Tangy Shiitake Mushrooms with Garlic and Thyme

I don't have any formal cooking training. I love to read cookbooks and food blogs, but when it comes down to it, I'm mostly just experimenting in the kitchen. I like to think I have the intuition of a cook, a fairly good palate, and a bit of knowledge on what flavors taste good together. And often my experiments work out, but occasionally I do have massive failures. (I'm still a bit bitter about that one sour meal of lentils in wine, garlic and lemon last year that didn't quite turn out as I'd hoped...) These mushrooms though, they were a success.

My favorite meals are often the ones resulting from a bit of spontaneity. I love coming across a recipe I just have to make right now. Or finding a unique or super fresh ingredient and rushing home to find the perfect recipe. And sometimes the best dishes come out of necessity. Those times when you have something in the fridge that's going to go bad if you don't use it asap.

I had a handful of gorgeous Shiitake Mushrooms, grown by my dad's basketball buddy, Jim. They sat in my fridge, bundled in paper towels and a paper bag for a week and a half before I finally got off my butt and spontaneously tried out this recipe. I couldn't waste them. After all, I'd practically forced my parents to give them to me in the first place.

So there I was, planning on a quick supper of roasted broccoli and a box of rice pilaf. And I thought, what if I roast these mushrooms too? A quick google of "Roasted Shiitake Mushooms" took me to this New York Times recipe from 1993. I adapted it quite liberally, ending up with more of a braise than a roast, in a small baking dish with water and sherry vinegar instead of wine.

After 15 minutes in the oven my whole apartment smelled like the best restaurant ever. Luckily, the mushrooms tasted as good as they smelled. The garlicky, slightly tangy broth revived my slightly dehydrated shiitakes beautifully. The result was plump, tender mushrooms with a silky texture and plenty of flavor.

Now, this recipe really only makes enough for one person. Though you could probably squeeze out two servings if it's part of a larger meal. I had ten mushrooms, in varying sizes, so that's what I cooked but I'm sure the recipe can size up just fine in a larger baking dish. If you don't have sherry vinegar, other wine flavored vinegars would work just fine. I'm sure lemon juice would be delicious as well. The mushrooms made a lovely meal alongside my broccoli and rice. My only regret was the lack of crusty bread to mop up the tablespoon or so of remaining broth.

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Tangy Shiitake Mushrooms with Garlic and Thyme

by Aubrey Dunnuck July-15-2011

Plump shiitake mushrooms braised in a light, tangy broth flavored with garlic, sherry vinegar, and fresh thyme.

Ingredients

around 10 Fresh Shiitake Mushrooms 1 clove Garlic 1 tablespoon Sherry Vinegar 1/4 cup Water 1 tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil 2 sprigs Fresh Thyme 1/2 teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes Kosher Salt Freshly Ground Black Pepper

Instructions

Pre-heat your oven to 350˚F. Remove and discard the stems from the shiitake mushrooms. With a damp paper towel, brush mushroom caps to remove any dirt or debris. Thinly slice the garlic.

Pour water and sherry vinegar into a small baking dish. Arrange mushrooms in dish and sprinkle with garlic slices, pepper flakes, and thyme. Season with salt and pepper then drizzle the olive oil all over the mushrooms.

Cover the baking dish in foil and place in the oven for 15 minutes. Remove foil and check liquid level, if it looks dry, add another tablespoon or two of water. Return to oven, uncovered, for 15 more minutes until the mushrooms are plump and tender.

Serve hot with plenty of crusty bread!

Details

Prep time: 5 mins Cook time: 30 mins Total time: 35 mins Yield: 1-2 servings

Slow Roasted Tomato Caprese Salad

It's the middle of summer and for some reason I've been craving roasted veggies like crazy. It seems so silly heating up the whole kitchen just for a little crispy-tender-sweet broccoli or cabbage. Luckily these slow roasted tomatoes are delicious compromise. Given a light coating of olive oil, a few cloves of garlic, and a low 225˚ oven, little cherry and grape tomatoes transform into juicy, sweet bombs of flavor. Tossed with fragrant basil, nuggets of creamy mozzarella, and a bit of balsamic glaze you have a gorgeous summery side salad.

This recipe calls for a pound of tomatoes, but really the salad only uses about half of that. Don't worry, you'll find a way to use the remainder. You could smear a few of the roasted garlic cloves on some bread with a little olive oil and few roasted tomatoes. Or make a sort of bruschetta - pile on top of toasted, garlic rubbed slices of bread. The tomatoes are truly divine on their own as well, I ate most of my leftovers like little tomato candies. The rest I tossed with orecchiette, a pat of butter and some freshly grated parmigiano reggiano cheese.

Likewise, the balsamic glaze cooks down to about 1/3 - 1/2 a cup of liquid, more than you'll need for this salad. The leftover glaze will last in your fridge for quite a while. It's lovely over grilled meat and fresh or cooked veggies. Make sure to use fresh mozzarella, you want whole balls shrink wrapped in plastic or sold in tubs full of whey. I used boccocini, delicate bite sized rounds of fresh mozzarella, you can usually find them with the gourmet cheeses. 

