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The pictures are awful, but these oven-roasted mushrooms are amazing!

20 Jan

If I had known how good these mushrooms in garlic were going to turn out, I would have been more careful about the pictures!

Mushy focus!

Mushy focus!

This is a wonderful variation on the classic stove-top champiñones al ajillo or mushrooms in garlic sauce, that is a staple of Spanish tapas places and that I have posted before (with butter  or with olive oil)My friend, Marianne and I made them as sort of an afterthought as we were packing the oven with roasted vegetables for our New Year of Eating Right. Why not throw these in too, since we have some space?

Genius.

Get the crusty bread ready, because you are going to want to mop up every bit of sauce.

Blurry photo, clearly delicious

Blurry photo, clearly delicious

Oven-roasted mushrooms in garlic (Champiñones al ajillo, al horno)

10 oz. button or baby bella mushrooms

2-3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced

1 Tbs extra virgin olive oil

1 Tbs chopped parsley, optional

Salt to taste

Preheat oven to 400°F. Wipe mushrooms clean. Trim off woody stem bits and cut into ¼” slices. Mix mushrooms, garlic , and oil in an ovenproof dish and roast, turning once, for about 30 minutes or until mushrooms are shiny, opaque and dark brown. Sprinkle parsley over, salt to taste and serve with toothpicks as a tapas dish or mix with warm pasta for a light primo piatto (first dish/appetizer).

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Sauteed Onions and Mushrooms II (This time dairy-free)

14 Jan

The last time I posted  Sauteed mushrooms and onions, it was a rich and unctuous burger-topper sauteed in butter that I learned from my friend Marianne – the wife of one male and mother of two more, and so an expert in crowd-pleasing, no-holds-barred burger toppers and other such make-happy-the-hungry-horde type stuff.

Into the frying pan

Into the frying pan

But now it’s January, the birth month of good intentions (and the trail head of the road to hell, but never mind)  and Marianne and I are looking at ourselves and deciding it is time to try slimmer versions of our favorite meals. We’ve been getting together on Sundays and making good, healthy,veggie, low-whatever refrigerator items for the week.

Thus, this new take on sauteed onions and mushrooms. No dairy (Susu, are you listening?) and yet still unctuous and savory (mushrooms tend to do that). Try it on black bean burgers with quinoa or without and feel truly virtuous!

Golden is good, but wait for it...darker is better

Golden is good, but wait for it…darker is better

Sauteed Onions and Mushrooms

2 Tbs extra virgin olive oil

1.5 Cups sliced onion (slice against the stripes)

10 oz. sliced mushrooms (button or baby bella), woody stems trimmed or removed

2 shakes adobo seasoning (or one pinch each of: garlic powder, onion powder, salt. Oregano is optional, and you can add more of any of them to taste)

Heat the olive oil at medium high in a large skillet until loose and fragrant. Add onions and stir to coat. Add mushrooms and stir to coat. Sprinkle with adobo seasoning, lower heat to medium low and cook, stirring occasionally, for about ten minutes, until onions are quite wilted and mushrooms are darkened and soft.

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Leek and Asparagus: A Delightful Accessory for Scrambled Eggs

9 Jan

Today we have a guest post – my friend Ashley who is my accomplice in many of the recipes you see on this blog (most of the beverage recipes, funnily enough).

Served separately from the eggs

Served separately from the eggs

Ashley is from Maryland, which from my perspective is the South, although I suppose you can argue Middle Atlantic (for those of you who are curious where Long Island falls in the regionality game, we are kinda Middle Atlantic and kinda New England, which makes it very challenging to decide which Growing Zone to follow when planting in my garden! I welcome input on that. But let me meander back to Ashley and the South).

Prosecco mimosas are the appropriate accompaniment

Prosecco mimosas are the appropriate accompaniment

Ashley, like so many good Southerners has a terrific fondness for ramps (wild leeks) and anything that resembles them. So when making a breakfast recently, she decided to use the leeks in my fridge to accessorize the scrambled eggs I had on tap. Ashley has an aversion to butter (yeah, crazy, right?) so she used about a tablespoon of olive oil. You could certainly substitute, but I liked them just like this.

Mixed up with the eggs

Mixed up with the eggs

From Ashley:

Here is a very rough write-up of the leek eggs that we ate (and we used to call wild leeks ramps, so there might be other recipes out there that call for ramps instead of leeks…):

Take 1/2 pound leeks (approx. 2 medium) and scrub them to death.  Remove the end green parts.  Because they are so incredibly difficult to clean, you may have to clean them, start to cut them, stop and clean them again.  But in the end the effort is well worth it.

