Golden Mushroom Soup

This soup turned out GREAT - so great, in fact, that our children ate it all gone in a matter of minutes, leaving their Dad and I with nothing.  I will be making this often during the colder months.

Golden Mushroom Soup

Ingredients:

• 2 T butter
• 1 C sweet onion, chopped
• 1/2 C white wine
• 4 C (about 32 ounces) baby Portabella mushrooms, washed and sliced
• 4 T soy sauce
• 1 T paprika
• 1 C vegetable stock
• 1 1/2 C heavy cream
• 2 T lemon juice
• salt and pepper

Directions:   Heat butter in a large pot and cook the onions over medium heat until they start to brown.  

Add the wine and mushrooms, stirring well, and cook about 5 minutes.   Add the soy, paprika and stock.   Cover and simmer for about 15 minutes. 

 

Turn heat to low and slowly add the heavy cream, whisking as you add it.   Finally add the lemon juice, then salt and pepper to taste and serve with crusty bread!

Candy Cap Mushrooms, Marx Foods and an inspiration!

I was invited by Marx Foods to participate in their Candy Cap recipe contest.   "What's a Candy Cap" you ask... it's a little gem of a mushroom that smells just like maple syrup.   Seriously, as soon as I unpacked the little sealed baggie, my entire kitchen smelled like breakfast!   My task was to come up with an original recipe using those tasty morsels.   Throughout the day, all I could think of was breakfast... but I wanted to make dinner.   Fried Chicken and Waffles came to mind, but I wanted something original.   I ended up marinating some chicken in maple syrup and created a Candy Cap Risotto that was OH SO GOOD!   Now I'm sharing my recipe with you!   If you haven't tried Candy Cap mushrooms, put it as a must on your list!

Maple marinated Chicken with Candy Cap Risotto

Ingredients:

• 4 chicken breasts, rinsed and patted dry
• 1/2 C maple syrup
• 3 strips bacon, chopped
• 1 medium shallot, minced
• 2 C hot water
• Candy Cap mushrooms, reconstituted and rough chopped
• 2 C vegetable or chicken broth
• 1 1/2 C arborio rice
• 2 T butter
• 1 t brown sugar
  
• salt and pepper

Directions:   Trim all fat from chicken breasts, rinse and pat dry then marinate them in a zip lock bag with maple syrup for an hour.
 

 Heat 2 C water until at a boil and add the Candy Cap mushrooms to reconstitute.   Let sit for 5 minutes, remove from water, rough chop and set aside. 

In a small sauce pan over medium heat, add mushroom water and 2 C chicken or vegetable stock.   Meanwhile, cook bacon until done and drain on a paper towel.   Use bacon drippings to saute minced shallot then add the arborio rice and saute a few more minutes. 

Add a ladle of hot stock mixture to the rice, stirring well, until the liquid is absorbed.   It's important to keep stirring the rice as the stock is absorbed then add another ladle when the rice is almost dry.   Keep this up, a ladle at a time, for about 20-30 minutes or until the rice is tender but firm.   When the stock is almost gone, add the chopped Candy Cap mushrooms, butter, brown sugar and salt and pepper to taste.

As the rice is cooking and using an outdoor grill, cook your chicken until done.   Crumble cooked bacon.

To assemble your delicious dinner, start with a nice helping of Candy Cap Risotto, then a whole and sliced maple syrup marinated chicken breast and top with a bit of bacon.   You'll think breakfast for dinner!

Grilled Portobello Mushrooms with Mango Avocado Salsa

Saw some gorgeous Portobello Mushrooms the other day and thought how great they'd be on the grill.   Since it's so HOT in Texas right now, we are really into cold food.   Decided that a mango and avocado salsa would be delicious on top of the grilled mushrooms then added blackberries and balsamic vinegar to round out the wonderful flavors of this dish!

Grilled Portobello Mushrooms
with Mango Avocado Salsa

Ingredients:

• 5 large portobello mushrooms, wiped clean
• olive oil
• balsamic vinegar
• 1 mango, cut into chunks
• 1 avocado, cut into chunks
• 1/2 small red onion, finely minced
• 10 cherry tomatoes, chopped
• 10 blackberries, cut in half
• juice of 1 lime
• salt and pepper

Directions:   Wipe down the mushrooms to remove any dirt.   On a baking tray, drizzle mushrooms with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, then season with salt and pepper.   Heat the grill to med-high and grill the mushrooms for 8 - 10 minutes per each side. 

In a large bowl, combine mango, avocado, red onion, tomatoes and blackberries.   Add the lime juice, salt and pepper to taste, mixing well.

