Wild Mushroom and Leek Soup

Sense of Home

Friday had been a very busy, very long day at work and I looked forward to nothing more than coming home, turning on some music and cooking this wild mushroom and leek soup.  I set my iPod to play Wilco, Good Old War (which reminds me a little of Deaf Cab), and Broken Bells through the stereo, poured myself a glass of Chardonnay and starting cleaning mushrooms.  I photographed the mushrooms before I cleaned them so you can see bits of dirt, to clean them use a damp towel, never rinse them in water.

Shiitake

Baby Bella 

Oyster

Now when it comes to leeks, you want to give them a good rinse in water, separating them as you go, they have a lot of sand between their layers.  This soup was so good, like the perfect comfort food, just what I needed after a long day.  Now I know there are people who do not like mushrooms, but they have never tried this soup, this soup will change their minds.  Some say mushrooms are flavorless, maybe those white mushrooms, but not the wild ones. Some say they don't like the texture of mushrooms, well, the majority of the mushrooms in this soup are blended into broth before the soup is done, so they add to the rich flavor of the broth.  In fact the original recipe said to put the entire soup through the blender, I wanted some chunks, so I took about 2 cups worth of broth, mushrooms and leeks out before I blended the rest, then I put it back before adding the cream.  The diced potato I left in to be blended, it is there to thicken the broth and the flavor it adds is unbelievable.  You must try this soup.

Wild Mushroom and Leek Soup

~adapted from Bon Appetit, September 1985~

Makes about 8 cups

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

1 1/2 cups finely diced leeks, about 3 small, white part only

1 celery stalk, finely diced

1 small baking potato, peeled and finely diced

2 pounds fresh wild mushrooms (such as cepes, chanterelles, shiitake),* sliced

4 cups (or more) chicken stock

1/2 cup dry white wine

1 cup half and half

salt and pepper to taste

4 wild mushrooms, thinly sliced

freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Minced fresh parsley

Melt 6 tablespoons butter in heavy large saucepan over medium-low heat.  Add leeks, celery and potato.  Cover and cook until soft, stirring occasionally, 15 minutes.

Add 2 pounds mushrooms to skillet and cook until softened, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes.  Add 4 cups stock and bring to boil.  Reduce heat and simmer until vegetables are very tender, about 30 minutes.  Reserve 2 cups of stock and mushroom mixture and transfer the rest to a blender (in batches if necessary) or use a hand blender and puree.  Return reserved stock to the pot as well as puree.  Add remaining butter and cream and heat gently until butter melts.  (If thinner consistency is desired, add more stock.)  Season generously with salt and pepper.  Ladle soup into bowls.  Garnish with mushrooms, cheese and parsley.

*If the wild are unavailable, regular white mushrooms can be substituted. 

Sense of Home / Recipes / Soup

Sunday Stills

Chocolate Coeur A La Creme

Sense of Home

This recipe is from a 1984 Bon Appetit magazine and I have been making this dessert since it was first published.  It is the perfect company dessert, it needs to be made ahead to set and that leaves time to focus on the main course and still have a fabulous dessert.  I haven't met anyone who hasn't loved it, and in the words of a 5 year old, "I like that pudding".  The photo above is a little washed out, the sauce will be a darker red and the creme a richer chocolate color.

The combination of cream cheese and whipped cream make this luscious and light.  I have often thought of making this with lemon extract and lemon peel rather than chocolate, but I always succumb to the chocolate.  The dessert can be molded using cheesecloth and a small mold if you like, I have always just served it in a pretty bowl.  The raspberry sauce with Kirsch finishes off this delicately flavored chocolate cream so well; a perfect end to any meal.

Chocolate Coeur A La Creme
~Bon Appetit, February 1984~
6 to 8 servings

2 ounces semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/2 pound cream cheese, room temperature
1 1/4 cups whipping cream
2/3 cup powdered sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla

Raspberry Sauce
Chocolate-dipped Strawberries (optional)

Melt chocolate in top of double boiler over hot (but not simmering) water; cool.  Beat cream cheese with electric mixer until light and fluffy.  Gradually add 1/4 cup cream and beat until smooth.  Mix in sugar, vanilla and chocolate.  Whip remaining 1 cup cream to soft peaks in another bowl.  Gently fold into cream cheese mixture.  Line 4-cup coeur a la creme mold with dampened cheesecloth, extending enough beyond edges to overlap filled mold.  Spoon cheese mixture into mold.  Fold cheesecloth over top.  Place mold on rack set over pan.  Refrigerate 8 hours or overnight.

