Well, my goodness but that week went by quickly. Didn’t we just have a Thursday?
And if it is Thursday we are cooking/baking with Ellie Krieger.
This week I needed a quick side. I found some fresh green beans (frozen) from the garden and decided to go with Ellie’s Green Beans with Mushrooms and Shallots.
We love fresh green beans and usually fix them just plain with onions, a few small tomatoes, bacon and maybe a small potato or two. This is much better than that. Pre-cooked Beans added into sliced mushrooms and shallots that have been sauteed in olive oil (I used 1/2 EVOO and 1/2 butter.) Very flavorful and very quick. And they are KETO friendly.
I may cook green beans this way all the time from now on.
The recipe is on page 246 of Ellie’s The Food you Crave. But I also found it on The Food Network
I should really label this as bacon rather than pancetta. But only because I couldn’t find any pancetta. The product shortages are now starting to hit Central Louisiana. Even the basics are starting to come up short. Fortunately, I had all the other ingredients to make Donna Hay’s chicken stew.
The recipe is in several places on the internet so I don’t feel bad sharing it here.
8 bone-in chicken thighs
all-purpose flour for coating ( I did not use the flour as I was trying to make this more KETO friendly)
1 tablespoon olive oil
5 oz pancetta, diced (I had to use bacon, but…)
2 leeks, sliced (make sure you clean them really REALLY well)
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
7 oz button mushrooms, halved
2 1/2 cups chicken stock
1 cup white wine (I only used 1/2 cup)
1/2 cup cream
1 tablespoon chopped flat-leaf parsley
1 tablespoon chopped tarragon (sorry, not a fan)
sea salt and cracked black pepper Flour the chicken, shaking off any excess. Place half of the oil in a large, deep frying pan over medium heat. Brown the chicken; remove and set it aside.
Add the remaining oil and cook the pancetta, leeks, garlic and mushrooms until golden; remove and set aside.
Bring the chicken stock and wine to a simmer in the pan, scraping up anything from the base of the pan. Return the chicken to the pan and cook, covered, for 25 minutes.
Add the pancetta, leek, garlic and mushroom mixture, the cream, parsley, tarragon, salt and pepper. Simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes or until reduced and thickened.
Donna always takes me out of the box with her recipes. I would have loved the pancetta in this because of the flavor it would have added. Next time…
The recipe originally comes from modern classics Book 1. I’ve been cooking from this book since 2013 and there are still plenty of recipes in it I want to try.
If it’s Wednesday then there is a Donna Hay cookbook on my counter. Because on Wednesdays several of us use Donna’s cookbooks for some delicious, healthy food.
This week I chose to make her stir-fried pork and shiitake mushrooms. Glad I did. It was simple and delicious.
I usually have ingredients in my pantry to cook us something with an Asian flair. Mirin, sesame oil, shredded ginger, soy sauce coconut aminos, and dried ‘shrooms are always there.
This dish was simple, even though it has 10 ingredients. Bok choy, pork slices, and garlic were added to the above Asian ingredients. And it was delicious. The shiitake mushrooms added a touch of sweetness as did the mirin.
Since I subbed in coconut aminos for the soy sauce making this dish more KETO friendly but the mirin (14 gm carb and 13 gram sugar/2 tbl) sorta cancelled that out.
Recipe is on page 103 of Donna’s new food fast.
See what the other members made this week.
Kayte
Peggy
Gaye
If you want to join us just cook any recipe from Donna Hay’s books, post it and let us know. We will add you to the list.
This month’s Everyday Dorie recipe is the Mushroom-Bacon Galette. And it was a great choice.
I only made a small one, about 1/2 size. It didn’t last long and it was fantastic. I didn’t know I could make something like that. And I will make it again.
How can you pass up bacon, mixed mushrooms, with white wine, heavy cream and walnuts covered with Parmesan.
The recipe is on page 51 of Dorie Greenspan’s Everyday Dorie.
Wednesday I started the Whole30 Program. My triglycerides were through the roof and I knew I had to do something. I mentioned it to my friend Kayte and she decided to do it with me. Then I mentioned it to another friend, Leslie, and she joined in, too. With the three of us not living anywhere near each other we are not really together but we can keep each other motivated and on the right track.
I didn’t want to not do at least two more recipes from my current cook book for Cookbook Countdown so I am finding recipes that are, or can be, Whole30 compliant. Like this breakfast.
Two Three eggs mixed with 1 tsp chervil curly parsley, 1 tsp tarragon, 1 tsp chives, all fresh and chopped. Dash in a little water. Don’t over beat the eggs.