To plate - start with the Portobello Mushroom as the base, top with the salsa then drizzle with balsamic vinegar and serve!

Pistachio Encrusted Chicken with Mushroom Sauce

To find this weeks recipe, we went to YELP and looked for bad reviews of local restaurants.   Noted not so good comments from Banderas Restaurant at the Renaissance Hotel, which is a beautiful place to stay.  How difficult is it to mess up Pecan Crusted Chicken?!?!   So I made my own version, using pistachio's instead of pecans and then made a quick mushroom sauce that complimented it very well.

Pistachio Encrusted Chicken with Mushroom Sauce

Ingredients:

• Chicken breasts
• 1 C. pistachios, chopped finely
• 1/2 C saltines, crushed
• 1/2 C brown bread crumbs
• salt and pepper
• 3 T flour
• 1 egg, whisked

Mushroom Sauce:

• 2 T olive oil
• 1 shallot, minced
• 1 C sliced brown mushrooms
• 1/3 C heavy cream
• 3 T butter, cut into pieces
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:   Preheat oven to 350 degrees.   In a food processor, chop the pistachios finely.   Add saltines and bread crumbs and mix to combine.   Salt and pepper to taste.   To bread the chicken, pat it dry then run it through the flour, the whisked egg and finally into the pistachio mixture, coating well.  I used a silpat on top of a cookie sheet to bake the chicken in the oven for about 35 minutes.   Make sure it is cooked through at the thickest part.

While the chicken is baking, make your sauce.   In a pan with the olive oil, saute the shallots and mushrooms for 5 minutes on medium heat.   Turn the heat down to med-low and add the cream.   Let simmer for a few minutes and season with salt and pepper to taste.   Remove from heat and add the pieces of butter, whisking as it melts.  

To plate, spoon the sauce over the chicken and serve.   So good!

Italian Sausage Stuffed Mushrooms

Christmas is the time when neighbors stop by with homemade goodies to share.   I find that a great opportunity to invite them in for an impromptu get-together.   These yummy bites are easy to make, full of flavor and I always have the ingredients on hand.   Perfect for those knock on your door surprise guests!

Italian Sausage Stuffed Mushrooms

Ingredients:

• Small Portabella Mushrooms, wiped clean and stems removed (about 36)
• 16 oz Italian Sausage
• 1 pkg cream cheese
• 1/2 C. Hol-Grain Brown Rice bread crumbs
• 1/2 C. Parmesan cheese, flaked or grated
• 1/4 C. fresh Parsley, chopped
• Salt and Pepper

 cooking the Italian Sausage

 Mixing all the ingredients together

 Into the oven to bake

Directions:   Preheat oven to 375 degrees.   Wipe the mushrooms clean and remove the stems.   Place onto a baking sheet.   In a pan, cook the Italian Sausage, crumbling as you cook, until completely done.   In a large bowl, place the unwrapped cream cheese.   Add the Italian Sausage over the cream cheese so it starts to melt which makes mixing easier.   Add the remaining ingredients and mix well.   Add a large spoonful of the mixture to each mushroom cap, pressing down.   Bake in oven for 35 minutes or until hot.   There may be a bit of liquid in the bottom of the pan from the mushrooms, which is fine.   Just blot the bottom of each mushroom to dry, then serve.

Melt in your mouth crab stuffed Mushrooms

My sweet husband decided to make one of his recipes last night!   His crab stuffed Mushrooms are incredible, relatively easy and go quick!   They'd make a great wine pairing appetizer!

Crab Stuffed Mushrooms

Ingredients:

• large package of mushrooms, white or brown (your choice) washed and patted dry
• 1 can lump crab meat
• 1 medium sweet onion 
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 T olive oil
• 1 can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
• 1 C sour cream
• 1/2 C Parmesan, grated fine
• 1 T Tony Chachere's Cajun Seasoning (or more if you like a little more spice)
• 1/4 C minced parsley
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.   Clean your mushrooms and remove each stem.   Pat dry and set aside.   In a pan, saute your onion and garlic in olive oil until transparent and soft.   Wash your crab meat making sure no shells are present, pat dry and place in large mixing bowl.   Add the cooled onion and garlic mixture along with the artichokes, sour cream, Parmesan, cajun seasoning, parsley then salt and pepper to taste.   Mix well and stuff each mushroom CAP with crab mixture.

Place in oven set at 350 degrees for 15 - 20 minutes until cooked through then under high heat, broil until tops are browned!

Serve and enjoy!