Tag: vegetables

Mushroom Pie

This is the recipe I used for the Mushroom Pie at Pie Night yesterday. I’ve made it once before, in about 2006 or 2007. In the original mushroom pie recipe on AllRecipes.com, the mushroom mixture is the stuffing for a puff pastry. The exact same stuff made great filling for a traditional pie.

  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 10 ounces sliced crimini mushrooms (I bought pre-sliced)
  • 1 large onion
  • 6 slices fakin’ bacon (or 4 of real bacon if not being fed to vegetarians)
  • ¾ cup heavy cream
  • about 4 ounces Swiss cheese
  • about 1 teaspoon fresh dill
  • 2 crusts for double-crust pie
  1. Preheat the oven to 350°
  2. Shred the cheese
  3. Peel and chop the onion
  4. Chop the fakin’ bacon into about half inch pieces
  5. In a large skillet heat the olive oil over medium high heat
  6. Add the mushrooms, onion, and bacon
  7. Cook and stir for about 5 minutes until vegetables are tender
  8. Reduce heat to medium
  9. Add the cream and dill
  10. Cook and stir for about 10 minutes
  11. Remove from heat
  12. Stir in the cheese
  13. Pour mushroom mixture into a pie crust
  14. Cover with top pie crust and flute the edge to seal
  15. Score the crust so steam can vent
  16. Bake for about 40 minutes, or until crust is done

Chicken and Almond Soup

I made this soup last week when I was staying over at my grandparents’ place. Gramps is supposed to be on a cardiac diet, so most boxed meals and canned soups are out. But soup made from scratch can be prepared without salt frequently, so I brought over The Ultimate Soup Bible to pick through. Nothing too fancy, cause my grandparents aren’t fancy eaters. And with a small kitchen and old equipment, I wouldn’t be able to complete a lot of fancy steps.

Recipe is what I made, not what’s in the book.

  • 6 tablespoons margarine (I would have used butter, but that’s what they have)
  • 1 medium leek
  • ¾ teaspoon fresh ginger
  • ¾ cup unsweetened almond butter
  • 1 medium carrot
  • ½ cup frozen peas
  • 1½ cup frozen cooked chicken
  • 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
  • 1 cup cream
  1. Melt the margarine in a dutch oven kind of pan
  2. Chop the leek
  3. Chop the ginger
  4. Sauté the leek and ginger until it turns soft
  5. Lower heat
  6. Chop the carrot
  7. Add almond butter, carrot, peas, and chicken, and ½ cup of water
  8. Cook until everything is cooked/not frozen
  9. Remove from heat and let cool for a few minutes
  10. Transfer mixture to blender
  11. Add 1½ cups water
  12. Process for about 90 seconds
  13. Pour back into pan
  14. Bring to boil while stirring
  15. Lower heat
  16. Stir in cream
  17. Stir in chopped cilantro

This was super super tasty.

Acelmo’s Spanish Rice

In my quest to find more rice recipes (cause I have a giant bag of rice and it’s cheap), I tried this recipe for Spanish rice from Greg Atkinson’s West Coast Cooking. Really easy, fresh ingredients, pretty tasty.

  • 2 cups long grain white rice
  • 1 medium onion
  • 2 tablespoons minced garlic
  • 1 tablespoon dried oregano
  • 2 large tomatoes
  • 2 teaspoons sea salt
  • 1 bay leaf
  1. Rinse the rice several times in cold water
  2. Let rice drain in strainer
  3. Chop the onion
  4. Cut the tomato up
  5. Put tomato, onion, garlic and oregano in a blender
  6. Puree
  7. Remove mixture from blender when the blade just spins through the tomato chunks
  8. Put mixture in food processor and/or chop stuff by hand until the chunks are much smaller
  9. Put mixture back into blender
  10. Puree vegetables until they are liquefied
  11. Add water to make 4 cups total liquid
  12. Pour vegetable liquid into 3 quart saucepan
  13. Add salt and bay leaf
  14. Bring liquid to boil
  15. Add rice to saucepan
  16. Reduce heat to low and cover
  17. Simmer 20 to 30 minutes until liquid is absorbed
  18. Remove lid, stir, and let stand

Sausage, leek and apple pie

On a whim, I decided to search for sausage pie on Flickr. I wanted to see how high up the list the photos of my sausage pie would be. I was kinda surprised at how many sausage pie photos appeared. My sausage pie photos appear fairly high in the list now. Score! Anyhoo, I saw a photo of a Sausage, apple and leek pie in the list and said to myself, I must have this pie!. Fortunately, the photographer linked to the recipe at Making Light. This morning, I attempted to make it myself. It is good.

