Tag Archives: Mushrooms

Mushroom Empanadas

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Mushroom EmpanadasWhen entertaining for a crowd, cocktail-size empanadas are a great finger food to serve. You can stuff them with all sorts of fillings and you can make a batch ahead of time, freeze them, and re-heat them straight from the freezer when you’re ready to serve. These mushroom empanadas are baked, not fried. The dough recipe comes from Claire Archibald of Café Azul in Portland, Oregon as written up on Epicurious.com.

It’s a great pastry dough recipe that is really easy to make. Just mix the flour, salt, butter in a mixer with a dough hook then beat one egg with one tablespoon of Champagne vinegar, or I used rose’ wine vinegar which is lighter than red wine vinegar but not as a expensive as Champagne vinegar, and fill the rest of the cup with cold water, then add to the dough and mix through.   Wrap the dough in plastic and chill for an hour. You will use about 2/3 of the dough for this recipe. The remaining dough can be frozen.

Mushroom Empanadas While the dough is chilling, you can make the mushroom filling. This recipe call for portabella and shiitake mushrooms, for a full bodied-mushroom flavor. Shallots, sherry, and a hint of cream bring out the full flavor without taking away from the mushroom taste. Add the shallots and parsley to a food processor and process until the shallots are fine. Remove the mixture and then add the mushrooms and process until fine. Heat oil in a pot and add the shallot-parsley mixture and a grated garlic and sauté for 3 minutes until the shallots are translucent. Add the mushrooms, salt, pepper, cayenne to the shallots, mix through and cook for 3 minutes. Add sherry, mix through and cook for 2 minutes, then add cream, mix through and cook for 1 minute. Remove mixture from heat and let cool.

Mushroom Empanadas Queso fresco is a Mexican cheese that is very mild in flavor and crumbly in texture. It pairs very well with the mushroom mixture in these empanadas. To grate the cheese, use a course grater but know that some of the cheese will fall apart and crumble as you’re grating. This is perfectly fine and usable in the empanadas.

Mushroom Empanadas When the dough is chilled, cut it into sixths so it is easy to manage. Take one sixth and roll out dough into a thin layer – no more than 1/8” in thickness. Keep the remaining dough in the refrigerator until ready to use. Using a 2.75” diameter cookie ring, cut circles out of the dough, reusing the scraps around the circles for additional empanadas.

Mushroom Empanadas To fill the empanada, use a regular teaspoon – not a measuring teaspoon – for portioning out the mushroom mixture and place mixture in center of disc. Be careful to not overstuff the empanada; a little filling goes a long way. Add a bit of grated cheese on top. To seal, press the edges of one side and work around the half-moon shape to the other side. Then, using the back of a fork, press the tongs onto the edges of the empanada to crimp, turn the empanada over and repeat the crimping. Place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet and repeat the process.

Mushroom Empanadas Brush the empanadas with the egg wash and top with a bit of salt before baking at 400° for about 23 minutes – might be 25 minutes depending on your oven. The cooked empanadas can be frozen. To reheat, taken them directly from the freezer and place in a pre-heated 350° oven for 10 minutes.

Mushroom Empanadas

Mushroom Empanadas

Ingredients:

Café Azul’s Pastry Dough recipe:

5 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon salt

4 sticks (2 cups) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

1 large egg

1 tablespoon Champagne vinegar – or rose wine vinegar

About 3/4 cup ice water

Mushroom stuffing:

1.25 lbs portabella mushrooms

2 oz Shiitake mushrooms

1/4 cup parsley

2 shallots

2 tablespoons sherry

2 tablespoons cream

2 teaspoons Kosher salt

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

Pinch cayenne pepper

1 clove garlic grated

1 teaspoon thyme

3 tablespoons EVOO

4 oz grated queso fresco

Egg wash:

1 egg

½ cup of water

Kosher salt

Make dough by adding flour, salt and butter to a mixer with a dough hook and mix through until the dough forms. Then beat one egg and one tablespoon of vinegar and fill the rest of the cup with water, then and it to the dough and mix through.   Wrap the dough in plastic and chill for at least an hour and up until 6 hours.

