Quinoa Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

I love mushrooms in every shape or form and Portobello mushrooms rank pretty high on my favorite foods list. I love how versatile they are and how you can turn them into a filling, delicious, vegetarian meal with very little effort.  This recipe came about simply by checking the pantry and refrigerator. What started as a meal to get rid of a few extra vegetables, turned into an unforgettable dinner and inspired me to get back on this computer to write a short post.

While trying to come up with the finished recipe I decided to forgo the usual breadcrumbs as a binder and instead turned to Quinoa, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite grains to incorporate into recipes. By doing so, I was actually able to create a recipe which is not just vegetarian, but also gluten free. Served with a big salad on the side and bowl of watermelon this turned into a great meal that none of us will soon forget.

 

Quinoa Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms 

~Serves 4~

(Print this recipe)

Ingredients:

4 Large Portobello Mushrooms

1/2 cup Quinoa

1 cup Vegetable Broth

1 Tbsp. Olive Oil

1/2 Red Onion, diced

4 cups Baby Spinach, rough chopped

4 Tomatoes, seeded and diced

1/2 cup Fresh Basil, chiffonade

1/2 tsp. dried Oregano

Salt and Pepper

4 oz. Fresh Mozzarella, cubed

1/4 cup Parmesan, grated

Directions:

Clean Portobello mushrooms by removing the stem and cleaning out the gills and gently wiping the mushroom tops. Chop the stems and reserve. 

Meanwhile bring 1/2 cup quinoa and 1 cup of vegetable broth to a boil in a small pot. Cover and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, or until all the broth is absorbed. Take off the stove and cool to room temperature.

While the quinoa is cooking, heat 1 Tbsp. olive oil in a pan. Add the red onions, and cook until the onions begin to soften. Add the reserved chopped mushroom stems, spinach and tomatoes and saute until the spinach is wilted and the mixture is heated through. Season with oregano and salt and pepper to taste.  Add the basil and remove from the stove. Gently stir in the quinoa and let everything cool to room temperature. Once the mixture has cooled, fold in the cubed mozzarella.

Take the cleaned mushroom caps and brush them lightly all over with olive oil. Season the inside with salt and pepper. Divide the filling equally into each mushroom cap. 

Sprinkle each with Parmesan.

Grill for 15 minutes over medium heat or until the mozzarella starts melting and the mushrooms are heated through.

Serve immediately.

A Susi's Kochen und Backen Original Recipe

Israeli Couscous with Balsamic Glazed Vegetables

I'd like to thank you all of you for your kind comments, thoughts, prayers and emails regarding my surgery. It meant a lot and I don't say this lightly. My surgery went off without a hitch Thursday and I was back home resting that evening. I had a few days of more pain than I expected, but I'm feeling a little better with each day.  I still have to take it easy for a few more days, but didn't want to leave you all "hanging". I'm not ready to hop back into the kitchen just yet, but I made a few recipes ahead of time before I went in for my procedure. So again, thanks to all of you and your support :o)

I love shopping at Trader Joe's and no, this is not a paid advertisement, it just happens to be one of my favorite grocery stores. It reminds me a lot of the stores I grew up with as a kid. Small, neighborhood stores with a fairly limited assortment of products, but yet everything available that you would need. Trader Joe's is like that. I could spend hours walking through that little store, checking out all of the cool and unique products they have. I always check out their flowers and more often than not, I end up with a bouquet in my basket to brighten up my day. Next up, I always have to stop at the cheese coolers, the glorious, amazingly stocked cheese coolers where I usually stand and have to check out all of the mouthwatering and at times, unique flavors. I also enjoy their wine selection and always seem to walk away with a new find. In fact, they do carry a lot of things that you just can't find at an ordinary grocery store and it is also the place where I buy my couscous among many other things. Israeli couscous that is, because my local supermarket likes to be difficult and won't stock it.

