I went wild in the kitchen (Jenny, if you like mushrooms, take note!)

Subject line is stolen from the title of a vegetarian cookbook written by Leslie Cerier, who lives in town and whose daughter played with Samurai for many years on soccer teams:

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Going-Wild-in-the-Kitchen/Leslie-Cerier/e/9780757000911

I made three vegan dishes yesterday for the UU new member dinner. People liked all of them, but the hit was from Leslie's cookbook, with omnivores and the one vegan all wanting the recipe. I made it to be a "savory topper for toasted bread" (like an appetizer), but it ended up as a side dish. Leslie, the author, also notes that it can go on top of pasta. (I doubled the recipe that follows, and thought I'd end up with too much left over. Nope!)

Carrots with Wild Mushrooms and Basil
Yields 4-6 servings

1/4 cup dried porcini mushrooms
1 cup dried shitake mushroom caps
3 cups coarsely chopped portabella mushrooms
2 cups coarsely chopped carrots
2/3 cup coarsely chopped onions
7 gloves garlic, thickly sliced
4 1/3 tablespoons fresh basil, or 1 1/2 tablespoons dried
1/4 extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 cup chopped parsley

[NOTES: I already had SLICED dried shitake mushroom caps from an Asian food store, purchased last week when I wanted to make soup. I used packages of pre-sliced "baby bella" mushrooms, much cheaper than the big ones (even without being on sale! And they were ...). Since the whole caps or larger portabellas would end up sliced anyway, I figured it wouldn't matter. I also used half the garlic.]


1.Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
2. Place dried mushrooms in small bowl and cover with water. Let stand 20 minutes or until softened. Remove and slice. Discard the soaking water, or save for soup stock or to water plants. *
3. Transfer the sliced porcini and shitake to a covered crock or baking dish, along with the portabella mushrooms, carrots, onions, garlic, basil, oil, and salt. Toss well.
4. Cover and bake for 35 minutes, or until the carrots are tender. Adjust the seasonings, if desired.
5. Add the parsley to the vegetables, stir and serve


Leslie notes "For a change . . . . Soak the dried porcini and shitake mushrooms in wine or stock instead of water."


* I saved the soaking water because it smelled heavenly! I have a lot of cut-up vegetable from another appetizer tray left over, and will see what I can do between the water and the vegetables. Maybe cook some udon or other noodles in the water and make a stir fry . . . and thicken the stir fry with a little more of the water and corn starch or something.

Vegan stuffed mushrooms

Another recipe from yesterday. It was surprisingly hard to find stuffed mushrooms that didn't involve some sort of cheese! People liked these, too, but unless I have specifically to cook for a vegan, I have other stuffed mushroom recipes I prefer. (Oh, and I did *not* include the optional dried cranberries or pecans.)

Still, for those vegan friends who may not be aware of this site:

http://thegoodeatah.blogspot.com/2009/02/vegan-stuffed-mushrooms.html

And finally . . . the second-most-popular recipe I brought

http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=26131.0

I didn't use roma tomatoes as "bottoms." People liked these a lot, some of them not even realizing until first bite that they were eating yellow squash and zucchini rounds instead of round crackers! The pesto by itself, not spread on a round, also made a nice dip with the veggie tray's carrot and celery sticks.

For all three of these recipes, a food processor came in handy!

One more : Ashura, or Noah's Pudding (Blue Leaf, take note!)

I didn't make this one, but the Rumi Club (a group of Muslim grad students at UMass -- and a striking group, indeed!), showed up at the end of our UU service yesterday to offer us Noah's Pudding, a traditional dish from Turkey and other parts of the Middle East that is served to guests and friends on the 10th of Muharram in the Islamic Calendar. It celebrates the landing of Noah's ark. Noah had made this pudding the day before out of the little food left on the ark.

"Sharing Noah's pudding is a symbolic representation of the unity and essential relationship of humans to one another and to their Creator."

1 cup wheat
1 cup white beans
1 cup garbanzo beans
1 cup raisins (I think they used golden raisins)
1 cup almonds
3/4 cup peanuts
12 dried apricots
5 1/2 cups sugar water (enough to cover)

toppings: ground walnuts, cinnamon

Soak wheat, white beans, garbanzo beans and almonds in water overnight. Boil the above, remove the outer shell or skin.

Soak the raisins in boiling water until they soften.

Put all ingredients above in a large pot and boil. Add the peanuts and almonds (peeled and cut in half) at this point.

Chop the apricots into small pieces; add to the water along with sugar.

Boil for 10-15 minutes.

Makes 30 servings for you and your neighbors.


A seemingly odd combination, but very tasty! I'm not sure what they meant by "wheat" -- wheat germ? Seemed like it from the consistency. If anyone knows better, please correct me!