For the filling, add shallots and parsley to a food processor and process until the shallots are fine. Remove the mixture and then add the mushrooms and process until fine. Heat oil in a pot and add the shallot-parsley mixture and garlic and sauté for 3 minutes until the shallots are translucent. Add the mushrooms, salt, pepper, cayenne to the shallots, mix through and cook for 3 minutes. Add sherry, mix through and cook for 2 minutes, then add cream, mix through and cook for 1 minute. Remove mixture from heat and let cool. In a separate bowl, grate the cheese.

When the dough is chilled, cut it into sixths so it is easy to manage. Take one sixth and roll out dough into a thin layer – no more than 1/8” in thickness. Keep the remaining dough in the refrigerator until ready to use. Using a 2.75” diameter cookie ring, cut circles out of the dough, reusing the scraps around the circles for additional empanadas.

To fill the empanada, use a regular teaspoon – not a measuring teaspoon – for portioning out the mushroom mixture and place mixture in center of disc. Add a bit of grated cheese on top. To seal, press the edges of one side and work around the half-moon shape to the other side. Be careful to not overstuff the empanada; a little filling goes a long way. Then, using the back of a fork, press the tongs onto the edges of the empanada to crimp, turn the empanada over and repeat the crimping. Place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet and repeat the process.

Brush the empanadas with the egg wash and top with a bit of salt before baking at 400° for about 23 minutes until lightly browned on top. You might need to cook 25 minutes depending on your oven.

Makes 75-80 empanadas

 

Judy’s Chicken – Chicken with Mushrooms and Lemon

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judys chicken plateMy mother was a very good cook.  It was her love for cooking and food that helped shape my cooking skills and love for food.  Her way of teaching me to cook was for me to sit with her in the kitchen and watch. And then the next time she made the dish, she would let me get involved in one or two of the steps: mixing, adding seasoning or slicing, etc.  If I kept her company often enough, I was pretty much involved in making all aspects of the dish… Just not at once.

Chicken with mushrooms and lemon plate

There is a chicken dish that she made pretty often and for holidays.  It was her signature dish. She was a different kind of cook than I am, as she often used pre-mixed packets, mixes and bottled sauces and mixed them in with her own blend of dry and wet ingredients.  For her signature chicken dish, she would mix in a brown mushroom gravy packet with her lemon juice, white wine and mushroom sauté.  Except when she made the dish for Passover, because then, the flour in the packet was “off limits” for holiday.  And it was this version that I loved more than her original because it had more of a lemony flavor.   And it’s the version I make today.

This dish calls for breading and pan fry thinly sliced chicken cutlets.  I slice a half chicken breast into 3-4 pieces length-wise.  You can use breadcrumbs or the less glutinous Einkorn Flour, which works quite well, or if you are making it during Passover, matzo meal.  The matzo meal actually gives the chicken a nice thicker coating than the breadcrumbs which holds up really well in this dish.

judys chicken no mushroomsThe chicken gets cooked twice in this recipe. First, pan-fried, then baked with the mushroom sauté and some chicken stock.  For the pan-fry alt and pepper the chicken then dip it into an egg wash and then into seasoned matzo meal, breadcrumbs or Einkorn Flour.  When all the chicken has been coated, heat the oil in a pan on the stovetop and pan fry for 3 minutes on each side, until the coating is a bit browned.  I use about 3/4 cup of olive oil for 3 lbs of chicken, adding a little at a time so that the chicken doesn’t absorb more oil than necessary. When the chicken is a bit browned on each side, transfer to a baking dish and repeat with the remaining chicken.

judys chicken - mushroomsTo make the mushroom sauté, add to the same pan that was used to pan fry the chicken, the remaining oil, sliced shallots, garlic, and sauté for a minute,  Then add the mushrooms and parsley. I  use a mix of white, portobello and shitake mushrooms, but you can use any mixture that you like.  Add the salt and pepper and sauté until the mushrooms are soft. Add the wine and deglaze the pan, then add the lemon juice and zest.  Cook for about 5 minutes until the liquids blend.  Pour mushroom sauce over the chicken, and then add the stock.  Cover and bake in a preheated oven at 375° for 50 minutes.

