Mushroom Stock

Okay... I've promised this recipe to a few people, and I'm finally getting around to posting it. This Mushroom stock recipe started with one from Cooking Light, but I've made changes based on what we can get around here. Enjoy.

Ingredients:
4 cups boiling water
1/2 ounce dried porcini mushrooms
1 oz mixed dried forest mushrooms (get them from Leon's Market)
1 whole garlic head, cloves peeled and crushed
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 medium white onions
1 large leek
2 lbs portabella mushrooms, cubed
8 parsley sprigs
8 thyme sprigs
25 whole black peppercorns
2 bay leaves
1/2 cup dry white wine (use a good, drinkable chardonnay, not "cooking wine")
15 cups water

Directions:
Combine 4 cups boiling water and dried mushrooms in a bowl. Cover and let stand 30 minutes or until tender. Strain through a fine sieve over another bowl; reserve 3 cups of liquid and set aside.

Heat a large dutch oven or soup pot over medium high heat. Add oil to pan, swirl to coat. Add onion and leek; saute 5 minutes or until just tender, stirring occasionally. Add mushrooms, garlic, herbs, peppercorns, and bay leaves. Saute 10 minutes or until portabellas are tender, stirring occasionally. Add wine; cook until liquid evaporates (about 2 minutes). Add reserved 3 cups mushroom liquid and 15 cups water; bring to a slight boil. Reduce heat to simmer 50 minutes, covering pot for the first 25 minutes. Strain through cheesecloth over a bowl; discard solids. Pour into airtight containers. Keeps for a week in the refrigerator, much longer in the freezer.

Something Evil...

In case any of you want to take a head-first dive off your diets, here's something that is absolutely worth it:

No-Bake Peanut Butter Cow Pies

INGREDIENTS:
* 4 ounces butter or margarine
* 1/2 cup milk
* 2 cups sugar
* 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
* 3 to 4 tablespoons peanut butter, optional
* 3 cups oats, quick or old-fashioned
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

PREPARATION:
Place chocolate chips, peanut butter (if used), oats, and vanilla in a Large mixing bowl. Combine the margarine, milk, and sugar in a saucepan; bring to a rolling boil. Boil for 1 minute. Combine the hot mixture with the oatmeal and chocolate chip mixture; stir well.
Drop by spoonfuls onto waxed paper.

More Soup - Roasted Red Pepper & Gouda

It's cold, snowy and crappy out, and a few of you have been asking for this recipe as well. It's one of our favorites!

Roasted Red Pepper & Gouda Soup

INGREDIENTS
2 tablespoons butter
6-7 red bell peppers, roasted and chopped
1 onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
3 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 cups shredded smoked gouda cheese

DIRECTIONS
Cut peppers in half and roast 8-10 min on Broil until skins char and start to come off. Allow to cool. Peel skins off peppers and chop into rough pieces.

Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Place the red bell pepper, onion and garlic in the saucepan and sauté for 15 to 20 minutes, or until tender.

Pour in the chicken broth, stirring well, reduce heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes. Transfer to a blender and puree until smooth.

Return the liquid to the saucepan over medium low heat. Stir in the heavy cream, the ground black pepper and cheese, and allow to heat through, about 5 to 10 minutes.

Mulligatawny Soup

I've been messing around with this recipe forever, and this is the best version yet. All of the ingredients are available here in Lincoln, so let me know if you need to know where to find them. I use my own chicken stock for this soup, since pre-made stock is so salty. Let me know if you want my recipe for that as well. I'll happily hand it over.

Mulligatawny Soup

* 1 tablespoon ghee (clarified butter)
* 1 onion, chopped
* 4 cloves garlic, minced
* 2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
* 3 green anaheim peppers, chopped
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
* 3 teaspoons ground coriander seed
* 2 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
* 1 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
* 8 pods cardamom, seeds removed and crushed (5 green pods, 2 black pods, 1 white pod)
* 2 carrot, chopped
* 1 apple (braeburns are best) - peeled, cored, and chopped
* 3 small red potatoes, peeled and diced
* 1 cup Masoor dhal (red lentils), rinsed, drained (soak dried lentils in water the night before)
* 4 cups chicken broth (Home made is best)
* 1 tablespoon lemon juice
* 1 1/2 Tbsp tamarind paste (See note below)**
* 2 cups coconut milk (1 15 oz. can is fine)

DIRECTIONS
1. Heat ghee in large pan (use low heat); cook onion, garlic, ginger, peppers, stirring lightly until mixture is fragrant. Do not over brown the onion or else it will give the soup a burnt taste.

2. Add carrot, apple, potato, dhal, chicken stock and spices to pan; simmer, covered, for about 15 minutes or until vegetables are just tender.

3. Blend or process soup mixture, in batches, until pureed; return to pan. Add tamarind, lemon juice, coconut milk; stir until heated through. Salt and pepper to taste.

NOTES:
- You can substitute 1 SMALL serrano pepper for the anaheim peppers, but the soup will be EXTREMELY hot.
- Make sure you chop everything in to very small pieces. Even though the soup gets pureed in the end, if the pieces are uneven, they cook unevenly, and the soup will have an off flavor.
- The tamarind paste is a pain in the butt to make, but it is very important. Don't be tempted to leave it out of the recipe. You may be able to find pre-made tamarind paste in middle eastern stores, but there will be a LOT of extra salt in it. It's worth the trouble to make your own.
- The red lentils are important. Don't substitute green lentils more common in grocery stores. The flavor is wrong for mulligatawny.

