Mushrooms!

Actually yesterday was a big mushroom day. I had some leftover
roast field mushrooms with poached eggs for brunch.

Then for dinner the most heavenly mushroom ragu. So simple.

Just pop everything in the oven, stir once or twice and wait. Then
dinner is ready.

I served mine on a bed of raw super finely sliced kale. But you
could use it anywhere you'd normally serve a stew or bolognese.

As much as I love everything about cooking Thanksgiving dinner I stress about one thing....the gravy! A vegetarian friend came to the rescue offering up her vegetarian gravy. Through the years it has been tinkered with and has become my "go to" recipe any time I need the perfect gravy for both vegetarians and carnivores. It can be used on mashed potatoes, vegetables, stuffing and even turkey! You can use any type of dried mushroom. I have used shitake mushrooms but mixed dried mushrooms will provide more interesting flavors. To make a vegan version substitute olive oil for the butter and additional broth for the cream.

Mushroom Masala is a spicy form of Mushrooms cooked in Tomato gravy with other spices. You can try this curry when your crisper is clean and empty or just left with minimal vegetables :-p...This can be served with Basmati Rice or any Indian bread.

At first glance this looks like a simple frittata. You're close. There are certainly eggs in this dish, but not nearly as many as you'd imagine. In fact, this recipe from Mollie Katzen's Get Cooking is a popover, which uses a quick batter that is blended up and then poured over sautéed mushrooms. After 25 minutes in the oven, it puffs up slightly in the middle, acquiring a texture that is light and airy, not eggy and dense. Meanwhile, the edges get golden brown and crunchy, which is never a bad combo.
With the eggs playing a slightly less important role, the mushrooms take the lead in flavor. Katzen recommends using two different varieties, white and shiitake mushrooms. The earthiness of the latter is especially apparent. Some nice woody herbs, thyme and rosemary, help round things out. Also, you should note that the recipe states that the eggs should be at room temperature, so that they will rise more during the baking process.

Nutty, chewy, and good for you to boot, farro is a great grain. It can be slowly simmered and stirred in place of rice for risotto, tossed with veggies and chilled as a salad, or fried into crisp little patties for these Farro and Mushroom Burgers.

Although this dish takes a bit of work, the end result is well worth it. The mix of mushrooms provides a lovely depth of flavour and richness that more than makes up for the lack of meat.

Mushroom Lasagna

While meat meals are traditionally based around the "protein," it often makes sense to plan a vegetarian meal around the primary grain. For example, I'll begin with "I think I want rice tonight," then work from there to decide if that should lead in a Thai, Indian, or Chinese (and so on) direction. Polenta is one of my favorite starting points because it so willingly embraces just about any Italian-inspired topping.
For today's recipe I opted for a simple saute of leeks and mushrooms, enhanced with wine and finished with gorgonzola dolce (a mild blue cheese) and a fine aged balsamic vinegar. If you use great ingredients it doesn't really need to be any more complicated than this.
By the way, don't listen to anyone who says you need to stir polenta constantly for the entire 45 minutes or so that it takes to become smooth. Just give it a good beating every so often, and make sure it has enough water so it won't scorch. The rest will take care of itself.
Watch and you will easily see when the transformation from rough to creamy has happened. At that point, mix in some Parmigiano-Reggiano and your are done. For an even smoother texture, you can follow the San Francisco restaurant Zuni Cafe's method and hold it covered in a double boiler for half an hour or so.

Finding a solid everyday cookbook is no easy task. Throw in the "healthy" factor, and it becomes harder than getting "Party in the USA" out of your head after your fiancé listens to it six times on repeat. Don't ask me how I know that.
Cook's Illustrated Best 30-Minute Recipe is my personal favorite, and I'm slowly, finally getting into How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman. Betty Crocker will always have a place on the bookshelf, and if you halve the oil in all of Ina Garten's recipes, her tomes suddenly become super useful for weeknights.
Now, thanks to the Brooklyn Public Library (R.I.P.?), I think we might have a new contender. Simple Suppers was released by the Moosewood collective back in 2005. The recipes are largely vegetarian, with a chapter of fish dishes thrown in for glorious, protein-y variety. So far, its offerings are three for three in my kitchen, and none have taken advanced skills or inordinately long amounts of time.
White Bean and Mushroom Ragout is the latest experiment, and it's a huge win. Made almost entirely out of pantry ingredients, the dish is the perfect antidote for those evenings when you're thiiiiis close to ordering takeout. It's filling and surprisingly complex flavor-wise, too, and you can spoon it over egg noodles, orzo, or polenta, as seen here.
If these first few forays are any indication, you can expect to see more from Simple Suppers in this column over the next few weeks. In the meantime, enjoy your Monday supper.

