Recipes

Mushroom Risotto

/ pumpkinhoney / 2 Comments

Whenever I make risotto, I always want to make mushroom risotto. Sometimes I throw peas in too. And even though I want to try something new I always end up with mushroom risotto. It’s my fallback. Probably because it’s really really good. And probably because I always make risotto when it’s cold outside. Mushrooms, with their earthy, woodsy flavor in a rich risotto just scream autumn! winter!

I have a sinus headache that I can’t seem to shake so I apologize if the cooking instructions below don’t make a whole lot of sense! I shall revise at a later time. Honestly, I don’t really know the proportions I used so I’m about to guess… but I swear, risotto is super easy. You just have to be able to watch it & stir… which is really quite therapeutic.

 

Mushroom Risotto

  • Olive Oil & Butter
  • 1 1/4 Cups Arborio Rice
  • 1 Pack of Baby Bellas, diced
  • 1/2 Medium Onion, finely diced
  • 1 Shallot, finely diced
  • 1/2 Cup White Wine (preferably dry)
  • 5 Cups HOT Water
  • 1/4 Cup Dried Oyster Mushrooms
  • 1/4 Cup Dried Porcinis
  • Zest of One Lemon
  • Freshly Grated Parmesan (optional)
  • 1/2 Cup Frozen Peas (optional)
  • Fresh Thyme
  • Salt & Pepper

Soak the dried mushrooms in 5 cups of hot water and let sit for about 15 minutes or until reconstituted. Remove the mushrooms from the water and set the water aside to use to cook the risotto. Dice the mushrooms and add to diced fresh mushrooms.

Heat mushroom stock in small pot over low heat keeping it warm while cooking.

Heat oil & a pad of butter in a medium pot over medium heat. Saute the mushrooms with some fresh thyme (to taste) until lightly browned. Set aside.

In the same pot saute the onion and shallot until translucent. Add arborio rice and stir until covered in oil/butter. Add the white wine and stir. Add 1/2 cup of the mushroom stock and stir risotto until mostly absorbed. If adding peas, now would probably be the time. Continue adding stock in 1/2 cup increments, stirring, absorbing, etc. cycle until risotto is cooked all the way through, tender and creamy.

When the risotto is done cooking, add the lemon zest & parmesan cheese. Stir to incorporate. If you want your risotto extra creamy you can add 1/4 cup of cream, otherwise the risotto tastes great without any added dairy (even without the parmesan).

Gingerbread (Cake)

/ pumpkinhoney / Leave a comment

Some people love ginger. Seriously love ginger. I would say my mother is one of those people. I REALLY like ginger. I like fresh ginger with my sushi, ginger crackers, ginger carrot soup, and ginger ale… but i’m not going to nom on some candied ginger anytime soon.

But I really LOVE gingerbread. Dense, moist, chewy, heavy, delicious gingerbread. Cake-like, full of flavor, full of molasses gingerbread. Whole Foods makes a gingerbread like this my dad used to bring home all the time. Mom would eat it with lemon curd. I’d microwave mine for 15 seconds and eat it warm. Now I have a recipe to make even better gingerbread. And it is so. damn. good.

It’s a perfect winter dessert. The cinnamon, ginger, black pepper and molasses give you this warm feeling inside that’s perfect against the cold weather. And the baking gingerbread makes your house smell like Christmas.

GINGERBREAD

Originally from Cook’s Illustrated

  • 3/4 Cup Stout
  • 1/2 Tsp Baking Soda
  • 2/3 Cup Molasses
  • 3/4 Cup Brown Sugar
  • 1/4  Cup White Sugar
  • 2 Large Eggs
  • 1/3 Cup Vegetable Oil
  • 1 Tbsp Finely Minced Ginger
  • 1 1/2 Cups AP Flour
  • 1/2 Tsp Baking Powder
  • 1/2 Tsp Salt
  • 1/4 Tsp Cinnamon
  • 2 Tbsp Ground Ginger
  • 1/4 Tsp Fresh Ground Black Pepper (optional)

To make gingerbread, preheat oven to 350 Degrees Fahrenheit. Grease and flour a 9in square baking dish.

Heat the stout over medium/high heat in a medium-to-large pot, until boiling. Add the baking soda & stir. The stout will foam up in the pot. Turn off the heat & remove pot from burner.

When foaming subsists add the sugar & molasses and stir until dissolved. Using a whisk is really the best way to go. Scramble the eggs in a separate bowl. When the mixture is no longer hot, add the eggs, oil, and fresh ginger. If the mixture is too hot, the eggs will begin to cook. Ew, you don’t want that to happen. So be patient.

Add the rest of the ingredients… aka all the dry stuff… the flour, the cinnamon, the dry ginger, the black pepper, the salt, the baking powder. Stir with a wooden spoon to combine. How easy is that?