Just before serving, pull back cheesecloth and invert mold onto platter.  Carefully remove all cheesecloth.  Surround mold with dipped strawberries if using.  Pass Raspberry Sauce separately.

Raspberry Sauce
Makes about 1 cup

1 10-ounce package frozen raspberries, thawed (undrained)
2 tablespoons superfine sugar
1 tablespoon kirsch

Puree raspberries in processor.  Strain through fine sieve, pressing on pulp to extract as much juice as possible.  Stir in superfine sugar and kirsch.


Sense of Home / Recipes / Desserts

A Simple and Healthy Snack

Sense of Home

Friday of last week I had a packet of information that needed to be prepared and delivered to a board member by the end of the day.  I had a choice to make, work through lunch or work into the evening, since I had plans for the evening I decided to work through lunch.  I had a large handful of raw almonds left in a container in my desk and that was lunch.  Yes, just a day after posting about Slow Food I had to eat lunch at my computer.  I sometimes have something in my desk for a break, thus the almonds, but I realized that since I don't always have control over my day and with our library building project heating up, I would need to make sure I kept a healthy snack at my desk, just in case.  I mixed up a trail mix over the weekend for just that purpose, the large jar will stay at home for refilling and snacking there and the pint jar went to work with me.  Let's hope I don't have to make use of it for lunch too often.   

This trail mix started with dehydrating bananas.  They are an excellent source of dietary fiber, vitamin C, potassium, manganese, and vitamin B6.  However, a large portion of their calories comes from sugar, so I wanted plenty of other nuts and seeds to provide protein and other nutrients.  When I dehydrate bananas I simply cut them and place them in the dehydrator.  I do not worry about them turning brown, I have done this for nearly 30 years so the color seems natural to me.  In fact when I see dried bananas in the store their pale yellow color strikes me as unnatural.  I also prefer my banana chips to be on the chewy side, rather than crisp, just something else that I am accustomed to, neither is right or wrong.  Remember when dehydrating to keep the temperature below 115 degrees F. so that nutrients are not lost.

After the bananas were dehydrated I mixed up the trail mix by adding 1 cup measure of whatever I decided I wanted to have in the mix.  I had plenty of raw pumpkin seeds and wanted to take advantage of their nutrition.  They are very good source of manganese, magnesium, and phosphorus and a good source of tryptophan (at work? hmm), iron, copper, vitamin K, zinc, and protein.

I also added one cup of roasted unsalted soybeans, their nutritional value is very impressive.  They are an excellent source of molybdenum and tryptophan (again?), a very good source of manganese and protein, and a good source of iron, omega 3 fatty acids, phosphorus, fiber, vitamin K, magnesium, copper, vitamin B2, and potassium.

I could go on, all the nuts, seeds and dried fruit I added are high in nutrients and together they form a simple and healthy snack, but listing the nutrients of those three is enough to demonstrate that.  If you have family that hesitates to eat these foods try adding some carob, chocolate, or yogurt chips to the mix (and hope they don't just pick those out).

My trail mix will vary from time to time, this time I added:

1 cup raw almonds

1 cup dried strawberries

1 cup flaked unsweetened coconut

1 cup roasted unsalted soybeans

1 cup dried bananas

1 cup dried cranberries

1 cup roasted unsalted sunflower seeds

1 cup raw pumpkin seeds

Sense of Home / Homemade Living / Healthy Living


Nutritional Information taken from The World's Healthiest Foods


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A patient dog and a boy who loves his dog.  

{Taken while visiting friends.}

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Cheese and Shrimp Stuffed Roasted Poblanos

Sense of Home

My sister recently wrote me saying she was making something with poblanos for dinner.  Since then I have had a craving for these mild flavored chilies and when I saw some particularly good looking poblanos (sometimes called pasillas) at the store I snagged a few.  At one of our local Mexican restaurants I like to order chile relleno, mmm, so good.  So I wanted something like that, but not breaded and deep-fried.  This recipe was a little lighter and very tasty. It is mild, so I served it with a very spicy pineapple habanero salsa and refried beans with a handful of frozen cherry tomatoes from last summer's garden thrown in the pot.  I only made 3 stuffed poblanos since there are just two of us, the left-over stuffing mixture was excellent baked on flour tortillas and served with avocado slices.

