Recipes
Lions Mane Cakes
· ½ pound Lions mane Mushrooms (Medium Box)
· ¼ cup minced scallion or onion
· ¼ cup minced bell pepper
· ½ cup panko breadcrumbs
· ¼ cup high fat mayonnaise or veganaise
· 2 tablespoons chopped herbs like cilantro, chives, or parsley
· 1 tablespoon Worcestershire or soy sauce
· 1 teaspoon Old Bay Seasoning optional, a mix of paprika, cayenne, and extra salt can be substituted
· 1 large egg
· Kosher salt to taste
Directions:
1: Pull the lions mane mushrooms into pieces to resemble crab meat. Put the mushrooms in a pan and sauté until the mushrooms are slightly wilted and have given up some water.
2: Allow the mushrooms to cool, then squeeze out as much water as you possibly can.
3: Combine the mushrooms with the other ingredients and mix well.
4: To cook the cakes, form patties of the mixture. We have had best results using a ring mold (a mason jar lid works great!)
5: Heat a pan with a few tablespoons of oil
6: Cook each side of the cake until golden brown to your liking.
7: Enjoy over a bed of farm greens or as a sandwich with local bread! Top with remoulade or hollandaise (or a poached egg!) for true decadency.
Enjoy!
Mushroom Risotto
Courtesy of Ann Buchsbaum
Ingredients:
4T olive oil
4T butter
3T minced shallots
4 cups hot chicken broth
1 cup grated fresh Parmesan
2 cups arborio rice
Hot water as needed
Salt and pepper to taste
1 lb Rich Life Mushrooms (Large Variety Box)
In a big heavy bottomed pan, melt butter with olive oil. Sautee shallots about 2 minutes. Add rice, stir well to coat, sautee another 2 min. Begin adding hot broth, about a cup at a time, stirring until liquid is absorbed before adding more. After 10 min of cooking, add trimmed, coarsely chopped mushrooms. Keep stirring and adding broth until rice is cooked al dente. Use hot water instead of broth for part of the liquid if the broth is getting too strong in the dish. When rice is cooked, take off the heat and stir in grated Parmesan. S&P to taste. Top with fresh herbs if available. Enjoy!
Savory Mushroom/Goat Cheese Tart (serves 6-8)
Courtesy of John Bostick
Savory tarts are wonderful to serve for appetizers, brunch, a main course with a mixed salad for a light dinner and to have around for family and guests to eat whenever someone has a hunger. This tart has a lot of possibilities to add/subtract different ingredients. I have probably made over 20 variations depending on what onions are available, what mushrooms, herbs, whole milk versus skim, ½ and ½ or even heavy cream. The key is to think through the “balance” of flavors, fat, savory, and the profile of herbs that you are trying to create. Have fun!
Prep Time: 20-30 minutes
Dough Chilling Time: 75-90 minutes
Cook Time: 75 minutes
Basic 2 single pastry crusts
2 cups, unbleached white flour
½ cup ice water (purified)
¾ to 1 cup of “fat” (following a general Flour to Fat ratio of 2:1)
¾ teas. salt (if I am using salted butter for fat, use ½ teas. instead)
Mushroom filling
3 TB olive oil
1 cup minced shallots (or your choice of spring onions, ramps, sweet onions, red onion)
1 teas. minced garlic
1 lb. oyster, chestnut or oyster mushrooms, diced into ½ inch pieces
½ cup white wine
2 teas. minced fresh thyme
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper for seasoning
2 TB minced fresh parsley
1/2 TB minced fresh rosemary
3 extra large eggs
¾ cup milk (skim, 2% or whole milk are all fine)
½ cup goat cheese, crumbled (add a little more if you are using a leaner milk...3/4 cups).
¼ teas. freshly grated nutmeg
Options to consider:
1 TB of porcini powder in the pastry dough
2 TB freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano in the pastry dough
Sub ½ cup parma, ¾ cup white cheddar, or an Italian 4-cheese mix instead of Goat.
