Wild Mushroom Sauce

A recipe that my Grandmother and Mom made for Christmas Eve dinner for the Pyrohy, Vareniki, Pierogi or dumplings was wild mushroom sauce.  

My grandmother mushroom sauce was dairy less, achieving the golden color by browning the flour, which my Aunt Marion still does.   

My Mom's sauce was milk based resulting in a creamy color.

This recipe is a modification of both recipes.

Traditionally dried wild mushrooms were the mushrooms for this dish

Although, my husband and I joined the Alberta Mycological Society to hunt Morels this spring in the Porcupine Hills, only to return with one member finding one morel.  I don't think I can convince my husband to go with me again, not only is this a very rugged terrain, the thought of it being the most populated area of grizzlies was not assuring.

At our Crossroad market, I bought a small basket for eight bucks and dried them for this dish.

The water from hydrating the morel was used as the liquid in the sauce. 

A mixed of fresh mushroom; Portobello ,Oyster, Brown and White mushrooms  along with hydrated morels were sautéed in Olive oil.   Then baked in a hot oven until golden brown. A small onion was finely chopped and sautéed until onions were soften. 

I made a roux using three tablespoons of butter and flour. This I do in the microwave, melt the butter first, add the flour and then whisk in the hot liquid. The easiest way to make a white sauce that I learned from taking microwave classes offered when one bought a Panasonic Microwave in the eighties!  Madame Benoit was the author of the cookbook used by Panasonic for the classes!

To the sauce, I added 1 tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce, dash of Cayenne Sauce, freshly ground pepper, minced garlic and fresh thyme. 

Yes, it's December and this Thyme came from my garden, poking out of the snow!

The mushrooms were added to the sauce.  The finishing touch is cream which I will add in when preparing the dishes on Christmas Eve.

This is as delicious as it looks!  

Make Ahead Gravy

Making your gravy for Christmas Dinner is such a time saver and certainly helps out with clean up that day, that nobody wants to do! 

I have done this before but this time, I added vegetables and fresh herbs for a richer taste. The Rosemary was clipped from my plant that I had transplanted in the fall.

A base of roughly chopped carrots, garlic clove and onions were put into a Cast iron pan. Celery and bacon can also be added. 
I had picked up a couple of packages of organic chicken legs to roast.  

Drizzle with Olive oil.   Season with Pepper and Star Anise or Chinese Five spice.  Star Anise is star shaped and very fragrant, as is the Chinese Five spice, so go easy!

Roast at a high temperature 400 degrees for about an hour or until golden brown!  The best part of this recipe is that you now have supper ready!  And the house smells like Christmas!

Mash up the vegetables with a fork.  I also used a hand blender to puree the vegetables.  The mixture was strained and about a litre of hot water added to the mixture.  I made a roux of butter and flour (using 3 tablespoons) of each to thicken the gravy. 

As is my husband's way of doing gravy, he sautéed finely chopped onion until soften which is then added to the gravy

The beautifully golden gravy brought memories of my Mom's gravy, but she made on Christmas Day. 

This gravy is frozen until the Christmas turkey is brought out to thaw. Drippings from the bird can be added to the gravy, but I think it's good to go!

Tsukune - Japanese chicken meatballs

Another meatball I had made for the bridal shower was  Tuskune, Japanese Chicken Meatballs,  modified recipe of Just One Cookbook.  

Nami talks about using eggs or bread crumbs to bind the meat, but also her Mom's trick to knead the chicken to prevent it falling of the skewers.  

I was interested to know if kneading the mixture and also per-cooking a third of the ground chicken would help in forming the meatballs as in using Maple Leaf ground chicken or turkey, the mixture is sticky and difficult to form into meatballs. 

The meatballs were mixed with 2 T of sesame seed oil, minced onion and baste with Yakitori Tare when grilled.  The homemade Yakitori sauce that Just One Cookbook posted is below.

Yakitori Sauce (Tare) 

• ½ cup soy sauce
• ½ cup mirin
• ¼ cup sake
• ¼ cup water
• 2 tsp. packed brown sugar

Vietnamese Meatballs with Nouc Cham Sauce

As I started this blog, this song popped up in my mind!