 Trim the ends and cut into small pieces.  Saute until leeks are tender.  While it apparently tastes better with butter, you know my aversion to butter, so this is where I use olive oil.

 Open your friend’s refrigerator and pilfer her leftover roasted asparagus.  How can you let perfectly good asparagus go to waste!?  Cut the asparagus into 1/2 inch pieces.  As the leeks are almost finished cooking, add the asparagus until it heats up.

 Scramble 2 eggs (per person).  Add the warmed leeks and asparagus.

 We didn’t do this, but when I’ve made it before, I’ve added a little parmesan/grana padano cheese and that makes it irresistible!  Thyme is also a nice spice to add to this.  And of course, there’s always sriracha for the bonus kick.

You may also like:

Pan-roasted Tomatoes and Prosecco Mimosas

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Pedro’s Better-Than-Perfect White Rice

3 Jan

Sometimes perfect isn’t good enough. Sometimes, perfect is boring. Sometimes you think you’ve got something down perfectly pat, only to discover that someone else can actually do it better.

Allow to boil, uncovered, until water goes below the surface

Allow to boil, uncovered, until water goes below the surface

Such is the story of this recipe. I have posted my Perfect White Rice in accompaniment with a variety of bean recipes a number of times on this blog. It comes out perfect every time: grains moist but separate, texture cooked through but not mealy.

Light and fluffy white rice

Light and fluffy white rice

But my dad’s rice (which uses exactly the same ingredients, as it happens) is just better. Mine is a great accompaniment. But his? You can eat it right out of the pot with nothing else and find bliss. It’s just white rice, but it has the slightest sheen of oil, a satisfying plumpness, just the right saltiness.

And now, here it is. ¡Buen provecho!

Perfection!

Perfection!

Pedro’s Better-Than-Perfect White Latin Rice

2 Cups water

1 generous Tbs extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp coarse salt

1 Cup medium grain rice (not parboiled), rinsed in a strainer

Bring water, oil, and salt to a boil at high. Add rice. Stir. Return to boil, lower heat to medium high and allow water to boil away until the top is no longer under water and the bubbles come up through holes in the surface. Turn rice over with a spoon bringing the bottom to the top. Cover and cook on low heat for 20 minutes. Serve. Or stand next to the stove and just eat it out of the pot. I’m telling you.

You may also like:

Authentic Puerto Rican Rice and Beans (and shortcuts for effective faking)

Rice and Beans: A Love Story

Chili Con Carne

Five-Minute Black Beans

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Pan-Roasted Tomatoes (a great spread for toast!)

23 Dec

The problem with warehouse shopping places like Costco is that when you are just one and a half people (little man being that half because he only eats half the variety that I do so far) the food comes in packages that are far more than you can consume before it goes off. We just can’t eat that many avocados or tomatoes or asparagus before they start looking nasty, no matter how good the price.

Nice char!

Nice char!

But, I was tempted into sins of excess by a quart of bright orange tomatoes in a plastic shell that reminded me irresistably of Sungolds. Why I was buying tomatoes out of season and out of state is a question you can reasonably ask. I hang my head in locavore-gone-wrong shame and go on with my story. I bought them. I did.

Sauteed leeks

Sauteed leeks

They were delicious, ridiculously sweet and kept me on the salad path for days. That is a path I need to be on. But a week, two weeks later, predictably, the cup that was left had passed its prime and I had a locavore-gone-wrong guilt hangover.

Prosecco mimosas - pink grapefruit and orange juice

Prosecco mimosas – pink grapefruit and orange juice

Solution? Pan-roasting. Our friend, Ashley had stayed over and it was a Saturday, which of course calls for bacon and eggs and Prosecco Mimosas (my new fave is pink grapefruit – 2 parts juice to 1 part prosecco…or 1 parts prosecco to two parts juice…or a glass of prosecco with a splash of juice….)! We added to that a leek saute (that Ashley will have to give me the recipe for; once she started fighting with the leek cleaning process, I backed away and didn’t look again until it was on my plate) and the following recipe that used up the tomatoes in a delicious and satisfying way! So, tomatoes used up, guilt assuaged, breakfast… delish!

 

On toast with basil (what's left in the little pot by the kitchen window)

On toast with basil (what’s left in the little pot by the kitchen window)

Pan-Roasted Tomato Spread

1 tsp olive oil (optional, especially if you have a nonstick pan)

1 Cup grape tomatoes

1 pinch sugar

1 pinch salt

1 tsp fresh basil (optional)

Place all ingredients (except optional basil) in a small skillet. Heat at medium, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes begin to split and char. Remove from heat and spread on toast. Top with basil.