Israeli couscous is just one of those interesting foods, that put a little smile on my face every time  I cook with it. I don't know exactly what it is about it, but I guess I enjoy that the texture is quite unique and unlike regular couscous. Many times I turn it into a salad or simply cook it in some chicken broth for a bit of added flavor. This time though, I wanted to incorporate a good amount of vegetables into the dish and not just any vegetables, but balsamic glazed ones. Red and green bell peppers along with onion and baby portobello mushrooms were my choice for this recipe. To make this a true vegetarian dish, I decided to cook the couscous in vegetable broth to infuse flavor throughout. While the couscous cooks, the cut up vegetables are simply sauteed in a bit of olive oil.  They are seasoned with salt and pepper and a final touch of balsamic vinegar made these vegetables a standout. I also made sure to cook them "al dente" since I wanted to keep the integrity of the vegetables intact. Finally they are folded into the cooked couscous before serving.

The end result was such an incredibly tasty dish, that goes well with so many things. Anything from chicken to fish would be wonderful alongside, but it can certainly stand on its own as well. I served this dish hot right out of the pan, but happened to try it once it had cooled down, and it was equally delicious at room temperature. This turned out so well, that my family has already requested this dish again and with it being chock-full of good for you ingredients, I certainly won't have a problem cooking this in the future.

Israeli Couscous with Balsamic Glazed Vegetables 
~makes 8 servings~ 

(Print this recipe)

Ingredients:

For the couscous:

1 1/3 cup Israeli couscous

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 3/4 cups vegetable broth

For the balsamic vegetables:

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 medium red onion, chopped

1 red bell pepper, 1/2-inch diced

1 green bell pepper, 1/2-inch diced

1 pound baby portobello mushrooms, cleaned and chopped

Kosher salt and pepper to taste

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Directions:

For the couscous: In a 2 quart saucepan, saute 1 1/3 cups Israeli couscous with 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium heat until couscous is lightly browned (about 5 minutes). Slowly add 1 3/4 cup hot vegetable broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low and cover. Simmer for 12 minutes or until liquid is absorbed.

For the balsamic vegetables: In a large pan, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions, peppers and portobellos and saute until vegetables begin to soften. Season with salt, pepper and balsamic vinegar. Continue to cook until most of the moisture from the vegetables has evaporated and the balsamic has glazed them, making sure not to over-cook the vegetables. Fold the sauteed vegetables into the cooked couscous and serve immediately or at room temperature.

A Susi's Kochen und Backen Original Recipe

Tyler Florence's Ultimate Beef Stew

Our "cold" days are pretty numbered living here in Arizona. Any kind of chill in the air has us running for jackets, boots and scarves along with warm comfort food like soups and stews. Maybe it's because our winter season is so short that these meals are looked forward to and beloved. We are quite spoiled with the weather in Arizona, especially during the fall/winter/spring months. What we consider "cold" is pretty laughable by the rest of the country's standards. However I'm convinced that in order to survive our extremely hot summers our blood thins and once the temperatures dip below 65 degrees we are just not equipped anymore to take the cold. It is pretty humorous to watch all of the tourists flocking to Arizona during this time of year. Most of the "natives" are wearing winter clothes, but you can pick out all the tourists sporting t-shirts, shorts and flip flops once the thermometer hits 60. It's a heat wave, especially if you've just arrived from North Dakota, Wisconsin or any other northern state. 

Taking full advantage of the temperatures dipping last weekend, my husband was craving beef stew. Not just any old beef stew, but Tyler Florence's Ultimate Beef Stew. I have made a few beef stews over the years and all of them were an improvement over my first encounter with "Dinty Moore", which my husband introduced me too while he was in the military. Beef stew can be extremely blah or it can be a fantastic, flavorful meal. Tyler's recipe falls into the latter category.