One meat ball
One meat ball
That one was gooey
You gets no bread with one meat ball

Meatballs

2 pound of ground chicken meat.

chopped fresh cilantro

4 cloves of minced garlic 2-3 

Fresh ginger, grated

green onion, chopped

1 T fish sauce

1 T hot chili sauce like Sriracha

I T sugar

2 tsp corn starch

1 tsp Sesame Seed oil

pepper 

Add the ground meat to the mixture

Mix all the ingredients together and form meatballs. 

I did add more cornstarch as the ground chicken is sticky and difficult to work with.

Bake in a 375 oven until cooked, about 20 minutes.

The meatballs can be frozen uncooked.

Do remember to taste test the meatballs for seasoning

Delicious!

Meatballs were certainly a hit at the Hugh Tea bridal shower for my daughter in July!

I made three different flavours with different dipping sauces for each type of meatballs.  A Vietnamenese meat ball could be made but this time I followed  the idea of adding tofu to the ground chicken like Nami does from Just One Cookbook .  The adding of tofu makes your meatballs fluffy and light.   I have been adding tofu to other ground  meat with great results, not to mentions reducing the calorie count of each meatball or patty!


To the ground Chicken, along with the Tofu, minced ginger, chopped onions, I also added chopped fresh garden mint and cilantro before making the meatballs.

Nouc Cham Sauce 

This is very easy to make and great for salads or dipping sauce. One can adjust the heat to this sauce by adding more hot chilies.

1/2 cup of water
2 -3 T sugar
1/2 c rice vinegar
1 T fish sauce
minced garlic
1 tsp chili garlic sauce
salt
1/8 c shredded carrots

Sweet and Sour Cabbage soup

With the temperature dropping in the Foothills, I've seen a few bloggers making Cabbage Roll Soup and posting their pictures on Instagram.

My Mom did do what she called "Lazy Cabbage Rolls" which was a casserole.

This recipe takes the Cabbage Roll Soup recipe a step further by adding some Asian Flavors. 

Sauté about a pound of ground meat, I used ground pork

To make this soup; I used 1/2 white Onion, fresh grated Ginger, 1/3 c Rice Vinegar, 1/4c Soya Sauce, hot chilies, Shiitake Mushroom, 1 clove of Garlic, fresh ground pepper, 1 -2 cup chopped Cabbage,1 can diced Tomatoes, 1/2 cup of rice.

Soften the chopped onions in about a tablespoon of Olive Oil

Add the rest of the ingredients, top with water.  I never use a purchased broth as I am not sure what is actually in the broth. I'm thinking pork chops for the stock in this soup would be awesome!   Water works just fine. Bring to boil and then simmer until rice cooked. 

I found that 1/2 cup of rice was too much, but my husband loved the soup thick. 
I also added a tin of Tomato paste as I thought it need more tomato flavor.

This makes a lot of soup, about 3 Litres. This recipe is a keeper.  In my husband's words, "Dam!  That is good soup!"

Maine Pancakes, Pennsylvanian Dutch Pancake

In trying to organize my Christmas recipe, I came across a recipe that I know as a Pennsylvanian Dutch Pancake but this was referred to as a Maine Pancake.  I am not sure why!

It suggests making this batter a day ahead and chilling it overnight.  Never am I that organized! 

The first time I made a Pennsylvanian Dutch Pancake in my Cast Iron, it certainly rose more than this recipe, but with two teenage boys, I couldn't make it fast enough. I didn't make it again as needed more than one cast iron pan to feed a family of five.

Armed with this information, I cut up three apples, handful of raisins and sautéed them in a tablespoon of butter.  I also chopped up two cooked sausages. 

 Whisk 2 lightly beaten large eggs, 1/2 c flour, 1/2 cup milk, pinch of salt, vanilla together, Batter can be a bit lumpy.  

Heat Oven to 425 degrees.

If you wanted to do just the puffy pancake, melt some butter in a cast iron pan.
Pour batter into the heated cast iron pan and bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Serve right away as the pancake will be puffy like a soufflé and most dramatic!

Dust with Icing sugar or serve with maple syrup. 

Since I have two pieces left over, I will serve it with ice cream for supper. 

Sandwich Pickles

I spent a wonderful morning a few years ago with my Ninety year old Aunt as we poured through her recipes.

She was looking for her favourite recipes she wanted to share with me.

August 26, 2011 at 10:40 AM

On her kitchen counter, she had jars of Sandwich Pickles that she had just made. The cucumbers had been sliced thinly to make this recipe.

Here is my Aunt's Sandwich Pickles recipe that she had hand written

Recipe for Sandwich Pickles