Tag Archives: mushroom

Mushroom and Spinach Phyllo Tarts

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Occasionally my husband and I don’t feel like cooking so we do a bread and cheese night with nibbles. He’ll bake some fabulous bread like Ciabatta. I usually pick up some things to throw in the oven. One of my favourites was a mushroom tart with golden phyllo dough. But it looks like they don’t sell them anymore! How hard can it be to recreate? Luckily making Mushroom and Spinach Phyllo Tarts is easy and quick to put together. Which is the whole point if you aren’t in the mood to cook but need to eat.

When we moved into our rental we transplanted a lot of plants from our old house. A lot of the soil lacks nutrients, unfortunately and we’ve been contending with a woodchuck. Boy is that animal hungry! We’ve been putting down blood meal and hot pepper sauce but with the crazy amount of rain we’ve been having, it gets washed away. The one area that is doing well, is our herb bed. I’ve never had as much luck as we’re having. The sage plant seems to be trying for some sort of championship. We have lots of thyme and it’s perfect in this dish.

Technique for Mushroom and Spinach Phyllo Tarts

Pre heat the oven to 350F/175C.

Heat up the oil in the skillet. Sautè the mushrooms until they start to brown. Cook for a minute or two. Then pour in the sherry.

Add the rest of the ingredients except the spinach. Cook until the cheese has melted. Add in the spinach and toss until the spinach begins to wilt.

Melt the butter. Cut the phyllo into rectangles and spoon the mixture into the centre.

Brush each layer, as you fold it over the mixture, with the melted butter. Turn in the edges to make a packet.

Bake until the phyllo is golden brown.

Serve immediately. This works well with a dry white wine or a dry rosé. As well as cheese, of course.

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Mushroom and Spinach Phyllo Tarts

A perfect compliment to a cheese and wine night

Course Appetizer
Cuisine Mediterranean
Keyword Mushroom and Spinach Phyllo Tarts
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Servings 4
Author Our Growing Paynes

Ingredients

  • 1 package of phyllo dough (you won't use all of it)
  • 2 tbsp garlic oil
  • 5-6 shiitake mushrooms, finely chopped
  • 1 small handful of fresh thyme
  • 1/3 cup dry sherry 3oz
  • 1/2 cup freshly ground parmesan
  • 1/2 cup cream cheese
  • sea salt and pepper to taste
  • 2 handfuls of baby spinach
  • 1/4 cup melted butter 2oz

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350F/175C. Make sure the phyllo dough is thawed before prep.

  2. Heat the oil in a skillet. Sautè the mushrooms until they begin to brown. Add the sherry and thyme, reduce for a minute or so.

  3. Add the cheeses. Stir until the cheese melts. Season with sea salt and freshly ground pepper.

  4. Add the spinach and stir until the spinach wilts.

  5. Cut the phyllo into rectangles. Spoon some of the mixture onto the centre of the rectangle. Brush with the melted butter on each layer as you fold the phyllo over the mixture. Tuck in the ends and place a baking sheet.

  6. Bake until the tarts are golden brown. Serve immediately.

Hungarian Mushroom Soup

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Last week I wrote how we were treated to a teaser of spring and how it probably won’t last long. It didn’t. It’s been brutal this week, especially Tuesday. Dangerously cold with March definitely coming in like a lion. I got my first dose of the vaccine yesterday which is done outside and I was so impressed with the set up, though one of them said it took about 4 hours to warm up after Tuesday, the worse day this week. They really are stepping up in difficult circumstances and doing an incredible job getting this country safe. I’m sure tons of soup like this Hungarian Mushroom Soup were eaten to ward off the bitter cold.

The National Guardsman who checked me in had a bit of a chuckle. He asked how I was doing and I replied “I’m so excited!” And I was. It’s been a long 12 months of anxiety for so many of us, it’s good to see that the rollout of the vaccine is being successful and people are queueing up to get the jab. It will be nice to get back to some type of normalcy. I do think it won’t get back completely pre-COVID but I’m looking forward to traveling and enjoying live music again.

Until then, I’m enjoying cooking again and being creative. Global anxiety is such a creativity killer. Hungarian Mushroom Soup is one of my husband’s favourite soups. It goes so well with homebaked ciabatta so he baked up some fresh ciabatta to go this soup.

Technique for Hungarian Mushroom Soup

There are loads of variations of this soup and this is mine.

Coarsely chop the mushrooms and slice the scallions/spring onions. In a saucepan, melt the butter and add the mushrooms.

Once they start browning, add the scallions/spring onions, paprika and fresh dill. Sauté for a few minutes to bring out the fragrant flavour of the dill and paprika.