Make your omelet as you usually would and wrap it around about 1/4 cup – 1/2 cup sliced mushrooms and 1 chopped clove garlic that have been sauteed in about 1/tsp or so of coconut oil. Breakfast is done!
Using the coconut oil instead of butter makes this dish Whole30 compliant. Everything else is already there.
Last night was fajita night. We have enchilada night, taco night – Christmas Eve – Tamale night. And each is only once or twice a year. Not because any of them are hard but because usually we eat Mexican food out.
This is one recipe I have made a couple of times. And it has been good every time.
Originally the fajitas were rather bland but I added some seasoning and they were much better – 2 tsp cumin, 2 tsp chili powder, 2 tsp garlic powder.
1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts , fat trimmed, sliced into 3/8 inch strips.
4 whole wheat tortillas
Marinate the chicken in
3 tbl Low sodium Worcestershire Sauce
1 1/2 Tbl fresh lime or lemon juice
1 Tbl water
1 tsp canola oil
1 medium garlic clove, finely minced
1/2 tsp black pepper
Cut the chicken into strips. Mix the marinade ingredients together in ziploc bag and add the chicken. Make sure the chicken is well coated and chill for 20 minutes. Squish the chicken around about 1/2 way through.
Filling:
1 large onion, 1/8″ slices
1 large green bell pepper {I used yellow, red, and orange} I also used about 1 cup sliced mushrooms
Remove the chicken and discard the marinade. In a large skillet sprayed with veggie oil spray {I used canola} over medium high heat cook the chicken for about 4 minutes stirring periodically. Add the onion and pepper slices and cook 5 minutes. Onions should be slightly browned and chicken done. Stir constantly. Add in the seasonings right before serving.
Place 1/4 of the mixture on each warmed tortilla and roll up jelly-roll style.
240 calories
66 mg cholesterol
3.5 mg fat
The recipe is from Low-Fat, Low-Cholesterol Cookbook (American Heart Association) page 136.
Today, it was FOUL weather. It rained and thundered and the wind blew and it was wonderful! We haven’t had any measurable rain in about two months. It was so dry and brown and ugly outside. Now it’s wet and beautiful again.
But that’s not the FOUL Kayte was thinking about when she came up with this week’s theme – FOWL Weather. And FOWL weather is always welcome. Like this dish.
Chicken Marsala
I have made this before but not a lower calorie version. This one has much less butter but it is just as good. In fact, it was delicious. I could definitely eat this again and again and again. Just as Ellie described it – sauteed chicken in a full-bodied mushroom-wine sauce. I wish I had made more sauce because it was sooooo good. Tons of flavor. Thanks, Ellie, for this one!
The recipe is from Ellie’s Comfort Food Fix (page 167) {You can also find it HERE.}
The other day I visited with Heather. It was her fault that I just sat down because she did just invite me to “Join us, Pull up a Chair“. And since she was my ‘assignment’ for SRC I knew she wouldn’t mind a long visit. Because it was. It took a while to find the recipes I wanted to make. Not because I couldn’t find anything but because I found lots of things to chose from. But I had to narrow it down – a lot – from the 15 recipes I Pinned.
With a maple cream filling. No need to make any changes here. Except when I went to pull out my treasured jug of REAL GOOD Maple syrup, it wasn’t there! Bother! So I added some coconut to the cream filling. Still tasty! The Man ate all of them.
After enjoying a sweet treat we moved on to a tasty supper.
I do love pizza. With lots of cheese. The more melty the better. I don’t love crust, not because I don’t love bread, but I don’t need the carbs. So when I saw Heather’s LOW CARB PIZZA CASSEROLE I knew I had to try it. All the joys of pizza WITHOUT the crust. Altho’ I did kinda miss the crust to sop up the juicy goodness in the bottom. What we have here is mushrooms, Italian seasoning, Mozzarella, and sausage baked in a lovely tomato sauce. The only change I made was to leave off the turkey pepperoni. Not a fan. Definitely a repeat for lunch!
I have two MAJOR fave foods. A good steak. Anything with Shrimp. And I also like easy dishes. This one is basically made in one skillet. Just one. Not lots of pots and pans to clean up with this one. That’s a good thing with these long days and late cooking. So for dinner:
…which is just as good as it sounds. I have two MAJOR fave foods. A good steak. Anything with Shrimp. And I also like easy dishes. This one is basically made in one skillet. Just one. Not lots of pots and pans to clean up with this one. That’s a good thing with these long days and late cooking. The only change I made – instead of just salt and pepper mixed with the sugar to cook the shrimp I added some Creole seasoning to add some heat! YUM!!
