Wild Mushroom Soup

On my twenty-third birthday last year, I received a TON and I really do mean A TON of cookbooks.  In a sense, I'm pretty easy to shop for--I can walk down the food and dining section of Barnes & Noble and find 30 or so specialty cookbooks in a heartbeat.  Too much? What's too much?

This recipe comes from one of those cookbooks--400 Soups by Anne Sheasby--and is easily one of my favorite out of the full 400: Wild Mushroom Soup.  The original calls for a several ounces of shitake mushrooms and soaking them in water; after the soaking process, you drain the mushrooms, roast them, and re-use the shitake water for part of your broth.

Although shitakes are great (they really do add a certain je ne sais quoi to any recipe), you can easily substitute this ingredient withe one cup portobello mushrooms as I have done below.  This recipe is earthy, smooth, and so flavorful that it requires very few seasonings.  Make this during winter (or summer!) for a soup that is clearly delicious.

Wild Mushroom Soup
* 3 cups chopped Bella Mushrooms
* 5 cups beef broth
* 3 cloves garlic, pressed
* 2 leeks, thinly sliced
* 1/2 white onion, chopped
* 2/3 cup heavy cream
* salt and pepper to taste
* 1 teaspoon thyme

1.) First, measure out all of your ingredients--mushrooms, onions, garlic, and leeks.

2.) Then, prep your ingredients--wash and thinly chop the leeks.

3.) Wash portobello mushrooms and thinly slice.

4.) Roughly chop mushrooms.

5.) Chop half of an onion, and peel several cloves of garlic.  Set aside.


6.) Combine olive oil and butter in a large pot and warm.  

7.) Add leeks, onions, and pressed garlic; simmer for 5-7 minutes.

8.) Add mushrooms and allow to simmer for several minutes, or until properly moist.

9.) Add beef broth and bring to a boil.

10.) Turn heat down to medium and allow to simmer in a half covered pot for 30 minutes. Season with salt, pepper, and 1 teaspoon thyme.

11.) After 30 minutes, remove 3/4 of the soup and puree in a food processor or blender.  

12.) Return to mushroom soup pot.

13.) Add 2/3 cup heavy whipping cream and return to a light boil.  Turn off heat.

14.) Serve with fresh thyme sprigs and enjoy!

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Portobello Veggie Burger w/Sprouts & Grey Poupon

I like some weird foods.  I also like really healthy foods.  Liking really healthy foods AND really weird foods make for the strangest--albeit delicious--of combinations.  This recipe is just one of those hybrids--it combines my love for low-calorie lunches with extremely fresh, but healthy veggie ingredients: portobello mushroom caps, sprouts, and black bean veggie burgers.  Soooo clearly delicious.

Yet, what's unique (and somewhat showy) about this recipe is that the oversized portobello mushroom caps are not only one of the main ingredients, but also act as buns to this veggie burger treat.

Portobello Veggie Burger w/Sprouts & Grey Poupon
This recipe originated with an episode of the Biggest Loser with chef Curtis Stone.  Stone created these veggie delights as a way of cutting carbs and replacing their absence with flavorful nutrients.  If the original recipe from Stone is followed exactly (you can find it here), one will only be eating 280 calories per serving! Can you believe that? 280 calories? Good Golly.  You could eat 2 of these and bottom out with the amount of calories in 1 regular meat-lovin' burger.  Seesh.

My recipe is a little different.  Although it does not call for the sauce Stone makes (a delicious creamy chive sauce worth trying with a direct link above), it calls for a more intuitive preparation--make a veggie burger the way you always would make it and replace the buns with portabella mushrooms.  

Ingredients:
* 2 large portobello mushroom caps
* 1 black bean veggie burger (I use Morning Star Farms, but feel free to use Boca Burgers, or other veggie burger)
* 1-2 tablespoons grey poupon
* 1 small handful sprouts
* 1 slice cheddar cheese
* 1 tablespoon olive oil
* salt and pepper to taste

Special Equipment Needed:
Foreman Grill

1.) Begin by preparing the portobello mushroom caps: wash mushrooms, remove stems, and rub with olive oil and fresh pepper and salt to taste.