If you are making this dish ahead, pan fry the chicken and store in a separate container.  Then make the mushroom sauté and store that in a separate container.  When you’re ready to bake, add the chicken to the ovenproof dish, then top with the mushrooms mixture and add the stock. Cover the dish and bake.

Judy’s Chicken – Chicken with Mushrooms and Lemon

Ingredients:

For the chicken:

3lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts

1.5 cups matzo meal

¼ cup parsley

2 eggs plus 1/2 cup water

Salt and pepper

1 cup vegetable or olive oil

 

For the mushroom sauté:

¾ lb mushrooms – you can use any kind.  I use a mix of white, shiitake and portobello

½ lb shallots, thinly sliced

¾ cup chopped parsley

3-4 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced

¾ cup lemon juice

zest of 1 lemon

1 teaspoons salt

1/2   teaspoon ground black pepper

½ cup white wine

 To bake:

1 ¼ cup chicken stock

Slice the chicken breasts thinly so that you get 3-4 pieces per half breast.  Salt and pepper the chicken.  Add 2 eggs plus ½ cup water to a dish and mix through.  Add matzo meal and ¼ cup parsley to another dish and mix through.  Dip chicken into egg wash then coat with matzo meal.  Set on a plate. When you have finished coating all pieces of chicken, heat a sauté plan with ¼ cup of oil and pan fry the chicken in batches, about 3 minutes on each side, until they start to brown slightly.  You will need to add the remaining oil in batches – ¼ cup at a time – as you cook the rest of the chicken. Put pan-fried chicken in an ovenproof pan.

When all the chicken has been pan-fried, add remaining oil to (you will have about ½ cup.  Add garlic and shallots 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper and remaining 3/4 cup parsley and sauté 1 minute.  Then add mushrooms and sauté until soft – this will take a few minutes.  When mushrooms are cooked through, add 1/2 cup white wine and deglaze pan, then add the lemon juice and zest.  Cook for about 5 minutes until the liquids blend.  Pour mushroom sauté over the chicken, and then add the stock.  Cover and bake in a preheated oven at 375° for 50 minutes.

Serves 8-10

 

Egg Salad with Mushrooms

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eggs mushroom tomThis is one of my favorite breakfast/brunch dishes that my mother used to make.  What I love about it is the airy mousse consistency that is brought upon by processing the eggs and mushrooms together in a food processor.  The result requires very little mayonnaise to make it moist and savory. For a dozen hard-boiled eggs and one pound of white mushrooms only two tablespoons of mayonnaise is needed.

egg salad with mushroom The mushrooms are cooked in boiling water before they are finely chopped with the eggs in the food processor.  Once finely chopped, add the mixture to a bowl and add the salt, pepper and mayonnaise.  Cover bowl and let chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour.  Serve with rice cakes, toast, tomatoes or other brunch foods such as egg salad with spinach.

Egg Salad with Mushrooms

Ingredients:

12 hard boiled eggs, sliced in half

1 lb white mushrooms

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon ground black pepper

2 tablespoons mayonnaise

Clean mushrooms with damp cloth or paper towel and cut mushrooms in half. Put mushrooms in a pot and boil until they are cooked through. Drain and add to food processor with 8 hard boils eggs.  Process about a 1 minute or 2, until the mixture is very fine — it will have a soufflé-like consistency.  Put eggs and mushrooms mixture into a bowl add salt, pepper and mayonnaise. Mix together and chill for at least an hour before serving.

 

Serves 4-6