Remove to plate and cover with foil.

In the same skillet, drop in onions and cook until they start to caramelize, scraping the bottom of the pan to loosen any browned bits.

Add eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, garlic and mushrooms and stir to mix all vegetables.
Return the chicken thighs with accumulated juices back into skillet, cover and place in the oven. Check every 15 minutes if there is any juice left. If it looks too dry add white wine or chicken stock.

Meanwhile, cook your side (pasta, rice or potatoes).

After 30 minutes remove the cover from skillet and raise the oven temperature to 400 °F. Add the basil and cook for 10 more minutes or until the chicken skin is gold and crisp.

Serve immediately.

Mushroom and Vegetable Soup with Paprika

This goes under Comfort Food label, for sure. It is so substantial that I serve it with buttered rye bread as a supper. There is a nice mix of textures in this version of mushroom soup.

Yes, it does take some time to prepare because of all that chopping but it can be a lot faster if you have a small food processor or my favorite, the mini chopper. Just never put the machine on run or you will end up with a paste. Short pulses are all one needs.

When it comes to ingredients you can use pretty much any root vegetable that you have in your fridge. Here is what I have used and it tasted great.

Ingredients

1 Tbs. oil

1 Tbs. butter

3 shallots or 1/2 onion, finely chopped

2 cups sliced mushrooms

1 tsp. caraway seeds

1 Tbs. Hungarian paprika

3/4 cup carrots, finely chopped

3/4 cup celeriac, finely chopped

3/4 cup celery, finely chopped

2 Russet potatoes, cut into 1/4” cubes

2 Tbs. flour

6 cups chicken or beef stock, heated

1 bay leaf

1 tsp. marjoram

Salt and pepper to taste

Chopped parsley for garnish

In a heavy bottom pan or Dutch oven heat the oil and butter.

When the foam from butter subsides add shallots and sauté till light gold, about 10 minutes.

Add mushrooms and caraway seeds and cook on medium high heat until mushrooms are lightly caramelised.

Add carrots, celeriac and celery and sauté until vegetables are soft.

Off the heat, sprinkle paprika over mushrooms and shallots and stir till mushrooms are coated with paprika.

Add potatoes and mix with rest of the vegetables.

Return to heat and sprinkle flour on top of potatoes, mushrooms and vegetables and keep stirring until flour is cooked and reached paste consistency. The flour will form lumps with vegetables.

Pour in hot stock and mix until al flour lumps are mixed in and soup feels smooth.

Lower the heat to medium low, bring to simmer and cook for 20 minutes scraping the bottom of pot with wood or bamboo spatula (my choice) to prevent flour from burning.

Remove about 1 cup of mushrooms and vegetables with slotted spoon and set aside.

With an immersion blender finely chop or liquefy (your call) rest of the solids. Put back reserved mushrooms and veggies and bring back to simmer.

Add marjoram and taste for seasoning and adjust if necessary.

Cook for 5 more minutes.  

Serve in a bowls and garnish with parsley.

Serves 4 - 6

Chicken and Mushroom Risotto

Last few days I had craving for nice creamy risotto so I checked my posts to see what kind I cooked last time. I was very surprised that I didn’t post any regular rise risotto recipe, none at all!

Risotto is so versatile. You can prepare it with so many different meats and vegetables and mix them right in risotto at the end of cooking or serve them on top. Since I bought King Oyster Mushrooms and farm fresh chicken breasts I wanted to use these two ingredients as a main topping. I just love these mushrooms for their taste and texture. Also, since I do have saffron on hand at all times, the risotto I have made was classical “Risotto alla Milanese”.

Ingredients

3 tsp. olive oil

3 Tbs. butter

2 1/2 cups fresh mushrooms, sliced

2 skinless chicken breasts

1-1/2 cups Arborio rice

3 shallots

4 garlic cloves, crushed

1/2 cup dry white wine

Pinch of Saffron

4-1/2cups chicken stock (heated)

1/2 cup of freshly grated Parmigiano cheese

2 Tbs. chopped fresh parsley

Oil

Salt & pepper

Directions

Heat 1 tsp. of oil and 1 Tbs. of butter in skillet. Add mushrooms and toss to coat all slices. Cook till mushrooms show nice color (do not move them too much). When done, remove to bowl and keep warm.

Preheat oven or toaster-oven to 375 °F. In the same skillet where you cooked mushrooms, add 1 Tbs. butter and 1 tsp. oil and cook chicken breast for about 3 minutes on each side or until both sides are golden brown. Sprinkle both sides with salt and pepper, place in baking dish (I use steel pie plate) and roast in oven for about 15 minutes or till juices run clear when pierced with sharp pointed knife. Do not overcook! Remove from oven, cover with foil and let the breasts rest but keep warm.

In the same skillet that you cooked mushrooms and chicken, sauté shallots and garlic in remaining butter and oil until shallots are translucent. Add the rice and stir until the rice turns opaque, about two minutes.

