Tag Archives: mushrooms

appetizers, Cooking, Italian, recipes, side dishes

Perfect stuffed mushrooms

February 12, 2017 alaskaknitnat Leave a comment

The best stuffed mushrooms | a simple recipe from alaskaknitnat.com — Photo Credit: Stacy Spensley Flickr via Compfight cc

Perfect stuffed mushrooms

Ingredients:

1 carton of Costco baby portobello mushrooms
1/2 cup panko flakes
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 of an onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 pound Italian sausage
2 tablespoons parsley, chopped
4 oz. cream cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Remove the stems from the mushrooms. Chop stems finely and mix with the onions. Heat 1 tablespoon butter and 1 tablespoon oil in a sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms and onions until the liquid has been drawn out of the mushrooms and the onions are soft, about 7 minutes. Set aside to cool in a mixing bowl.

In the same pan, add another tablespoon of butter and stir in the panko flakes. Sauté until the flakes are lightly browned, about two minutes. Place flakes in the mixing bowl with mushrooms and onions.

In the same pan add the loose sausage (remove from casings if necessary). Cook until meat is browned, about 7 minutes. Place the meat on a cutting board and chop finely. Add to the mixing bowl.

Toss in the Parmesan, parsley and cream cheese and mix thoroughly (hands are best). Add salt and pepper.

Stuff each mushroom with a heaping amount of filling and place on a baking sheet. Top with more grated Parmesan.

Bake for about 30 minutes or until lightly browned. Serve immediately.

alaska, Cooking, Italian, Pasta, recipes

White vegetarian lasagna with wild porcini

August 18, 2016 alaskaknitnat Leave a comment

This is my favorite time of year in Anchorage. It’s cool, rainy and chock full of mushrooms. It’s a mushroom wonderland out there!

I grew up eating boletus mushrooms and this year they have been abundant. If you’re interested in picking them, check out my handy mushroom guide.

Continue reading White vegetarian lasagna with wild porcini →

alaska

Harvesting Alaska: Morels

May 24, 2015 alaskaknitnat 8 Comments

For my third segment of “Harvesting Anchorage,” I decided to go beyond city limits and venture out to the Kenai Peninsula in search of morel mushrooms.

My family and I have always been avid boletus mushroom hunters, but we’ve never looked for morels. I heard they tend to pop up in areas where there have been forest fires. After last year’s Funny River fire consumed more than 155,000 acres of land, I decided to keep an eye on this area through a secret informant. Ok, I have a friend who lives out there and is also a gatherer like myself. She gave me the news last week that the morels were up so my mom and I set out on a tiny road trip to Soldotna in search of these pristine, delicate, flavorful fungi.

Much like boletes, my friend told us morels tend to grow near birches. We pulled off to the side of Funny River Road and hiked about 1/4 mile into the burned spruce tree forest in search of patches of birch trees.

The hunt wasn’t wildly successful, but I was thrilled even to find a few because these little suckers are hidden! Unlike boletes, which stand prominently and proud, morels look like burnt spruce cones and are about the same color as the earth. I had to get low to the ground to see any at all, but on the plus side, when I found one morel I usually found at least two more in the same area. It truly felt like a treasure hunt.

False morels look really different from the real deal.

We immediately spotted some false morels, which looked completely different from the real things. Most of the real morels were pointy and brown. The false morels looked like misshapen blobs and were much lighter brown, like burnt sienna.

We spent a good three hours yesterday and today hunting. There was competition. Lots of cars were parked along the road and I saw one fellow with a tall laundry basket fashioned into a backpack that was half full. Another man had a full trash bag of morels, so it was obvious there were some experienced hunters among us.

I’m happy with our small haul. I sent my mom home with the majority of our pick because she has the dehydrator. I took home a couple of dozen, cleaned them, sliced them and sautéd them in butter. They had an earthy, mushroomy flavor (surprise!) but an altogether different taste from boletes.

