Veal Stew with Wild Mushrooms (p. 430)

I have two soups left to cook, neither of which, unfortunately, is a chilled summer soup. Still, gotta tackle them, even in this ridiculous North Carolina heat.

This veal stew was pretty easy to put together, so I did it before work yesterday since I didn't have to be in until noon. It starts with sauteed onion, garlic, and parsley which have softened but not browned in the olive oil. Next up are the pieces of veal, which just need to be cooked until each side has browned.

Stir in the cleaned, sliced mushrooms (I used baby bellas because that's what was available to me, but it really called for porcini or chanterelles) and allow them to cook until they have released their liquids and the dish is bubbling.

Add in thyme and salt and cover the meat with a combination of wine and water.

Keep at a steady simmer until the liquid has cooked down some, then raise the heat and cook a little bit longer to make the liquid more syrupy.

Both Matt and I felt that this had way too many mushrooms in it. The flavors were good, but every bite was completely mushroom filled. I also wish that I had cut the veal into smaller pieces; they were a little tough which made the large pieces difficult to eat. 

mushrooms -- $3.00

veal -- $7.99

onion -- $1.10

parsley -- $1.99

Total Cost of Veal Stew with Wild Mushrooms: $14.08

($4.69 per serving)

Angelo Pellegrini's Braised Chicken with Wild Mushrooms (p. 422)

Here's another recipe that actually called for rabbit -- I made the call to switch out to chicken instead. 

The first steps are reminiscent of making shake and bake, which growing up we called Chicken Amelia, because my sister Amelia loved it and could make it on her own from a pretty young age.  This one is made up of just flour, salt, and pepper, and the chicken pieces are doused in it.

Cook in olive oil until the chicken pieces are thoroughly browned.

Remove the chicken and cook up some delicious diced bacon in the pan. This smells amazing, obviously, but it smells even better after adding some herbs and veggies; celery, parsley, thyme, rosemary, and a dried red chili.

Cook for several minutes but don't allow the celery to brown.

Add the chicken pieces back in, as well as dried mushrooms that had been soaked in hot water, then removed from the water and chopped up. Stir in the drained liquid from the mushrooms, tomato puree, some wine, chicken stock, as well as a little flour to thicken up the sauce. Actually, the recipe called for arrowroot, but I couldn't find it at the grocery store, and I was completely fine with a substitute. 

Then cook, covered, for about an hour.

This is pretty much amazing. The chicken falls apart and is completely tender because of the long period of braising, and the flavor is spot on, with a little bit of heat from the chili, and a delicious thick sauce of bacon, celery, and mushrooms. I would eat this again and again.

bacon -- $2.99 (Plenty left for a Father's Day breakfast tomorrow!)

chicken -- $8.11

celery -- $2.99 (I just used one stalk)

wine -- $6.99 (this was for one of those 4 packs of tiny wine bottles. I didn't even use half of one, and I'll have Matt finish it up when he gets home, but I just hate the idea of opening an entire bottle of wine and not being able to drink it.)

Total Cost of Angelo Pellegrini's Braised Chicken with Wild Mushrooms: $21.08

($5.27 per serving)

Arroz al Horno (p. 233) and Fricassee of WIld Mushrooms (p. 326)

Arroz al Horno is Rice Baked in the Oven and includes a recipe for the cocido (the stock) which I opted not to do because a) I've already made homemade chicken stock before and b) I wasn't entirely sure that it was worth the process. So, I just used Fresh Market stock and hoped for the best.

Begin by simmering chickpeas in chicken stock to soften them up -- this process takes about forty minutes. In the mean time, you've got about a billion things (or maybe just four) to brown (separately) in olive oil; potato chunks, peeled garlic, halved tomatoes, and cubes of lean pork. As each ingredient browns remove it from the oil. Once the pork is done, add in chopped tomato and simmer down for just a couple of minutes and then stir in rice, salt and pepper, and paprika.

I got lazy and browned multiple ingredients at once.

When all the ingredients are cooked, assemble the recipe. Place the garlic in the middle of an oven dish and surround it with the pork and rice mixture. Pour the chickpeas (along with their remaining broth) over the top, pushing the beans down into the rice. Settle the tomato halves on top with the potatoes all around them. Lastly, pour more simmering chicken stock over everything; this is how the rice will cook.