** TO MAKE TAMARIND PASTE: Buy whole tamarind (can be found in the ethnic aisle, sometimes with ingredients for mexican foods) Remove the outer skin. The fruit inside is sticky and stringy. Remove seeds and strings from two large tamarinds. Place in small plastic dish and add just enough hot water to cover the fruits. Microwave for 3 minutes. Crush fruit with whisk or fork. Return to microwave for 2 more minutes or until most of the water is evaporated, leaving behind a paste. Force the paste through a sieve into a clean dish. Add 1/2 tsp sea salt and 1/4 teaspoon turmeric to the paste. Store extra paste in the refrigerator for up to three months, or in the freezer, well, forever.

Holiday Hell #2

At The Office

Holiday Hell #1

Okay, so my angst is running loose again. If found, drop in any mailbox. Return postage guaranteed.

Until then, enjoy my latest:

A Good Way to Kill Time...

If you're one of those people who is in total "non-productive" mode this week and you're looking for something to do with the time you have to spend in the office, I can help. Head on over to www.xtranormal.com and play.

You simply pick your characters and scene and start typing. Oh my god it's fun. I'm going to do a whole series about bikes...then I might take some of my better blog posts and put them in there too. It's just funny as shit to hear the computerized voices say things like "You fucking idiot". Here's my latest creation:

We Are Getting Dumber...Part 1

We are getting dumber as a species. I can prove it.

Example #1 of what I'm sure will be many:

Evan and I are going to make pumpkin risotto as a part of our tasty lamb dinner. We need pumpkin. Easy, right? Um, no.

I went to the store to buy a pumpkin (should be plentiful, given the season) and couldn't see any in the produce section. I went to ask one of the employees in said produce section (they are using twelve-year-olds now, by the way) where they were. Here's how the conversation went:

ME: Hi. Do you have any pumpkins?

GroceryStoreKid: Sure

ME: Cool. Can you tell me where they are?

GroceryStoreKid: Yeah. Aisle five.

ME: [thinking: wait a minute, that's where the canned stuff is...] No, not canned. Whole pumpkins.

GroceryStoreKid: Oh. It's after Halloween. We don't keep those. Why would you want one after Halloween?

ME: Um...to cook with.

GroceryStoreKid: You can eat pumpkins?

ME: Yeah. How the hell do you think it ends up in the cans?

GroceryStoreKid: Oh that stuff is just orange potatoes and sugar.

ME: [blink, blink, blink...is this kid fucking with me???]

At this point, I realize he's serious. He really does think pumpkins are inedible, and that canned pumpkin is just orange potatoes and sugar. Oh god. Time to back away and find "Plan B".

Unfortunately, this risotto recipe looks hellishly good and I really want - no, NEED pumpkin for it. Fresh, yummy pumpkin. I am actually contemplating swiping the uncarved pumpkins off my neighbor's porch, but it's not dark yet so that won't work.

Hmmmmm......

South Africa

Okay. We have to be honest...neither one of us wanted to come home. The photo above is from the terrace at the restaurant where we had lunch on our last day in South Africa. Can you blame us for not wanting to leave?

After my last post we went to Kruger National Park for a few days. It was a two hour flight to Johannesburg and then a six hour drive to the lodge where we stayed. Um...we didn't know about the six hour drive part. But the scenery on the way there was nice. Take a look:


Once we got to Kruger we were able to see some amazing animals...Elephants, giraffe, rhinos, and the highlight of the day: a lion and three cubs. Once you have seen these animals in the wild, the zoo will never be the same!




We spent our last few days in Kalk bay and touring the Cape Winelands. We stayed at an unbelievable little guesthouse up on the hill and the view from our room was amazing:

We took two tour days with a guide to show us the best wineries the region had to offer, and they were both WONDERFUL! We spent our first day with Lesley of Amber Tours, and she took us to eight wineries. Yes, eight. We can be impressive when it comes to wine :)

On our last full day in South Africa we made our way down to Simon's Town on the train to do some shopping, and then walked to Boulder Beach to see the penguins. There is a colony of 3000 African penguins living there, and they are hilarious to watch!


The next day we piled all our luggage into a van and set off for one more day of wine tasting, this time with Pam of Cape Fusion Tours. Our flight didn't leave Cape Town until 11 pm so we had plenty of time to enjoy several more wineries. South African wine is so under-appreciated here in the US, we're going to make a point to try to get more people exposed to it. It's wonderful! Using a guide is by far the best way to visit the wineries of the Cape. We would never have found half of these places had we not been with Pam and Lesley.

Sadly, all good things must come to an end, and we boarded our flight full of wine and great food that evening. (Which, by the way, was a miserable flight - horrible. Don't even get me started). Sigh.

I want to go back. NOW.

Inverdoorn Game Reserve - Karoo Region

Just a few photos from our stay at Inverdoorn. Incredible place! We saw cheetahs RUNNING! We're in Johannesburg tonight and off to Kruger National Park for a three day safari. Kruger is one of the largest national parks on the face of the earth - it's a little bigger than the Netherlands.

I'll post more photos as I get a chance. For now, enjoy.

Cape Town, South Africa

We're here in Cape Town, and we're loving it!

We went to Table mountain today, but when we got there we discovered that the cable cars that take people up to the top weren't running yet. While we were walking around the base station, waiting, we saw that there was a trail... So in typical Evan & Megan fashion, we hiked up...ALL the way up. It was VERY steep, more of a climb than a hike, but it turned out to be one of the coolest things we've done.

We finished up the day with sunset on a sailboat...and Evan was thrilled he didn't have to drive it!

More later...day three up next!