Pour batter into prepared baking dish (I doubled the batch to make more than enough gingerbread for thanksgiving!). Bake in center of oven at 350 for 35 to 45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Let cool & enjoy with some lemon curd, whipped cream, creme anglaise, milk, whatever tickles your fancy.

For the most part my relatives loved & raved about this gingerbread. Some were not so keen… my little cousin Ava adorably called it “too spicy.” But if you like ginger & love dense moist desserts, you will loooooove it. Omg, I need to go get a piece now. Ciao!!

Love,

Kelley

Amish (aka Amazing) Dinner Rolls

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Every Thanksgiving we have a crowd of around 30 family members. I don’t know how long we’ve been doing it, but we always get part of our Thanksgiving dinner from Congressional Country Club…. that means one of the turkeys, some extra mashed potatoes, green beans, cranberry sauce, gravy, stuffing, *lobster bisque*, and of course… rolls. This is done (I hope & think) so that there’s enough food for everyone’s family to have leftovers. (Of course, we also employ a potluck style method where everyone makes a little somethin somethin. There’s homemade macaroni & cheese, homemade sweet potato casserole, homemade oyster stuffing, homemade mashed potatoes, homemade stuffing, two deep fried turkeys, homemade kale, homemade corn pudding, etc. You get the picture, we have an absolute shit ton of food.)

Anyway, my parents come home with a HUGE box full of Congressional food and one tiny white cardboard box that looks like it must contain pastries. No. It contains 12 dinner rolls. TWELVE. MA, we’re gonna need a few more rolls!!!

No fear, I pull out my handy dandy Amish Cook’s Baking Book, find the “Top-Notch Dinner Rolls” (that’s really what they’re called) recipe on Page 66 and work on making about 30 more dinner rolls. So my brother, Fred, helped measure the ingredients for the dough and we let it rise. Then I formed the rolls, let them rise again, and finally baked… perfection.

The rolls turned out FREAKING AMAZING. Besides the ones that were burnt on the bottom from being on a very low rack… hey, it’s thanksgiving and we only have one oven.

Top-Notch Dinner Rolls from The Amish Cook’s Baking Book

(slightly adapted, but barely)

  • 1 Cup Warm Water
  • 2 Packages Active Dry Yeast (for those of us who buy in bulk, I used a little less than 2 Tbsp)
  • 1/2 Cup Plus 1 Tbsp BROWN Sugar
  • 1 !/2 Cups HOT Water (I stress the HOT because the shortening is supposed to melt… didn’t happen for me)
  • 1/2 Cup Softened Shortening (maybe this is why mine didn’t melt)
  • 2 1/2 Tsp Salt
  • 5 Cups Bread Flour, plus more as needed (I think I used about an extra 1/2 Cup)

In a small bowl combine warm water, yeast, and tablespoon of brown sugar. Stir and let sit for around 10 minutes or until yeast are activated and top of mixture becomes foamy.

In a LARGE mixing bowl combine HOT water, BROWN sugar, SOFTENED vegetable shortening, and salt. When the mixture is no longer hot (don’t want to kill the yeast), add yeast mixture and stir to combine.

Add Bread flour one cup at a time, stirring between each addition. I like to use a wooden spoon to combine everything at this point. After the 5 cups of flour the dough should begin to shape into a ball and no longer stick to the sides of the bowl. Mine was still a bit sticky as I turned it so I sprinkled it continuously with flour until I could move it to another large, clean and greased bowl to let it rise. I’d say it was about 1/2 cup of extra flour. Lovina says “Work in just enough more flour to make a soft but not sticky dough.”

Cover and let rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour give or take. I covered mine in a dry dish towel, plastic wrap works too… or both! After the dough has done all it’s rising, punch down, and let sit for 10 minutes.

Like about 3 baking sheets with parchment paper. Begin to form rolls! It’s basically like kneading a tiny loaf of bread. You just tuck it over itself until it’s round. Leave enough space in between the rolls for another period of rising & doubling in size. If they touch a little bit after they rise/bake – no big deal, they’ll pull apart easy as pie. After you’ve filled your baking sheets with all your beautifully shaped little balls of dough, cover them and let rise another 45 minutes or so until doubled. We covered each sheet in plastic wrap and then covered it in a towel.

While the rolls are rising, heat the oven to 350 Degree Fahrenheit. Bake until golden brown… about 25 minutes. I highly recommend using the higher racks in your oven. The first batch I put in (on the top rack) came out perfectly. You could coat your rolls in melted butter (before baking), honey, or and egg wash. Once you’re finished baking the rolls, let them cool on a wire rack before serving.

These rolls made our turkey day house smell like AMISH baked bread. It was seriously divine. They turned out so well I was doing happy dances and telling everyone I made them. And if you don’t add anything to the top, they’re vegan!!!