One might expect that a New Orleans-based chef like Emeril Lagasse is a big meat eater, but one of the most surprising things about his new book Farm to Fork is that the recipes are almost entirely vegetarian. There are few game and seafood recipes mixed in, but the bulk of the book is devoted to meat-free eating, vegetable dishes so satisfying you barely realize you're eating a vegetarian meal.
This Wild Mushroom Ragout over Creamy Polenta struck me immediately as a must-make due to it's striking similarity to one of my all time favorite vegetarian meals: the wild mushrooms served over creamy polenta from Al Di La in Brooklyn. The mushrooms are simmered with a mix of aromatics and herbs, tomatoes both diced and in paste form, and a stock of your choice—mushroom or vegetable or a veal or chicken stock. The mushrooms braise and release their earthy flavors making the sauce deep and rich, and an ideal topping for some of the creamiest polenta around.
The polenta recipe is for all of you out there who wonder why the polenta that you make at home is never quite as good as the polenta served in restaurants. There are a few secrets in there, all involving plenty of delicious dairy. Mascarpone, Parmigiano-Reggiano, butter, and whole milk make sure that this polenta is wonderfully creamy and rich with cheesy flavor.

Bobby’s Lighter Mushroom Burger

Couscous with Mushrooms

Crab Stuffed Mushrooms En Croute

Nava writes, “There are no words to describe this recipe other than ‘a deep dish of absolute comfort.’”

Fresh mushrooms tossed with onion and red pepper with a touch of spice. Light and delicious, and easy to prepare, this can be served as a side dish or as a quick snack. Enjoy with a chapatti, tortilla wrap or even a Naan: it's truly sensational.

'Bhajee,' the word, is often misunderstood as meaning deep fried as in 'onion bhajee' but the true description would be a fairly dry dish cooked in oil with onion and light spice.

This dish is best cooked in a stir fry pan (non-stick if available) accompanied with a lid.

Ever wondered what to do with those mushrooms in your fridge that have passed the “use by” date by a couple of days or so? Potatoes in your cupboard sprouting a few shoots perhaps? A couple of handfulls of frozen peas lurking in a bag in the depths of your freezer compartment? Wishing you could do something about those onions you haven’t used yet?

The term "bhuna" is used to describe a method of cooking spices "dry" - which means only in oil - and no other moisture. So, effectively it's about cooking with very little water. For those of you who follow these recipes - you will notice that tinned tomatoes (chopped) is used quite frequently as the base to the "sauce" used to cook many dishes. In a bhuna you don't create a sauce as such - but you might garnish the end-dish with finely chopped tomatoes to add some moisture.

This recipe is adapted from what I consider the best vegan cookbook -Vegan Vittles by Joanne Stepaniak. I assume you could substitute larger pieces of TVP, or tofu strips, or tempeh for the seitan strips. I can find stir fry strips (made of seitan) at Whole Foods. You can always make your own seitan from vital wheat gluten, but that is a whole other topic.

This creamy stroganoff is perfect over rice, toast, or egg-free noodles. Just add a crunchy tossed salad to complete your meal.

My neighbor was the one who inspired me to make this dish. She had a photo assignment to photograph the pub food at Ye Olde King's Head in Santa Monica. Her photos of the steak and mushroom (or it could have been steak and ale) pie looked amazing. I said to her: "I'm going to make that!" And so I did.

Mushroom Barley Soup doesn’t have to be that staunch bowlful of murky stuff that your stepfather eats out of a can all winter. In fact, it can be downright right spring-like, with bright flavors from fresh herbs and springtime’s bounty of veggies.

This may look like a mess, but I promise it all works out in the end. After last week's adventure with polenta I couldn't wait to get back in. It was such a brilliant base for the flavors of the kale that I had this crazy idea about making a red sauce loaded with mushrooms—sort of like a vegetarian ragu. Or at least that's what I thought.
Problem was, I couldn't find an all-encompassing recipe that I liked. Most recipes for the mushroom ragu involved pouring it over grilled polenta, which I didn't feel like doing. So I cobbled together a few different sources and created this dish of polenta with mushroom ragu. The directions for the polenta came from my previous recipe and I found the ragu recipe at How Stuff Works, assuming it would be fine over the polenta. In my version of the recipe I used oyster mushrooms that I snagged from the Korean Market. They have a much different texture than cremini or button, but either would work.
Though it's not exactly authentic, it ended up working out. It's a rich, satisfying main that's not too heavy.