Add the broth and soy sauce and bring to a simmer.

Simmer on low for several minutes to allow the ingredients to come together with their flavours. Add the flour to the milk and stir well. Every time I do this step for soups or gravy, I’m always taken back to a silly advert in the ’80’s selling gravy and saying “just like homemade, but no lumps!” My mum never made lumpy gravy so I had absolutely no idea what they were on about. I did once I started making gravy. You need to mix it well enough that there are no lumps before putting into the soup.

Bring to a high simmer to cook the flour and thicken the soup for a couple of minutes. Cook for several more minutes at a low simmer. Add the lemon juice, chopped parsley, sea salt and freshly ground pepper. Once it simmers for a bit adjust the seasoning as needed. I sometimes add more paprika at this stage. There isn’t any wrong way, as long as you like it, it’s good! The last step is to add the sour cream, again don’t boil but make sure it’s all heated through.

Once the sour cream is incorporated (it won’t incorporate 100%) and is heated through, it is ready to serve.

Add a dollop of sour cream and garnish with parsley. Fresh ciabatta and butter is perfect for dipping into this soup. Pair with a Belgian Trappist Ale and life is good.

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Hungarian Mushroom Soup

A delicious warming mushroom soup

Course Soup
Keyword Hungarian Mushroom Soup
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 35 minutes
Servings 4
Author Our Growing Paynes

Ingredients

  • 2-3 tbsp butter
  • 1/2 cup scallions/spring onions sliced
  • 1 1/2 cup coarsely chopped shiitake mushrooms
  • 2 tbsp chopped fresh dill (if using dried, 1-2 teaspoons)
  • 3 tsp paprika
  • 2 tsp soy sauce
  • 3 cups vegtable broth
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 2 tbsp flour
  • sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • 3 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
  • 1/2 cup sour cream

Instructions

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan. Add the mushrooms and cook until they start to brown. Then add the scallions/spring onions, paprika and dill. Sautè for a few minutes.

  2. Add the broth and soy sauce and bring to a simmer. Simmer on low for several minutes. While this is simmering, mix the flour and milk and work out all the lumps.

  3. Add the milk mixture to the saucepan and cook it on a high simmer until the flour is cooked. Add the salt and pepper with the lemon juice and parsley. Cook for a few minutes on a low simmer and then adjust the seasonings if need be.

  4. Just before serving add the sour cream and cook on a low simmer until it's heated through.

  5. Serve in bowls with a dollop of sour cream and garnish with fresh parsley.

Mushroom Leek Pie

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I’ve been on a bit of a vegetarian kick lately when I’ve been looking for new recipes. I came across a Mushroom Leek Pie with a creamy gravy, though Attachment Mummy’s recipe was vegan. I’ve no problem, obviously, with vegan dishes but I’m not a fan of dairy substitutes so I decided to go just with vegetarian for this dish. And since the hill towns in our area saw snow this week, comfort food is all the range round here!

We did manage to start to get some plants in that won’t do well in frost. I may have been tempting fate but we’ll see. We’re going to have a bed for edible flowers and then a bed for cut flowers. Any suggestions for what to plant would be greatly appreciated. Hopefully, if all goes well this summer there will be some recipes inspired by the edible flower bed.

Technique for Mushroom Leek Pie

Chop up all the ingredients. Melt the butter in a saucepan and sauté the garlic and mushrooms.

Depending on how much butter the mushrooms soak up, you may need to add more butter when it comes time to make the roux. They can be quite the sponges!

When the mushrooms start to brown add the oregano and leeks. Sauté for a couple of minutes. Then add the flour and mustard.

I like my gravies in pies to be thick so I added the 1/3 cup of flour. If you don’t like it overly thick go with a 1/4 cup. The mixture will get thick and a bit stiff. Stir while cooking for a few minutes then add the white wine. Season with sea salt and pepper. Add the milk and bring to a boil while stirring. You don’t want a roiling boil and keep an eye as it can boil over quickly if you aren’t paying attention. Add the parmesan cheese.

Taste and adjust the flavours as needed. You want to make sure the mustard and oregano come through the milk. Make up the pastry and roll out thinly. Spoon the mushroom and leek mixture into ramekins. Cover with the pastry. Use a knife to pierce the top and brush milk all over.

Bake at 400F/200C until the pastry is flaky and golden brown.

Serve immediately. If you save some of this for another day, go with the 1/4 cup flour as it does get even thicker as leftovers.

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Mushroom Leek Pie

A creamy pie with a lovely flaky crust.

