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.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

With Weetabix and Muesli (Multigrain flakes)

My regular readers know that I don’t eat sweet stuff but my sweetie does so I make it on fairly regular basis. This time there were no cookies left and since we never buy this sort of thing it was time to make some. Well, I had most of the ingredients on hand except one that makes up most of the volume, Weetabix. No problem, I found a bag of Muesli with a statement in huge font saying “Good for you”. I was sold. New recipe was born and after my better half tasted it and pronounced it a winner I modified my original recipe.

In measuring cup you can see the Weetabix on bottom topped with muesli.

Ingredients

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cups firmly packed light brown sugar

2 teaspoons vanillas extract

2 large eggs

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup Weetabix Whole Grain Cereal (4 Biscuits, crushed fine)

2-1/2 cup Muesli

1-1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F
2. Cream together the butter and brown sugar in electric mixer and beat until light and fluffy. 
3. Add the eggs to the butter mixture one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla and mix.
4. Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt in a separate bowl and stir to mix
5. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and stir just until the dry ingredients are moist and blended.  Do not over mix.
6. Mix in crushed Weetabix, chocolate chips and nuts until all ingredients are thoroughly mixed. 
7. Scoop the dough with ¼ cup ice cream scoop or by the heaping tablespoon and drop onto prepared baking sheet covered with baking paper and about 3 inches apart.
8. Bake about 20 minutes, until the cookies are light brown. Start checking without opening oven after about 17 minutes.

Can be made ahead, rolled into a 3” log and refrigerated for up to 3 days. Then just slice with serrated bread knife.

Step 2 and 3.

Ready for step 5.

Step 6.

Step 7.

Well worth it!

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.

Minestra di Pane & Ribollita

Minestra di Pane is a fresh bean and vegetable soup and Ribollita is same soup reheated and slices of bread added. Actually, this is my take on this classical Tuscan peasant soup. Mind you, even in Tuscany they can’t agree what is a true Ribollita but one thing they do have in common is that it is best when reheated. I used whatever root vegetables I had on hand and since I was out of dry navy beans but had one can I run with that. Also, no Italian bread on hand except Ciabatta so decision was made to toast slices and rub both sides with garlic and serve along side instead in soup itself.

Minestra di Pane.

1 leak, light green and white parts, chopped

1 small onion, peeled and chopped

1 stalk celery, chopped

1 small carrot, peeled and chopped

1/4 small Savoy cabbage, chopped

1 Russet or Yukon Gold potato

3 Roma tomatoes or small can chopped tomatoes

1 small parsnip, peeled and chopped

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1 can white beans, drained and liquid reserved

6 cups chicken stock

2 Tbs. olive oil

Sprig of rosemary

In a heavy pan or Dutch oven sauté leak, onions, carrots, celery and parsnip in olive oil till soft but not discolored. Add stock and liquid from beans and simmer for about 15 minutes.

Add cabbage, potatoes, tomatoes and garlic and simmer additional 15 minutes and then add beans and rosemary. Simmer to warm up the beans.  Now it is ready to be served as Minestra di Pane.

To serve as Ribollita add stale rustic Italian bread cut into cubes and place into serving bowls. Pour reheated Minestra di Pane on top and it is ready to serve. You can grate Parmigiano-Reggiano on top if you wish.

Stovetop Rice Pudding

This must be one of the easiest economical desserts that I now make on irregular basis. Anytime I have leftover rice from main meal and I don’t feel like doing a stir fry this recipe comes in handy. And yes, it is one of Marjo’s favorite.

• 2 cups cooked rice
• 2 cups milk, divided
• 2tsp. sugar
• 2/3 cups raisins
• 1/4 teaspoons salt (pinch)
• 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• Dash nutmeg or cinnamon, optional

Soak raisins in 1/2 cup of milk for 1/2 hour before starting to heat up milk.

Combine rice and 1-1/2 cups milk, sugar and salt in heavy saucepan. Mix well with whisk till sugar is dissolved and there are no lumps in the rice. When milk comes to simmer add remaining milk with raisins and bring back to simmer. Cook over low to medium heat for about 10 – 15 minutes. Stir occasionally until thick and creamy. Add vanilla and almond extract into rice mixture. Cook 2 minutes longer, stirring occasionally. Ladle into serving dishes and sprinkle with nutmeg or cinnamon. Can be served warm, room temperature or cold.