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Slow Roasted Tomato Caprese Salad with Balsamic Glaze

by Aubrey Dunnuck July-10-2011

Grape and cherry tomatoes turn sweet and deeply flavorful after slow roasting in a low oven. Tossed with fresh mozzarella, basil, and a balsamic glaze you have a beautiful summer salad.

Ingredients

16 oz Cherry or Grape Tomatoes 2 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil 1 teaspoon Ground Coriander Seed 1 head fresh Garlic 1/2 teaspoon Kosher Salt 1/2 teaspoon ground Black Pepper 1 cup Balsamic Vinegar 8 oz fresh Mozzarella 4-5 large leaves fresh Basil

Instructions

Pre-heat your oven to 225˚F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Halve the tomatoes and separate the cloves of garlic, leaving them un-peeled. Toss tomatoes and garlic with olive oil, ground coriander, salt and pepper. Arrange tomatoes on the baking sheet - cut side up.

Roast tomatoes (and garlic) for around 3 hours, until the edges are wrinkled but the insides are still a bit juicy. I found that round cherry tomatoes tend to take a bit longer than oval shaped grape tomatoes.

To make the balsamic glaze - heat the balsamic vinegar in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Bring vinegar to a boil and allow to reduce by about half, until it's thick and glossy. This will probably take around 20-30 minutes, keep an eye on it so it doesn't burn.

When you're ready to serve your salad, tear the mozzarella into bite size chunks and chiffonade the basil. Then, in a medium sized serving bowl, toss basil with the mozzarella and a cup of the roasted tomatoes. Drizzle with the balsamic glaze and serve right away with some crusty bread! 

Details

Prep time: 30 mins Cook time: 3 hour Total time: 3 hour 30 mins Yield: 4 servings

Sugar Snap Pea Pickles

Oh man, it looks like I missed my blog-o-versary. Eat, repeat is now a little over three years old! Even more exciting, the blog just hit 100 RSS feed subscribers (now we're at 105!) which is awesome. Thanks so much to all of my readers and an extra special thanks to everyone who has commented on a post.

So! More pickles? I know, but I just can't help it. It's hot out and all I want to eat are cold briney salty crunchy veggies (although I wouldn't say no to some funnel cake from the fair, maybe.) In the last few weeks I've filled and re-filled so many jars of refrigerator pickles. Some better than others, but all pretty darn good. These peas definitely fall in the delicious category.

Spiced Citrus Amaretto Peaches with Lemon Mascarpone and Cinnamon Sugar Tortas

I have no air conditioning in my kitchen. I usually don't mind so much, except when it's 90 degrees and humid for two weeks in a row. It makes it hard to summon the energy to cook. Today I knew I needed to make something that didn't require turning on my oven. Thank goodness there's so much gorgeous fruit available right now. These peaches called to me at the co-op, firm and sweet smelling with pretty dappled pink skin. Macerated in a spicy citrus and amaretto mixture, peaches turn golden and syrupy around the edges while keeping their fresh summery flavor.

Lemon and Olive Oil Yogurt Cake with Fresh Blackberry Limoncello Sauce

You know those recipes or ingredients you read about and think, "that sounds awesome, I should try it" but never really get around to them? For me just a few of those things were; a quick yogurt cake, a fresh fruit puree or sauce, olive oil cake, crème fraiche... And, that's how this cake came together, I bought a few ingredients and then all of a sudden I had this fancy cake.

It started at the grocery store, blackberries were on sale for just a dollar per package. I bought two and thought, blackberry sauce! As I browsed the alcohol aisle, checking for sales, I remembered the gorgeous bottle of Limoncello Katy gave me for Christmas. Limoncello blackberry sauce sounded much more interesting than blackberries all by themselves.

The Best Broccoli

I was a pretty picky eater as a child, but I always ate my vegetables. Unless, of course, those vegetables were onions, cabbage, or chunky tomatoes. Broccoli though, broccoli I ate. It was a regular fixture at our dinner table, usually steamed or in stir fry or chicken soup. But since I've moved out I can count on one hand the number of times I've cooked broccoli for myself.

These days I roast most of my veggies. Roasted cabbage with jasmine rice is a weeknight standby, and springtime always means panfuls of garlic roasted asparagus. I had been considering roast broccoli for a while, but always fell back on the familiarity of other vegetables. But no more.  I think this recipe, which is just slightly adapted from this one by Ina Garten, will quickly make it into my regular meal rotation. I love the bite of the cheese and the creamy toasted nuts with the broccoli but, for simplicity's sake, they probably won't always make it into the dish. The garlic and lemon, however, are required.

