Hello, Friends! The end of summer is always a bittersweet time for me. I absolutely love the summertime and every year I mourn its passing like an old friend that leaves before she's worn out her welcome. But I do love the fall-don't get me wrong. The beautiful colors of the leaves and the pumpkins and apples and all that jazz....love it all.
Anyhow...now that you have suffered my dissertation about the seasons, let's talk about food. (Before I start waxing poetic about the Island of Misfit Toys and how it reflects dissention in our society.)
Last weekend was Greg's parents' anniversary and as they have invited me to their home for every holiday and really made me feel like part of the family, I wanted to make them a nice dinner to celebrate. I immediately began to plan the menu and wanted to share a couple of recipes with you.
First course: Summer Corn Chowder. This is a recipe I discovered recently and made many times at work and I loooove it! It's completely vegetarian and since corn was so amazing this summer it really is celebrated here. Take four ears of corn and shuck them, reserving the corn kernels in a bowl. Break the now naked cobs in two and place them in a large sauce pan with three cups of water. Bring to a boil and simmer for 20 mins. You are essentially making a corn stock. Strain it out and discard the corn cobs. Reserve the liquid in a bowl or small pot on the side. Next, sautee 1/2 of a medium chopped yellow onion in a Tbls. of butter and a splash of olive oil. When the onion is translucent and soft, add 1 Russet potato that has been peeled and chopped into small pieces, the corn kernels, 2 sprigs of thyme (throw them in whole as you will remove the stems later), the corn stock, 1 cup of milk and 1 tsp of salt and some crushed black pepper. Bring to a simmer and cook until the potatoes are tender which should take about 10 minutes. I personally find that there isn't enough liquid so I like to add about a cup of vegetable stock to this. Remove the stems from the thyme, adjust seasoning and serve. It is amazing and the corn is so sweet and still has a bite to it. The heat from the pepper really balances out the sweetness.
The next thing I want to share is my new and favorite discovery. It is a vegetarian product called Quorn. What's that you say? Corn? No Quorn. It originated in the UK and Ireland and uses egg whites as a binder and it absolutely positively replicates chicken breast like I have never seen before! My friend, Stacey's, cat thinks it's chicken! They sell many varieties (one is filled with Gruyere cheese....yummers!) But I was making a chicken dish for the anniversary dinner and was looking for a vegetarian version for us and lo and behold I found Quorn (which Stacey, has been begging me to try all this time).
Here is the recipe for "Chicken" with French Mushroom Sauce. First you make this gorgeous velvety sauce. The recipe calls for a package of dried morel mushrooms which you would reconstitute in hot water. I have done this and they are wonderful. But (a)-dried morels are not always easy to find and (2) they can be bloody expensive and who among us can pay $10 these days for a little package of dried mushrooms? So I ended up using fresh button mushrooms and also baby Portobellas. Slice the mushrooms and sautee them with 2 chopped shallots in a little butter and oil (about a Tbls of each). Cook them for about 12 minutes until they are nice and tender and have released their liquid. Add a cup of Medeira wine (this is a sweet Portugese wine) and let the whole thing reduce by 1/2. Add 1 cup of creme fraiche (fancy cream cheese) and 1 cup of heavy cream and stir it all together. Adjust seasoning (always add salt and pepper as you go and taste). Simmer for about ten minutes gently to thicken the sauce and voila! It is so decadent and delicious.
For the meat-eaters, I sauteed some chicken breasts. It felt oddly sinister preparing chicken in Greg's kitchen and scrubbed every surface the meat may have touched afterward like I was cleaning up a crime scene on Dexter. For us, I cautiously opened the box of Quorn and peered inside, not sure of what I would find and they looked like little plain chicken breasts! I sauteed them off the way I had done with the real ones and then smothered both (in seperate dishes) with the mushroom sauce. When I tasted the veggie version of a dish I ate and loved as a meat-eater I was beyond ecstatic. It was a seamless transition. The carnivores at the table were happy and we veggies were as well and we all licked our plates clean. I served it with Orzo cooked in a little sauteed onion and veggie stock and some roasted broccoli. Dessert was my famous lemon tart that I discovered many years ago and have been making ever since to rave reviews.
Now some vegetarians don't really care for substitutions of meat dishes and some meat-eaters have told me it makes no sense because if I want the dish why not just eat the "real" thing? But I still want these yummy things which is why I told you guys about the substitution for the McRib (the McRob) and the veggie sausage pizzas and pigs in blankets I served for the Oscar party last year.
It's so wonderful to eat amazing food and not miss a beat being a vegetarian. I am thrilled to know that while preparing these amazing dishes I have not harmed any animals....except for that time I dropped a piece of broccoli on Leo's head.
Happy Fall and happy eating!
Love,
Robina
