The BEST Sauteed Mushrooms EVER!

Today I wanted to share with you a way I have recently discovered to make the very best sauteed mushrooms we have ever enjoyed.  Normally I would saute mushrooms with butter, onion, Worcestershire sauce and a few seasonings like fresh garlic, salt, pepper and even a bit of Italian seasoning.  That is a lot going on there.  No more!  The way I have discovered is the best ever!  Trust me on this one! My girls ask me to make mushrooms all the time, even if the really don't go with the meal.  

I have recently been able to get some beautiful white button mushrooms from my farm store where we get our milk.  They are hands down, but prettiest mushrooms I have seen in a long time and since I can get them in bulk,  I can make as much or as little as I like, however I normally make at least one pound at a time, but today I am doing two because we are having these along with a hot hamburger plate for dinner.

These start with a half a stick of butter, melted, then I add the cleaned  mushrooms to the pan and toss them in the butter.  Then I add a teaspoon of beef bullion powder and a teaspoon of seasoning.  I am using a garlic pepper seasoning called "Harlem Garlic Pepper" from Badia, I am totally addicted to this seasoning and have been adding it to a lot of different dishes as of late.  This is super garlicky.  Like garlic and garlic and garlic and black pepper and salt.  I get mine at my local Food Lion in the Latin foods section, but anywhere that sells this brand or has a great Latin food selection, will have this seasoning.  Badia is one of my favorite ethnic brands and I have a lot of different selections from them in my spice collection because they are delicious and affordable!

Toss all those spices and bullion powder in with the mushrooms and then put a lid on your pan, over medium high heat.  Leave it alone, don't even peek for at least 15 minutes.  When you come back the pan will be filled with all those good mushroom juices mixed with the butter.  Now remove the lid and let the pan continue to simmer for another 10 minutes or until most of the liquid is evaporated and the sauce is reduced.  When you come back the pan will sound like it is sizzling a bit.  This will be a good indicator that all the water is gone and all you have left is mushrooms, butter and amazing concentrated flavor!

Now enjoy taste these mushrooms and tell me they are not amazing!  The earthy flavor of the mushroom really comes out and is enhanced by that little bit of bullion powder and seasoning.  These are perfect in my opinion.  When your teenagers ask you repeatedly for something, you know it must be good.  If you are not a mushroom lover, I apologize, but you are really missing out!  

I hope you give this method of sauteing mushrooms a try because I promise you that you are going to love them!

Happy Eating!

You can see how I made these in my YouTube video:

Noreen's Kitchen

 Best EVER

Sauteed' Mushrooms

Ingredients

2 pounds button mushrooms, cleaned 4 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon beef bullion powder 1 teaspoon garlic pepper seasoning

Step by Step Instructions

Melt butter in a large heavy bottomed skillet or stock pot over medium high heat.

Add mushrooms and stir to coat.

Add bullion powder and garlic pepper and stir well to combine.

Cover and allow to cook for 15 minutes or until the mushrooms have rendered all their liquid and have become soft.

Remove lid and continue to cook over medium high heat until you hear a sizzle, the liquid has evaporated and the mushrooms are lightly browned.  All that should be left in the pan is a beautiful buttery mushroom sauce and mushrooms. 

Serve with your favorite steak, meat loaf, or anything you like!

Enjoy!

Meatless Never Tasted So good! Vegetable Stacks ~ Vegetarian Sheet Pan Dinner!!

Here is a great dinner option for meatless Monday or any day!  Vegetable stacks, vegetarian sheet pan dinner is easy to make and nobody in your family is going to miss the meat!  We really enjoyed this meal and served along with some ancient grains blend that I cooked up in the pressure cooker, this meal was simply delicious!  

We have been wanting to share this for a while and we have had it a couple of times so far this summer and we all really enjoy the simplicity of this meal.  Super simple to make and even the leftovers can be folded into leftover rice, quinoa or couscous for an awesome riff on a tabbouleh salad the next day!

I used some giant portobello mushroom caps from the warehouse store and some thick sliced eggplant, yellow and zuccini squash along with some thick sliced Vidalia onions.  I marinated each veggie in a zip top bag with some of our favorite zesty Italian dressing for 15 to 20 minutes then laid them on a sheet pan lined with a silicone baking mat.  

We baked off the veggies for 20 to 25 minutes until they reached our desired doneness and then created our vegetable stacks on top of the prepared quinoa blend that had been prepared pilaf style.

You can always change up the dressing/marinade and make this with a delicious teriyaki or Asian sesame dressing, or Greek, French or even just some oil and balsamic vinegar would be great!  You decide which direction to take.  No matter what you choose I know it will be delicious!

I hope you give this vegetarian sheet pan dinner a try and I hope you love these vegetable stacks!

Happy Eating!

You can get a printable version of the recipe here:  http://bit.ly/1UwjWb2



You can see how I did this in my YouTube video:

Noreen's Kitchen

Vegetable Stacks

Vegetarian Sheet Pan Dinner

Ingredients

4 portobello mushroom caps 2 medium sized eggplant 2 large sweet onions 2 zucchini

2 yellow squash 2 cups marinade or dressing of choice salt and pepper to taste

Step by Step Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Clean the gills from the portobello mushrooms and set aside.

Slice eggplant, and squash into 1/2 inch slices.

Slice onion in 1/2 thick slices and place on skewers to make turning easier.  I put two slices per skewer.

Place 1/2 cup of dressing or marinade into a zip top bag and add the mushroom caps.  Seal the bag and distribute the dressing to coat the mushrooms.  Set aside for 15 t0 20 minutes.

Do the same with the rest of the vegetables and allow them to marinate for at least 15 minutes.

