Roasted Asparagus and Wild Mushroom Fricassee

I've started reading a new children's novel called "Okay For Now" by Gary D. Schmidt, author of a Newbery Honor for his book "The Wednesday Wars".  You know when you are holding an award winning book, the writing is exceptional and you find you care about the characters and are absorbed in the story.  The descriptive writing in "Okay For Now" has me feeling a little jealous, to be able to paint a picture and hold readers attention is a real gift.  It felt good to be absorbed in a book again.

Naturally all that reading made me hungry, so I went in search of a snack.  Now if you think that this asparagus and mushroom dish was my snack, you would be mistaken, no, I was in the mood for something sweet. Which I found in the form of cake, making me really glad I did all that cooking earlier this year and put some of it in the freezer for later. June is my busiest month at the library with all the summer programs and well-deserved vacations to cover.  Of course, enjoying parsnip spice cake and a good book got me to thinking about another recipe I made recently that I am guilty of not sharing, Roasted Asparagus and Wild Mushroom Fricassee.

When searching through my pantry I found some wild mushrooms that I decided would go well in this fricassee.  Now a fricassee by definition should have a white sauce and most have meat, but this fricassee is a vegetarian version with a lighter sauce.  The original recipe came from an April 2001 Bon Appétit magazine and I made a few changes to suit my pantry.  I used dried wild mushrooms, soaked until reconstituted, rather than fresh, and added a dry red wine. I happened to have some fresh tarragon, a rare event, so I used that and found it to be a perfect match.

~From the Sense of Home Kitchen, adapted from Bon Appétit, April 2001~

Serves 4

1 pound medium asparagus, tough ends trimmed

2 teaspoons olive oil

3 tablespoons butter

1 large shallot, minced

0.5-ounce dried chanterelle mushrooms, reconstituted and sliced, liquid reserved

0.5-ounce dried oyster mushrooms, reconstituted and sliced, liquid reserved

0.5-ounce dried shiitake mushrooms, reconstituted and sliced, liquid reserved

1/2 cup dry red wine

1 teaspoon dried parsley

1 teaspoon minced fresh tarragon

To reconstitute the mushrooms:

Wash the dried mushrooms to remove any grit.  Boil a small-sized pot of water, remove from heat, then soak the dried mushrooms in the water for 20 to 30 minutes as it cools.  Remove mushrooms and reserve liquid, slice.

Roasting the asparagus: 

Preheat oven to 475 degrees Fahrenheit.  Arrange asparagus on rimmed baking sheet.  Drizzle oil over and turn to coat.  Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper.  Roast until just tender, about 10 minutes.

Fricassee:

Meanwhile, melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Add shallot and sauté 1 minute.  Add mushrooms until beginning to brown, about 5 minutes.  Add 1/4 cup reserved mushroom liquid.  Cover; cook until mushrooms are tender, about 3 minutes.  Add wine and dried parsley and cook uncovered until the wine is absorbed, about 2 minutes.  Stir in fresh tarragon.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.  Divide asparagus, top with mushrooms and serve.

Sense of Home Kitchen / Recipes / Side Dishes / Vegetables

Keeping the Grocery Bill Low

My husband and I have some goals for this summer and beyond, more on that in a couple of months.  In order to fulfill these goals we will need to keep expenses down in all areas of life.  We took a serious look at all discretionary spending and have dropped two services that were not necessary.  We are now down to only the very basic of necessities; heat, electricity, phone, water, and the car payment.  We still have Internet service, but we will drop it if we find we need to in order to reach our goals.  We have been working to pay off the car early since we purchased it, but we have stepped up that effort in order to pay it off by the end of the year.

Groceries is one area where we can, and have, cut spending.  I have a very well-stocked pantry and freezer that can sustain us for quite a while yet, that, along with our fresh vegetables and fruit growing in our garden, means we will need to buy very little.  Eating mainly from our stores of food will of course mean our pantry will be depleted and need to be restocked.  I will be working on this all summer long as the garden produces and seasonal foods are abundant and inexpensive.  We are also making the most of the foods that grow abundantly in our area.  I picked rhubarb at my grandmother's house and our house, some I cut up and put in the freezer for use next winter and some was used to make my grandmother's rhubarb cake recipe, some used to make a rhubarb crisp.

It is also asparagus time again in our area and although I have had no time to forage for asparagus, with Grandma's funeral and family gatherings, my friend did go and shared some of the asparagus with us, which we gratefully accepted.  We love asparagus drizzled with olive oil, sprinkled with salt and pepper, and roasted in a 400 degree oven or on the grill.  Sometimes the simplest preparation is the best, really fresh food doesn't need a lot of extra flavors.  In fact, I love to eat the fresh asparagus raw, straight from the jar of water in the refrigerator where they are stored.

We have ordered chickens from three different friends this year.  They will be ready in the fall and with one of the friends we will help butcher, making those birds particularly inexpensive.  One of the friends we have purchased chickens from for several years now allows her birds to be completely free ranged, so they are small and a little tougher, I have found that they are best for making chicken stock, which I will then pressure can.  The other birds will be used for eating.  We will also purchase some beef from my husband's family this fall so that we will go into the winter with a well-stocked freezer and with canning, freezing, and dehydrating produce from our garden, the garden grown at the company where my husband works, and from the gardens of our generous friends and families, we will be well-stocked again soon.

For those items I can not grow or my friends and family do not raise, I watch very closely for sales.  Bananas will sometimes be discounted when they start to brown, I buy these, place them in the refrigerator to slow the ripening, and when I have time I make banana bread.  Yesterday after work I made these three loaves, one for eating, two for the freezer, this time they were made with whole wheat flour and often butter is substituted for the vegetable oil in the recipe.  We rarely go out to eat and rarely eat any prepared purchased food.  It is just too expensive to make these kinds of foods a part of our regular diet, and they are not as nutritious as homemade.  It takes extra time and effort, especially noticed when I am so busy this summer with a full-time job and helping my mother at her health food store, but I believe it is worth it.