This recipe begins with charring the poblanos over a gas flame, you can either hold the chile with tongs over the flame or if you become impatient with that like I did, you can rest them on the grates (yes, I know I need to clean my stove top) turning them as they char.

Next they are placed in a paper bag for a few minutes, then peeled, keeping the messy charred pieces in the bag to be tossed into the compost together.  These peppers are perfect for stuffing since they are generally 5 to 6 inches long and have thick walls.  The darker the poblano the richer the flavor, a ripe poblano is red or dark brown and when dried it is called an Ancho Chile, the ripe pepper is sweeter, not spicier.

Cheese and Shrimp Stuffed Roasted Poblanos
~adapted from Bon Appetit, December 2002~
8 servings

8 large poblano chilies (each about 3 ounces)

8 ounces peeled deveined cooked shrimp, coarsely chopped
1 cup packed grated Fontina cheese or Monterey Jack cheese
1/4 cup chopped red or green bell pepper
2 tablespoons chopped shallot
1/2 teaspoon red pepper
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
salt and pepper to taste

Fresh or cooked chunky salsa

Char poblano chilies over gas flame or in a broiler until blackened on all sides.  Enclose in paper bag 10 minutes. Peel chilies.  Using small sharp knife, carefully slit chilies open along one side.  Remove seeds, leaving stems attached.

Mix shrimp and next 5 ingredients in medium bowl.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.  Fill chilies with shrimp mixture, dividing equally.  Pull up sides of chilies to enclose filling.  Place stuffed chilies on baking sheet.  (Can be prepared 1 day ahead.  Cover and refrigerate.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Bake chilies uncovered until heated through and cheese melts, about 15 minutes.

Serve with salsa.

Sense of Home / Recipes / Main Dishes


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Moroccan-Style Chicken and Root Vegetable Stew

Sense of Home

I woke up at 5am on Sunday morning and my first thought was "I want to make a chicken curry stew for dinner".  I tend to wake early, even though I don't get up until around 6am I am often awake at five and once I am awake my mind starts thinking and I just can't go back to sleep.  I had approximately 2 cups of chicken in the freezer that I had picked off the whole birds I roasted here, so I used that, but I will include the chicken in the recipe below as it appeared in the recipe in the magazine.  For whatever reason Sunday I was in the mood for curry and nothing would persuade me.  So chicken curry stew had to be made.  I could have rhymed those two lines, but I'm saving the poem for later in the post.

Curry spice is a mixture of various spices, there are several different kinds of curry powder, I used a sweet curry made from turmeric, coriander, cumin, fenugreek, ginger, nutmeg, fennel, cinnamon, white pepper, cardamom, cloves, black pepper and cayenne pepper.  The first commercial curry powder appeared in 1780, and in 1846 William Makepeace Thackeray wrote "Poem to Curry", he also wrote "The Ballad of Bouillabaisse" but that is a dish...poem for another day.

 "Poem to Curry"

Three pounds of veal my darling girl prepares,

And chops it nicely into little squares;

Five onions next prures the little minx

(The biggest are the best, her Samiwel thinks),

And Epping butter nearly half a pound,

And stews them in a pan until they're brown'd.

What's next my dexterous little girl will do?

She pops the meat into the savoury stew,

With curry-powder table-spoonfuls three,

And milk a pint (the richest that may be),

And, when the dish has stewed for half an hour,

A lemon's ready juice she'll o'er it pour.

Then, bless her!  Then she gives the luscious pot

A very gentle boil - and serves quite hot.

PS - Beef, mutton, rabbit, if you wish,

Lobsters, or prawns, or any kind fish,

Are fit to make a CURRY.  'Tis, when done,

A dish for Emperors to feed upon.


-William Makepeace Thackeray

Moroccan-Style Chicken and Root Vegetable Stew
~adapted from Bon Appetit, January 1998~
Serves 6

1 tablespoon olive oil
12 ounces skinless boneless chicken breast halves, cut into 1-inch pieces

1 1/2 cups chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 cinnamon stick
2 cups 1/2-inch pieces peeled yams
2 cups 1/2-inch pieces peeled parsnips
2 cups 1/2-inch pieces peeled potatoes
1 cup 1/2-inch pieces peeled carrots
2 cups chicken stock
1/4 cup dried currants or raisins
1 cup drained canned diced tomatoes
Chopped fresh cilantro

Heat oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat.  Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper.  Add chicken to pot and saute until light golden but not cooked through, about 1 minute.  Transfer chicken to bowl.

