Recession Specials

When times get tough, the tough get cheap:

Fettucine with roasted mushrooms, pine nuts and herbs

wild mushrooms, sliced
salt
pepper
olive oil
2 T. pine nuts, toasted
handful of parsley or other herb, chopped
pinch of red pepper flakes
lemon juice, to taste
cooked pasta
pecorino or P-R cheese (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 F. Combine mushrooms with salt, pepper and olive oil. Roast for 25 to 30 minutes or until mushrooms have caramelized. When mushrooms are done, add herbs, red pepper flakes and lemon juice. Toss together with pasta and serve.

Swiss chard, kielbasa and bean soup

3 T. olive oil
1 lb. kielbasa or other smoked sausage, sliced
1 onion, diced
2 carrots, diced
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1 lb. Swiss chard or other greens, stems removed and reserved, greens coarsely chopped
3 potatoes, peeled and diced
1 to 1 1/2 cups cooked beans (canned is fine if you don’t want to bother with dried)
5 to 7 cups bean cooking liquid, water or stock
salt, to taste
pepper, to taste

In a large soup pot, heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium heat. Brown the kielbasa, stirring often, for 5 minutes. Remove from the pot. Pour off excess fat. Add remaining oil, along with the onion, carrots and garlic. Saute for 8 minutes, stirring often.

Add chard stems, potatoes, water or stock or bean cooking liquid, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil.

Add beans. Cover the pot and simmer over low heat for one hour.

Add greens and kielbasa. Stir. Simmer for an additional fifteen minutes. Check seasoning and serve immediately.

Congee

The usual recipe — 1 cup rice, 9 cups Chinese chicken stock (basically the stock I used from making Hainanese chicken rice last year*), 3 eggs lightly beaten, some sliced ginger and a dash of white pepper. Garnishes include chopped scallions, chili paste, shredded ginger, sesame oil, mushroom soy and white pepper.

*I had frozen a couple of quarts of chicken stock from that batch and used the last of it tonight.

Easy Peasy

Pan-seared tilapia
Gnocchi with brown butter and sage
Roasted carrots with allspice and lemon

If I told you how easy this dinner was and how many ingredients it involved, you probably wouldn’t believe me.

Go on…take a guess.

Risotto from Start to Finish

Wild mushroom and smoked bacon risotto

Mushroom stock ingredients

1/2 ounce dried porcini mushrooms, roughly 1/2 cup
2 T. olive oil
1/2 large onion, chopped
1 carrot, peeled and diced
2 celery ribs, diced
4 to 8 ounces white mushrooms, sliced
1 leek, sliced (green and white parts)
2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
parsley stalks
sage leaves
2 bay leaves
a generous pinch of salt
6 cups water

Risotto ingredients

1/2 cup smoked bacon, diced (1)
1/2 large onion, chopped
2 T. olive oil
1 cup wild mushrooms, sliced (2)
1/2 oz. dried porcini mushrooms, soaked in 1 cup warm water
1 cup Arborio rice
5 cups mushroom stock (3)
1 cup white wine (4)
2 T. unsalted butter
pinch of salt
cracked black pepper, to taste
chopped parsley
freshly grated Parmesan cheese

For the mushroom stock:

Shake the dried mushrooms in a sieve to loosen any dirt. Heat oil in a soup pot, add the onion, carrots and celery and saute over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally until the onion is well-browned, about 15 minutes.

Scrape the bottom of the pan to loosen any juices or browned bits, then add the dried mushrooms and soaking liquid, the remaining ingredients and 6 cups water. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer, partially covered for 45 minutes to one hour. Strain and set aside. Can be made one day in advance.

For the risotto:

Have the stock on a low simmer prior to beginning the risotto. Strain the reconstituted porcini; add the mushroom soaking liquid to the stock.

Saute onion and bacon in a large sauce pot, along with a little olive oil. Cook for 5 to 8 minutes or until onion is translucent and bacon is partially browned.

Add the rice and mushrooms to the bacon mixture. Stir around for a minute or so to coat the grains with the bacon drippings. (Never rinse the rice or you’ll lose the starch that’s essential to the dish.) Pour in the wine and simmer until the liquid has been absorbed, about 1 to 2 minutes. Add the porcini and stir to incorporate.

Add the stock, a ladleful at a time, stirring constantly until each addition has been absorbed before adding the next. When the rice tastes done, add the butter and a handful of chopped parsley. The risotto should have the consistency of thick oatmeal. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

Serve immediately, passing grated cheese and parsley at the table. This recipe makes roughly four to five servings.

Notes:

1. I used smoked bacon ends from Flying Pigs Farm in upstate New York, but you can substitute regular bacon, smoked pork sausage, kielbasa or even ham. Remember to adjust any salt that you add towards the end.

2. I used oyster mushrooms, crimini and regular white mushrooms from the supermarket. Feel free to substitute anything from shiitakes to portobello or morels.

3. If you don’t feel like making mushroom stock, you can substitute chicken stock but the flavor profile will be different.

4. Any regular white wine will do from a purchase at Trader Joe’s to a $15 bottle at your local wine shop. For tonight’s dinner I used some leftover pinot gris that I had picked up last week. A rule I usually follow (and this is especially true of stuff like risotto) is “if you wouldn’t drink it, then don’t cook with it”. Why? Because the end product will be greatly affected by what you put in.

Breakfast in Four Pictures

Beer

Can you identify the beers pictured below? No cheating or googling allowed. Sorry for the blurry pictures…on the other hand, maybe it’s a good thing they’re not clear.

Updates from the Shire

Chuck: He’s decided that we were moving too fast (even for a preliminary meeting that really didn’t go anywhere, even with sex), and that perhaps focusing on his job and coursework for his master’s would be a better proposition. I’m not sure why. I think we decided to just remain acquaintances, though there’s the potential for friendship.

If there’s a silver lining, it must be that I’ve awakened from my years’ long stupor at not looking for anyone. I’ve been single for so long that meeting people has been a jolt to my system.

David: Thanks love, but it hasn’t gone anywhere. Oh well.

James: A food mill is an idea but one thing I’m probably going to get in the near future is an immersion blender. Something happened as I was taking the blender apart. It seems there’s a crack in the plastic base. I’m not sure how that happened. I used to own a Braun that lasted me several years until I had the misfortune to leave it in an apartment share in the Upper West Side.

Carie: Thanks for the well-wishes. *hug*