Dashi Beef & Mushrooms

Dashi Beef & Mushrooms

Ingredients:

1 pound sirloin cut into strips

1 1/2 cups onions, sliced

1 1/2 cups red bell pepper, sliced

5 ounces shitake mushrooms, sliced

6 ounces baby white pearl mushrooms

1 bottle Wegman's Mushroom Dashi Simmer Sauce

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon sugar

2 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided

Steps:

1)  Mix the sliced beef with soy sauce and sugar and set aside.  

2)  Heat one tablespoon of oil in a stir fry pan on high.  Stir fry half of the beef 3-4 minutes, transfer to a clean platter.  Repeat with remaining beef.

3)  Add remaining oil to the pan, add veggies and stir fry one minute, until the mushrooms are soft.

4)  Return beef to the stir fry pan, add sauce.  Stir fry 2 minutes to heat through.

Serves 4.  Total Time:  25 minutes.  Calories:  390 per serving.

Notes:

* I didn't use meat the first time I made this.  I used a soy product made by Wegman's which is a bag of tofu beef strips.

* I didn't have shitake mushrooms, so I added a handful of snow pea pods with only the ends trimmed off.

* I didn't have white onion, so I used 2 scallions which I diced.

* Step Saver:  Use pre-cut beef strips and pre-cut mushrooms

* You will need to go to a Wegman's to obtain the mushroom-dashi simmer sauce which is kept in the produce department.

* I would serve this over Basmati rice (white or brown.)  I imagine it would also go well with lo mein noodles, or udon, and both of these can be obtained at Wegman's.

Pantry

• Don't Fear Salt   Salt is the essential ingredient that James Beard called the "sovereign of seasonings."  By itself, salt is overwhelming.  But when added sensibly to almost anything else, it recedes into the background to let the salted ingredient's flavor shine.  If you taste the salt, you've added too much.  Many cooks use too little salt; the result is food that is too bland or too bitter.

• Use Kosher or Sea Salt  Kosher salt lacks the anti-caking additives and whitening agents of common table salt and has a beguiling, coarse texture that allows you to fell how it will flavor, a quality that is easy to experience.  Rub it between your fingers and you'll know.  Sea salt has more potassium, magnesium, zinc and other nutrients than table salt.  The varieties of sea salt are colored and flavored by the waters from which they are harvested, giving you multiple options to explore.

• Season With Your Fingers And Your Eyes  Feel how much seasoning you are adding to a dish and watch it land on the food.  This gives you tactile and visual information about where and how to mix it.

• Experiment With Seasoning Salts  Just before you serve your food, your final seasoning provides one fast chance to balance flavor and enhance texture.  Some fine finishing salts worth investigation: Celtic (particularly the delicate fleur de sel de Guerande,) Maldon, Murray River, Hawaiian red (a favorite of mine,) truffle-infused, and smoked alderwood.

• Use A Pepper Mill  Pepper assigns to food an earthy, savory tone.  As tempting as it might be to use pre-cracked pepper, don't.  Freshly cracked pepper lives up to its promise:  stronger in both aroma and flavor.  A quick sniff of the pre-ground kind in comparison with one turn of the mill will demonstrate the qualitative difference.  Consider both coarse and fine texture options: use a coarse grind on beef, a fine grind on salad.  Also experiment with green, white, and red peppercorns which vary in flavor and intensity.  My personal favorite are pink peppercorns.

• When The Cook Has Done His Job, There Should Be No Need for Salt or Pepper On the Table  Well...theoretically.

• Select Oils With Taste In Mind  Olive oils offer the verdant and earth taste of...olive.  Toasted nut oils and pressed fruit oils with more forward flavors should be reserved to finish cooked foods.  Canola (which I never use after reading up on it,) vegetable, grapeseed and peanut oils all have little to no flavor other than that of fat itself.  I am a big fan of experimenting with oils, including Asian sesame oil and hot chili oil, and Wegman's makes an herb in bottle basting oil that I am partial to.

