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
I’ve been eating an awful lot of burgers lately. Not sure why, but I felt like a healthy dinner was in order. My two-year-old son and I decided on a veggie-packed stir fry. Today at the grocery store he helped me pick out many colors of the rainbow: red bell pepper, carrots, broccoli and purple cabbage.
I never use a recipe when I make stir-fry sauce, so all of the following measurements are approximate. Feel free to substitute vegetables of your choice. This recipe seems to have a lot of ingredients, but most of them are staples in my cabinet so it wasn’t an expensive dish. You could also add beef or chicken, I just forgot to thaw out any meat for tonight.
Rainbow Stir Fry with Orange Garlic Sauce
Serves 4
Ingredients:
Coconut oil
1/2 red bell pepper, julienned
1/2 large carrot, julienned
1/2 cup fresh green beans
1 small head of broccoli, cut into small florets
1/4 of a small red cabbage, chopped
4 crimini mushrooms, sliced
1/2 onion, chopped
1 brick of firm tofu, cut into 1-inch cubes
3 green onions, chopped
For the sauce:
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup chicken stock
2 tsp. rice vinegar
1/2 tsp. agave nectar
2 Tbs. orange juice
1 Tbs. chili garlic sauce
1 tsp. powdered or freshly grated ginger
splash of fish sauce
splash of sesame oil
freshly ground pepper
1/2 tsp. corn starch
Directions:
I like to serve this over brown rice. I recommend Alton Brown’s technique, which takes an hour in the oven, so prepare your rice and then start on the stir fry when there’s about 30 minutes remaining.
Whisk together the sauce ingredients and set aside.
In a large frying pan or wok, add two tablespoons of coconut oil and crank up the heat to high. Add the tofu and don’t move it for one minute. This will create a nice brown crust. Gently turn tofu to brown the other sides and set it aside for later.
Add another tablespoon of coconut oil and reheat the pan. Add all of the veggies except the green onions and toss till well coated in the oil. Let the pan heat up again and add 1/4 cup of water or chicken stock. Cover and steam for about 7 minutes, until the broccoli and carrots are just tender.
Pour in the sauce and coat the vegetables evenly. Add the green onions and tofu and gently toss. Serve over brown rice.
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.
Around my birthday last month I went to the garage to find something in the chest freezer only to see it full of Omaha Steak Company boxes. Turns out my mother-in-law sent us five meaty meals to cook up with very little prep. One hunk of meat was corned beef brisket. Mmm…corned beef with mustard and cabbage.
I prefer red cabbage not only for its vibrant color, but it’s packed with tons more vitamin A than green. I once had Thanksgiving with a Hungarian guest. She brought a red cabbage dish that was tangy and sweet. She said it was a traditional recipe in her country.
I never got the recipe, but I decided to use Bon Appétit’s as a guideline. The dish was tender, tangy and sweet, just as I anticipated. The julienned granny smith apple rounds out the flavors. This braised red cabbage went perfectly with our corned beef and mashed potatoes.
Braised Red Cabbage
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 40 minutes
Ingredients:
2 Tbs. olive oil
1/2 head red cabbage, cored and sliced
1/2 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic
3/4 cup chicken broth
1/4 tsp. allspice
2 tsp. sugar
2 Tbs. apple cider vinegar
1 granny smith apple, cut into matchsticks
salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
Heat olive oil over medium-high flame in a large pan. Add the onion and garlic and cook till onions are soft and starting to brown, about 8 minutes. Add the cabbage, salt, pepper, allspice, and sugar and toss to evenly coat with oil. Cook till cabbage is wilted, about 5 minutes. Add the stock, cover and turn down the heat. Simmer for 15 minutes. Add the apples and vinegar, recover and simmer another 15 minutes.
I never thought I’d be a label reader. But then I had a child and started feeding him. I quickly realized there’s a lot of extra stuff in store-bought food. I could be making a lot of that food myself and it would probably be cheaper.
Then again I am pretty lazy. I’ll make homemade marinara every once in a while, but when I’m in a pinch, I just go buy the jarred stuff. If I want the good jarred stuff it usually costs about $4.
Here is where I take a lesson from good ol’ dad. My entire life he has cooked sauce in bulk and freezes jars of it for later. I’ve been saving quite a few pickle and sauce jars so why not give it a try?
It was easy and in the end cost less than half as much as store bought; and it’s probably twice as good.
Here’s what you’ll need:
2 GIANT 106-oz. cans of crushed tomatoes – $2.99 apiece at Costco
25 cloves of garlic, smashed
about 1/3 cup good olive oil
1/4 cup dried basil
2 Tbs. dried oregano
2 Tbs. sugar
8 dried red chilis
salt and pepper to taste
6-7 large 40-oz. jars with lids
Directions:
Heat the olive oil in an extra large stock pot over medium-high. When oil is heated, toss in the garlic and turn heat to medium. Stir frequently and sauté till garlic is golden, about five minutes. Add all the other ingredients and turn heat to high. Cover and bring to a simmer. Turn heat to med-low and simmer for about two hours, stirring every once in a while so sauce doesn’t burn.
Let cool and spoon into jars. Do not fill right to the top because the sauce will expand in the freezer and then you’d have a sauce bomb to clean up later. If sauce is still hot enough, the jars might self seal as once they cool on the counter. Freeze up to six months.
To thaw: Defrost in microwave according to your microwave settings or leave out on the counter during the day. Once it’s slightly thawed and can be loosened into a sauce pot, thaw the rest of the way over medium-low flame.
Alaska Knit Nat 