Add onion to pot and saute until golden, about 4 minutes.  Add garlic and stir 1 minute.  Add curry powder, cumin and cinnamon stick and stir 30 seconds.  Add yams, parsnips, potatoes, carrots, stock, and currants.  Cover and simmer until vegetables are tender, about 20 minutes.  Add tomatoes and chicken with any accumulated juices to pot.  Simmer until chicken is cooked through and flavors blend, about 5 minutes longer.  Sprinkle with cilantro and serve.

Also good served over couscous.


Sense of Home Kitchen / Recipes / Stews

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Broccoli Garlic Quiche

Quiche just seems like the perfect weekend food, it is simple, light, nourishing, tastes oh so good, and the left-overs are even better.  With this particular quiche I think I hit upon just the right combination of cheese, it smelled so wonderful while baking and tastes even better, you really must try this recipe.

When I make quiche I always have enough dough left-over for another quiche since the pie crust recipe I use makes enough for two crusts.  I then put the extra crust in the freezer for later, this dough had actually been in the freezer for a few months since I forgot all about it and only discovered it recently while digging through the freezer.  I would recommend only keeping the dough in the freezer for a month, but as it turned out this was not freezer burned and rolled out just fine.

I use dry beans for pie weights, which work very well, however, I would recommend using the foil that the recipe calls for since it makes removing the beans afterward much easier.  I don't know what I was thinking when I just poured these onto the raw dough.  After baking I ended up spooning out the beans because pouring them would have dumped the crust out as well.  It worked out fine in the end, but save yourself the trouble and use the foil, you can always reuse it again later if you are feeling frugal about how much aluminum foil you are using, as I was.  Oh, and yes, I think my new French rolling pin works a hundred times better than my old standard rolling pin.  With this pin I put the pressure where I want it, not on the handles, which I tried to do with my old one, but it just wasn't long enough to get the right results.

The original recipe, from Gourmet magazine, called for cheddar cheese, but I wanted to jazz it up a bit and try some different cheeses.  I think the cheeses I used ended up being the perfect combination of soft easily melted cheese and sharp flavor.

Broccoli Garlic Quiche
~adapted from Gourmet, September 2009~

Serves 6 - 8

1 butter pie crust
10 ounces (1-inch-wide) broccoli florets (with 1 to 2 inches of stem attached)
2 large garlic cloves
6 large eggs
1 1/2 cups half-and-half
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cayenne (red) pepper
1 cup grated Fontina cheese
1 cup grated Sharp Provolone cheese
1/4 cup grated Romano cheese
salt and sweet paprika

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. with rack in the middle.

Roll out dough on a lightly floured rolling pin into a 13-inch round.  Fit dough into pie plate, letting excess hang over edge.  Flute edges of the pie crust.  Prick bottom all over with a fork.  Chill until firm, about 30 minutes.

Line pie shell with foil and fill with pie weights or dry beans.  Bake until pastry is set and edge is pale golden, 20 to 25 minutes.

Carefully remove foil and weights, then bake shell until deep golden all over, approximately 15 minutes.

While shell bakes, steam broccoli until tender, rinse under cold water to stop cooking, pat dry.

Mince and mash garlic to a paste with a generous pinch of salt.

Whisk together garlic paste, eggs, half-and-half, nutmeg, cayenne, and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a large bowl until smooth.

Pour filling into pie shell and add broccoli, then sprinkle with cheeses.  Sprinkle sweet paprika over the top for color.

Bake quiche until custard is just set, 45 to 50 minutes.  (Center will tremble slightly; filling will continue to set as it cools.)  Cool 10 to 15 minutes.

Quiche can be baked 1 day ahead and chilled.  Reheat, uncovered, in a 325 degree F. oven, about 25 minutes.


Sense of Home / Recipes / Eggs




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Slow Food

Sense of Home

With life being so busy, everyone rushing here and there, deadlines, stressful meetings at work, and an overflowing "in box", we need a time during the day that is deliberately slow.  A time when we can slow down and prepare a meal with our hands.  There are so many fast food choices, everything from frozen meals, to drive-thru, to delivery, but what we put in our bodies should not be rushed.  Slow Food USA describes slow food as "an idea, a way of living and a way of eating."  USA Today said "Slow Food aims to be everything fast food is not."  Slow food has made its way into some of the schools improving lunches and establishing school gardens. 