Bake for about 20 minutes until most of the stock is absorbed and then set aside covered in aluminum foil for an additional five minutes before serving.

This was good but not quite as delicious as I had hoped for. I really liked the flavors of the chickpeas and pork but it seemed to be lacking flavor in the rest of the dish. I'm happy for the leftovers but it's not something I would make again, at least without changing a bunch of the ingredients and seasoning.

Luckily, with this I made a side of Fricassee of WIld Mushrooms to give a little addition to the flavor sector of our meal. It's super simple to make -- just sauté onions in olive oil until soft and then add chopped, cleaned mushrooms. Keep over the heat until the mushrooms have absorbed the olive oil and then rereleased it and have become quite soft. Add salt and pepper and then quickly stir in egg beaten with lemon juice. Mix everything up and serve immediately, on top of toasted bread.

I loved how creamy and flavorful this was, and the toasted bread added a great texture to the dish. I just picked up the bread and ate it that way -- it could almost be considered finger food. Plus, so easy! I'd definitely eat this again.

tomatoes -- $4.12

pork -- $2.88

potato -- $.72

chicken broth -- $3.99 (about 2 cups left)

Total Cost of Arroz al Horno: $11.71

($2.34 per serving)

mushrooms -- $2.50

rolls -- $1.99 (several left) 

onion -- $1.55 (3/4 left over)

Total Cost of Fricassee of Wild Mushrooms: $6.04

($2.01 per serving)

Brick Chicken (p. 416) and Gratin of Mushrooms and Potatoes (p. 325)

Brick Chicken, or Pollo al Mattone is just chicken in a simple marinade cooked under a heated brick. I let my chicken breasts sit in a marinade of olive oil, salt and pepper, red pepper flakes, dried thyme, and chopped rosemary and parsley for about an hour.

The recipe is normally made on the grill under a cooking brick or tile. I have neither, so I used the alternate recipe of heating two heavy skillets in a very hot oven and then cooking the chicken on the stovetop, crushed between the two pans.

Unfortunately, I stuck with the cooking time that was recommended for grilled chicken, and it was entirely too long for the stovetop version. My chicken was very dry and tough, though smelled lovely and looked quite pretty.

I would make this again, but keep a very careful eye on the cooking time throughout.

With this, I served a Gratin of Mushrooms and Potatoes, which is a pretty simple recipe involving both dried and fresh mushrooms.

Soak the dried mushrooms in very hot water until soft.

Meanwhile. sauté the fresh onions (sliced) in olive oil.

Assemble the gratin starting with very thinly sliced potatoes in the bottom of an oiled dish.

Pour in the water that the dried mushrooms were soaked in (strained of any sediment from the mushrooms) and layer in the two types of mushroom.

Add sliced tomato on top.

Cook for about 25 minutes, until the potatoes are cooked, top with cheese, and continue cooking for about 10 minutes.

This was pretty good, but nothing ground breaking. Really, I probably just liked it because of the amount of cheese on top.

All in all, not the best meal, especially before I head out of state for the rest of the week. Poor Matt will be stuck home alone with the kitty eating who knows what out of the pantry.

chicken breasts -- $4.14

Total Cost of Brick Chicken: $4.14

($2.07 per serving)

dried mushrooms -- $6.99 (half left)

fresh mushrooms -- $1.56

tomato -- $1.82

potato -- $.70

Total Cost of Gratin of Mushrooms and Potatoes: $11.07
($2.77 per serving)

Mushroom Lasagna (p. 211)

We had a vegetarian (Julia, my bestie from childhood) visiting from out of town this weekend, so it was time to make some Lasagna ai Funghi.

The recipe calls for both dried and fresh mushrooms, so start soaking the dried mushrooms in very hot water while preparing the rest of the vegetables. Once they have soaked for half an hour, strain them from their liquid but reserve the mushroomy water. Put these mushrooms, as well as the chopped fresh mushrooms (I used portabella), chopped yellow onion, and minced garlic in a pan with olive oil. Add in some of the reserved water that the mushrooms had soaked in as well.

Keep the veggies over the heat until the mushrooms have released most of their juices and the vegetables are soft. Add in white wine and continue cooking until the majority of the liquid has concentrated.

Cook your lasagna in batches for several minutes each and remove them to a dishtowel, making sure they don't stick together.

Make pesto, following the same recipe from the Linguini al Pesto recipe.

