Cheesy Broccoli Rice Casserole

A conversation with my mom yesterday gave me a brilliant idea that pulled together the Daiya cheese I picked up to try for the first time a couple weeks ago and the giant bag of broccoli crowns from last week's Mariquita Mystery Box.  This is a recipe in development as I didn't exactly measure everything and it worked out perfectly!

Before throwing this together, I looked up some recipes for Broccoli Rice casserole - most of them use the same basic ingredients: broccoli, rice, cheddar cheese, a can of UBI (universal binding ingredient aka Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup).   Being the snob that my brother accuses me - I don't have any Campbell's (or any other packaged soup) in the house.  I do, however, have a variety of dried wild mushrooms and Road's End Organics Savory Herb Gravy packets.  As always - save the water that you use to soak the dried mushrooms - don't worry if they still feel firm - they will soften up after they are mixed in and baked.

INGREDIENTS:

• 4-5 cups cooked rice - I used brown basmati & Louisiana wild rice cooked w/veggie stock
• 1 qt stock/mushroom water
• EVOO or untoasted sesame oil, as needed
• 1.5 c white wine
• 1/2 c nutritional yeast
• 8 oz package Daiya cheddar shreds
• 3 to 4 c raw broccoli crowns cut up into tiny florets, thinly slice the stalks
• 1 red onion, quartered & thinly sliced
• 3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced & roughly chopped
• 1/2 red bell pepper in 1/2" dice
• 2.5 cups mushrooms, fresh or dried
• 1 Tb dried thyme
• salt, pepper, red pepper flakes to taste
• 2 packets Road's End Organics Savory Herb Gravy (you could possibly substitute this by making a little almond butter gravy or mixing up flour/tapioca starch/corn starch to gravy-fy the mushrooms & onions)

PROCESS:

I used my two largest cast iron skillets (10" and 11 3/4"), a large stainless still mixing bowl for combining everything and a big Pyrex casserole dish.

1. Using the smaller skillet, heat a few tablespoons of oil and add the onions, cook until transluscent.  Add the garlic.
2. While the onions & garlic cook, use scissors or a knife to cut up the dried mushrooms into small dice.  You can leave fresh mushrooms in larger pieces but I think dried mushrooms turn out better if you cut them smaller.  I used scissors to cut up dried porcini pieces into little bits, and a knife to cut up the dried shitakes (which come whole).
3. After the garlic starts to soften and liquid in the pan is reduced, add the mushrooms.  Cook until reduced and then deglaze with a generous amount of wine.  Continue cooking until the wine reduces then add more until you have added all the wine.  
4. Remove mushrooms & onions from heat, stir in thyme, nutritional yeast & contents of gravy packets, stir until well mixed. 
5. Put the larger skillet on high heat with enough olive oil to coat - add broccoli stalk pieces first, stir fry til bright green, add florets and red pepper flakes.  Squeeze in juice of 1/2 lemon if desired.
6. Once florets are bright green, start adding the quart of stock - about 1/4 of the quantity at a time to simmer/steam the broccoli a bit.  Even better if you are using the mushroom soaking water!
7. After using 1 qt of stock and reducing to about 1/2 c liquid, turn off flame.
8. Transfer rice to large stainless steel mixing bowl and break up any lumps.  
9. Transfer broccoli to mixing bowl and toss with rice.
10. Add  Daiya cheddar shreds and toss with broccoli & rice.
11. Spoon in raw diced red bell pepper along with the mushrooms & onion mixture and toss gently.
12. Taste and season with salt, black or white pepper, or Nama Shoyu as needed.  A little vegan worcestershire or peanut sauce might not hurt either.
13. Transfer to your lightly oiled Pyrex casserole dish, bake at 450 for 30-40 minutes.
14. Remove from the oven and let cool before you eat it and burn your fool mouth!

It tastes even better the next day and slices into servings wonderfully!  The Daiya cheddar shreds tasted really good out of the package and melted really well.  The edge along the casserole dish got crispy chewy cheesy, making me wish I had saved some of the shreds to put on top to make it more bubbly & cheesy.

