I have been soooooo dreading writing this blog post and that's probably why it's taken me two weeks to do it! This is the first recipe that I felt was just so-so. Don't get me wrong, it was GOOD but it wasn't mind-blowing good... and i really wanted it to be mind-blowing good. I mean c'mon what's better than prosciutto? In my opinion, nothing.
On to the recipe... PW calls for TWO portobello mushrooms per sandwich. If you've never seen a portobello, they are usually the size of your head. Well maybe not the size of YOUR head, but I have a pretty small head. If they aren't the size of your freakishly small head, then they are at least the size of your hand. Now take your hands and put them on top of each other, now put them inside of a bun. Do you really want to eat a sandwich with that much mushroom on it? No, you really don't. I'm a big fan of mushrooms and this was even too much mushroom for me. I would recommend cutting it down to one shroom per sandwich. You'll be glad you did.
PW recommends marinating the mushrooms in red wine. But it's totally optional. I tried it because she's usually always right (except when she tells you to put Apple Cider in Chicken and Dumplings... then she's wrong. VERY, very wrong). Okay, let's try this at home. If you make the recipe according to her specifications it calls for 8 portobello mushrooms. And she says to marinate these 8 small-head-sized mushrooms in 1 cup of red wine. Seriously try it. Okay, did you? good. You probably noticed that 1 cup of red wine is not enough to marinate 8 freakishly large mushrooms in. First of all, 8 of these won't fit in a normal sized bowl. Even if they did fit in a normal sized bowl when you pour in 1 cup of wine the only ones that are getting marinated are the ones at the very bottom of the bowl. So, it really doesn't work. Personally I would lay them out in a pan and drizzle them with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. Then i would flip them over and do it on the other side too. Let them sit like that for 30 minutes to one hour and I have a feeling it will be a trillion times better than the one cup of red wine.
You need to grill the mushrooms either on an outside grill or on one of those grill pans that you put on the stove. It was cold so I didn't want to go outside and grill (read: I have no idea how to light the thing) and I don't have one of those fancy grill pans.
Mental note: buy a fancy grill pan.
So I stuck them on a panini maker. I thought my reasoning was good.... it LOOKS like a grill and it gets hot like a grill so it must work like a grill. Wrong. It took FOREVER to cook those suckers.
So when they were finally done, I followed the rest of the recipe as it was written. Please, please, please don't skimp on the mayo/basil dressing that's in this recipe. That really did make the whole sandwich. Halfway through eating it, I pulled off one of the mushrooms because like i said before it was too much.
Next time I make these (if there is a next time) I will definitely try marinating them with the olive oil/balsamic combo. I don't even like balsamic vinegar, but I have a feeling it will be MUCH better than the red wine.
Stay warm and happy cooking :)
Showing posts with label mushrooms. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mushrooms. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Monday, January 17, 2011
Pasta with Bacon and Mushrooms
I was looking for a recipe to cook on Friday night and stumbled upon this one from Ree's extensive collection. Pasta, Okay. Mushrooms, Yum. Bacon, YES please. So I headed to the store to get my ingredients for this one and for the one that I cooked on Saturday night... look for that post soon.
This recipe has pretty simple ingredients and for my calculations I already had the Olive Oil and the Garlic. Ree says that this recipe serves 4. So according to her calculations this recipe cost 4.70 per person. Please keep in mind that i'm not figuring out how much one cup of parmesean calculates to, I'm just adding up what I bought divided by the number of people it serves. I figure that if you have to buy everything anyway you should know how much it will really cost. The good news is that this recipe definitely serves more than 4. I don't know how they grow them out there on the pioneer front, but we have already had 4 healthy servings and we have at least two more. Soooo according to 6 servings, it will be 3.13/serving. If you have a little bird appetite you might even be able to get 8 servings out of this so then it's only 2.35. Just depends on how hungry you are.
So, I get home with the ingredients and head to work on the recipe. This time I calculated how long it took me to do the recipe versus how long she says it takes to cook. According to her it takes 25 minutes total. That's prep time + cooking time. For me it took 45 minutes total. See, I told you she has super powers.
Let's start with the prep. The first thing you need to do is get everything chopped and diced and ready to go. So, we'll start with the most important part. The BACON. This recipe calls for 3 pieces of bacon... um, okay. I made it 8 pieces of bacon. I mean, who doesn't like bacon? If you don't like bacon, then you aren't going to like this blog. So slice up your 3 to 8 pieces in 1/2" pieces and set aside. Grab your mushrooms and clean them off. I was always told that mushrooms like cats hate water (yes, i did just successfully pull off a cat/mushroom analogy. Jealous? you should be.). I never, ever rinse them under the faucet. I always dampen a paper towel and just wipe off the dirt. But in doing some research there is much controversy over the proper way to wash a mushroom. Who knew. Some people say don't do it, others say it's fine as long as you don't soak them. So you chose whatever way you feel more comfortable. Once they are clean, grab a sharp knife and thinly slice them. Set those aside too.
Grab your parsley and take off a bunch of it. I used a handful. Wash it and pat it dry with a paper towel. Then put it on your cutting board and say a prayer to your higher power for the strength to chop it. I HATE chopping parsley. With a passion, I hate it. I've found that if you bunch it all up in your fingers and then chop, it makes it easier. Keep chopping until it is finely minced. Give thanks that it is over and you shall never have to do it again. Well, at least for that day.