2.) Grill portobello caps on a Foreman Grill.  Mushrooms will be done when they've flattened in size and released their natural juices--the grilling process forces mushrooms to push their natural moistness to the outside skin.  It's delicious.

3.) Grill second mushroom cap.  Once both mushroom caps are done, add veggie burger to grill and grill.

4.) Now, create the sandwich: add cheese to one mushroom cap (flat side/underside), and spread other mushroom cap with 1-2 tablespoons of Grey Poupon.  Sprinkle with a small handful of sprouts, and press sandwich together.  Makes 1 serving.

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Beef Wellington

A couple of Fridays ago, I got it into my head that I was going to make Beef Wellington.  I didn't really know what Beef Wellington was, but I did know that it had beef in it...and pastry.  So, with fellow foodie Alexander at my side, we made two stops--one to the local grocery where I do all of my shopping, and one to Whole Foods for a beautiful cut of 3.5 lbs of beef tenderloin. What ensued was a a brilliantly flavorful--ableit pricey--dinner of the sweetest, tenderest beef I have ever had with a flaky, light pastry casing.  But before these two essential ingredients come together, you must smother it with a mushroom puree and Dijon mustard, then wrap it in ham and finally, wrap it puff pastry.  The final baked item is juicy, richly flavorful, and clearly delicious.




Beef Wellington
This recipes comes--as usual--by way of Elise Bauer over at Simply Recipes (you can find it here).  Elise's recipe calls for 1lb beef tenderloin whereas the one below calls for 3.5 lbs.  I highly suggest making this dish on a smaller scale the first time you make it--one, so that you don't sabotage a fantastic roast with dreams of grandiosity, and two, because this tenderloin is...well...very pricey. 

Ingredients:
* 3.5 lbs. beef tenderloin
* 2 sheets pre-made puff pastry (Pepperidge Farm has a FANTASTIC box of 2 puff pastry available in your local grocer's freezer section)
* salt and pepper
* Olive oil
* 2.5 lbs. bella mushrooms
* 10-14 slices ham
* 6-8 tablespoons djon mustard
* 2 egg yolks, beaten

SPECIAL EQUIPMENT:
*Meat Thermometer

1.) Preheat oven to 400F.

2.) Heat 1-2 tablespoons of oil in a saucepan and season your filet with salt and pepper to taste (or "generously" as Elise suggests).  Then, sear fillet on all sides in saucepan until browned.  Elise suggests to NOT move the fillet until it has had time to brown on one side.  Remove from pan and allow to cool and chop mushrooms.

3.) Puree chopped mushrooms in a food processor or heavy duty blender.  Heat saucepan on medium-high heat.  Scrape down food processor's pureed mushrooms into saucepan and cook until mushrooms have not only released their moisture/juices, but also cooked away.  Once the moisture has cooked away from the mushrooms, remove pan from heat and allow to cool.

4.) Prepare the first stage of the Beef Wellington wrap.  Layout a large sheet of plastic wrap and cover with ham so that your slices overlap.  Spread mushroom over the ham slices and beef fillet on top of these two layers.  Pause to spread djon mustard fully over the entire fillet.  Then, roll the ham and mushrooms over the fillet and use the plastic wrap layer to tightly seal your rolled ham-mushroom-fillet bundle.  Ensure that your plastic wrap is tight by using rubber bands to secure the ends, and refrigerate for 20 minutes.  Remove puff pastries from the freezer/fridge and allow to defrost for these 20-30 minutes.

5.) On a clean surface, spread open your two sheets of puff pastry in a surface that is large enough to cover your fillet.  If you're cooking a 1 lb fillet, you may only need one sheet of pastry.  However, if you're making 3.5 lbs (like this recipe), you'll need to lay out both sides of pastry side by side and combine the two at their edges.