Course Main Course
Cuisine American
Keyword Mushroom Leek Pie
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Servings 4 people
Author Our Growing Paynes

Ingredients

Pastry

  • 1/2 cup all purpose flour 70g
  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 1/8 tsp salt
  • 2 tbsp cold water

Mushroom Leek Filling

  • 4 tbsp butter
  • 3-5 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
  • 4-8 mushrooms (depending on size), sliced
  • 1 cup chopped leek
  • 1 tbsp chopped fresh oregano
  • sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
  • 1/3 cup flour
  • 2 tbsp stone ground mustard
  • 1/2 cup dry white wine 4oz
  • 2 cups milk 16oz
  • 1/3 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

Instructions

Pastry

  1. Using a pastry fork or fingers, blend the butter, salt and flour until the mixture resembles small breadcrumbs.

  2. Add the water bit by bit to the mixture, using your fingers to incorporate the water into the pastry. You may need more than 2 tbsp but add water until the dough comes together.

  3. Roll out thinly and using a cookie cutter, cut to the size you need.

Mushroom Leek Filling

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan. Sauté the garlic and mushrooms until the mushrooms start to brown. Add the leeks and oregano. Cook for a few minutes.

  2. Add the flour and mustard. Stir while it cooks for a few minutes so the flour is cooked thoroughly.

  3. Add the white wine then season with sea salt and pepper. Add the milk and bring to a boil. Don't have it a rapid boil or it will boil over. To finish add the parmesan cheese.

Constructing the pie

  1. Fill four ramekins with the filling. Top with the cut pastry. Use a knife to put slits in the pastry and then brush the pastry with milk.

  2. Bake at 400F/200C until the pastry is golden and flaky.

Chicken Leek Flaky Pies

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This is just crazy.  Every single year that I’ve been doing taxes I get sick or I fall just as the office opens.  I thought not this year!  The office opens tomorrow and I’m sick.  Seriously?  What kind of “rain” dance can I do to break this streak?  So I’m trying to be very good today so it goes away and I’ll be fine for tomorrow.

I love the flavour combination of chicken and leek and I wanted to do a variation on the chicken and leek pies with phyllo dough.  This time I wanted to use a short crust for the pie.

I made the pastry about an hour before making the dinner to allow it to chill in the fridge.  Cut in 3/4 cup of cold butter into 2 1/2 cups of flour and 1/2 a teaspoon of salt.  When the mixture is crumbly and sticks together add a tablespoon of cold water at a time until the pastry comes together in a ball.  Cover with cling film and chill.

You need to make enough filling to fill the amount of pastry you have.  The above recipe is enough for 2 9″ pie shells.  Which was enough to make four pies.  The ratio of ingredients is equal amounts for everything but the garlic.  That was just 3-4 cloves.  Everything gets chopped up into small pieces.  You don’t want large chunks so everything cooks evenly.

Chicken pastie 1 2016

In a large skillet start rendering the streaky bacon on medium.  You don’t want the skillet too hot because you don’t want the bacon to catch.  After about 5 minutes add the garlic.  Then add the leeks and mushrooms.

Chicken pastie 2 2016

Normally you start the chicken at the beginning but for this the chicken needs to complete cooking in the oven.  You don’t want the chicken dry and tough.   After the leeks and mushrooms have cooked for a couple of minutes add about a third of a cup of dry white wine.  Add the chicken and a bit of fresh thyme.

Chicken pastie 4 2016

Roll out the pastry.  I rolled to a thickness of about a 1/4″/6mm.  I used a 6″ plate to cut round.

Chicken pastie 3 2016

Spoon the filling onto one half of the pastry.  I used a slotted spoon because I didn’t want the filling to be too wet.  Grate some jarlesberg over the filling.

Chicken pastie 5 2016

Brush a beaten egg round the edge of the pastry.  Fold the pastry in half and use a fork to crimp round the edge.  Slice the top with three slits.  Brush the pie with the beaten egg.

Chicken pastie 6 2016

Bake in the oven set at 425F/220C for 25-30 minutes until the pastry is golden and flaky.

Chicken pastie 7 2016

Serve immediately.  The kids loved it and it is a very easy dish to put together.  And a great way to use up some ingredients in the fridge.

 

Bacon Leek Quiche

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The air is crisp and you know what that means!  Baking!  It’s been gorgeous this week with lovely breezes and fresh air.  There is something about baking with the windows up and and the trees rustling.

Because I have classes to teach two nights a week I try to get dinner sorted for the family.  I also wanted something for the school lunches.  Quiche fit the bill as it can be served cold and would be a nice twist for the kids.