I’ve heard morels grow here in Anchorage and I’m now confident in what they look like so I can add them to my list of foods to search for when I’m out in the woods.

Have you ever picked morels in Anchorage? Tell me about it!

Cooking, Italian, recipes

Mini meatloaves with mushroom marsala sauce

April 16, 2015 alaskaknitnat 1 Comment

Growing up I rarely had the chance to eat classic dinner foods such as tuna noodle casserole and meatloaf. I absolutely love these dishes. My mom started making meatloaf after I had moved out of the house and it quickly became a favorite. I don’t know what magic she puts into her recipe, but I’ll never know because, like me, my mom just throws stuff together and doesn’t keep track. Well, tonight’s meatloaf was worth remembering.

I doubled the recipe so there’s plenty of leftovers for meatloaf sandwiches, which are almost better than fresh-out-of-the-oven.

Mini meatloaf with mushroom marsala sauce

Serves 8

Ingredients:

1 oz. dried porcini mushrooms
1 pound ground pork
1 pound ground beef
1/2 cup chopped pistachios or cashews (optional)
2 egg yolks
2 slices of good white bread
2 Tbs. milk
2 Tbs. tomato paste
1 Tbs. Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbs. soy sauce
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2/3 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
1/4 cup chopped pimiento olives (optional)
2 Tbs. dried parsley
1 Tbs. dried basil
2 tsp. dried oregano
salt and pepper
1/2 cup Italian bread crumbs
2 Tbs. butter
1 Tbs. olive oil

For the sauce:

2 Tbs. tomato paste
1/4 cup Marsala wine
splash of beef broth
up to 1 cup of reserved mushroom liquid (read recipe for details)
2 Tbs. chopped parsley

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Place dried mushrooms in a small bowl with hot water. Cover and let sit for 20 minutes. In another small bowl, tear up the bread and add the milk. Let sit for a minute and mash up with a fork.

In a Kitchen Aid bowl add the meat, nuts, yolks, soaked bread, tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, onion, garlic, cheese, olives, dried herbs, salt and pepper. Finely chop the mushrooms and add them to the mixture, reserving the mushroom liquid for the sauce. Use the paddle attachment on a low setting until well combined.

Pour the bread crumbs on a tray or pie plate. Heat butter and oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Form four small loaves and dredge them in the bread crumbs. Brown the loaves in the pan two at a time.

Place the loaves in a casserole dish. Top each loaf with decorative olives if you’d like them to resemble a 1950s Betty Crocker cookbook.

Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes or until the center of the loaf reads 140 degrees on a meat thermometer. Remove from oven, transfer loaves to a cutting board and let sit, covered, while you make the sauce.

The sauce: Reheat the pan that you used to brown the loaves. Pour any drippings from the casserole dish into the pan. When the pan is hot add the marsala and tomato paste and whisk until everything is well combined. Bring to a simmer and turn down the heat. Add about 1/2 cup of the mushroom liquid and a splash of beef broth. Add more mushroom liquid if it’s too thick. Add parsley just before serving.

Slice loaves into thick slabs. Serve with egg noodles and green beans. Slather with delicious meat sauce.

mini meatloaves with mushroom marsala sauce — Yay, leftovers!

Cooking, Italian, Pasta, recipes

Pasta with Chard & Sausage in Pumpkin Cream Sauce

October 8, 2014 alaskaknitnat Leave a comment

Time to jump on the pumpkin bandwagon. I’ve had a medium baking pumpkin sitting around the house for a couple of weeks and I’ve been putting off cooking with it because I have so little pumpkin-cooking experience.

I was inspired by a recipe from Hezzi-D’s Books and Cooks, but I also had items in the fridge I needed to use up, so I winged it a little. What I came up with was a flavorful casserole that was creamy, cheesy and somewhat healthy too.

You can use canned pumpkin, but I recommend baking your own using this method, as it was super easy and fresh.