Tart dough recipe:
• Combine the flour and salt in the bowl of a food processor with steel blade OR use two butter knives to “chop/slice up” the butter into the flour. The goal is to cut the fat into the flour and create “many layers” of fat. Most fat has water in it and thus, the water evaporates quickly in a hot oven giving the pastry dough a flakiness that one desires.
• Pulse the food processor 8-10 times until the butter is “cut” into the flour. Put into large glass bowl.
• Pour about 1/3 cup of the chilled water over the flour mixture. Using a spatula and the heel of your hand, push the flour mixture together with the water to form a single ball. Keep sprinkling/adding the rest of the water. The objective is to create one ball without the heat of your hand “melting” the butter into the flour. Handing the dough ball as little as possible will also keep the gluten inactivated. Create 2 4-inch flat discs with the dough, place in plastic bag and into the freezer for an hour or so (or refrigerate overnight).
Mushroom filling recipe:
• Over medium heat, sauté the shallots and garlic in the olive oil for 5 minutes, stirring and not letting the mixture brown.
• Add the mushrooms and continue to sauté for 10 minutes. Mushrooms are water-based so they will start to shrink as you cook them (releasing the steam).
• Add the white wine and herbs to mushrooms and cook down to where there is very little moisture in the pan. The idea is to get the mushroom mixture very dry. You can reduce heat to low and cook longer if you would like. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Let cool.
• Combine the mushroom mixture with the milk, eggs, goat cheese and nutmeg.
Pre-bake the pastry crust:
• Rollout pastry crust for a 10” tart or pie pan. Prick the dough 5-6 times with fork tines. Cover with foil and freeze rolled out pastry dough for 1 hour.
• Pre-heat oven with the rack in the middle to 375 degrees.
• Take out of Place foil and then pie weights in tart/pie pan and bake for 20 minutes. Remove weights and foil. Finish baking for 10 more minutes being careful not to let the top over-brown in color.
• Take out of oven and cool.
Finishing the tart:
• Reduce oven to 350 degrees, rack still in the middle.
• Pour mushroom mixture into baked tart shell.
• Bake for 20-30 minutes until the custard is set.
• Remove from oven and cool.
Lemony Chicken Picatta with Mushrooms over Tagliatelle Pasta (Serves 4)
Courtesy of John Bostick
2 large skinless, boneless chicken breasts, about 1 lb.
Mix together into a seasoned flour:
½ teas. sea salt
¼ teas. freshly ground black pepper
½ cup unbleached white flour
¼ teas. dried thyme
¼ teas. dried oregano, crushed between your fingers
¼ teas. granulated garlic
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into pieces
3 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 lb. oyster mushrooms (or chestnuts), thinly sliced
½ cup dry white wine
½ cup chicken stock
2 Tbsp. drained capers, coarsely chopped
3 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
¼ cup minced parsley
Pasta
Preparation
Step 1
Slice chicken breasts in half crosswise into 4 cutlets and pound each piece between sheets of plastic wrap or parchment paper until an even thickness (about ½" thick or less). Dredge through seasoned flour, shake off and place aside. Start your water for the pasta on another medium-high burner.
Step 2
Heat butter and olive oil in a 12-14 inch skillet over medium-high. Working in batches if needed to avoid overcrowding the pan, cook cutlets, without moving them, until deeply browned underneath, about 3 minutes. Turnover and cook on the other side just until chicken is nearly cooked through, about 2 minutes.
Step 3
Add mushrooms, wine, chicken stock to pan with chicken still in the pan. Move chicken around with mushrooms. The liquid will start to simmer and evaporate. Keep on medium heat as the sauce thickens with the mushrooms cooking into the sauce. Simmer for 5-8 minutes. Follow directions for pasta (7 minutes for al dente).
Step 4
Add lemon juice and capers to mixture moving the chicken and mushrooms around to mix into the sauce the lemon juice and capers. Simmer about 1 minute or until the sauce creates a medium thick coating on the back of a spoon. Remove from heat,
Step 4
Drain pasta, mix into pasta about ½ cup of the sauce. Assemble with chicken, mushrooms, and garnish with minced parsley.