• Match the Oil With the Cooking Method  Here's the general rule:  the lighter the oil, the higher the temperature at which it begins to break down and smoke.  Deep-frying occurs at high temperature and requires an oil with a high smoke point like peanut or vegetable oil.  Olive oil, with its lower smoke point, is seldom used for deep-frying foods, but often for sauteeing or for mixing dressings.

• Use Dijon Mustard  It is the cook's standard, used in everything from mayonnaise and vinaigrette to meat rubbings and pan sauces.  It emulsifies and flavors potently without overpowering.

• Cook With Sugar  A pinch of granulated sugar, like a pinch of salt, can balance flavor and brighten food.  Bland tomato sauce?  Sprinkle in a touch of sugar to amplify the tomatoes' natural sweetness.  Sauteed onions need more flavor?  Add a light dusting of sugar to enhance the carmelization process.

• Never Lift A Lid When Cooking Rice  If you lift the lid before the rice has finished absorbing the liquid, you compromise the air pockets that have been steadily developing during cooking.  The rice will stick to itself and become dense and chewy.  To quash the urge to peek, use a glass lid.  You can monitor for a stable simmer and later confirm that the rice has absorbed all of the liquid.

• Always Let Rice Rest  Take the pot off the heat before removing the lid and fluffing the grains.  This allows any residual moisture to release itself from the air pockets in the rice.  If you were to fluff the rice without letting it rest, it would be too moist and sticky.  Rice grains should not stick together; unless you are making sticky rice or sushi rice.

• Season the Pasta Water, Not Just the Sauce  Add a tablespoon of salt to five quarts of water.  Do the same for boiling potatoes, too.

• Match the Pasta Shape To the Sauce's Weight  Never heard of spaghetti alfredo?  That's because creamy sauces adhere best to flat noodles, like fettuccine.  Long, narrow noodles like spaghetti or capellini are best with thinner sauces like pesto, oil and garlic, or carbonara.  Short, shaped pastas like rigatoni, penne, and fusilli pair well texturally with chunky vegetable and meat sauces.

Sniffle Stew

Sniffle Stew:

1 pound chopped kale or collards
3 cups broth
1 can diced tomatoes
1/2 cup sunbutter, peanut butter or almond butter
1/4 cup diced uncrystallized ginger or 1 teaspoon minced ginger
1 generous tablespoon garam masala or curry powder
1 squeeze lemon
1 can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1) Steam or boil kale four to five minutes

2)  Simmer the broth, tomatoes, nut butter, ginger, kale and spices on low for 30 minutes to allow the flavors to meld, stirring occasionally

3) Add drained garbanzo beans.  Simmer a minute or two more, and add salt and pepper if desired.

NOTES:

* I used ruffle leaf kale.  I think you could substitute so many different vegetables in this dish.  I think collards might have an overpowering flavor for some.  I also added a few  miniature fingerling potatoes, chopped,  from Whole Foods.  Very tiny.

* I used vegetable broth.

*  I used almond butter

*  I used curry powder, from Whole Foods

*  I used peeled, grated ginger.

* I served this "stew" over basmati rice.

* I put a tiny bit of oil in a dutch oven, and I added a bit of the broth to sautee the kale and potatoes.  After about ten minutes, I added the can of diced tomatoes  (drained) and the can of garbanzo beans (drained).  Right behind that I added the curry powder, almond butter,  ginger and lemon juice (about a tablespoonful.)  I let the stew simmer for a good 30 minutes. I was worried about the heaping tablespoon of curry, but it was not overpowering.

Cranberry Maple Cornbread Pudding Cake

Cranberry Maple Cornmeal Pudding Cake

Crusty but tender and buttery cornmeal cake over juicy tart cranberries in maple syrup is not quite pudding and not quite cake.  Vanilla ice cream is the perfect topper, but the pudding can be eaten on it's own.  Reheat any leftovers in the microwave.