Let me start with prefacing that this is NOT a meal that is cooked in 30 minutes. This is one recipe that requires time, but the end result is well worth the effort. This is definitely a weekend meal for us since weekdays are always busy. This is also not the cheapest of meals, especially if you use quality ingredients. However, I can justify the expense many times over by realizing that taking a family of 5 to a restaurant would be way more expensive. I followed the recipe pretty closely, but thought I would share a few pointers that I picked up while cooking this recipe. First off, the recipe calls for 2 cups of flour. This is an utter waste. The flour is used to coat your cubed stew meat and I used 3/4 of a cup at most. So start with one cup, it will be plenty. Secondly, this recipe calls for 1 bottle of red wine. It is important to use a good, well rounded bottle, something you would enjoy drinking as well. Do NOT use cooking wine, cooking wine is an abomination as far as I'm concerned and should never be used to cook with, it will ruin pretty much every dish. Also, if you don't like cooking with wine, then I would suggest finding a different recipe. There are no substitutions in this case, since the wine and acidity will help break down your meat, add flavor, depth and will overall end up making this meal extraordinary. I used a good middle of the road wine (Murphy-Goode: Liar's Dice), that I typically have on hand and it compliments this dish exquisitely.

I also used Yukon gold potatoes, rather then small new potatoes since this is what I usually have at home and it tasted great. The recipe calls for pearl onions, this is were I messed up slightly and simply forgot to grab some at the store. Instead of running back out, I decided to substitute with 1 large yellow onion, which I chopped and sauteed in 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil before adding. 

This dish calls for ground cloves and a slice of orange zest. I briefly considered leaving it out, since in all honesty it sounded strange to me, but I'm glad I decided against it and went for it. You won't be able to detect either, but they added to the overall complexity of the dish. Last, but not least, the recipe calls for thyme sprigs. I used some butcher's twine to tie them together. Brilliant idea and much easier to remove once the dish is cooked than trying to sift for thyme stems.

The smell  of this recipe while cooking was indescribable and the finished meal turned out to be a hit. Totally worth the time, effort and ingredients makes this another wonderful Tyler Florence recipe. My husband's craving for a good stew was more than satisfied and considering that all of the kids had seconds, it was definitely a crowd pleaser.  I simply served this with some Peasant bread on the side and my husband enjoyed the stew topped with a bit of horseradish. What made this dish even better was the rainy, cold weather we had while eating along with a couple of glasses of red wine. This is pretty much what a perfect Sunday should feel like in the winter.

Tyler Florence's Ultimate Beef Stew

(Printable Recipe)

Ingredients:

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons butter
1 cup all-purpose flour (this is a change from the original 2 cups)
2 to 3 pounds beef chuck shoulder roast, cut into 2-inch pieces
Kosher salt and black pepper
1 bottle good quality dry red wine 
8 fresh thyme sprigs (tied together with butcher's twine) 
6 garlic cloves, smashed
1 orange, zest removed in 3 (1-inch) strips
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
2 bay leaves
2 1/2 cups beef stock
1 pound Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and diced
1/2 pound carrots, peeled and sliced
1 large onion, diced and sauteed in 1/2 tablespoon olive oil 
1 pound white mushrooms, cut in 1/2
1/2 pound garden peas, frozen or fresh

Preparation:

Preheat a large heavy-bottomed saucepan or Dutch oven over medium-high heat with the oil and butter.

While the pan is heating, arrange the flour in a large, shallow dish. Season the cubed beef with some salt and freshly ground black pepper and then toss in the flour to coat. Shake off the excess flour and add the beef chunks in a single layer to the hot pan, being careful not to over crowd the pan, you might have to work in batches. Thoroughly brown all of the cubes on all sides. Once all the meat has been browned remove it to a plate and reserve.

Add the wine to the pan and bring up to a simmer while you scrape the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon being sure to loosen up all those tasty bits. Once the wine has gotten hot add the browned meat, thyme, smashed garlic, orange zest strips, ground cloves, freshly ground black pepper and salt, to taste, bay leaves and beef stock. Bring the mixture up to a boil and then reduce the heat to a simmer and cook uncovered until the liquids start to thicken, about 15 to 20 minutes. Cover and cook on low heat for 2 1/2 hours.

After 2 hours add diced potatoes, sliced carrots, sauteed onions and mushrooms, along with a pinch of sugar to balance out the acid from the red wine. Turn the heat up slightly and simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes more, until the vegetables and meat are tender. Add the frozen peas during the last few minutes or cooking. Season one more time with salt and pepper and remove the thyme sprigs.