Next up is making the bechamel sauce, which I'd never done before. Heat olive oil in a small sauce pan and add flour, stirring constantly. Pour in milk slowly and continue beating the sauce with a whisk until it has thickened into a creamy texture. This can't be made too far in advance because it will create a skim on the top if not used right away.

Now for the assembly of the lasagna -- layer the sheets of lasagna, then bechamel sauce, pesto, half the mushroom mixture, and then dabs of ricotta cheese topped with grated pecorino cheese. Make a second layer in the exact same order, and then finish the lasagna up with a final layer of lasagna, bechemel, pesto, and grated cheese. Sprinkle bread crumbs and dribble olive oil over the top of the lasagna.

Bake for about 20 minutes and then serve hot and delicious.

Despite our wariness about mushrooms, this was really good! Let's be honest, cheese and pesto can probably make anything good. I'd totally make this again.

basil -- $3.99

lasagna -- $1.99

portabello -- $2.00

ricotta -- $1.99 (still about half left)

onion -- $.53

Total Cost of Mushroom Lasagna: $10.50

Polenta with Teverina Dried Wild Mushroom Sauce (p. 243) with Sauteed Greens with Garlic and Oil (p. 299)

I was eating solo on Thursday night but still wanted to get some cooking in since it's been so long. This one looked tasty, so I ran to the grocery store after work to pick up some fresh meat and veggies (my fridge was completely empty except for pickles and beer) right after work.

I started by prepping dried porcini mushrooms by putting them in a bowl of very hot water. I left them for about 30 minutes to soften while making the rest of the dish.

Next up was the sweet Italian sausage, which I cut into small chunks and sauteed for about 10 minutes. The sausage is supposed to cook in its own fats instead of using olive oil, but mine didn't produce much juice, so it was a kind of dry sauté. Once they were cooked I placed the chunks on a paper towel to dry.

When the meat was pulled out of pan I added olive oil along with chopped onion, celery, and parsley. 

Once the veggies had cooked and softened, I stirred in chopped canned tomatoes (along with their juices), chopped rosemary, and some dried thyme. These were left to simmer for about 20 minutes to allow the sauce to thicken.

After the mushrooms had soaked for 30 minutes I drained them through paper towels placed in a colander (I didn't have the sieve and cheese cloth that was required), reserving the water that they had soaked in. I rinsed and chopped the mushrooms and set them aside with the water.

Meanwhile, I boiled water and slowly added the cornmeal. This set over low heat for about 20 minutes until the polenta was creamy.

I added the mushrooms and water as well as the sausage back into the sauce and continued cooking them until the polenta was ready.

The polenta is spooned onto a plate with the sauce ladled over it and parmesan scattered over the top.

Yum! I don't even like mushrooms all that much, but this was delicious. I had no idea that polenta is so easy to make, and I'll definitely make it again. It absorbs flavors well, and all the ingredients in the sauce made a very flavorful blend. Yum! I'd do a rendition on this recipe again.

With all the poor eating in NOLA, I wanted to make a veggie side. This one is pretty easy -- it's just sauteed greens of your choice. I used kale, and before beginning the recipe I rinsed the greens and boiled them briefly just using the water remaining on the leaves.

Once the kale had become tender I removed it from the heat, tossed it on a paper towel to briefly dry, and then chopped it coarsely. In the meantime, I sauteed minced garlic in olive oil for only a few minutes until it was soft and then added a dried chili pepper broken into small pieces.

I added the kale back into the pan and let the greens absorb the olive oil. They only remained on the heat until they began to sizzle -- just a few minutes -- and then I added salt and red wine vinegar, mixed them together, and served.

I surprised myself by quite liking the kale. The combination of the dried pepper and the vinegar gave it a great flavor!

canned tomatoes -- $.99

corn meal -- $1.69 (with the majority remaining)

sweet Italian sausage -- $2.03

celery -- $1.69 (only used one stalk)

onion -- $.89 (half left)

parsley -- 1.99 (most left)

dried porcini mushrooms -- $3.99

shredded parmesan -- $2.65 (most left)

Total Cost of Polenta with Teverina Dried Wild Mushroom Sauce: $15.92 (with the recipe cut in half, this made three servings)

kale -- $.27

Total Cost of Sauteed Greens with Garlic and Oil: $.27 (for just one serving)