Ingredients:

For the Filling:

2 1/2 cups (10 ounces) fresh or frozen (thawed) cranberries
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon maple syrup (Grade B or Grade A dark amber is fine.)
1/4 cup water

For the Topping:

2/3 cups (3 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
1/3 cup (1.5 ounces) fine or medium-grind cornmeal
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoons salt
1 large egg
1/2 cup whole milk
8 tablespoons (4 ounces) unsalted butter, melted and still warm
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Equipment:

2-quart baking casserole, about two-inches deep or a 10-inch glass or ceramic pie plate

Electric mixer

Directions:

Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 400 °.  Butter the baking dish or pie plate.

To Make The Filling:

Combine the cranberries, maple syrup and water in a medium saucepan, bring to a simmer and cook for three minutes.

Transfer 1/2 cup of the cranberries with some juice to a small bowl and set aside.  Pour the remaining berries and juice into the baking dish and set in the oven to heat for five minutes while you make the topping.

To Make The Topping:

Whisk the flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl.

Whisk the egg, milk, butter and vanilla in another medium bowl.  Add the flour mixture and whisk just until blended.  Remove the baking dish from the oven and scrape the batter over the berries (without necessarily covering them all completely.)  Spoon the reserved berries and juice randomly over the batter.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until the cornmeal topping is golden brown, feels crusty, and springs back when you press it with your fingers.  Cool the pudding for five minutes or so before serving plain or with vanilla ice cream, if desired.

-----------------------

NOTES:

* I question calling this a "pudding" as is more like fruit on the bottom, cake on top concoction.

* I had a terrible time finding plain, simple cornmeal.  I went to Harris Teeter, Giant, Whole Foods, and they all had these weird mixtures that had other things in them.  Finally, in a Shopper's I found a canister of a fine grain corn meal. 

* I used fresh cranberries.  'Tis the season.

* I used Grade B maple syrup.  Again, another thing not that easy to find.  Grade A?  No problem.  I found the Grade B at Whole Foods.

*I used a 2-quart Italian casserole (that I bought at Sur La Table) that looks like the one in the photograph.  I don't know why those cranberries appear so large.  Mine did not, but overall it looked like the photograph in the end.

*It took me the full 20 minutes to cook.  I did set the timer for 15 minutes, but it needed those extra five.

*  My big problem with this recipe.  It was way too tart.  Really inedible, and I took great care to match the exact ingredients and measurements and baking times.  I went back twice to re-read the recipe to make sure it didn't call for any sugar.  The maple syrup in no way cut the tartness of the berries and it definitely was a mouth pucker.

*One reason I am posting this recipe is that the topping was lovely and light.  I think if you added additional sugar to the berry filling, it might help, but I'm wondering if the amount of sugar would be so overwhelming you wouldn't want to consume such volume. 

* I am thinking it might be better with blueberries or raspberries.  I don't think strawberries would taste particularly good with the cornmeal. 

One reason I am posting this is that my online friend, Meg Fielding Fairfax, recently made grapefruit curd that didn't quite make the grade, so I thought, "I may as well post the "fail" since I took such trouble with it.  Later, I can go back and try to figure how to make it better...or find a better recipe.

Whipped Cauliflower

Whipped Caulilfower

1 Head of Cauliflower

2 Tablespoons Heavy Cream

1  Tablespoon Butter

2 ounces Dubliner or other sharp cheese

Salt and Pepper to taste

Clean and trim the cauliflower, breaking it into medium sized pieces. 

Place in a microwave safe bowl with 2 tablespoons of cream and 1  tablespoon of butter.

Microwave, uncovered, on high for five minutes.

Stir to coat cauliflower with cream/butter mixture.  

Microwave for another 4 minutes on high.

Remove from the microwave and put into a high speed blender or food processor along with the  cheese.  Puree until smooth.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  You can adjust the cream and butter to your preference.  

* I found this receipe on a blog called I Breathe...I'm Hungry.  One thing I love about her blog is that her readers are very forthcoming after testing a recipe and quick to come back with "what went wrong" (for them) or variations.  Because of this...

