As the winter begins to loosen its grip on the Western hemisphere, it’s more than just gardens that are seeing new signs of life. Whether you’re celebrating Easter, Passover or just time with friends (time formerly spent digging the car out), we’ve come across a few fresh flavors with mushrooms in the mix!
Rustic Goat Cheese and Roasted Vegetable Tart
*Tilapia with Mushroom-Olive Sauce
Barbecue Portabella Mushroom Quesadillas
*Perfect for Passover!
“Eggs and mushrooms are a combination that’s hard to beat, so I suggested sautéing (the mushrooms) and tossing them with spaetzle — those appealing little blobs of egg/milk/flour batter, but Mark was in Paris, where the bread is so good that adding other starches seemed to him like a waste of effort. Me, I’d go for the extra starch anytime, but I saw his point. So, I said, why not tear up some of that good bread, crisp the shreds in olive oil or butter and mix them with the cooked mushrooms? Like Spanish (not Tex-Mex) migas. Kind of.”
- Mark Bittman, on his “Bitten” blog for the New York Times
You can continue reading about how Bittman’s experiment turned out here but we couldn’t agree more- Mushrooms and Eggs are a force to be reckoned with.
Your health: Vitamin D may be better than Vitamin C for colds, flu Still holding on to that winter cold? Bend Weekly suggests vitamin D helps fend off colds and the flu, while also arming the immune system against more serious illnesses, including cancer.
Shrimp, mushrooms and ginger It sounds too simple to be true! News 10 Now – Syracuse offers you an easy dinner solution that’s sure to impress anyone and tastes delicious.
Simple cooking – Grilled portobello mushrooms Chicagoist reminds us how easy and healthy cooking mushrooms can be. With the weather getting warmer, this recipe is the perfect reason to break out the grill!
Food of the month: Portobello mushroom What a great food of the month! Health Castle clues you in on the wonderful health benefits of Portabellas and even gives you some great recipes to try. The Portabella-Black Been Burger with Corn Salsa screams Cinco de Mayo.
Vitamin D deficiency common in breast cancer patients Modern Medicine reports on the April 6 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. The Journal suggests that premenopausal breast cancer patients who are undergoing chemotherapy may need to increase their dietary allowance of vitamin D.
Chipper mushrooms You’ve heard of potato chips, corn chips, taro chips and veggie chips. Now, Times Union gives you another alternative: Grilled Mushroom “Chips” and Dip. Try it out and let us know what you think!
Mushroom magic Chef Jeff is breaking out the grill for spring! He also offers up some delicious mushroom grilling recipes and each one cost less than $3 per serving.
Western chefs embrace umami, the “5th flavor” Finding Dulcinea introduces East to West with umami, a meaty, savory flavor. Umami has been used in Japanese cooking for over a century, but in the past decade the “fifth flavor” has become increasingly common in Western cooking. Read some more to find out what foods naturally have umami.
Today’s cooking demonstration comes straight from our experts up north- Mushrooms Canada. I saw the video for this and wondered when some lovely tech wizard is going to make smells available via the Internet. It’s about noon here and I want a big bowl of this with half of a toasted mini-baguette for dipping but I think it could also work as a delicious dinner party starter. O Canada- you’ve outdone yourselves!
We try to read a variety of blogs, great and small, around here. Different perspectives for different styles, tastes and occasions. One of our favorites when it comes to the “big blogs” is YumSugar for adding a little *pop* to food writing.
This frittata looks like the perfect spring meal and they’ve given a very simple step by step to go by. Leeks, shallots, asparagus and mushrooms…that’s a lot of delicious to start the day with!
Hi everyone! Jenna from Eat, Live, Run here again with another delectable, easy and healthy mushroom recipe! I actually came up with this lightened up version of a creamy pasta dish the evening before I was all set to run a 3 mile race.
I wanted something with carbs, yes, and something filling but not too filling as some meat dishes tend to be. Enter pasta with mushrooms!
Mushrooms gave this lightened up pasta dish the earthiness and complexity that I was craving without compromising on my March blog challenge, to go 100% vegetarian for one month. Instead of the heavy cream that most creamy pastas tend to use, I opted for a small amount of organic half and half to give body to the dish without too many extra calories. For flavor, plenty of garlic cloves, shallots and chardonnay were used, of course! Whenever I make a sauce, I always de-glaze my pan with a dry white wine because it just adds so much flavor to the dish. I love the slight bite that the chardonnay gives this pasta. However, if you were to go alcohol-free, a vegetable or chicken stock could substitute.
While I cooked with mushrooms more than once in March, this recipe was too good not to share. So do try this flavorful dish the next time you are looking to carbo-load….or just whenever pasta comes to mind!
