Zucchini Spaghetti - Delizioso!

Oh, baby, it's cold!

Ice on the trees and the chilly winds rake you this time of year.  Even if your home is only 65 degrees, when you step through the door it feels like Florida.  And, speaking of Florida, I do not appreciate my so-called friends writing me to gloat: “Are you chilly?  We spent the afternoon by the pool.”  Just to show how big my heart is, I do not wish them the bad fortune to have to seek medical care, but a good dose of sunburn might do them some good.

Meanwhile, the rest of us reach home, kick the snow away from the car door, wade ankle deep to the front steps and have that sinking feeling that nothing would taste better than the great, hot, rib-sticking meal we don’t have the time or ingredients to prepare.

Ok, I concede, when the cupboard is bare, it is bare.  I have no magic words of consolation, and I’m not about to pay two exotic dancers to knock on your door and heat things up.   One maybe…maybe I could afford one…

How about the fast semi-exotic meal?  Spaghetti.  I see the look of disappoint in your eyes.  Stand-by to change your mind and feel your spirits soar.  How simple can this recipe be?  20-30 minutes (depending on how fast you can slice (fingers not included), plus a few ingredients:  zucchini, mushrooms, peas, garlic, spaghetti, chicken broth,  thyme, cream, grated Parmesan.  You can even skip the chicken broth and use water, if you prefer. 

How great could it be?  Great enough to put a smile on your face and open that second bottle of wine.

You’re going to quibble and say “I have to go to the grocers to get all that.”  Use your head!  Write the few ingredients down and pick them up on your way home TOMORROW!  Five minute shopping spree!  You can’t even arrange for exotic dancers that fast!

Here’s the best part, this dish is so wonderful you can invite that cute somebody next door for supper, or even … wait, can’t go there.  My wife might read this and find out what I’ve…holy celibacy!…I mean, let’s get to the recipe.

Zucchini Spaghetti

1 package (8 oz) of spaghetti – I use Quinoa spaghetti, only because it’s lighter and I like the flavor

2 Zucchini, thin sliced and the slices quartered.

1 Pound mushrooms (I use the brown ones, Cremini, but button mushrooms will do)

3 Cloves garlic, peeled, thin sliced and chopped

1 Cup frozen green peas

Few small sprigs of thyme

1/3 Heaping Cup Parmesan cheese

1/3 Heaping Cup heavy cream (1/3 Cup, plus a splash or two)

16 Ounces chicken broth or 4-4 ½ Cups of water

2 Tablespoons butter

salt and pepper to taste

Use a big pot.  Pour in the chicken broth or water, toss in the sprigs of thyme and bring to a boil.  Meanwhile, put the butter in a medium sized frying pan and sauté the mushrooms and garlic until they are beginning to turn golden.

(Now you know why I keep a small herb garden.  Thyme, Rosemary, and Sage all last through the winter snows) I also keep a pot of basil in the kitchen window.

Pour the mushrooms and garlic into the chicken broth and add the zucchini, peas, and spaghetti.  That’s right, everything at the same time!  Cook until the pasta is to your liking, about 10-12 minutes.  You’ll notice that much of the liquid has steamed away. 

Take the pot off the stove.  Add the Parmesan and the cream.  Stir until everything is blended.  Took me about 3-4 stirs.

Serve with a light white or red wine and buttered toast points.

Bellissimo!  (Which in Italian means: You gotta greata mushrooms, Baby!)

Red wine???  Yes, you fools!  I love Primitivo from breakfast on… 

From Ireland to Your Land: Chicken Pie with Leeks, Potatoes, and Mushrooms

All who think the Irish have great food, say, “Aye!”  There seems to be but few responses.  I’m saddened. Ok, let’s give ‘er another try, but first let me tell you I promise a pint of Guinness to every brawny man and pleasing wench who screams, “AYE!”

Now that’s more like it, lads and lassies, or as they say in Gaelic, leaids and beans, which is pronounced lads and bans.

But, you’re finishing off that pint like a wee cuddler of a gull!  Come on!  Finish-er up! Grab another and let’s put this pie on the hearth!

The winter winds are beginning to bluster and wiggle through the cracks in the walls. Drag out the woolens and lay out the gloves and scarfs. Time for a pot full o’ cookin’!