Pasta with Chard & Sausage in Pumpkin Cream Sauce

Serves 6-8

Ingredients:

4-5 hot Italian sausages, casings removed

14.5 oz.-box farfalle noodles

10 cremini mushrooms, sliced

1/2 onion, chopped

2 cups chopped Swiss chard

3 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 cup chicken stock

1/2 cup evaporated milk

1.5 cups pumpkin puree

3 Tbs. chopped Italian parsley

salt and pepper to taste

1 tsp. dried oregano

1/2 cup shredded mozzarella

1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Boil noodles till just al dente, drain and set aside. Meanwhile, brown the sausage in a large saute pan, breaking it up as it cooks. Set sausage aside and in the same pan, add the mushrooms, onions, chard, salt and pepper and toss till coated with the sausage grease. Add a small amount of olive oil if needed. Cover and let steam for five minutes. Uncover, stir in the garlic and saute another minute.

Stir in the pumpkin, chicken stock and oregano. Bring to a simmer for a few minutes. Add the evaporated milk, sausage and parsley and bring back to a simmer. If it’s too thick, add more chicken stock.

Place pasta in a large casserole dish and pour sauce over noodles. Sprinkle in half the cheese and mix thoroughly. Top with remaining cheese (and more cheese if you’d like) and bake for 30 minutes or until cheese is bubbling.

Remove from oven and let sit 10 minutes before serving.

This is a wholesome dish the whole family will love!

alaska, Cooking, Italian, Pasta, recipes, salad

Wild Porcini Orzo with Grilled Portobello Caps

June 23, 2014 alaskaknitnat Leave a comment

Last year we picked hundreds of pounds of boletes — wild porcini mushrooms. We dried them and have since not consumed many of them; so before we hit mushroom season this summer we decided we better start using these earthy, flavorful morsels.

Wild mushrooms pair well with risotto. I had a half box of Barilla Orzo pasta, which look like grains of rice. I thought the orzo would taste super with portobello and porcini with a hint of lemon and garlic.

Costco sells a four pack of portobello caps for just a few dollars. I lightly marinated them in oil and vinegar then grilled them over high heat and topped them with roasted bell peppers and chèvre. The fresh arugula salad was the perfect accompaniment to the meal with a simple lemon vinaigrette.

This is a quick meal that’s hearty and vegetarian too.

Wild Porcini Orzo with Grilled Portobello Caps and Baby Arugula Salad

Serves 3

Ingredients:

4 portobello caps

1 oz. dried porcini mushrooms

4 Tbs. butter

Olive oil

2 Tbs. apple cider vinegar

1 Tbs. balsamic vinegar

1 cup dry orzo pasta

2 cloves garlic

zest and juice of one lemon

1/4 cup Pecorino Romano cheese

1/4 cup crumbled chèvre

3 mini bell peppers

salt and pepper

Directions:

Bring a cup of water to boil. Pour over the dried mushrooms and cover. Set aside for 15 minutes. Remove the stems from portobello caps and set aside. Remove the gills with a spoon. Lightly score the tops of three of the caps with a paring knife. Reserve one cap for the orzo. Combine 1/3 cup olive oil, the vinegars, one minced clove of garlic salt and pepper to a one-gallon ziploc bag. Carefully add the caps, seal and gently toss to coat the caps. Let sit 30 minutes to an hour.

Chop the stems and one portobello cap. Remove the porcini mushrooms and reserve the liquid. Chop the porcini. Set aside.

Bring a pot of water to boil and cook the orzo for 7 minutes. Drain and set aside. Lightly toss with olive oil so they don’t stick together. Meanwhile, heat the butter and one tablespoon olive oil in a large sauté pan. Add the chopped mushrooms and cook for about 5 minutes until some of the liquid has evaporated from them. Add the lemon zest and one minced clove of garlic. Cook for another couple of minutes, till garlic is fragrant. Add the orzo, 1/4 cup of reserved mushroom liquid and the juice of 1/2 lemon. Toss thoroughly and season with salt and pepper.

