Cornish Game Hens

For those of us who live by ourselves, it's kinda hard to find dishes to cook just for one. I looked forever for a "cooking for one" cookbook (they do exist, but they all suck...suggestions welcome). So of course cooking a whole chicken never even crossed my mind. But aha, the cornish game hen....perfect. It's like a littler cuter chicken, and things are always better when they're small and cute. So below is what happened for dinner...yum. It could have had garlic in the stuffing (probs 3 or 4 cloves, sliced), but that's about all the complaints I have.

1 cornish game hen
2 slices bacon

Stuffing
6 pearl onions, peeled and sliced in half
1/4 c frozen peas
1/4 c carrots, finely chopped
4 button mushrooms, sliced
2 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper

Herb Rub
1 tbsp dried basil
1 tbsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried thyme
salt and pepper

Sauce
1 tbsp dijon mustard
2 tbsp dry white wine
2 tsp flour

Season the outside and inside of the hen with the herb mixture.
Combine the vegetables with 1 tbsp olive oil and stuff the hen to capacity
Place the hen in a small pan, sprinkling the remaining vegetables around it
Criss cross the bacon around the hen, tucking it under to secure it
Drizzle it with remaining tbsp olive oil
Pour one cup of chicken stock around the hen
Roast at 400 for 45 minutes or until a thermometer in the thickest part reads 170
Remove from oven, pour remaining stock and vegetables into a sauce pan
Add mustard, wine and flour and simmer, whisking often, until the sauce thickens, approx 3 minutes

Quiche

A couple of weeks ago (ok, it was more like a couple of months, what can I say, I've been busy) I found myself hosting a brunch at the last moment. And having never served brunch, I was excited but unsure of what I was going to serve. But serious showed up with all the makings for a couple of tasty quiches. And they were yummy, like little egg and veggie cakes. Since then I've been craving more quiche....MORE QUICHE! So I made myself one the other day, and it's so easy! Perfect for a last minute brunch, or dinner, whatever. I have the ingredients for the one I made but you can pretty much add whatever you want (ie - all you cheese lovers will probably want to put some shredded cheese in).

Quiche

1 pie crust (you could make your own, but a frozen one works just fine)
7 eggs, beaten
2 scallions, chopped
1/4 green pepper, chopped
2 shallots, chopped
3-4 mushrooms, chopped (I used Baby Bellas, but any would work)


Combine all the ingredients and pour into the pie crust. Bake at 400 for 30 minutes or until firm. Will need salt.

Bolognese for a cold house

With Thanksgiving weekend comes the annual Muffin family tradition of closing down the country house. But this of course follows 3 or so days of staying there in the freezing cold. There's a reason we only go out in the summer, basically, there's no central heating and the house is about as airtight as swiss cheese (haha, get it?). So on the first night, when the Muffin parents, Beatz, Maple Leaf, and me were shivering inside an icebox of a house (the temp was about 45 degrees after a few hours of running space heaters) I decided we needed some comfort food, to warm you from the inside. And there's nothing heartier than a Bolognese, in my humble opinion. So I went back to my Williams Sonoma Italian cookbook (one of them) to find the perfect recipe. And voila!



1 oz dried porcini mushrooms
3 tbsp butter
2 tbsp olive oil
1 small carrot, chopped
1 celery stalk, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
just under 1 lb ground beef
1/2 c fresh parsley, chopped
1/4 c white wine
5-6 plum tomatoes, seeded and chopped
pinch of nutmeg
salt and pepper
1 1/2 lb fresh fettuccine


Place porcini in lukewarm water to cover, soak until softened, approx 20 minutes
Drain and squeeze out excess water, slice
Melt the butter and oil over medium heat
Add the carrot, celery, onion and cook until very tender (15 minutes)
Add beef and 2 tbsp parsley, raise heat to high. Cook 3-4 minutes
Add porcini and wine, cook, stirring often until the wine evaporates
Add the tomatoes, nutmeg, salt, pepper and 1 cup water, reduce heat to low
Stir well, cover and simmer until sauce reduces considerably, at least 1 hour

Toss with fresh pasta and sprinkle remaining fresh parsley over top.

Mushroomies!

So I've been kinda busy, and thus not posting...like, ever. But hey, this muffin's got a new job that's not giving me much time to do anything, let alone cook. But a few weeks ago, I had a chance to sit and breathe and watch some tv. And I made a major breakthrough on on my road to liking mushrooms, and it's all thanks to Madame Ina Garten. I haven't taken a recipe from tv in a while, my food network watching has kind of dropped off a bit, but I happened on the Hamptons Food Queen the other day and found this sauteed mushroom recipe. And it's pretty super yummy actually. The parsley added at the end makes it fresh and light, but the heartiness of the mushrooms makes it almost a main dish (if you don't have any meat lying around that is). And remember to add a lot of salt, the mushrooms just absorb it right up.

