Cooking My Way Through My Pinterest Recipes Board(s): Baked Mushrooms With Parmesan and Rosemary Over Polenta

 Beginning to cook my way through my Pinterest food boards is more like it.  They are labelled:

YUM (everything that looks good to me)

YUM:  Seasonal Eating Winter (squash recipes)

PLAY WITH YOUR FOOD (from my own rice krispie sushi pics to anything else that could pass for both something entertaining as well as yummy)

and

Fungus Love (I love mushrooms)

Yes, I love me the fungus.  Hubby hates it.  As in, he walks into the kitchen and says, "Ew!  Fungus.  I can smell it."  It's a texture thing.  Same as I have heard from other friends-who-are-also-haters.

I pinned this recipe for Baked Mushrooms With Rosemary and Parmesan.  All ingredients I love, and, conveniently, had in the house.  Well, the rosemary is technically outside of the house, on the porch.  Yes, in winter.  Rosemary's second successful winter on the porch.  Bizarre. 

Things I make in batches and keep in the fridge to pick on all week:  brown rice (boil in a bag, 10 min in the microwave, you can do it at work in an emergency), quinoa, polenta, bean and rice patties.  I ate polenta with mushrooms til the mushrooms were gone.  So delicious and so very easy.  

Here's the secret to the polenta: Turn the heat way down as soon as you can.  It bubbles, and when those bubbles burst, they burn you and leave a scar.  Trust me.  

Adapted recipe:

Baked Fungus with Parmesan and Rosemary

• lemon juice (1-2 T squeezed fresh from 1 lemon or the lemon juice from that plastic yellow lemon I keep in my fridge and you should keep in yours for when you have no lemons)
• 3-4 stalks of fresh rosemary, chopped fine, save the naked stalks
• 1 T Olive oil, enough to lightly coat
• 1 lb sliced button mushrooms(pre-sliced and packaged if you are short on time, or buy in bulk and just slice them.  If you have an egg slicer, toss them in there if you are OCD and like nice perfect cuts.)
• 1/4 c Parmesan, grated
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Preheat oven to 400. 
2. Slice mushrooms if you did not buy pre-sliced. 
3. Place the sliced mushrooms on a cookie sheet.  Toss in the olive oil, lemon juice, rosemary, and add the nekkid rosemary stalks, then mix to coat. Season with 1/8 t salt and a few grinds of pepper.
4. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 10 minutes. Then sprinkle the grated Parmesan over the mushrooms and continue to bake for five more minutes until the cheese has browned lightly. 
5. Remove rosemary stalks.  Transfer mushrooms to a serving dish and dig in/serve over polenta or pasta, and save some for lunch tomorrow, too.

Polenta:

Follow the side of the box. Seriously.  So easy.
Water, polenta, bring to a boil. IMMEDIATELY tun heat to lowest simmer.  Stand back if you see bubbles forming, until the heat is low enough to prevent them.  A whisk works best.  Stir frequently.  Do NOT cover (this causes the polenta to steam rather than cook).

If you would like, add a few tablespoons of butter and/or some Parmesan (fontina is also excellent and turns super creamy in polenta).  Add a healthy teaspoon of salt (I use kosher salt), or more, to taste.

I smooth mine into a baking dish and let it cool.  Then I slice it up and put it in containers in the fridge and just pull it out a square or two at a time during the week. 

This is the polenta I used.  It belongs on the counter. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is my kitty.  She does not belong on the counter. But it's better than when she gets on the range hood.

Have a great day, friends and let me know if you have any questions at all about safe polenta preparation and enjoyment or cooking fungus.

Mwah!

JPV

Busy Girl's Fancy Ravioli in Brown Butter and Sage Sauce

I could rename this blog "I Love Fungus. And Other Stuff."  If my husband had a blog he could name it "The Smell of Fungus Cooking Makes Me Retch." Ergo, I boiled up a lovely ready made mushroom ravioli, for one, and not from scratch (so there would be no fungus fumes from filling-making to upset hubby’s sensitive nostrils). You know I like to make my own rav filling and use wonton wrappers like I did this summer when we had all that leftover lobster (oh Lordy, my photography sucked! Guess I'll just have to make it again and rephotograph!).

 This pasta was amazing! It is the first time first time I had it retail. I recognize it from some DC area restaurants. It’s a DC based pasta maker/supplier called LaPasta. I went to their website and you gotta check out how beautiful this is – it’s like the periodic table of ravioli. I want it as a poster for my kitchen. I tried to pin it but you can only pin the individual raviolis, not all 36 at once. And that's JUST the ravioli, they also have gnocchi, totellini/tortelloni, and agnolotti. (Curse you, Spellcheck, for thinking the three preceding words are incorrect, clearly you have no taste for Italian food.)

 Got it from MOM’s organic market in Alexandria.  I was there to buy ginger chews, and walked out with ravioli and gnocchi. 

Last night was the first night it was going to dip way down to 20 degrees, so I went out to the bare garden and cut the last of my brave and stunningly hardy sage and parsley.   

 Here is pretty parsley extracted on the same mission this evening as the brave little sage plants.  Parsley will soon become pesto and get frozen. (The veggie giclees in the background were a kitchen-warming gift from mom by a Boston artist. The top print is a pretty one of asparagus.)

 Now the sage is drying on every surface in the kitchen (I mean EVERY SURFACE, note this one is on the stove, a well utilized work surface in a tiny kitchen. Please do not note how badly I need my shellac mani redone.).  I thought it was a great idea to lay some out in the bright sunshine to dry. Joke was on me as I came home to paper towels and sage scattered all over the porch and backyard.

Perfect for Browned Butter and fried sage sauce.

Luxurious, delicious, easy.  If you’re in DC (I mean you, Jessica L.) and need sage to do this, let me know… I have lots and can drop some by your office. J

I used unsalted butter, about 4 tablespoons (2-3 would have been fine).   

I put them in the pan cold and heated it to medium high. 

I slid 15 sage leave in as the butter just fully melted.  

 Watch it carefully because the browning can turn to burned very quickly.   

As soon as I see browning, I turn off the heat.   

I put a few ravioli, well drained into the butter an quickly cover with the splatter shield, just in case.  Then I pour it all over the rest of the ravioli.

Everyone in the bowl!

It was so exquisite.  Definitely try some soon.  Friday night?  Home watching Grimm?  Perfect!

Early morning at the Farmers' Markets Saturday.  Can't wait to see what they've got.

Yours, in mushroom love,

Julia