Adapted from: Foodnetwork

Sausage and Mushroom Manicotti

One of the benefits of having a well stocked, fridge, freezer, and pantry is that creating a meal even when time is of the essence is fairly easy. I know, I do feature quite a lot of recipes from cookbooks, magazines and other blogs and find extreme satisfaction if they turn out just like the pictures that accompanies them. However, I also take great pleasure that comes along with the freedom of just "winging" it in the kitchen. Sometimes, these kind of meals make the best dinners. My husband (who is a fantastic cook) loves to cook this way. Unfortunately, many times he cooks something so delicious that he is never able to recreate it a second time, since he never takes notes.

So in order to avoid this, many times I enlist one of my kids to keep me company in the kitchen and take notes of what I'm adding to a recipe. This is how this dish came about. I was tired after our visitors left, fast food was out of the question, but no one wanted to run to the store. After inspecting what my storage had to offer, this is the recipe I created and it happened to produce a wonderful Sunday dinner.

I started the recipe by browning the sweet Italian sausage along with onion, chopped mushrooms and a small amount of salt. After the sausage is cooked and the vegetables are soft, I set the mixture aside to cool. During the cooling time I went ahead and made my basic all-purpose tomato sauce and cooked the pasta. The sauce comes together quickly and I use this recipe as my base for pretty much anything that calls for an Italian inspired marinara sauce. After the meat mixture had cooled, I combined it with some ricotta cheese, eggs, Italian seasonings, parsley and Parmesan. I piped*  the cheese/meat mixture into my cooked Manicotti and placed them in a 9 x 13 pan that had a bit of the tomato sauce spread across the bottom of the dish. When all the pasta is filled and layered into the pan, the rest of the marinara sauce gets poured over the top and finally a generous sprinkling of mozzarella and more Parmesan finish off the dish before baking it for about 1 hour.

I served the Manicotti along side a Caprese Salad and everyone loved it. The kids asked for seconds, and between the five of us the dish pretty much got depleted. I will definitely make this again, there are so many great options of how to make the filling unique by using different vegetables or meats. Certainly a keeper and I hope if you try my version you will enjoy it as well!

* To pipe the filling into the cooked pasta, add the filling to a large gallon size Ziploc bag. Snip off one corner and pipe away. The Manicotti will be filled perfect in no time without the mess!

Sausage and Mushroom Manicotti 
(Susi's Kochen und Backen Original)

(Printable Recipe)

Ingredients:

3 Johnsonville Sweet Italian Sausage Links, casing removed
1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
12 oz. button mushrooms, finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon Kosher salt
15 oz. ricotta cheese
2 large eggs
3/4 teaspoon Kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon dried parsley
1/3 cup loosely packed Parmesan cheese, shredded
Susi's All-Purpose Tomato Sauce (recipe to follow)
8 oz. Manicotti Pasta, cooked according to package directions
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, shredded
Fresh Basil chiffonade for garnish, (optional)

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Brown Italian sausage in a large pan. Add the onions, mushrooms and salt and saute until soft about 5 minutes. Set aside to cool.

While the mixture cools, prepare tomato sauce. Cook Manicotti according to package directions; drain and rinse in cool water. Set aside.

Beat eggs lightly in medium bowl. Stir in ricotta, salt, basil, oregano and parsley. Add the meat/mushroom mixture and the Parmesan cheese. Stir to combine.

Spread 1 cup tomato sauce over bottom of a 13x9 baking dish. Fill Manicotti with the ricotta mixture; place in dish. Pour remaining sauce evenly over filled shells; sprinkle with mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. Cover with foil. Bake for 45 minutes. Uncover; continue baking another 10 minutes or until cheese is melted. Let sit for about 5 minutes before serving.


Susi's All-Purpose Tomato Sauce

Ingredients:

1 (28 oz.) can crushed tomatoes
1/4 cup red wine
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon granulated garlic powder
1 teaspoon sugar
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon ketchup

Preparation:

Add all the ingredients to a sauce pan and stir to combine. Bring mixture to a simmer and let cook for at least 30 minutes.