Amaranth Cakes with Wild Mushrooms

This dish is taken from The Vegetarian Times Cookbook. It is the earthiest, one of the richest dishes we have ever eaten - and, as the cookbook title makes obvious, completely meatless. If you are going to try this, carve out a nice time slot for yourself, make sure your spouse or dinner partners are patient and good souls, and keep a box of tissues and a masseuse on hand.

Here is the recipe:

Amaranth Cakes

2 cups boiling water
1/2 oz dried porcini mushrooms
1 cup amaranth seeds, rinsed
2 tbs minced shallot
1/4 tsp salt
1 large egg
2 tbs all-purpose flour
1 tbs finely chopped fresh marjoram
Olive Oil for frying
1 cup shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano

Mushroom mixture

2 tbs olive oil
1 lb wild mushrooms (I used a blend of cremini and oyster)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 tbs minced shallot
1 clove minced garlic
1/2 cup dry white wine
2 tbs unsalted butter
1 tbs coarsely chopped fresh marjoram

Make Amaranth cakes: pour boiling water over porcini and soak for 15 minutes. Lift mushrooms from water using slotted spoon and sieve out the sediment from the mushroom water. Reserve mushroom water to cook the amaranth. Rinse mushrooms well and chop finely. Set aside.

Place amaranth, shallots, salt, mushrooms, and 1 1/2 cups of mushroom liquid in saucepan, and heat over medium heat. Cover, and reduce heat to very low. Cook for 25 minutes, or until amaranth absorbs all liquid. Transfer to a bowl and let cool. Be sure it is lukewarm before you pour in the egg or the egg will cook. Stir in the egg, flour and marjoram.

Make mushroom mixture: heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms, season with salt and cook, tossing from time to time, until mushrooms release moisture and begin to brown. Add shallots and garlic, cook for 1 minute more and add wine. Continue to cook until only a few tablespoons of liquid remain. Stir in butter and marjoram, and transfer to a bowl or saucepan. Keep warm while making the cakes.

Ok - here is the tricky part. You are basically making pancakes. It can be frustrating since mine actually totally fell apart on my first try so John heard a mini-fit take place, and then I dropped an egg on the floor. SO..try to not expect these pancakes to stick perfectly. My suggestion is try another egg for extra measure: pour some olive oil into skillet, and heat over medium heat. When oil is hot, drop 2 tbs portions of amaranth batter, and flatten with fork into pancake shape. Cook until browned on bottom, about 1 minute, flip (haaa!!! - I mean, good luck), and brown the top. Repeat with remaining batter, take deep breaths and remember they will taste just fine broken, and pancake away until your batter is gone.

Alternate layers of amaranth cakes and mushrooms on individual serving plates or large platter. Top with shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, and serve immediately. This was gratifying and fun for me, since making the stupid cakes turned me into a burning wreckage.

I actually would make this again, having learned my lesson on the pancakes, because the flavor is absolutely mind-blowing...if you love mushrooms that is!

Here are some pictures of the process (the good parts):

Whole Roasted Fish with Crushed Potatoes and Charmoula

This recipe has been in my favorites box on Epicurious for some time. We finally made it last week! It was excellent...my first foray into cooking whole fish (including eyeballs, which we did not eat). It was very satisfying, although rather tedious at times avoiding little bones.

The charmoula, the cilantro sauce, was terrific. I have to say I have learned something about fennel - I had never roasted fennel before, but it was one of the most unique flavors I have ever experienced. Now that we have tasted roasted fennel with olive oil, along with fennel seeds, in potatoes with some preserved lemon, I think we will cook it again and again as a side-dish.

The recipe can be found above, in five components - roasted fish, lime yogurt, chermoula, potatoes, and roasted fennel.

Here are some pictures of our dinner:

Moroccan Beef Tagine

For Christmas of last year, Pop gave John and me our first ever authentic Moroccan tagine. Our culinary gift collected dust for about 3 weeks until we broke it in with the following. (The original recipe called for lamb, but since we had purchased some wonderful beef stew meat, we used that instead.)


I found a great site for Moroccan food and went to work.

I will insert the recipe here in a few days. The site is taking forever to load.

One note on the recipe - the apricots added a great deal of sweetness to the dish. The flavors were very nice, but the dish was slightly sweet for John's and my taste. The orange juice, while a nice touch, seemed to add nothing to the dish in terms of flavor; maybe food science has something to do with its inclusion in the recipe.

Sautéing the onions in olive oil





























The tagine with all the ingredients prior to simmering













Simmering:)





Posted by Sara

A Russian New Year

This year, I wanted to start incorporating some Russian traditions into our New Year's celebration, motivated partly by nostalgia for my time spent living there, and by my love of Russian cuisine. I went with the zakuski tradition this year, making a spread of various salads and appetizers I remember from Russia. New Years is the primary winter holiday in Russia, having surpassed Christmas during the Communist era and incorporating many of its traditions. For example, our Christmas trees are New Year's trees in Russia.

This year, I made Salat pod shuboi (lit. "herring under a fur coat"), vinegret, mushroom zakuski, and eggplant caviar. I also served pickled tomatoes, mushrooms, seledka and olives, and caviar on bread and butter. Everything turned out fairly well, but next time I will definitely cook more hot dishes and maybe fewer salads.

The recipes are easy to find online if anyone is interested in trying them out. The Salat pod shuboi is my favorite, but it also requires the most time, since it involves creating several layers. The results are rewarding, though.

Here are a few pictures of our New Year's table:











Posted by Sara

Cake Repair, Part 3 - the Presentation

Cake Repair, Part 2

On the day Mom had to take Becky back to college (or at least half way), Pop was left to finish the repair job solo.

Step One:  Gather ingredients . . .
Home made frosting with cream cheese (he didn't take a picture of the cream cheese, sorry) - vanilla and powder sugar

......

Then he frosted layer one - the bonus layer...

And Finished Product "notice the Hebrew" - in the freezer to wait for the

return of the Anniversary couple....

Cake Repair, Part 1

The Anniversary Cake - attacked by "Pop" for a midnight snack once upon a time.... and since the anniversary is near - repair is necessary...

The Damages up close:

So here we go - Cake Repair: Part One 

Step one: prepare necessary parts . . .

One piece for "filling" and another for the new "bonus" base layer.

Step Two, cut out "new" center for cake, and attempt to plug-hole...

Level the Surface as much as possible...

Install parts...

  And then level the field again . . .

melted original icing to use as glue (. . . I mean, "filling")

Final trim . . .

and new layer gets to rest in the freezer....until tomorrow (when we take up Part #2)