Tag Archives: morel mushrooms

So Long April

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Hi All,
I hope you’re having a good start to your week!  I have a bit of catching up to do with you.

I went back to the farmer’s market and picked up more asparagus, morel mushrooms, radishes, rosemary and wisconsin cheddar cheese.  It was a good haul and the number of vendors easily doubled from the last time I was there.  I’m going to freeze more of the asparagus and keep some fresh for dinner tomorrow too.  I’m undecided with the rest of the haul.  Do I make another pasta dish with the mushrooms?  Radishes in a salad?  Or dipped in vodka and salt like I had at my photography class?  Do I eat the block of cheese all in one sitting or shred it over tacos or burgers.  Decisions, decisions….

All day Sunday the Hubs and I worked in the yard.  I’m talking 6-7 hours of work.  We planted almost all of the herb garden.  The final piece will be some mint plants and one more  rosemary to finish it out.

The container veggies are also all planted and ready to grow.  2 potatoes, 2 onions, and 2 carrots.  Don’t they look exciting right now?

We also transplanted our teeny, tiny tomato seedlings into some larger pots to get them better established before we put them in the larger garden.  They’re looking pretty spindly, I’m hoping their new homes will encourage them to pick up the pace a bit.

The largest chunk of our day was spent doing a combo of mowing, picking up sticks, picking up dog presents, weeding and re-seeding the lawn.  We’ve got a lot of watering to do over the next few weeks between the different gardens and lawn.  We’ll keep our eyes on things and hopefully we’ll get some herb sprouts soon and some strong tomato plants.

I’ll be back tomorrow to fill you in on what I did with the eggs I bought last week.  Time to start the sprinkler!

Morel Mushrooms 2 ways

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I wanted to get as much milage as I could out of the morel mushrooms I picked up at the farmers market.  I’ve never cooked with them before so I wanted to try a a couple of dishes one simple and one a bit more complicated.

Tuesday was fast and simple, just sautéing them in butter:)  Topping off a steak right of the grill with buttery mushrooms was a perfect way to elevate a regular Tuesday dinner a bit with minimal effort.

Wednesday took a little more time and effort.  I made Wild Mushroom and Farro Risotto using the recipe from Spoon Fork Bacon.  It also gave me a chance to try cooking with farro, a whole grain that is similar to rice in preparation but just a touch on the healthier side.  I followed their recipe pretty much to the T.  We used dried porcini mushrooms in place of chanterelle just based on what was available at the Co-ops.

While the mushrooms were re-hydrating, I started the chicken broth simmering on the stove.

Then jumped into the onions and garlic.

When the onions were translucent, I added in the farro to start toasting.

After about 5 minutes I added the wine, super steamy goodness

When it was almost all evaporated, I started adding in the chicken broth a ladle full at a time as it absorbed and cooked.  Like cooking any other risotto it took a bit of time for each addition to absorb and cook off .  I’ll spare you the pictures of each addition of broth.

After the last of the broth had been added and cooked for a bit, I started tasting for doneness.  When still had a little bite too it, per the recipe, I added in the mascarpone and Parmesan cheese and stirred until it had melted and been mixed in completely.

With the farro done, I turned back to the mushrooms.  I drained them and then sauteed them in olive oil before adding them into the cheesey farro.

We topped our bowls off with a bit more Parmesan and dug in.  It was so creamy and delicious!  The recipe said it would make 3-5 servings and we just about polished it all off before we got too full.  I was pretty pleased with how the two dishes turned out and really glad I got to try cooking with a couple of new things this week.  It makes me look forward to heading back out this weekend to see if there’s anything else new for me to try.

Freezing Asparagus

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As I shared with you on Saturday, I made my first trip to the farmer’s market this weekend.  It was a damp, chilly day but there were a handful of booths open for business.

I picked up some morel mushrooms, asparagus and eggs to use with dinner throughout the week.  I’m excited to try the morel mushrooms but more on that later this week…  I bought a bit more asparagus than I normally would for a week (it’s not all pictured) because I’m determined to start freezing extra veggies this summer.  I put some thought into doing another CSA but I wanted to be able to better plan out what would be eating as well as be able to load up on things we liked rather than just getting one or two of something.  This way I’ll be able to stock our freezer and come winter, hopefully we’ll be able to enjoy a variety of summer vegetables that were all bought locally at the peak of their season.  Think of how great the taste of asparagus will be in November!

Freezing veggies is a fairly simple process called blanching.  To start off you’ll need to get a large pot of water to a rolling boil as well as another large pot, bowl or in my case a very well scrubbed out sink full of cold water and ice.  While I was waiting for the water to boil, I cleaned and trimmed down my asparagus to get rid of the woody ends.

Then once the water was boiling, in went the asparagus.  It’s best to do it in batches so your water stays nice and hot and you don’t loose your boil.  Leave the veggies cook in the water for about 1-2 minutes.  The idea is to get them started cooking but not close to done.  If you leave them in for too long you’ll end up with mush when you re-heat them later.

When the two minutes were up they went right into the ice water bath for another 1-2 minutes.  This stops the cooking process right away which is also important for avoiding mush later..

From there, I sorted out my batches in to even portions.  I went for roughly 2 servings per bag to make it really easy for grabbing for dinner later.  I ended up with 3 bags to throw in the freezer.  I know it doesn’t sound like much, but if I keep it up with a bit extra each week I think we’ll end up with a pretty full freezer before long. That being said, I should probably go clean out some of the freezer burned mystery meat;)

P.S.  I went back and re-made my asparagus with cream sauce for dinner that night too.  Here’s the original post for a refresher.