I own and have read "Slow Food Nation" by Carlo Petrini and "The Art of Simple Food" by Alice Waters; I think of these two as pioneers of the slow food movement.  However, this slow way of producing food, by growing our own vegetables and fruits, making our own food from scratch, and sitting down to dinner around a table with our families is really how people have eaten for centuries.  It is only recently that the balance of food and life have gotten so off kilter.  I received a free bumper sticker with a recent Penzys order that simply reads "Love people.  Cook them tasty food."  I like that, I tacked it on the side of my refrigerator with magnets.  Taking the time to prepare a homemade meal is a demonstration of love, even if we are the only one eating.

There needs to be a time during the day when we come together to slowly prepare and eat our food.  We should be sitting around the dinner table enjoying homemade dishes rather than popping something into the microwave and sitting in front of the TV to consume our nourishment.  When we sit at the dinner table to eat, even if we are eating alone, we are consciously eating, we look at our food, taste our food, and are aware of how much we are eating.  We also slow down and thoughtfully eat, being more aware that we are getting full, thus less likely to over eat.

In order to properly digest our food and get the most nutrition out of it we need to eat slowly and chew thoroughly. Something so simple as this can be a challenge when we are rushing out the door to get to work, eating while driving, or at our desk while we type that report.  Eating on the run and then taking an antacid for our upset stomach makes little sense; we need to allow time for our meals.  To carry the slow food over to my work day, I bring left-overs in a bag to work, or I go home and warm them up; taking time out of the middle of the day to sit down, eat and relax, even if it is a brief lunch break.

The deliberately slow attitude can creep into the rest of our life as well.  I began bicycling to work a couple years ago during the warmer months. It is only about 3 miles to work so it isn't a big effort, but slowly peddling to work uses most of my senses, making me more aware of my surroundings.  It was a calming part of my day and I look forward to getting back on the bicycle, and on Wednesdays, stopping at the farmer's market on the way home.

Growing a vegetable garden, gathering wild foods, preserving food in jars during times of bounty helps carry that slow food way of life throughout the year.  These apricot preserves help to make a delicious apricot kefir smoothie.

In what ways are you living a slow food life? 

Sense of Home / Homemade Living / Kitchen and Pantry

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Bran and Fruit Muffins

Sense of Home

For several years I have searched for a really good bran muffin, being disappointed more than satisfied with the results.  First was the bran cereal bran muffins, but I did not want to make my muffins out of processed cereal.  Next there was the bran muffins that tasted more like cupcakes in their fluffy sweetness.  Finally I think I may have found THE bran muffin.  I may play with the recipe a little yet, try honey instead of the brown sugar and try cutting the molasses in half, these were still a little too sweet for me.  I do like the natural ingredients in this recipe though, especially the bran, not bran cereal.

Bran* is a good source of protein, thiamin, riboflavin, and potassium, and a very good source of fiber, niacin, vitamin B6, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, zinc, copper, manganese and selenium.  That is an impressive list of nutrients from one source.

Molasses* itself is no wimp when it comes to nutrients.  It is a good source of vitamin B6 and potassium, and a very good source of iron, calcium, magnesium and manganese.  The down side of molasses is its sugar content, so a little goes a long way.  Which is why I want to cut down on the amount of sugar sources in this recipe.  I don't eat a lot of foods that are heavy on the sugar, I have to eat them in very small amounts or I feel tired and sluggish.  My husband on the other hand has a sweet tooth and the cookies, etc. that I bake satisfy him.

The dried fruit in these muffins is key for me, these provide a natural sweetness so the batter itself does not need to be quite so sweet.  We always buy enough dried fruit in the fall and dehydrate some of our own to take us through the winter and well into spring, when fresh fruit is plentiful again.  I bought a good supply of dates and raisins in October and now we can enjoy them for breakfast in these muffins.

Bran and Fruit Muffins
~adapted from Bon Appetit, 1978~

Makes 1 dozen

1 cup wheat bran
1 cup buttermilk

1 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1/4 cup molasses
1/3 cup raisins
1/3 cup chopped dates

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Line muffin pan with 12 paper baking cups.

Combine bran and buttermilk

Mix together flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Add all at once to bran mixture, stirring just to mix.

Cream butter brown sugar, egg and molasses thoroughly.  Blend into bran mixture.  Stir in raisins and dates.  Fill muffin cups 3/4 full.  Bake 20 to 25 minutes.


Sense of Home / Recipes / Muffins
*Nutritional information taken from Self Nutrition Data.




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