3 shallots, chopped
1 lb mushrooms, sliced
5 tbsp butter
3 cloves garlic
1/2 c parsley, chopped
salt

Melt 2 tbsp of the butter over med-high head until it bubbles. Saute the shallots in the butter until soft. Add the remaining 3 tbsp butter. When the butter has melted add the mushrooms and salt. Cook the mushrooms until the liquid has evaporated. Add the garlic and more salt and cook for a couple minutes until softened. Add the parsley and serve. Nom nom nom...

Stuffed Mushrooms

As I've mentioned before, I'm now in possession of two awesome grilling cookbooks, so this past summer I began experimenting with slapping whatever I could find down on the grill (ie-here and here).  And to mostly good results, I mean, this is how we've been cooking things for thousands of years, right?  How hard can it be?  (I'm resisting a Geico caveman joke here, you're welcome).

I was feeling particularly adventurous one day, and I came across this recipe for stuffed mushrooms and zucchini.  Basically you take the mushrooms stems and the scooped out insides of the zucchini, chop them up with some other things and make a stuffing.  Once their insides are back in them, throw them on the grill.  I found, however, that the zucchini didn't work so well on the grill.  Their skins got tough and difficult to chew, while the insides were undercooked.  So I simplified and decided to throw everything in the mushrooms, including entire zucchinis.  The one downside is you tend to end up with an abundance of stuffing, but there are worse things.

I also learned that these can be roasted.  The reason I know this is that one day, after preparing these tasty treats for the grill, well...let's just say there was some serious rain.  I heard that roasting something at 400 is approximately the same (at least temperature-wise) as grilling it.  So I gave it a shot and yay!  It worked.

12-15 large white mushrooms
2 tbsp olive oil
2 zucchini, finely chopped
1 small onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 c bread crumbs
1 tbsp fresh oregano
1/4 c heavy cream
salt and pepper

Remove the stems from the mushrooms and chop finely. Heat the oil over medium heat. Saute the mushroom stems, zucchini, onion and garlic until tender and any liquid released from the mushrooms is evaporated. Remove from heat.

In a large bowl, combine the vegetable mixture with the oregano, bread crumbs, and heavy cream. Add the bread crumbs and cream gradually, so as not to get too much of one or the other. The mixture should be moist, but stick together a bit. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Brush the tops of the mushroom caps with olive oil and then fill them with the bread crumb mixture. The stuffing should form a heaping mound on top of the mushroom.

Roast (at 400) or grill mushrooms for approx 15 minutes, until they are tender when pierced with knife. If you are roasting them, sprinkle some more bread crumbs over the top before placing them in the oven. This should give them a slightly crispy top.

Muffin and the Mushroom

In the interest of not furthering the limitation of my palate, I've been on this mission to make myself like mushrooms. My initial mushroom opinion was one of extreme hatred, all kinds of mushrooms tasted nasty to me and the only reason I would eat them is if they happened to have some other use (if you know what I'm saying...wink wink, nudge nudge). The main problem I've always had with mushrooms is the texture. In fact, most of the foods I choose not to partake of have textures, rather than flavors, that I intensely dislike (ie - eggplant, okra). With fungi though, there is something about that slimy, mushy-yet-firm combo that really doesn't work for me. But I realized that the inherent flavor is actually quite appealing to me, it's almost meaty. (Interesting side-note: I have a vegetarian friend who stopped eating portobello mushrooms because they tasted too much like meat. I can totally see that, but being the raging carnivore that I am, this only makes me like them more.)

But moving on, I had a couple of rather more pleasant mushroom tasting experiences, and now I want more. So I decided the best course of action would be to actually cook them myself. Then I could make sure to make them how I like them (ie - not the slimy, mushy-yet-firm combo).

I began cooking down the mushrooms in garlic and oil, and this wonderful earthy aroma took over my kitchen. As my astute roommate mentioned (another mushroom disliker, I might add), as they cook down in oil and garlic, they smell like wine. I agree, and who doesn't love the scent of alcohol cooking...anyone?

This recipe is adapted from Food & Wine's Pasta Cookbook.

Pasta with Mushrooms and Parsley

1/2 c olive oil
5 cloves garlic, chopped
1 lb mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 lb pasta (I used bucatini, but any rod pasta will work)
4-5 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
salt

Begin heating salted water for the pasta.
In a large skillet, heat the oil over med-high heat. Add the garlic and saute for 1-2 min. Add the mushrooms and cook down (they will give off a lot of liquid, let this evaporate off) until they are browned and almost crunchy (approx 10-15 min).
Toss with the pasta, fresh parsley and salt to taste.