This savory pie is Irish style, but call it what you will, on a chilly winter’s eve, chicken and vegetables in a rich sauce, with a flaky crust is just the thing to calm your ragged nerves, warm your tortured soul, and settle you in for a comfortable night.  Of course, you also need some Guinness.  Why do I even need to bring that up???

Chicken pie with Leeks, Potatoes, and Mushrooms

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed

4 smooth skinned potatoes, peeled and cubed

2 leeks, washed and the tender parts sliced in rounds (not the heavy green leaves)

10-15 small to medium mushrooms, sliced thickly

1 heaping Tablespoon of dried tarragon

2 ½ Cups of milk

4 Tablespoons flour

6-8 Tablespoons butter (Hard to be exact.  Keep more butter handy.)

1 Package Phyllo dough

Salt and Pepper

Heat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC)

Boil the potato cubes in salted water until barely tender, then remove from the pot and set aside.

Add a Tablespoon or two of butter to a large frying pan and toss in the cubed chicken.  If you used unsalted butter, dust the chicken with salt.  Cook only long enough to get the chunks a bit brown.

Add the leeks and mushrooms to the frying pan and cook for three minutes.  Stir in the flour and cook for a minute or two longer. 

At this point, you may be asking, "What the hell is a leek?"  There's a photo below.  Related to the onion, it's much milder and in Europe is often used in soups and stews.

Slowly add the milk, stirring constantly,  then add the potatoes and tarragon, salt and pepper to taste, and simmer for about ten minutes.

Melt some butter in a small saucepan.  Paint the inside of a deep pie dish, line it with two sheets of phyllo dough, buttering in between sheets.  Phyllo tears easily, so if you end up with a patchwork, that’s fine.

Fill the dish with the chicken mixture, then cover with sheets of phyllo, painting with melted butter between each sheet, then paint over the last sheet.  Butter any scraps of phyllo left over and put them randomly over the dish in a haphazard manner.  (see photos)

Slide the chicken pie into the oven and cook for about 45 minutes, but don’t let the crust burn.

Satisfied your Guinness thirst?  Then bring out that bottle of Irish whiskey ya been hidin’ for just such a moment!  Let’s celebrate a great pie from a great land!   ♫ This land is Ireland, this land is your land… ♫

Eggplant, Beef, Tomato, and Mushroom Casserole

Time out from travel writing to share a recipe that will keep a fork in your hand, waiting for seconds.  But, of course if you’d rather just have something quick from McNugget…But, no, you’re particular, a connoisseur , even if you can’t spell the word and still drink wine straight from the bottle.  Perhaps I’m being too harsh and you’re really a jelly jar kind of drinker.

We all have our weaknesses.  My one and only failing is, when I cook, I cook too much.  Dinner for two morphs into a week of leftovers.  In this case, it doesn’t matter a whit.  I could eat this casserole everyday for a month and still have a lingering taste for more.

Eggplant With Beef, Tomato, and Mushrooms

2 large eggplants, cut into half-inch thick rounds

4 (or more) tablespoons olive oil

Couple of teaspoons of salt, or more

1 medium onion, finely diced

4 cloves garlic, thin sliced

1 lb freshly ground beef

2 cups fresh mushrooms, quartered

3 generous shakes of powdered cinnamon

black pepper to taste

1 (28 oz) can of whole tomatoes, pureed in a blender or food processor, juice and all

12 oz fresh (not shredded!) mozzarella, sliced

Some Hints:  I use fresh mozzarella, packaged whole and still in it’s juice. Yes, of course I drain it!  As for the ground beef, don’t settle for the packaged and compressed variety.  Get your butcher to grind some for you RIGHT NOW.  Whole, canned tomatoes taste better to me, so I use them instead of diced or canned tomato sauce.

Wipe a 9 x 12 baking dish with olive oil.

Preheat the broiler, slice the eggplants, paint them (both sides) with olive oil, dust them with salt and pepper and slip them in the oven.  When one side is lightly browned, flip the slices over and lightly brown the other side.  When they’re done, set them aside.  Change the oven setting from broil to 375ºF (190ºC).

Add olive oil to a pan, put in the diced onion and sliced garlic.  Stir until the onions are limp, but not brown.  Add the ground beef and stir, breaking it up until it looks grainy and is just barely cooked through.  Add the cinnamon, salt and pepper (to taste) and stir.  Stir in the quartered mushrooms and cook until mushrooms are barely beginning to soften.