Add the wine to the rice and stir frequently until the wine has been absorbed into the rice.

Add 1/2 cup of the heated chicken stock and stir until absorbed. The rice and stock should bubble gently.

Continue to cook the rice, adding chicken stock 1/2 cup at a time and allowing the rice to absorb it before adding the next 1/2 cup. Taste for seasoning and adjust.

Cook rice until al dente, about 25-30 minutes.

With the addition of last batch of stock add the grated parmesan cheese and 2 Tbs. of butter and stir thoroughly.

Remove from heat when the risotto is thick and creamy.

Serve on pre-heated plate or bowl, top with mushrooms and slices of chicken breast and garnish with freshly grated Parmigiano and parsley.  

Serve immediately.

Wonton Soup with Enokitake Mushrooms.

What a great soup this was. This was strictly do-once improvisation driven by available ingredients. I had a Vietnamese Pho stock, I had my own wontons and there was coriander and Enokitake mushrooms that I bought last Sunday on a trip to London (London, Ontario, that is). Since everything was on my mise-en-place table it took just 15 minutes from start to plating. Nothing wrong with this type of “cooking from scratch”, if you ask me. After all, I did make the stock, I did make the dough for wontons and I did make the filling. Not at the same time, but I did make it from scratch.

Oriental Enokitake Soup

After all the thick, seasonal comfort soups that I have prepared lately I just felt for something clear and light. Today we went shopping in Asia Chinese Supermart in London and among other stuff I bought pack of King Oyster mushrooms and 2 bunches of Enokitake mushrooms. The King Oyster has a texture and taste of meat when sautéed in butter till nicely caramelized.

For the soup I used chicken stock that was simmered with 1 clove of crushed garlic and 1” of crushed and julienned ginger and 1 chopped green onion. Just before serving I have added 2 thin slices of caramelized King Oyster mushrooms and about 2 dozens of Enokitake mushrooms. When served I garnished with additional chopped green onions and chopped coriander leaves. The texture of both of these mushrooms is amazing. This will be an excellent soup to finish barbecue meal in summer.

Marsala Veal with Cremini and Oyster Mushrooms

This must be one of the easiest veal dishes I’ve done in a while. Once first two steps are done it is just let it be and leave it alone. Being a braise it is also almost impossible to photograph well. Pictures you see in food magazines are staged with almost raw ingredients whereas I take a shot and then eat the “prop” before it gets cold.

I have to admit that I have improvised a bit as the food was cooking and I will include all steps. By the way, my better half has pronounced it as the best veal she has ever had and I have cooked a few in the last 35 years or so.

I cook for two so all my recipes reflect that in ingredients amounts.

Ingredients:

Veal shoulder blade chop

1 Tbs. olive oil

1/2 onion

Sprig of fresh rosemary or 1 tsp. of dried

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 cup dry Marsala

Chicken stock (to add during braise)

2 cups sliced cremini mushrooms

1 cup oyster mushrooms

1 small carrot, sliced

1 stalk celery, sliced

1 Tbs. cold butter

Salt, pepper

Parsley, chopped

Process:

Coat veal chop in flour and shake off excess.

Heat a heavy bottomed pan large enough to accommodate veal chop on medium high and add olive oil. Place chop in and sear without moving for about 4 – 5 minutes. When golden skin forms turn over and cook another 5 minutes. Remove to plate and cover with foil.

Lower heat and add onions and cook till translucent.

Off the heat pour in Marsala and deglaze all bits stuck to bottom of pan, add rosemary and pepper and return to heat. Reduce Marsala by half.

Return veal to pan with all accumulated juices and add cremini. Make sure that veal is half submerged in liquid at all times. If not, add chicken stock. At this point the meat is not salted.

Meanwhile boil potatoes or noodles for side dish.

Reduce heat to low so that liquids just barely simmer, cover and braise for 1-1/2 hours. Check for liquid level every 20 minutes or so.

Turn chop over and add carrots, celery and oyster mushrooms and salt to taste. Cover and braise another half hour.

Remove chop to plate, debone, cut into serving pieces and keep warm.

To finish, reduce sauce and stir in cold butter cut into 1” pieces.

Serve the veal with sauce on top and with side dish of your choice.

Cream of Mushroom Soup

This is excellent way to serve leftover mushroom soup. Actually, it is so good that it is well worth it to make it from scratch. Since I have already posted recipe for mushroom soup I’ll just describe process of turning it into a cream.

If you are using leftover soup, warm it up in a deeper pot for easier no-mess blending. If you prefer cream of mushroom soup with some texture remove with slotted spoon (wider the slots the better) as much solids as you like and keep warm for serving. With immersion blender liquefy the soup for minute or two. Add cream, again as much as you like but no more then 1:4 ratio of cream/soup. Liquefy for another few minutes till smooth. Return to heat and when warm, serve in preheated bowl. Creamed soups are great with addition of little bit of curry. I use Malaysian (seafood) curry that is perfect match for these soups.