Fettuccine with Mushroom Chardonnay Cream Sauce
Serves 4
That’s right. Mushrooms are storming the streets of New York City to tell millions of people how easy and delicious it is to simply add sautéed mushrooms every day, every way. Okay, maybe “storming the streets” is a bit of an exaggeration, but the Mushroom Council has its first ever digital advertisements running on the 520-square foot CBS “Super Screen” in the heart of Times Square.
The ads are 15-seconds long and will run twice an hour from March through mid-July. If you’re familiar with New York City, the CBS “Super Screen” is one of the focal billboards showing news and advertisements on a TV screen right by Military Island. The Mushroom Council typically only conducts in-store advertising, so this is a new and exciting thrill for the American mushroom growers to see mushrooms being promoted on the “big screen” in a high-traffic area with more than 450 million people passing through annually.
While brainstorming ideas for the ads, we were having a lot of fun thinking of all the different ways you can add sautéed mushrooms to everyday dishes. From the traditional American cuisines, such as chicken, fish, burgers, soup and pasta, to Asian-inspired dishes like lettuce wraps and Mexican flavors like quesadillas and tacos-it was hard to choose the recipes to showcase!
Mushrooms are such a delicious way to add nutrients for so few calories and no fat, it seems like there is no dish that can’t be enhanced – even if it’s just the kids mac ‘n’ cheese – by tossing in a few mushrooms. We can even get carried away and add mushrooms in our dessert.
True story: at the annual Mushroom Festival held at the mushroom capital of the world, Kennett Square, PA, they serve mushroom ice cream! While it’s not for the faint of heart, our motto is don’t knock it till you’ve tried it.
In case you can’t make it to New York by July, click here to see the final cut of our first mushroom ad running live in Times Square.
Greens Restaurant in San Francisco was a pioneer in establishing vegetarian cuisine and is remains one of the premiere vegetarian restaurants in the country, proving that you don’t need meat to be delicious! Chef Annie 
Somerville’s menu changes every day based on what’s fresh and seasonal, and it almost always includes mushrooms. But don’t take it from us, here’s what Chef Somerville says: “Greens is a vegetarian restaurant with California-Mediterranean influences. As a result, we use a lot of mushrooms. Portabellas, crimini and white mushrooms have a lot of the qualities of their fancy cousins foraged in the wild. They pick up the complexities of other ingredients and add their own meaty, rich and inviting flavor.” Feeling inspired? Check out Chef Somerville’s recipe for Filo Purses filled with artichokes, crimini mushrooms, leeks and pecorino cheese.
For more of Executive Chef Annie Somerville’s creations, check out her books: Fields of Greens: New Vegetarian Recipes from the Celebrated Greens Restaurant (Bantam Books, 1993) and Everyday Greens (Simon & Schuster, 2003).
Green’s Filo Purses
Yield: 24 servings- Perfect for Parties!
Directions
In large pan, heat oil and sauté mushrooms, 1 tablespoon garlic, salt and pepper to taste. Cook until mushrooms are golden and tender. Add 1 1/2 cups of wine and cook until pan is nearly dry. Remove from heat, set aside.
In another pan, heat oil and sauté leeks, remaining 3 tablespoons garlic, salt and pepper to taste. Cook until leeks are wilted, adding dash of water if necessary to keep from sticking to pan. Add artichokes, remaining 1 1/2 cups wine, and salt to taste. Cook until pan is nearly dry. Add water, simmer until artichokes are tender. Add mushrooms, cook together for 5 minutes. Drain any excess liquid, set aside to cool. Coarsely chop vegetables and combine with herbs and cheese. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Working in batches, lay sheets of filo on a work surface and cut in half widthwise. Lay two half sheets horizontally, place two more sheets on top vertically to form a cross. Brush lightly with melted butter and spoon about 2/3 cup filling into center. Gather edges of dough up around filling and twist just above filling to seal, allowing top to fall naturally. Brush outside lightly with butter, including top edges. Place on parchment-lined sheet pan. Repeat until all filling is used. Wrap and refrigerate at this point or bake all of the purses.
To serve: Bake in 375°F oven until golden and crisp, about 35 minutes. Serve immediately.
Today I’m humming along to Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald’s version of “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off” because the post we’re highlighting today touches on a subject we hear about from time to time- one half of a pair is a fungi-fanatic and the other half is a fungi-phobe (or “not yet converted” in MC-speak). The Kitchen Sink’s Kristin makes some absolutely beautiful meals (seriously, make the jump to her blog to see some stunning food photography) but has to avoid making mushrooms part-time because her husband remains averse.
We give Kristin kudosthough because as soon as he was off for a weekend away, she made one of the tastiest looking mushroom dishes I’ve seen recently- Chicken Marsala. And you could say I’ve seen a lot. So congratulations to this week’s winning cook for continuing to find time for one of her favorite ingredients until Mr. Kitchen Sink comes around. And he’s young…we’re keeping our fingers crossed!