Thank goodness for leap year 2016! It means one more day of February and one more day to add another recipe from Perelman’s Smitten Kitchen cookbook. I knew I wanted to make one more dish but I was going to be gone all weekend. As luck would have it I came home a little early and in time to cook again with Deb.
While I was out of town I visited my fave Vietnamese grocery and found a huge, HUGE, bag of fresh oyster mushrooms. I always love browsing in Vinh Phat Market. So many wonderful flavors and spices and noodles and other foods that I cannot find in Podunk, USA.
While I had planned to make the eggplant and three cheese calzone these ‘shrooms swayed me toward the tart instead.
For the crust:
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
¼ cup yellow cornmeal
¼ teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold and cut into ½ inch pieces
1 large egg
For the filling:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 medium shallots, thinly sliced {I used 1/4 of a medium yellow onion.}
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
½ pound cremini mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 pound assorted wild mushrooms (such as shiitake or oyster), torn into small pieces*
1 teaspoon salt, divided
freshly ground pepper, to taste
¼ cup mascarpone cheese, room temperature
¼ cup milk
2 large eggs
½ cup freshly grated Provolone cheese {Gruyere would be good here, too.}
¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Crust: Put the flour, cornmeal and salt to the bowl of a food processor. Add in the butter. Pulse until the butter is the size of tiny peas. Add the egg and process until the dough starts to clump together (it will look like wet sand). Dump the dough onto a floured surface and use your hands to bring it together. Roll out the dough to a 12-inch circle Transfer the dough to a 9-inch tart pan and press the dough against the bottom and sides. Remove the excess dough from the top. Place the tart pan on a baking sheet and put in the freezer until firm, about 30 minutes. By doing this you don’t need to prebake and the crust will not be soggy.
Filling: set a large skillet over medium heat. Add the olive oil and butter. When the butter is melted, add the shallots. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 2 to 3 minutes, until soft. Add in the garlic and thyme and cook for 30 seconds, until fragrant. Increase the heat to medium high and add in the mushrooms (if the mushrooms won’t all fit in your skillet, add as many as you can and as they cook down you’ll be able to add more to the pan). Cook for about 9 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms are tender and the liquid has evaporated. Stir in ½ teaspoon salt and pepper (to taste). Transfer to a plate to cool.
In a medium bowl, add the mascarpone. Slowly pour in the milk and whisk until the mixture is smooth. Whisk in the eggs. Add in the Provolone and Parmesan and remaining ½ teaspoon salt. Add in the cooled mushrooms and mix to combine.
Carefully pour the mixture into the tart shell. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until slightly puffed and lightly golden brown on the top (if you insert the tip of a small knife into the center, it should not release any wet custard). Let the tart cool for at least 10 minutes before removing from the pan to serve. Serve warm or at room temperature. (Better at room temp rather than just out of the oven.)
I made two changes. After coming home from the store I realized I had forgotten the Mascarpone. I didn’t really want to drive to the store again so I found a substitute recipe for it (especially since I only needed 1/4 cup). It worked surprisingly well. I also couldn’t find grated Provolone so I simply lined the tart crust with slices of Provolone. Still lots of flavor in each bite. And there was melted cheese on the bottom.
This was SOOO good. Lots of flavor in the filling. I think when I make it again I will add some Parmesan to the crust as well. Or maybe some Asiago. Or some Romano. The crust was kind of bland. But I liked the extra texture the cornmeal added. I think adding some cheese would simply enhance the flavor of the overall tart. If you love ‘shrooms you really need to make this!
I made the whole amount of the recipe and had enough for the rectangular tart and a 4″ mini.
Thanks to Cook Book Countdown I have made 4 more of Deb’s recipes. Now, about the other 15….
The recipe is from Smitten Kitchen by deb Perelman (page 95). I also found the recipe on line at cook nourish bliss.
We are definitely meat eaters. It is seldom we have meatless meals. Even our soups usually have some kind of meat – beef, venison, chicken, fish.
So I was excited to see Peggy’s choice for this week’s Eating with Ellie – sloppy joes with out the beef.
I liked these but I did’t love them. I think I may have chopped my mushrooms a little too tiny. The flavor was very intense. Chili powder, molasses, cider vinegar, and mustard powder all come together with tomato sauce to give the mushrooms that basic spicy sloppy joes flavor.
I left out the pinto beans Ellie called for because I am just NOT a bean eater. I think some cheese would be good on these.
So much better, though, than the canned. Thanks Peggy. I’ll try these again with bigger pieces.
Tea and Scones 