Thanksgiving Side Dish – Wine and Thyme Mushrooms

I’ve been making this recipe for years. I absolutely love it! I first saw this on Micheal Chiarello’s ‘Easy Entertaining’ and have been making different versions since. The wine makes all the difference here, so don’t leave it out.

Ingredients

Button Mushrooms – 2 packets
Garlic – 1 tbsp, minced
Fresh Thyme – 4 sprigs
White Wine – couple of splashes
Olive oil – 1 tbsp
Butter – 1 tbsp
Salt
Pepper

Heat the olive oil and butter in a large flat non stick pan. Arrange the mushrooms in the pan, cap side down. Cook on medium-high till the mushrooms caps are golden, about 5 minutes. Don’t move the mushrooms around; if you do they wont caramelize.

When the mushroom caps are golden add the garlic and thyme. Toss and let it cook 30 seconds. Then add the wine and cook on high till the wine evaporates. Turn off heat and add salt and pepper.

Homemade White Pizza

White Pizza

There is a little Italian restaurant near my house. Its owned by a Pakistani, so we call it Pakistani Italian. The food is homely and wonderful. We particularly like their white pizza. Their white pizza appeals to me because its garlicky, thin crust and has no tomato sauce.

My husband came back from a trip to Ohio and I wanted to order the white pizza, but it was too late and the restaurant had closed. So I decided to make the pizza myself. It was quick, easy, and I don’t think we’ll eat pizza out anymore! Besides, you could have so much fun with the toppings!

Pillsbury Pizza dough – 1 can
Alfredo Sauce – 3/4 cup
For toppings:
Mushrooms – 1 box, green pepper – 1 and thyme
or
Broccoli – 1 cup , frozen spinach – 1/2 cup, nutmeg – pinch and Italian seasoning
or
black olives, basil and pine nuts
Garlic – 1 tsp minced
Mozzarella cheese – 2 cups

Pre heat oven to 400 degrees. Lay out the pizza dough on a non stick cookie sheet or baking pan. Press and stretch the dough to fit the pan. Pour the Alfredo sauce over the dough and spread evenly. Then sprinkle the garlic and cheese on top. Then add the toppings over the cheese. Bake for about 17 minutes.

To prepare toppings

For mushroom green pepper pizza – slice the mushrooms and peppers. Saute mushrooms on high for 2-3 minutes. Add the thyme and green peppers.

For broccoli spinach pizza – cut the broccoli into small florets, blanch in salted boiling water. Drain and sprinkle Italian seasoning. Saute the spinach and squeeze out any water. Sprinkle some nutmeg over the spinach.

For black olive basil pine nut pizza – bake the pizza with only the black olives. While pizza is cooking, toast the pine nuts in a non stick pan. Chop the basil. In the last 1 minute of baking, add the pine nuts and basil to the pizza and return to oven.

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Thai Green Curry Pasta

Pasta is so versatile; really, it shouldn’t be restricted to Italian cooking. I love pasta with mustard seeds, cumin, turmeric, chili and cilantro – Indian style. I even had a pasta desert in someones house a long time ago – it was pasta cooked with sugar and coconut!

Ok, so the sweet pasta wasn’t exactly good. But I dont think i’ll ever stop experimenting with pasta.

And what better way to enjoy a rainy, cold weekend than to watch movies with a steaming bowl of pasta shells with creamy, flavor packed green curry.

Pasta Shells – 1/2 box
Coconut Milk – 1 can
Thai Green Curry Paste – 3-4 tbsp, I use Thai Kitchen Green Curry paste.
Peanut Butter – 1 tbsp
Soy Sauce – 2 tbsp
Sriracha or chili paste – 1 tbsp, optional
Onion – 1 small, diced
Garlic – 3 cloves, chopped
Ginger – 1 tsp minced
Mushroom – 1 box, sliced
Carrot – 1/2 large carrot chopped
Cilantro – chopped, for garnish
Oil
Salt

Boil the pasta till al dente. In the last 1 minute of cooking, add the carrots to the pasta water and boil. Reserve 1/4 cup of the pasta water. Drain the shells and carrots.

To the coconut milk, add the green curry paste, peanut butter, soy sauce and sriracha. Mix well.

Heat a pan and add some oil. To the oil, add the onion, garlic and ginger, saute till onions are translucent. Then add the mushrooms and saute on high for 3 minutes. Pour the coconut milk-green curry mixture over the mushrooms. Then add the reserved pasta water. Let it come to a boil. Then reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes. Taste and adjust salt.

To serve, pour the green curry over pasta and carrots. Garnish with chopped cilantro or scallions.

Peas, baby corn, broccoli or bamboo shoots will also work very well in this recipe.

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Enoki Mushrooms, Snow Peas and Crispy Seitan in Sesame Honey Sauce

Ive walked past boxes of snowy white Enoki Mushrooms at the Asian store. I’d stop to admire these floral looking clusters, but never bought them because I wasn’t quite sure what to do with them. But this time I picked up a box, telling myself if they were so pretty to look at I’m sure they’ll taste good.

Enokis are a delicate, slightly sweet mushroom. They hardly need any cooking. Infact, you could use them raw in this recipe if you wish.

Crispy SeitanSeitan – about 5 large pieces. I use white wave seitan.
Rice or plain flour – 6 tbsp
Chili Powder – 1/2 tsp
Garlic Powder – 1/2 tsp
Salt
Oil

Mix the flour, chili powder, garlic powder and salt. Dredge the seitan pieces in the flour mixture. Heat one tbsp of oil in a pan, and pan fry the seitan till golden brown on both sides.

Now place the seitan on a cutting board and let it cool. Once cooled, cut into strips.

Enoki Mushrooms and Snow PeasEnoki Mushrooms – one 7 oz box
Snow Peas – about 25
Sesame Seeds – 2 tbsp

Cut off the end one third of the enoki cluster. You should now be able to separate the mushrooms into individual stems.

Saute the mushrooms in a pan with some oil on medium heat for about 1 minute.

You could also use the mushrooms raw.

Trim the ends of the snow peas. Boil water in a pot and add snow peas. Boil for 1 minute. Drain snow peas and place them in an ice bath. Drain before using.

Sesame Honey SauceSoy Sauce – 4 tbsp
Sesame Oil – 4 tbsp
Honey – 1 tbsp

Whisk all ingredients together.
Combine the mushrooms, snow peas and seitan in a bowl. Pour the sesame honey sauce over the vegetables. Toss carefully.

Sprinkle sesame seeds on top.

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