Now you are ready to start cooking! If you follow the recipe, it is all pretty simple to do. If you are using a non-stick pan it is going to be really, really hard for you to brown the mushrooms. The non-stick surface doesn't really brown things very well. Turn the heat on your stove on HIGH. I did medium high for about 5 minutes and then really, really high for another 5 minutes. That seemed to work well. If you have a cast-iron skillet, then i would just follow the directions that she has, since that is what she uses.
Ree recommends that you use thin spaghetti or angel hair. Thin spaghetti and angel hair really absorb the sauce... so unless you plan on eating it all in one night or you plan to make some sort of sticky pasta sculpture out of it, you should opt for something that won't absorb as much. Maybe penne or farfalle. I would also recommend doubling the liquid in the recipe. So double cream, half and half and chicken broth. She says that for the chicken broth you can use white wine instead if you want. I actually used half chicken broth and half white wine. I think the white wine gives it a nice flavor. She recommends that if the sauce is absorbing too much to add some of the water from the pasta. Yuck. That just gives you, well, watery sauce. If after you double the liquids it is still too thick, add more chicken broth. You'll be glad that you did.
Now, here's a quiz for you. Ree forgets one critical part in the preparation instructions. Go back and reread them.
Do you know what it is?
No?
Okay, I'll tell you.... In my opinion, she left out the most important part. She tells you to cook the bacon and then set it aside, but she never tells you to add it back in! The shame. The shame. How could she forget the BACON?! I made an executive decision and added it in right after I turned off the heat on the sauce.
If you don't eat all of the pasta in one night, when you reheat the sauce add a little chicken broth to thin it out. You may need to add some extra Parmesan as well. Your call.
Well, that's all for today. Happy parsley chopping to you and yours.
This recipe has pretty simple ingredients and for my calculations I already had the Olive Oil and the Garlic. Ree says that this recipe serves 4. So according to her calculations this recipe cost 4.70 per person. Please keep in mind that i'm not figuring out how much one cup of parmesean calculates to, I'm just adding up what I bought divided by the number of people it serves. I figure that if you have to buy everything anyway you should know how much it will really cost. The good news is that this recipe definitely serves more than 4. I don't know how they grow them out there on the pioneer front, but we have already had 4 healthy servings and we have at least two more. Soooo according to 6 servings, it will be 3.13/serving. If you have a little bird appetite you might even be able to get 8 servings out of this so then it's only 2.35. Just depends on how hungry you are.
So, I get home with the ingredients and head to work on the recipe. This time I calculated how long it took me to do the recipe versus how long she says it takes to cook. According to her it takes 25 minutes total. That's prep time + cooking time. For me it took 45 minutes total. See, I told you she has super powers.
Let's start with the prep. The first thing you need to do is get everything chopped and diced and ready to go. So, we'll start with the most important part. The BACON. This recipe calls for 3 pieces of bacon... um, okay. I made it 8 pieces of bacon. I mean, who doesn't like bacon? If you don't like bacon, then you aren't going to like this blog. So slice up your 3 to 8 pieces in 1/2" pieces and set aside. Grab your mushrooms and clean them off. I was always told that mushrooms like cats hate water (yes, i did just successfully pull off a cat/mushroom analogy. Jealous? you should be.). I never, ever rinse them under the faucet. I always dampen a paper towel and just wipe off the dirt. But in doing some research there is much controversy over the proper way to wash a mushroom. Who knew. Some people say don't do it, others say it's fine as long as you don't soak them. So you chose whatever way you feel more comfortable. Once they are clean, grab a sharp knife and thinly slice them. Set those aside too.
Grab your parsley and take off a bunch of it. I used a handful. Wash it and pat it dry with a paper towel. Then put it on your cutting board and say a prayer to your higher power for the strength to chop it. I HATE chopping parsley. With a passion, I hate it. I've found that if you bunch it all up in your fingers and then chop, it makes it easier. Keep chopping until it is finely minced. Give thanks that it is over and you shall never have to do it again. Well, at least for that day.
Now you are ready to start cooking! If you follow the recipe, it is all pretty simple to do. If you are using a non-stick pan it is going to be really, really hard for you to brown the mushrooms. The non-stick surface doesn't really brown things very well. Turn the heat on your stove on HIGH. I did medium high for about 5 minutes and then really, really high for another 5 minutes. That seemed to work well. If you have a cast-iron skillet, then i would just follow the directions that she has, since that is what she uses.
Ree recommends that you use thin spaghetti or angel hair. Thin spaghetti and angel hair really absorb the sauce... so unless you plan on eating it all in one night or you plan to make some sort of sticky pasta sculpture out of it, you should opt for something that won't absorb as much. Maybe penne or farfalle. I would also recommend doubling the liquid in the recipe. So double cream, half and half and chicken broth. She says that for the chicken broth you can use white wine instead if you want. I actually used half chicken broth and half white wine. I think the white wine gives it a nice flavor. She recommends that if the sauce is absorbing too much to add some of the water from the pasta. Yuck. That just gives you, well, watery sauce. If after you double the liquids it is still too thick, add more chicken broth. You'll be glad that you did.
Now, here's a quiz for you. Ree forgets one critical part in the preparation instructions. Go back and reread them.
Do you know what it is?
No?
Okay, I'll tell you.... In my opinion, she left out the most important part. She tells you to cook the bacon and then set it aside, but she never tells you to add it back in! The shame. The shame. How could she forget the BACON?! I made an executive decision and added it in right after I turned off the heat on the sauce.
If you don't eat all of the pasta in one night, when you reheat the sauce add a little chicken broth to thin it out. You may need to add some extra Parmesan as well. Your call.
Well, that's all for today. Happy parsley chopping to you and yours.
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