6.) Unwrap beef fillet and place in the center of your pastry dough.  Beat 2 eggs and use a silicone brush to brush all around the edges of the pastry dough with this egg mixture.  Fold pastry around the beef fillet and cut off excess pastry.  NOTE: Elise notes that pastry that is more than 2 layers thick will not cook all of the way and remain doughy.  Thus, don't go crazy on the pastry here; one layer is enough.

7.) Place on baking sheet and flip pastry covered fillet to SEAM SIDE DOWN.  Brush the top layer with your egg mixture and score incisions into the top of the pastry dough, but do not go all the way through the pastry.

8.) Bake for 25-35 minutes.  Pastry should be golden brown when removed from oven and meat temperature (yes, you should invest in a meat thermometer!) should be 125-130F for medium-rare.

9.) Remove from oven and allow roast to rest for 10 minutes.  Cut into 1 inch slices (I prefer on a diagonal) and enjoy!

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Bella Mushroom Soup, or "Beautiful Mushroom Soup!"

Tonight, I went shopping for soup ingredients--tomato basil soup, wild mushroom soup, you name it! I've been meaning to bring my friend Sam some fresh soup to help with his recovery from having his wisdom teeth removed. Alas, my silly schedule, bad planning, and inability to bring him soup left me with...well, an abundance of soup.

I've had my kitchen cookbook open to a wild mushroom soup recipe for a long time, and finally made it.  I'm so glad I did--not only is the soup creamy, earthy, and flavorful, but it is also really simple and cheap to make (as are many of the recipes on my blog).  It was, well, clearly delicious.

Bella Mushroom Soup
The original of this recipe comes from 400 Soups  by Anne Sheasby (Hermes House, 2008) and is meant to be prepared with wild mushrooms such as Porcinis.  However, Bella Mushrooms work equally as weoo in this beef and cream broth with leeks.
  
Ingredients

* 3 cups chopped Bella Mushrooms
* 5 cups beef broth
* 3 cloves garlic, pressed
* 2 leeks, thinly sliced
* 1/2 white onion, chopped
* 2/3 cup heavy cream
* salt and pepper to taste
* 1 teaspoon thyme

1.) First, prepare all of the ingredients ahead of time--wash all ingredients, chop the mushrooms, thinly slice the leeks, chop half of an onion, and peel several cloves of garlic.  Set aside.

2.) Combine olive oil and butter in a large pot and heat up.  Add leeks, onions, and pressed garlic and simmer for 5-7 minutes.
3.) Add mushrooms and allow to simmer for several minutes, or until properly moist.
4.) Add beef broth and bring to a boil.
5.) Turn heat down to medium and allow to simmer in a half covered pot for 30 minutes. Season with salt, pepper, and 1 teaspoon thyme.
6.) After 30 minutes, remove 3/4 of the soup and puree in a food processor or blender.  Return to mushroom soup pot and add 2/3 cup heavy whipping cream.
7.) Serve with fresh thyme sprigs and enjoy!

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Portabella Mushroom Veggie Burgers

This recipe is by far the most ingenious combination of vegetables with functionality and taste.  A regular 'ole Veggie Burger made new and exciting by the replacement of 2 buns for 2 grilled Portabella Mushroom Caps!! Can you believe it? It seems so obvious--Portabella Mushrooms look exactly like Burger Buns and you just switch the latter for the former.  Why haven't I thought about this before?! It's ingenious and delicious, clearly delicious.