For the pastry make one half of this pastry recipe I do for my apple pies.

Preheat the oven to 425F/220C.

Bacon Leek Quiche 1 2015

In a mixing bowl beat 4 eggs and add 1 1 /2 cups of milk.  Season with sea salt and pepper and a bit of cayenne pepper.  Mix and set aside.  Grate just over a cup of jarlsberg cheese and set that aside as well.  Chop up 4 rashers of streaky bacon and start rendering in a skillet.  While this cooks add a few chopped mushrooms and leeks.  Add a few splashes of sherry.

Bacon Leek Quiche 2 2015

Spoon the bacon and leeks into the pastry shell.

Bacon Leek Quiche 3 2015

Sprinkle the cheese over the mixture.

Bacon Leek Quiche 4 2015

Pour the egg and milk mixture into the pastry.

Bacon Leek Quiche 5 2015

Bake for 15 minutes then lower the heat to 350F/175C and bake for another 30 minutes.  Remove from the oven when the eggs have set.

Bacon Leek Quiche 6 2015

I do like the combo of bacon and leek.  They go very well together!

Rabbit and the Need to Strangle a Cock….

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4am.  Still dead of night as far as I am concerned.  Cock-a-doodle-doo!  My husband then rolls out of bed to close the ceiling window because I’m too short to reach it.  Every morning the bloody thing would go off.  And it would go all day.  There is another one down the road that answers but that is more muted.  Ours was about 10 feet from our window. I say was as this morning it’s been quiet.  I’m wondering if coq a vin is on the menu next door.  If I never hear another cock-a-doodle-doo I’ll be a happy camper.

On my list of ingredients to cook while here in France was rabbit.  So off to the market we went in search of one.  

 
We were successful.  Good thing I asked the head be removed.  An unfortunate thing about the kitchen we’re using, aside from a very anemic oven, is the knives are very dull.  We’ve tried sharpening them without a whole lot of success.  Which made butchering this rabbit quite the chore!  My MIL helped as I had to wrestle it to submission.  I ended up removing the legs and then took what I could of the remaining meat to add to the sauce.  I didn’t want to waste the rest of the rabbit so when my MIL suggested making a quick stock I went in that direction.  In a saucepan I covered the rabbit in water, added a shallot, salt and pepper, and thyme.


Bring it to a boil then let it simmer for 30-45 minutes.  Once that is done heat up a few tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet and brown the legs of the rabbit.

  

While that is happening, prep a small onion, a few cloves of garlic, and some fresh rosemary.

  
Remove the rabbit legs and set aside.  Sauté the onions and garlic until they soften.  Add some of the rabbit stock to simmer with the onion and garlic.

 
Add the rabbit bits and rosemary and sauté for a few more minutes.  I bought some local mushrooms at the market which were really nice.  I sliced a few and added them the the skillet.  Again add some stock.  About half a cup or 4 ounces each time.

  

Chop up a few tomatoes.  I also had a can of diced tomatoes that needed to be used.  Toss these in and add 4-8 ounces of red wine.  Bring to a simmer and add the rabbit legs to finish off cooking.

  
The tricky bit is not to over cook and toughen the meat.  In fact after simmering awhile there was still a bit of rabbit on the larger leg that wasn’t cooked through.  We still had plenty of meat to go round.  

 
The sauce with the stock was really nice.  Not sure if I’d cook a lot of rabbit going forward.  It was nice but not something I would crave.  But I can cross this off the bucket list so to speak.  

Today is packing day as we have a long journey home.  I’ll miss this place.  I’ve loved the food, the sightseeing, working on the language, and the leisurely meals.  No one rushes you and it’s perfectly fine to have a glass of wine or two with lunch.  And I could eat bread here with minimal side effects.  It’s been fabulous!  But back to reality I’m afraid. 

Grilled Portobello Caps

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Sometimes delicious food is the easiest to make.  Take portobello caps on the grill.  Incredibly yummy and just a few steps.  I’ll do this up quickly if we need to add more veg to our meal, pizza for example, or we want it on a salad.

To prep I just pour on a bit of olive oil and salt and pepper.  I used to get more fancy with it and add other things before cooking but I find that this is the best way.  Sometimes I will grate some cheese on it when cooked.

I grill on medium heat and only turn once or twice.  Just be careful when you turn it over and the olive oil hits the flames.  It can be quite spectacular!  🙂  This only takes about 5-8 minutes depending on the grill temp and how cooked down you prefer it to be.

This is wonderful by itself or as a compliment to another dish you are making.  And again, hardly takes any time at all!  Which is fabulous when you are juggling family and house.  🙂