Note: I use only 2 tsp. of sugar because golden raisins I am using will give off quite a bit of sweetness to the pudding.

Makes four servings.

Pacific Cod with Rice

With Christmas and New Year behind us it is time to start cooking and eating light. Fish and rice fit the bill very nicely. All I did was steamed the rice in a rice cooker, sautéed the cod in a teaspoon of butter and tablespoon of olive oil. At same time in another frying pan I quickly sautéed julienned red pepper and zucchini and sliced sweet onion. The cod and veggies were done at the same time, about 5 – 7 minutes. I served thinly sliced cucumber in honey and rice vinegar dressing on side. Definitely goes on a repeat list.

Instant or RapidRise™ Yeast

On one of the blogs that I occasionally read had a post about how to prevent RapidRise (Quick-Rise in Canada) yeast from failing. Apparently the author’s last baking venture was a disaster. To remedy future failure author advocated starting the yeast in water. Interesting, except that even “Fleischmann’s”, the largest manufacturer of household instant yeast, doesn’t recommend this practice but instead favors mixing the yeast with the flour and then proceed with the recipe. I have always done it and my dough has never failed to rise. Only concern that baker has is make sure that the water is heated to 120°F to 130°F, yeast dies at 140°F. I go one step farther and preheat bowl where dough will rest. Following photos show how rapid that yeast is. Since we had decided to have a pizza next day I took pictures of my dough. Full recipe is here. More tips from Fleischmann’s.

Fresh out of food processor and 15 second kneading.

In 17 minutes it is almost double in volume already.

In just one hour the dough has more then tripled in volume, as usual.

Check the gas pockets in my dough. This dough is as light as a feather.

Bread Dumplings

Dumplings served with pork roast and sauerkraut.

To Czechs and Slovaks, bread dumpling is what pasta is to Italians and rice to whole Asia. It is almost a daily staple served with any food that has a sauce. Basically, it is just yeast bread with stale bread cubes mixed in. The “bread” in the name refers to these bread cubes. There are two ways to make them light and spongy: yeast and double acting baking powder. Since I have never made them with baking powder I will stick to the more traditional yeast dough.

I should mention that you will need fairly large pot to boil them. I use my deep stainless steel 9”x14” oval roasting pan, just a perfect size to boil 2 dumplings.

You can use regular enameled steel roasting pan, of course. Also, I would recommend to boil only one dumpling at the time since they have to be cut in half as soon as they are removed from the water and pierced with long bamboo skewer to release steam.

3 ½ cups flour - all purpose

sugar (pinch)

1 tsp. salt

1 Tbs. Instant yeast

1-1/2 cup day old bread, cut into 1/2” cubes

1 cup scalded milk (microwave for 1-1/2 min.)

2 beaten eggs

1/2 t. baking powder

1. Microwave milk with pinch of sugar and let cool.

2. Beat eggs and add to cool milk.

3. Mix flour with milk & egg mixture for ½ minute then add yeast.

4. Knead in mixer till sides of bowl are clean.

5. Place on work table and add bread cubes. Knead by hand till smooth and elastic.

6. Divide into two equal parts, roll into an oblong shape and place on large tea towel sprinkled with flour to prevent sticking. Cover with another towel and let raise till double in volume.

7. Lift the dumpling carefully with the bottom tea towel and gently lower into a large pot of boiling salted water. Be careful not to collapse the raised dough.

8. Boil for 13 minutes on one side then turn and boil for additional 10 minutes.

9. Remove from boiling water and immediately cut in half and pierce in several places with skewer to release steam. Place on a baking sheet or plate with cut side down and cover with towel till ready to use. To serve, cut slices about 1/2” thick. The halves of dumplings freeze very well. To use frozen dumplings, just let them thaw, slice and steam for few minutes.

I have roasting rack with wire loop at each end to lower and remove the dumplings. The rack came with the pan so it is a perfect fit.