For those of you who think that all mushrooms are the same, or worse, that all mushrooms are the simple white ones we buy in bulk at Walmart or another grocery store, it's pertinent that I tell you they're not.  Rather, mushrooms come in a variety of sporous veggies instead of just the regular white table mushroom.  They can be flavorful, rich, creamy (yes, creamy, like the mighty portabella), or smokey, earthy, and the like (see the rare expensive mushrooms one finds in specialty stores that are not nearly as attractive as a table mushroom.  However, these mushrooms make for excellent soups and flavors in sauces).  Better yet, they can be fungal bodies like the expensive French truffel (retailing anywhere from $80+ individually!). 

This recipe capitalizes on the creamier, highly flavorful portabella that when mixed with a simple veggie burger, some olive oil and thyme can create a serious taste sensation.

Portabella Mushroom Burgers
This recipe originated with an episode of the Biggest Loser with chef Curtis Stone.  Stone created these veggie delights as a way of cutting carbs and replacing their absence with flavorful nutrients.  If the original recipe from Stone is followed exactly (you can find it here), one will only be eating 280 calories per serving! Can you believe that? 280 calories? Good Golly.  You could eat 2 of these and bottom out with the amount of calories in 1 regular meat-lovin' burger.  Seesh.

My recipe is a little different.  Although it does not call for the sauce Stone makes (a delicious creamy chive sauce worth trying with a direct link above), it calls for a more intuitive preparation--make a veggie burger the way you always would make it and replace the buns with portabella mushrooms.  

Burger & Construction Ingredients
* 2 oversized Portabella Mushroom Caps, washed, with stems removed
* 1 tablespoon olive oil
* 1 veggie burger (I use the Morningstar Farms blackbean veggie burger, about 110-130 calories)
* tomatoes, optional
* onions, optional
* red peppers, optional
* spinach, optional
* 1 1/2 teaspoons Thyme
* Salt & pepper, to taste
* Stone's burger sauce, found here

1.) Cook veggie burger over medium heat in skillet (about 2-3 minutes on both sides).
2.) While veggie burger is cooking, wash, remove stems, and baste Portabella Mushroom Caps with the 1 tablespoon of olive oil.  Pepper to taste and grill on an isolated grilling unit.  For example, grill until juicy on a Foreman grill, or over a firey outdoor grill.  You'll know the mushroom is close to being done when it has flattened by about 1/4 and is juicy all over; they may even be mushroom juices to show the caps preparedness.
3.) Remove Portabellas from heat and onto a plate.  Slide the veggie burger in between the two caps much like you would a burger; sprinkle with Thyme.  From here, you can fix the burger exactly as you would any burger.  I prefer a combination of tomatoes, spinach, onions, red peppers etc.; as for sauces, feel free to whip up Stone's burger sauce--a combination of chives and natural yogurt.  Or, a tablespoon or two of mustard does the trick nicely too.  Enjoy!


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Homemade Pizza

I met the most interesting man last Friday night at the end-of-semester-EGSA party--his name is Samuel Welsh, and many people in the LSU music department know him as the very talented pianist Sam.  Well, Sam was interesting to say the least.  Not only did he amuse me with his crazy stories about getting his own doctoral degree in the Music Department, but he also is pretty cool to look at: stylish blonde hair, bad-ass glasses, and these really big muscles.  I like muscles.

Regardless, one conversation led into another conversation and Sam and I realized that we both had brindle dogs! This similarity seemed crazy to me until we realized that they couldn't be more different in breed and size: Sam's dog, Lucy (also known as Ms. Lady, Snarfleton, etc.), is a brindle Boston Terrier of roughly 25 pounds, whereas Eve is a brindle greyhound of about 65.5 pounds.  As an excuse to create a playdate of what would be great doggie-friends, Sam and I scheduled a get together/cooking lesson of sorts where I would teach him to make something he didn't know how to prepare.  Case in point: pizza.  Not just any pizza.  GRILLED pizza.  One of those delicious homemade specialties that make you wonder why you'd ever eat Domino's ever again.