Mushroom Soup

Using Dried, Fresh and Canned Mushrooms

Not much to look at but so good!

I have always made mushroom soup with dried and fresh mushrooms but this time at a whim I added canned mushrooms for their very meaty texture. What a good move! I use can mushrooms on my pizza because fresh ones have a tendency to get leathery. Fresh mushrooms just don’t have the same bite as sliced button mushrooms from can. This change is permanent for my soup. Again, change the amounts to your taste. What follows is just a suggestion.

Ingredients

3 Shallots or 1 small onion, chopped

1 small carrot, chopped

1 stalk celery, chopped

2 cups Cremini or button mushrooms, sliced

1 can mushrooms, chopped

1 or 2 potatoes, chopped

Dried mushrooms

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1/2 tsp dried marjoram

6 cups stock, chicken or beef

Soak dried mushrooms in hot water for at least 30 minutes. When fully reconstituted remove, squeeze and roughly chop. Strain the soaking liquid into another container using coffee filter or pouring it slowly leaving sand behind. Reserve.

Sauté onions and fresh mushrooms for 5 minutes or till soft.

Add dried mushrooms and garlic and sauté for another 3 minutes.

Add potatoes, carrots and celery, sweat for 3 minutes.

Pour in stock and reserved soaking liquid, bring to boil, lower temperature to simmer and cook, covered, for half an hour.

Serve as is or remove about ½ to ¾ solids with slotted spoon or small strainer, reserve and with immersion blender liquefy rest of solids till smooth then put back reserved solids and marjoram, reheat and serve. Of course, you can add 35% cream for a really rich taste and mouth feel if you want. I usually blend the leftover next day with addition of cream and dried potato flakes for cream of mushroom soup.

Note: Since I have picked wild mushrooms with my family since I was 5 years old I used mushrooms that I have picked and dried myself. Other option is to buy Cremini in bulk when they are on special, slice them thin including stems, I use mandolin, and dry them on a large tea towel or newspaper in 1 layer, turning over once a day until dry.

Pork Tenderloin Schnitzel with Potatoes

Another quick, no-pain meal. From prep to plating in under half an hour. For two of us I just peeled and cubed 1 Yukon Gold and 1 sweet potato and started boiling them while I halved Cremini mushrooms and sauté them in a bit of butter. Meanwhile I cut 4 slices from center part of pork tenderloin about 2” thick and pounded them to about 3/8” thickness for quick cooking. They were seasoned on both sides with salt, pepper and “Herbes de Provence”. Then they hit hot frying pan with grape oil, flipped over after 2 minutes and cooked another 2 minutes. Meal ready for plating. I could have done it with rice (more time) or even pasta like orzo, again, longer time to cook. This is very easy and tasty quick meal. It will come very handy on busy days.

Veal Ragout with Mushrooms and Noodles

This is one of my favorite dishes since my childhood in Czech Republic and it is a regional specialty. Just like so many ragouts and stews it is better next day after all flavors have combined. This is my slow cooking, no-worry version.

To serve 4

2 Lb. veal shoulder chops, deboned and cut into 1” cubes

3 cups sliced Cremini or Button mushrooms

1 onion, chopped

3 T. butter

2 T. flour

½ cup veal or chicken stock – mushrooms will release lot of liquid

Salt

Pepper

Preheat oven to 220 °C.

Sprinkle the veal with salt and pepper. Melt butter in dutch oven over medium heat and when the foam subsides, add onions and cook until translucent, 6 – 8 minutes. Stir in the veal cubes till meat changes color, sprinkle with caraway seeds and flour and stir to coat meat evenly. Cover tightly and cook over very low heat for 10 minutes, shaking the pan now and then to prevent sticking.

Stir in stock, add mushrooms and stir till well mixed. Bring to simmer and place on middle rack in preheated oven and braise for 2 hours. This allows for the collagen of the connective tissues to melt into gelatin, while keeping the drying up of the muscle fibers at a minimum. After 2 hours raise temperature to 275°C for another hour. After 3 hours in the oven start checking for doneness  (sharp tip of a knife should go in without resistance). At this time you can start boiling water for noodles.

When meat is done, remove from oven and let rest so that meat will reabsorb some of the juices. Boil noodles, drain, toss in butter and keep warm.

Of course, this ragout can be cooked on a stove top at very low heat but it will have to be stirred every 15 – 20 minutes for 3 hours.

All done! Serve with buttered wide noodles. 

Stir in the veal cubes till meat changes color, sprinkle with caraway seeds and flour and stir to coat meat evenly.

Stir in stock, add mushrooms and stir till well mixed.

3 hours plus later...

All done.

 Note: It is very difficult to photograph and plate stew, any stew. It is not a pretty meal regardless of how great it tastes. I did my best with my $150 Canon point-and-shoot camera. Also, for garnish I used parsley from my garden. I am sad to say that they were the last leaves left. I still have plenty of arugula but no parsley.

Arugula in cold frame.