You may also like:

Oven-Roasted Tomatoes with Basil and Garlic

Slow-Roasted Grape Tomatoes

Pasta with Tomatoes, Goat Cheese, Black Olives

 

 

 

 

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Yuca Salad Revisited – You May Never Make Potato Salad Again

5 Dec

There is no better big-dinner, buffet, picnic, or other party dish in my arsenal than Yuca Salad (aka ensalada de yuca, yuca en escabeche). None. I kid you not.

Pimiento-stuffed olives

Pimiento-stuffed olives

It is easy, has big flavor, is unusual, goes with everything, is portable, and very cheap…it is even vegan, but no one has to know until they’ve tried it. I have served it to pretty much everyone I have ever cooked for (and if I haven’t done it for you yet, it is just a matter of time) and gotten rave reviews every time. Continue reading →

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Sauteed Onions and Peppers with Curry (super side dish or turkey burger topper!)

1 Dec
On its own or with rice, these mildly curried vegetables are a worthy side dish!

On its own or with rice, these mildly curried vegetables are a worthy side dish!

The post-Thanksgiving self-flagellation and sporadic attempts to lose five pounds (okay, ten) before Christmas have begun. Continue reading →

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Grilled Butternut Squash

28 Nov

This simple recipe for grilled butternut squash is another Padushi special, straight out of his crumbling crazy-ass diet (for new readers, the crazy-ass diet is some sort of vegan-gone-completely-over-the-edge thing that consists primarily of carrots, beets, and potatoes, and doesn’t let you combine veggies that grow above the ground with veggies that grow below the ground in the same meal. Don’t ask.)

Use the seed well to mix the oil and spice

He is, thankfully, no longer strictly on it anymore, although there are still moments of madness.

Much of what he made for the crazy-ass diet was okay eating. Some of it was just this side of edible. But this recipe, which takes the unusual step of grilling the squash, is really delicious in its own right.

Great grill marks!

It was especially handy during the power outages following Hurricane Sandy, as butternut squash, a native American squash in the Cucurbita family, is in season, doesn’t need refrigeration and the grill runs on propane, independent of nationalgrid and LIPA. We have the power back, but grilled butternut squash is delicious any time! It also has loads of vitamins (especially A) and minerals (like potassium)

Creamy inside, smoky outside!

Grilled Butternut Squash

1 butternut squash

1 tsp olive oil

1 tsp Adobo powder or salty seasoning of your preference (something curried would be nice!)

Heat the grill to high.

Slice squash in half lengthwise and clean out the seeds. Discard seeds or clean, dry and roast for a separate snack.

Pour half the oil and half the seasoning into the bowls of each squash half. Using hands, mix the oil and seasoning, then spread evenly over the entire squash, including skin.

Put on hot grill, skin side first, and close grill. Cook until a fork will easily pierce all the way through (about 30 minutes), turning onto flesh side about halfway through cooking.

You may also like:

Grilled Potato Disks: Like Fries Only Better

Grilled Lamb Chops and Sauteed Calabaza Pumpkin

Grilled Steak and the Secrets of Spice Rub Penetration

Perfect Grilled Fish

Butternut Squash Bisque and Pepitas!

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Curried Cauliflower (Aloo Gobi without the aloo, or is it without the gobi? I forget)

29 Oct

(About to lose power! So let me post this quickly and wish us luck during Hurricane Sandy!)

I saw one of those manager’s specials at the local supermarket recently – a styrofoam and plastic wrap missile loaded with a pound cauliflower florets for about 99 cents, so I grabbed it impulsively, intentionally forgetting that cauliflower is not yet on my son’s List of Acceptable Vegetables. I can easily eat a pound of cauliflower on my own, I thought, if I don’t try to do it all in one day.

Cauliflower in the pot with spices

Then, a day or two later, there was the cauliflower, looking at me rather expectantly, mournfully, accusatory-like from its tightly wrapped package, while I prepared other vegetables from Leandro’s List of Acceptable Vegetables. We know the manager doesn’t put vegetables on special if they are at their peak of freshness, so the cauliflower needed doing before it fell off Natalia’s List of Acceptable Vegetables. Continue reading →

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Roasted Green Beans (Salvaging and Sweetening When Less than Farm Fresh)

27 Sep

We’ve had piles of green beans this season, both from Restoration Farm and from our own little beds. This means that sometimes they stay in the fridge longer than we meant them too.

Then, when the season is over, we’ll probably buy from the supermarket (ssshhhhhh – not particularly seasonally virtuous, but I am working on it) and they won’t have that snappy-sweet farm freshness that we have become used to in late summer. But now I have a new way to make them taste much, much better. Continue reading →

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