Pizza a la Brigman
The below recipe is one that I have amalgamated over the years--it's a combination of anything I ever liked in other pizza recipes mashed together in a flavorful bash of goodness.  You can easily use a storebought dough here, but that really destroys the point of homemade pizza on the grill.  So, please see the easy and fast pizza dough recipe catalogued by Elise Bauer over at Simply Recipes.  I will try to post my own version of this recipe in the future.  Until then, the below ingredients list is the most specific recommendation I can give you in terms of what to do right here.


* 1/2 Simply Recipe's pizza dough
* flour for rolling
* cornmeal for bottom crust (if cooking in oven)
* about 2-4 tablespoons of olive oil
* salt and pepper, to taste
* 1-2 tablespoons Italian seasoning
* Tony's Cachere's, to tase
* 1/2-1 cup tomato sauce (storebought is fine!)
* 1 cup-2 cups cheese (depending on how cheesy you like your pizza)
* 1/2 bell peppers, chopped (a combination of red, green, etc.)
* 1/4 cup onions, chopped (red or white will do)
* 1/2 cup mushrooms, chopped
* 2 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
* 4-8 anchovies, optional
* pesto, optional

1.) Prepare the dough by sprinkling a work surface with flour.  Divide dough recipe in half and use one half for the dough ball of this pizza.  (NOTE: the other half of the dough ball will keep pretty well in the refridgerator for a few days, but if in doubt, freeze it.  It should keep for up to 2-3 months and still taste fresh.)

2.) Begin rolling dough with an actual rolling pin.  The key to evenly/circular pizza is usually a combination of the rolling pin and one's hands, so make sure you have washed your hands when entering into this process! Also, the rolling pin technique works best for me in the same way you would prepare a pie dough crust: roll forward and back a few times, then flip the dough in another direction, roll forward and back.  Flip and repeat until the dough is properly stretched out and big enough for the recipe (about 12 inches in diameter).

3.) Now's the time to begin the stacking process.  As we add ingredients, you want the pizza to be stacked with different layers of flavor--oils, cheese, seasonings, toppings, sauce--but it's key that you're not too greedy here.  Since this recipe is built for a grill (but can be used on an oven), you'll need to make sure you don't OVERSTACK the dough as many Americans are want to do.  Let's continue....

4.) Poke the circular disc of dough with a fork evenly.  This technique allows the dough to breathe and not get giant bubbles during the cooking process.  Sprinkle 2-4 tablespoons of olive oil over the dough's surface, and smooth with a spoon.  Add tomato sauce and spread with spoon.  Season with Tony's, salt, pepper, italian seasoning, garlic, and several tablespoons of pesto (pesto is optional).

5.) Now, I suggest stacking the pizza in the following order: toppings first, then cheese.  This way, the cheese will melt on top of the topings and you will have a very cool effect: not only will you still be able to see the topings after the cooking process (like any normal pizza), but you will have created a sealant of sorts for structural stability between the cheese and dough.  So, add the the toppings like the ones listed above--mushrooms, peppers, onions, etc., and then the cheese (1-2 cups depending on preference).

6.) Place on heated grill that's been sprayed with non-stick spray.  If your grill has one of those temperature gages, heat up to 350-400F.  Place pizza directly on grill.  Now, this task is much harder than it seems! Since the dough is soft and floppy and now has all of these ingredients waying it down, putting the dough directly on the grill may be a crazy and unstructural process.  Thus, you'll probably need two people (one for each half of the dough.

7.) Once dough is placed on grill, close lid and let cook for 5 minutes.  Check to see if crust is cooked all the way through.  Depending on your grill and the accuracy of the temperature gage, this process can take as little as 5 and as much as 10 minutes.  You'll know the pizza is done when it is one, all melted together and delicious looking, two, the cheese has browned a little bit on top, and three, the crust is a golden brown or cooked thoroughly.

8.) Remove pizza from grill using a metal spatchula and let sit for a few minutes (this process, as many pizza lovers know, allows the pizza to solidify and help the cutting process).  Enjoy!