Portobello mushroom caps make a dramatic presentation when stuffed as in this simple recipe.

Here is an of an old-fashioned recipe that will probably remind you of home cooking the way it used to be done.

If you like spicy food like I do, you'll love this dish. You can tone it down by using only half a chipotle, but the smoky flavor and fiery heat do wonders to the otherwise tame mushrooms.

Mix egg substitute, soy sauce, tofu & onion soup mix together in blender. Add walnuts & blend until smooth.

Sauté vegetables until onions are transparent (add other diced veggies if you wish – ie peppers, carrots, etc). Add herbs/spices while vegetables are frying.

Mix blender ingredients, cooked vegetables & vegan bread crumbs together in a large bowl.

Press into a greased loaf pan.

Bake at 350 degrees F. for 45 minutes. Let cool slightly. Turn loaf out and slice.

Adapted slightly from vegweb.com

Cook the pasta. Saute the onions and garlic until soft. Add the carrots & parsnips and saute about 5 minutes, add the rest of the vegetable (you can vary these to what you like or have on hand). Cook for 5 minutes. Add tomatoes & juice, broth, paprika, soy sauce, herbs, beans and cooked pasta. Cook until veggies are tender (about 10-15 minutes.) Take a bit of the sauce from the stew and mix with cornstarch. Add this mixture back to the stew and cook for a few more minutes until the sauce thickens.

This is pretty hearty and easier to make than the long list of ingredients implies.

These Asian-inspired burgers are great all by themselves, but you can also serve them on buns along with the traditional garnishes. You may want to add a bottle of soy sauce and some fresh beans sprouts to your standard selection of toppings.

Mushroom and Lentil Pot Pies with Gouda Biscuit Topping

You could use the garlic breadcrumbs in this recipe to top whole flat mushrooms before baking in the oven to make a light snack or starter.

I love eating pasta. And I love eating pasta in France, because they do Italian with such French flare. Ratatouille over rigatoni. Roquefort cream sauce over ribbons of pappardelle. Brick-red pistou slathered on spaghetti. It's just so good, and somehow, so French!
This pasta dish is sort of a giant mushroom duxelles piled on top of fettuccine. I always write that crème fraîche is a magic ingredient (and it's even more magic when you can make it in one easy step!), because it just refuses to separate. You can do anything to it, and it's completely resilient.
Throw some mushrooms in this dish and you have an instant cream sauce, full of woodland flavors with the shallots, garlic, and thyme, that wraps itself around the expectant pasta. I love this dish because it's earthy and easy. Perfect as a side next to some seared and sliced steak. Or on its own with a drizzle of truffle oil.

I know this column is called Dinner Tonight, but this meal was born out of Sunday morning breakfast craving that could not be satiated. After an eventful weekend night out, nothing sounded better than a big plate of Chinese noodles. But the idea of actually leaving the house to make it down to Chinatown seemed like way too much work. Luckily, I had just scored these flour "Hong Kong style" fresh noodles at a local Asian market (the glorious Super H Mart), and though I had no initial plan, I figured I could cobble together something delicious.
Inspiration came from the blog Sugar Lens and a pan-fried noodle dish with chicken, shrimp, bok choy, and mushrooms. I didn't have either the chicken or the shrimp, so I doubled the bok choy and mushrooms, and made this a vegetarian main instead. Thanks to the meaty mushrooms, it didn't taste like it was missing anything at all. The crispy noodles get saturated with the sauce, and a little chili sesame oil helps wake everything up. It was everything I could have wanted at that hour.

Laurel here in Portland, Oregon. I'd love to hear from some of you Recitopians. The recipes are fun but it's even better to get to know you and what's going on your part of the world.

It's still quite chilly here and my furnace has been running nonstop. It's a pot roast night but I'll serve this mushrooms as a side.

I created this recipe for pork tenderloin, but I've also made it with chicken, and the results were excellent. Either way, I like to “wash it down” with a good Rosé.

I left a little “wiggle room” in the sauce ingredient measures. Some people like a lot of sauce (4 cups), some people like a little (2 cups), and some are in between (3 cups). Adjust the Cajun seasoning accordingly. Also, use whole milk or half-and-half. Reduced fat milks do not work for this recipe.

If you'd like to eat healthier, save cash, and protect the environment all at the same time, there are a few things you can do. You can buy from farmers' markets. You can skip super-processed meals for whole foods. You can live in an underground bunker until the end of days, surviving mainly on canned goods and whatever fungus sprouts in the cold, damp corners of your darkened lair.