So here’s the recipe as I’ve adapted it. In particular, I left out the saffron because that stuff is expensive. For the original, follow the link. Pictures follow.

Ingredients
  • 2 large leeks
  • 2 large Granny Smith apples
  • ¼ pound celery root
  • 1½ pounds bulk sausage (mixture of bulk breakfast sausage and leftover mild Italian bulk)
  • 4 tablespoons fine gauge tapioca
  • dry sherry
  • 4 tablespoons butter
  • all purpose flour
  • salt
  • top and bottom crusts for pie (however you like to make/buy these)
Prep work
  • Peel and core apples
  • Slice apples to even ¼ inch thickness
  • Wash leeks (I actually found it easier to wash the leek after cutting lengthwise in next steps)
  • Cut leeks lengthwise, then into ⅓ inch pieces
  • Pare celery root
  • Slice finely
Cooking
  1. Preheat oven to 425 °
  2. Brown sausage, breaking it apart into small pieces
  3. Set aside
  4. Put leek and celery root in just enough water to cover the vegetables
  5. Bring to a boil and cook just until vegetables are wilted
  6. Drain, reserving broth
  7. Toss 3 tablespoons of tapioca with vegetables
  8. Melt 4 tablespoons butter in a saucepan
  9. Add 4 tablespoons flour
  10. Stir until thick/done (i.e., make a roux)
  11. Add in vegetable broth, a splash of sherry, and salt to taste
  12. Give it a quick stir
  13. Add in vegetables
  14. Set aside to cool a bit
Assembling the pie
  1. Lay bottom crust in pie plate
  2. Sprinkle 2 teaspoons tapioca on bottom crust
  3. Dredge apples in flour
  4. Layer apples in compact circles, two levels for my deep pie
  5. Layer half the leek mixture on top
  6. Put in the sausage next
  7. Put remaining leek mixture on top
  8. Add top crust
  9. Vent the crust
Baking
  1. Bake at 425° for 15 minutes
  2. Bake at 350° for 25 minutes or it appears done
  3. Let cool to solidify a bit

Pea soup with bacon

I’ve attempted a green pea soup once before. It was decent, but was missing something. Yesterday I tried out the pea soup recipe in Greg Atkinson’s West Coast Cooking.

As always, what I did is somewhat adapted from the cookbook. If you want the official recipe, buy the book.

  • ½ stick unsalted butter
  • 1 medium onion
  • 1 head iceberg lettuce
  • 2+ cups chicken broth
  • 1½ pounds frozen green peas
  • 6 ounces bacon
  • ½ cup breadcrumbs
  1. Cut bacon into small pieces
  2. Fry bacon until crispy
  3. Drain fat and dampen bacon on a paper towel
  4. Mix bacon and breadcrumbs
  5. Peel and thinly slice onion
  6. Wash and shred lettuce
  7. Heat butter in large soup pot over medium high heat
  8. Cook the onion until tender
  9. Add lettuce
  10. Cook just until wilted
  11. Add chicken broth
  12. Wait for boiling
  13. Add peas
  14. Cook about 10 to 15 minutes until peas are tender
  15. Purée soup in blender a couple cupfuls at a time
  16. Salt and pepper soup to taste
  17. Sprinkle breadcrumb/bacon stuff on top of served soup

This time the soup was pretty tasty. I think the addition of onion and bacon helped quite a bit. I don’t remember exactly what was in the last recipe, but I’m pretty sure those weren’t in it.

Pea Soup
Pea Soup