* I took a lot of care trimming the cauliflower I bought at Whole Foods.  I cut pieces into medium sized.  I think smaller would be fine as well, but larger?  It would take longer in the food processor and maybe not with the best results.  Also, some of her readers complained about a "graininess" and I think that can be avoided (for the most part) by cutting away the membrane/stems and just using the florets.

*  I started with the measures for the butter and heavy cream.  I used Irish butter and Whole Foods heavy cream.  After the first puree in the food processor, I added just a bit more.  I also did my salt and pepper in between twirls in the food processor, and I used freshly grated pepper.  It took a bit more salt than I normally use in my cooking, and it made me remember my mother's statement "potatoes take a lot of salt."  So does cauliflower, but not hugely so.  I rarely use salt, hence the comment.

* I did use Dubliner cheese, and I used the exact amount.  I bought mine at Whole Foods.  A 4 ounce piece in 2012 was close to $7.00, so not cheap.  It has a very sharp, very strong flavor, and it does wonders.  The blog commenters also said a variety of cheeses are interesting:  white sharp cheddar, mixed hard Italian, goat cheese, cream cheese (and in truth I always put cream cheese in my mashed potatoes.)

* If you do get graininess, it has been recommended to run the mix through the microwave again for a few minutes; that perhaps the cheese didn't adequately melt.  I didn't have that problem, but I did let the food processor run for a goodly time (five minutes or so,) to make sure I had a really smooth blend.

Nora Ephron's Friend Ruthie's Bread Pudding For Christmas

When I finished reading Nora Ephron's I Remember Nothing, the one thing that I wanted to do was to make her deceased friend's bread pudding. Ephron's love for her deceased friend Ruthie got eternalized when she added Ruthie's recipe into the book.

In the Mixlarge eggs - 5egg yolks  - 4granulated sugar - 1 cupsalt - 1/4 tsp
whole milk - 1 quart heavy cream - 2 cups (set aside one cup for serving)vanilla extract - 1 tsp
brioche bread - 12 half inch thick slices, crusts removedbutter - 1 stick or less, brought to room tempconfectioners sugar - 1/cup or as needed 


How To Do
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease a flat baking pan (2 quarts) with shortening or butter. Need an extra baking pan larger than this to place it in a water bath while baking. I used my turkey roasting pan which was big enough.

Gently beat/whisk the eggs, egg yolks, granulated sugar and salt until thoroughly blended. You can use home baked brioche bread if you have any. Butter one side of the bread slices and set aside.
Scald all the milk and 1 cup of heavy cream in a saucepan over high heat. Do not boil. When you tip the pan and it makes a sizzling noise, remove from heat.Add in the vanilla extract. Stir this gently into the egg mixture without beating until blended.

Overlap the bread, butter side up in the greased baking pan and pour the prepared mix over it. Not all pieces need to be submerged I guess but do make sure those pieces get poured over with some of the liquid. Set in the larger pan and add hot water to come halfway up the side of the baking dish. Bake for about 45 minutes or a sharp knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. The bread should be golden and the pudding puffed up. Can be done earlier in the day.

Before serving, sprinkle with confectioner's sugar and place under a broiler for a minute or so. Or use a crème brûlée torch to brown the sugar. Serve with heavy cream. I did not brown the confectioner’s sugar and it was still yum. Adding heavy cream is optional as the dish is loaded enough.  

I still have my late friend Dee's recipes.  I wish she had given me more.  

Nora Ephron's Ricotta Pancakes

Beat one egg, add one-third cup fresh whole milk ricotta and whisk together.  Heat up a non-stick pan until carcinogenic gas is released into the air.  Spoon tablespoons of batter into the frying pan and cook about two minutes on one side, until brown.  Carefully flip.  Cook for another minute to brown the other side.  Eat with jam, if you don't care about carbs, or just eat unadorned.  Serves one.