Putting it all together:  Step 1.  Pour a third of the blended tomato sauce in the baking dish and spread it around.  Put a third of the eggplant slices on top, then a third of the meat.  Repeat until everything is used up, with an eggplant layer on top.

Cover the filled baking dish with foil, put it on a baking sheet with sides.  Add a cup of water to surround the baking dish, and slide everything into the oven. Bake for 90 minutes.  This is a sloppy dish and the baking sheet will catch any spills.

Step 2.  Take the baking pan and baking dish out of the oven, remove the foil and throw it away. Put the sliced mozzarella on top, and put everything back in the oven. Do not cover.  Leave it until the cheese is melted and just beginning to brown.

Serve with rice.

Caution:  Do not eat too much.  You will become fat and be all alone and miserable as you drink from your jelly jar.  Then you will also drink too much and forget if connoisseur begins with a C or a K.

Stuffed In the Name of Love

For this most happy day, one of those rarities named after a saint, but celebrated by non-Catholics all over the world, let’s break tradition and make stuffed mushrooms.  Go ahead!  Think outside the box of chocolates!

You know, not every culture thinks about Valentine’s Day in the same way.  In Japan, on V Day (as opposed to VJ Day) it’s the women who buy the chocolate for the men.  Men get to return the favor on White Day in March, or as we would choose to call it in America, if we had one, which we don’t, Multi-Culture Day.

Lots of symbolism with mushrooms.  Mushrooms, in some cultures, are phallic symbols.  All the more reason stuffed mushrooms are a great choice for V-day.  Many men really identify with the short and stubby varieties.  In China the mushroom indicates long life.  In some native cultures of South and Central America, as well as Berkley, California, they indicate, like, you know, really, really cool stuff, man.  I think they can be prescribed in California. Anyway, we’re not using those kinds of mushrooms.

Ok.  Enough history and worthless facts!  We don’t need no stinkin’ facts!  We need food!  Open a sturdy red wine and let’s get to the heart of the Valentine issue.  What kind of mushrooms are we going to use?  We’ll use agaricus bisporus, or as my beer swilling, stained t-shirt friends call them, button mushrooms.

Agarius grows in practically every grocery store.   Conveniently, they grow already cleaned and plastic wrapped.  But, just to be sure, we’ll wash them.

The Necessaries.

1 package button mushrooms (about 12 to 16, depending on size)

    (the brown variety works equally well)

1 Mexican style chorizo sausage or 2 of the smaller Puerto Rico variety

1/2 Cup breadcrumbs (I put stale bread in the food processor and make my own)

3/4 Cup shredded cheese of your choice

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

Note:  Mexican chorizo is soft, the texture of American pork sausage.  Puerto Rican, or Spanish style chorizo is smoked and has a hard texture.  Use either one, but first remove the casing.

Preparing the mushrooms: Wash the mushrooms, take out the stems and set the stems aside.  Put a little bit of olive oil in a frying pan.  Now add the mushrooms, stem side up. Set the stove on medium to low.  You going to get the mushrooms to slightly brown and give up much of their water.  As the caps fill with water, turn the mushrooms over to brown the stem side.  When the mushrooms are slightly brown on both sides, they’re done.  (See Photo)

Heat your oven to 350ºF or 180ºC.

Preparing the filling:  Either finely chop the mushroom stems, breadcrumbs, and Puerto Rican chorizo together in your food processor, or finely chop them by hand.  Drizzle in a little olive oil. 

If using Mexican chorizo, fry it in a pan, breaking it up with a spatula, as you would hamburger.  When it’s cooked, add it to the breadcrumbs, etc.

Put the filling mix in a pan and briefly cook it to get the water out of the chopped mushroom stems. (See Photo)  When it cools enough, add your favorite cheese.  I’ve used cheddar, queso blanco, Monterrey jack, among others.

Stuffing and cooking:  Salt and pepper to taste.  Grab the spoon of your choice, mound the filling onto the mushroom caps and place them in a baking dish.  Put them in the oven and bake for about 10-15 minutes or until the filling is beginning to slightly brown.  (See Photo)  Serve hot!

Happy Non-Traditional, Very Symbolic Valentine’s Day