Tonight, I'm going to make garlic cheese bread with the Daiya mozzarella shreds that are in the fridge.

Golden Chanterelle Stroganoff

If you haven't yet signed up for one of Chef Eric Tucker's cooking classes at Millennium, perhaps this will tempt you - Chanterelle Stroganoff.  He said it was ok for me to reproduce this recipe, so here you go!

This is one of my favorite recipes - I have experimented with a few variations which I will mention below. 

Chanterelle "Stroganoff" by Chef Eric Tucker

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 yellow onion, sliced into thin crescents
• 2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
• 2 Tb olive oil
• 1# cleaned chanterelles, sliced thin
• 1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
• 2 tsp paprika
• 1 Tb tomato paste
• 2 c vegetable or mushroom stock
• 1 Tb nutritional yeast (or more, to taste)
• 1 c cashew cream (make yourself with pre-soaked cashews, drain, blend with cold water, dash of salt and squeeze of lemon til you get a cream)
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• salt & pepper, to taste
• minced fresh dill
• lemon zest
• cooked papardelle (super easy to make yourself!)

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a large skillet, sautee the onion in the olive oil over medium, stirring often until onion is medium caramelized.
2. Add garlic & mushrooms, continue to sautee, stirring often until the mushrooms are dry.
3. Add thyme & paprika, sautee 30 seconds, then deglaze with red wine.
4. Add tomato paste, stock & nutritional yeast and simmer 5 minutes.
5. Add cashew cream, simmer until thick.
6. Taste & adjust seasoning.  
7. Toss the cooked papardelle with some olive oil.  
8. Place a portion of sauce over noodles, sprinkle with dill & lemon zest.

Variations:  I have made this with morels and other mushrooms - it comes out pretty delicious.  I have also substituted dry sherry for red wine for deglazing.  

Make your own pasta  - it's really not hard, and papardelle are wide strips that you want to cut by hand anyway.  Rustic homemade noodles are divine!

Ravioli, Redux!

Another round of Stinging Nettle & Wild Chanterelle Ravioli from the Millennium cookbook - why? Because it's AWESOME! This time, I made up a very big batch of candy cap balsamic reduction well in advance - two bottles of balsamic and 1/2" oz of dried candy caps later, I've got a decent 2 cups of syrupy reduction to add to dressings and sauces.

The ravioli turned out amazing - even though two of my guests couldn't eat wheat, I saved the filling for them to eat with the salad and they pronounced it delicious. In fact, one guest said "This is the best meal I have ever had!"

The ravioli were served on a bed of mixed greens (I'm in love with mizuno), and a salad of roasted beets with candied pecans and arugula. Homemade strawberry ice cream for dessert.

Panzanella, Zucchini Blossom & Zucchini Fritter Dinner for 3

My friend Eric and I went to mess up James' kitchen - I had another pile of squash blossoms and some zucchini from our gardens. Eric decided a panzanella would be a great idea -- with some yummy tempeh cubes, sauteed with soy sauce to make them brown and savory. Eric also brought some killer Wellington wines.

The squash blossom fritters were stuffed with cashew nut cheese, same as before. I made it before heading to James house but overprocessed it so it was less cheesy and more like tahini, but it still worked.

Zucchini fritters are pretty easy to make - just shred the zucchini into a colander, sprinkle some salt, toss and let sit 20-30 minutes before squeezing out as much liquid as you can. Then toss the zucchini with some flour and pepper, add a bit of water (not the zucchini juice though - it might be too salty). Once you have a consistency that holds to gether well enough to drop on hot oil and fry, you're ready to go.

Panzanella is a classic Italian salad -- ours had Japanese cucumbers, some cherry tomatoes that Eric picked out at Whole Foods on our way over, tempeh cubes, basil, rosemary, oregano, finely diced red onion, pine nuts, white corn, and some croutons (sauteed in olive oil) all tossed with olive oil, seasoned and sprinkled with balsamic.

Super yum!