Set all burners on your gas grill to high and heat for 15 minutes. Chop the tops off the bell peppers and remove the seeds. Skewer them on a metal skewer. Turn grill burners to med-high and set the peppers and the mushroom caps, top side down, on the grill. Cover and grill for about 4 minutes. Flip and grill another 4 minutes. Remove everything from grill and slice the peppers. Serve the caps with sliced peppers and crumbled chèvre alongside the orzo, sprinkled with grated Pecorino Romano cheese.

For the salad: Top baby arugula with sliced cherry tomatoes, blueberries and crumbed chèvre. Squeeze fresh lemon on top and drizzle on extra virgin olive oil. Season with salt and pepper.

Cooking, recipes

Chicken with Sherry Mushroom Sauce & Baconated Collard Greens

November 27, 2013 alaskaknitnat Leave a comment

Being a working mom can often leave me beat at the end of the day. I always try and throw something together, but once in a while it’s nice to make something fancy.

The dish I made tonight was again inspired by an NPR show. Today on Fresh Air the chefs from America’s Test Kitchen were talking turkey and mentioned a collard greens side dish that sounded pretty tasty. I wasn’t able to find the recipe on Fresh Air’s website, so I winged it.

I’m not too familiar with cooking collards, but what I came up with was bright, slightly smoky and delicious.

The chicken, coincidentally enough, was inspired by an America’s Test Kitchen recipe for chicken piccata. This was healthy meal and was enjoyed by all (even our son liked the collards!)

Serves 3, prep/cooking time: 45 mins.

Ingredients for the chicken:

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Olive oil

2 tsp. soy sauce

3 Tbs. apple cider vinegar

5 cloves garlic, chopped

1 tsp. Dijon mustard

salt and pepper

flour

butter

1/2 medium onion, finely chopped

2 cups chopped fresh mushrooms (such as button, crimini and baby portobello)

1/4 cup sherry or white wine

3/4 cup chicken stock

2 Tbs. fresh parsley, chopped

1 tbs. capers (optional)

squeeze of lemon

Ingredients for the collards:

1 bunch collard greens

3 slices bacon, chopped

1/2 medium onion, finely chopped

1 cup chicken stock

2 tsp. apple cider vinegar

salt and pepper

Directions:

With a fork, stab the chicken all over. Place in a large Ziploc bag with 3 Tbs. olive oil, the soy sauce, vinegar, mustard, 3 cloves of garlic, salt and pepper. Marinate chicken in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, rinse the collards and remove the stalks. Roughly chop the collards. In a dutch oven, brown the bacon and set aside. Add 1 Tbs. olive oil and sauté the onions till soft, about 5 minutes. Add the collards and stir till they are wilted, about 3 minutes. Add the chicken stock, cover and let steam for 30 minutes, adding more stock if needed. There should be very little liquid in the pot toward the end, so partially cover and let liquid evaporate if needs be.

While the collards cook, pat dry the chicken and dredge in flour.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Heat a large oven-safe skillet over medium-high heat. Add 1 Tbs. butter and 1 Tbs. olive oil. When pan is hot, add the chicken and brown on both sides, about 5 minutes per side. Set chicken aside.

Add the mushrooms and onions and sauté till onions are soft. Add 2 cloves of garlic and cook for one minute. Stir in 2 Tbs. flour and cook for another minute. Pour in the sherry and stock and bring to a simmer, scraping up all the yummy burnt bits from the bottom of the pan.

When the sauce has thickened, place the chicken back in the pan. Cover the pan and place it in the oven. Bake for 20 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.

Set the chicken on your serving plates and add parsley and capers to the sauce in the pan. Stir and spoon over the chicken. Add a fresh squeeze of lemon juice to each plate.

To finish the collards, stir in the bacon bits and vinegar. Add salt and vinegar to taste.

Serve with brown rice or farro.