Lay the vegetables in a single layer on two sheet pans that you have lined with either foil or silicone mats.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until the vegetables reach your preferred doneness. 

Remove from oven and allow to sit for five minutes before preparing the stacks.

Build stacks by arranging a bed of quinoa, rice or couscous on the bottom of the plate and stacking a mushroom cap on the bottom then squash, onion and topping of with a slice of eggplant.

You can sprinkle with parsley or drizzle with more dressing or marinade if desired before serving.

This is a dish best eaten fresh, however leftover roasted vegetable can be chopped and mixed with any of your leftover rice, quinoa or couscous to make a version of tabbouleh salad that you can eat as a lunch the next day.

What's for Dinner? Ground Beef Wellington

Filet Mignon Taste and a Ground Beef Budget

Since I have been doing my videos for Youtube, I have had more than one adventurous viewer request that I demonstrate how to cook Beef Wellington.  Now you can imagine the first ever request for this fancy schamncy dish put me over the top, but then I got another and then another.  What to do?

I can assure you that I, although well versed in the kitchen have never attempted to make such a culinary wonder, but I was up for the challenge.  The only thing holding me back?  The economy!  Taking a look around at the current state of the economy had me worried that making such a dish would be like rubbing salt into the wound of a broken and flat broke foodie.  Beef Wellington is amazing with its layers of flakey pastry wrapped lovingly around a beef tenderloin that has been buddied up with duxcel of mushrooms and goose liver pate and tenderly brushed with nothing but the best Dijon mustard.  But lets be real, this is not a dish for the faint of heart nor the weak of wallet!

So what was I to do?  I did what any self respecting video blogger would do.  I politely ignored the request and went along my happy way doing other things to please and tantalize the pallets of my viewers.  Then one day, not so long ago, I was visiting the store and I saw it, Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution Cookbook.  Now I am a huge fan of Jamie, having followed him all along from his days being dubbed the Naked Chef and boy was I happy to leaf through this book in the store, but as I leafed I realized that I needed to take this book home.  Much like a visit to the pound will result in you acquiring another pet, a visit to the bookstore will most assuredly guarantee the procurement of one if not several new tomes.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I read cookbooks from cover to cover along with a stack of sticky notes to mark the recipes that I will be trying.  You should also probably know that I am a self professed cookbook junkie, having spent years building a library that would rival the most intense cook among us.  But like cats, there is always room for one more.   One afternoon while reading this book, page after page, sitting the waiting room of the doctors office, I discovered this lovely recipe for Ground Beef Wellington.  This was the answer!  I was so excited, I believe I embarrassed my daughter but at 13 that is not hard to do. 

So, now I had everything I needed, a great recipe, an answer to the expensive problem and you.  Everyone can afford a pound of ground beef, along with the other ingredients, this dish did not cost a lot to make.  In all, this dish can cost anywhere from $10.00 to $15.00 depending on if you purchase organic meat or regular.  The puff pastry is around $4.00 and the other ingredients are all easy to come by.  Don’t want to use Portabellos?  Use Criminis they are smaller and they are actually baby portobellos, or you can just use regular white button mushrooms.  But don’t leave out the mushrooms and don’t forget that potato is important too, because the starch from it will help to absorb any of the liquid from the veggies and meat as it cooks in it’s little pastry cocoon.  I made the mistake of leaving out the potato, and while the dish was still amazing, I saw why the spud was necessary.

So without further Adieu, I give you the fanciest meatloaf you will ever make:  Ground Beef Wellington.

GROUND BEEF WELLINGTON

Here is what you will need to make this dish:

1 medium onion chopped

1 carrot chopped

2 stalks of celery chopped

2 garlic cloves chopped

2 Portobello Mushrooms roughly chopped

1 potato finely diced

Olive oil (around a tablespoon)

1 Teaspoon of Marjoram, Thyme or Rosemary

1 Large egg beaten

Sea salt

Cracked Black Pepper

2 Sheets Puff Pastry (I used 1 box of Pepperidge Farm Brand it’s in the freezer)

In a large skillet heat olive oil.  Sautee’ all veggies until soft and the potato is fully cooked, around 15 minutes.  Place the hot veggies on a small baking sheet and spread out into a thin layer.  Place the sheet in the fridge for around 15 minutes and allow to cool.

In a large bowl, combine the veggies, ground beef, salt, pepper, herb of your choice and half of the beaten egg.  Blend with your hands until the mixture is well combined.  Set aside while we work with the pastry.

Lightly flour a board or your counter and take the puff pastry and unfold both sheets and slightly overlap them and roll together.  Do not make the mistake of leaving them out for too long, because they will stick to themselves as mine did, but I just rolled them together with a rolling pin and everything was fine.

Your puff pastry should be around 12 inches by 16 inches with the long side in front of you.  Take the meat mixture and form a long log or sausage shape toward the long front side of the pastry.  Brush the remaining egg mixture along all edges, this will act as a glue to keep the pastry together while cooking.  Roll the pastry around the beef mixture and roll, leaving the seam side down under the log and pinching the ends together so the whole thing looks like a loaf of French bread. 

Transfer to a baking sheet line with parchment paper and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.  Remove from oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes before slicing. 

I served this with steamed cauliflower with browned butter bread crumbs.  There is no need to make a starch because the puff pastry is rich enough.  A green salad on the side would be a lovely addition as well. 

I hope you try this and I hope you enjoy it.  Look for Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution Cookbook, along with this recipe there are lots more that are wonderful and I look forward to making some of them for you.  I also understand that he is coming out with a new book very soon dealing with 30 minute meals.  Check it out, you will not be disappointed! 

I hope you try this and I hope you enjoy it.  As always Happy Eating!