Pickled Strawberry Jam

Was it just a few weeks ago that I wrote about making refrigerator pickles? Well, since then I've made all sort of veggie pickles; cucumbers, green beans, carrots, sugar snap peas (recipe coming soon!) And now, Pickled Strawberry Jam. But don't be scared of that "Pickled" in the title. Really the jam just starts out with a little vinegar, a few spices, and lots of sugar but ends up just barely tart with a hint of something extra. Something delicious.

Instant Chocolate Cinnamon Cup Cakes

I've never been much of a chocolate person. This has always baffled my father who will always, always, choose the most chocolaty item on the menu. When presented with a dessert menu I typically pick something like creme brulee, fruit cobbler or pie. But sometimes you're stuck at home on the third rainy day in a row with nothing sweet in your house except half a pint of ice crystal infested ice cream and some frosted shredded wheat. When all you want is quick but warm, homemade, satisfying dessert this is what you should make.

Spicy Garlic Green Bean Pickles

A few weeks ago I bought a bag of pre-trimmed, pre-washed, ready to cook/microwave/whatever bag of green beans. In February I made pot after pot of soup, so I figured I would use the beans for more soup. But then the weather shifted and we had a few weeks of warm sunny days, and suddenly soup didn't sound like such a great plan.

The beans were looking a little rough around the edges and nearing their expiration date before I finally took action. NYT linked me to a recipe on Food in Jars so of course I spent way too many hours surfing through the recipes there before I stumbled onto the page for Dilly Beans. In the recipe's comments Marisa writes about preparing the beans as refrigerator pickles, and I thought "I can do that!" Real canning isn't really something I have the patience/equipment/skillz to get into right now, but refrigerator pickles are definitely within my reach. You don't even need to heat the brine.

Fettuccine with Peas and Prosciutto

I made this pasta for the first time over a year ago with my friend Katy. We were planning her wedding and all of the sudden it was 7 pm and we were starving. I remember we were so indecisive, we spent at least half an hour trying to decide whether to go out to eat or make something at home. Finally we settled on this recipe out of the Everyday Food cookbook, mostly because Katy already had a pound of fettuccine and I had frozen peas.

It's pretty darn tasty. And it only takes around twenty minutes start to finish. Prep the garlic, lemon, prosciutto while your pasta water heats up, then start cooking the garlic when you drop the pasta. Totally easy. The lemon adds a brightness that really makes the dish. Going back through the recipes I've blogged, pretty much all of them feature lemons. When I was little I ate lemons as if they were oranges. So I guess it isn't surprising that so many of my favorite recipes include them.

White Bean and Pesto Soup

Ever since I got my super cute mini food processor for Christmas I've been dying to make some pesto. Of course, winter isn't exactly the best time for basil so pesto got put in the back burner until yesterday. Bloomingfoods had some lovely living basil plants so I scooped one up, went straight home, and tried out this soup.

Momofuku Crack Pie

This pie is ridiculous, to make and to eat. It's basically a bunch of butter, sugar, and eggs baked up into a delicious gooey sugary mess of a pie. My friend Katy and I made the pie for an Oscar Party last weekend. We're planning a trip to NYC in April and Momofuku Milk Bar (pork buns! cereal milk soft serve!) is most definitely on our list of must-eats. Apparently a whole pie at Milk Bar is $44 :O so, one less thing to try when we get there.

Crispy Brown Butter Pecan Cookies

I love the idea of brown butter. I mean, what's better than plain ol' butter? Butter with extra delicious flavor! These cookies are all about the butter. They're rich and crunchy, and just as decadent as chocolate. The pecans are the perfect complement to the brown butter, adding a really nice extra texture. All that butter makes these cookies quite crispy. They're not soft at all in the middle. In most cases I prefer a cookie with a soft middle and browned edges but for these it just worked. I'm sure if you really want them a bit less crunchy they could be pulled from the oven a little early.

Tomato Sauce with Butter and Onion

Back in August I wrote about Topo Gigio and the amazing seafood pasta my sister ordered. That pasta had fantastic calamari and mussels and scallops but what made it really delicious was the sauce. It had the most perfect tomato flavor with minimal chunks and an underlying richness. I dreamed of that pasta for months. Then, in November, I found myself devouring months and months of posts from Orangette. When I came across Molly's blog on tomato sauce I thought, 'I can do that.' So I did. And with my first taste it was like 'that's it!' It's probably not exactly like the sauce from Topo Gigio, but it's close enough for me.

Almond Coconut Macaroons

Oh man are these delicious. And so freakin' easy. And easy, as you might have noticed, is quite important to me. Back in my undergraduate days my bff/roommate, Katy, and I would buy bags of Archway coconut macaroons from Marsh and eat one after another while watching Law & Order repeats in the middle of the afternoon. Those were pretty good, but this recipe blows them out of the water. They get gorgeously golden brown and crispy around the edges but stay moist and soft on the inside. Even my dad liked them and he doesn't even eat coconut. If only I'd known macaroons were so simple, I would have been making them for years!