mushroom

Thai bouillabaisse

by Heguiberto on September 15, 2011

I always ordered this dish when eating out at the Thai Pavilion restaurant in Astoria, Queens, my favorite Thai place when we lived in New York. There they called it Potek. It was this clear aromatic and spicy broth with loads of fish and shellfish. After moving to San Francisco, I learned to make it myself because I got tired of asking at restaurants whether they could accommodate my needs by making the soup with vegetable broth or just plain water. Plus I like making Thai food.

Thai bouillabaisse with salmon and clams

Thai bouillabaisse with salmon and clams

The soup can be like Tom Yum on steroids. Beyond shrimp, potek is packed with other types of seafood, such as fish, clams, mussels, sea scallops, crab claws or lobster. Heaven! You can use the seafood of your choice, like I did here: this time, just salmon and clams.

key ingredients for Thai bouillabaisse

key ingredients for Thai bouillabaisse

Thai bouillabaisse

7½ cups water
2 stalks lemon grass, smashed with a cleaver
4 kaffir lime leaves
1 inch piece of galangal root, cut into chunks
½ cup cilantro, chopped
10 mint leaves
10 Thai basil leaves
½ Thai red chili pepper cut in thin rounds
1 tsp garlic chili pepper
½ tsp sugar
7 tbsp fish sauce
Kosher salt
3 small individual pieces of sushi grade king salmon
1 lb clams
1 cup button mushrooms, quartered

Bring water to a boil then add lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves and galangal root. Simmer for about 10 minutes so flavors meld. Add garlic chili paste, sugar, salt and fish sauce. Adjust flavor with more fish sauce, salt or chili sauce for spicier results. Add clams and cook for a couple of minutes or until they begin to open, add mushroom followed by the salmon. Remove from heat. Let it poach in the broth. Toss in Thai basil, red chili, mint and cilantro. Ladle soup into bowls and serve with a side of Thai Jasmine rice.

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baked Portobello mushrooms stuffed with mushroom oat tomato filling with walnuts, Fontina and parmesan

by Heguiberto on November 5, 2010

Like mushroom and pink bean loaf, this recipe also comes from The Best – Ever Vegetarian Cookbook by Nicola Graimes. The picture in the book looked as appetizing as the mushroom loaf, so I decided to give it a try as well.

baked Portobello mushrooms stuffed with mushroom oat tomato filling with walnuts, Fontina and parmesan

baked Portobello mushrooms stuffed with mushroom oat tomato filling with walnuts, Fontina and parmesan

Lately, Steven’s been kind of complaining we don’t eat enough mushrooms, especially, he says, because they go really well with the heartier red wines that we enjoy drinking. I thought this recipe was a perfect opportunity to bring mushrooms back to the table. Plus the day that I prepared these, it was cold and a bit cloudy, making the idea of baking, warming up the apartment and filling the air with earthy aromas very enticing.

Maybe he’s right in a sense. I searched all the recipes on weirdcombinations and could come up with a large handful containing mushrooms as an ingredient. Some of my favorite are: poached king salmon spicy Thai tom-yum, fresh corn tamales stuffed with shitake and brie, and linguine with harissa, chick pea and mushroom. Since we make these often, I don’t ever feel that mushroom-deprived. Perhaps S is exaggerating? Or maybe this is another case of making the mushroom the center of attention rather than in a supporting role? Oh well, different strokes.

I served these baked stuffed Portobellos at a small dinner party. Among all the dishes our friend John said he thought this one was best. Thanks Nicola.

Here is my adaptation:

baked Portobello mushrooms stuffed with mushroom oat tomato filling with walnuts, Fontina and parmesan ready for the oven

baked Portobello mushrooms stuffed with mushroom oat tomato filling with walnuts, Fontina and parmesan ready for the oven

baked Portobello mushrooms stuffed with mushroom oat tomato filling with walnuts, Fontina and parmesan

6 Portobello mushrooms, cleaned, caps reserved whole; bases removed and chopped into cubes
½ lb white mushrooms, chopped fine
1 medium white onion, chopped fine
3 garlic cloves, minced
½ cup rolled oats
¾ tsp hot garlic pepper sauce
28oz can chopped tomatoes
½ cup broken walnut pieces
Kosher salt
freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup cubed Fontina cheese
¼ cup fresh parmesan slivers
1 tbsp olive oil

Pre heat oven to 375F. Grease a baking tray with olive oil and set aside.

Sauté onion in olive oil until translucent. Add garlic followed by chopped mushroom, salt and pepper and sauté until soft. Add canned tomato and cook for about 8 minutes. Add oats and turn off heat. The stuffing will become thick as the oats absorb the liquid.

Lay Portobello caps upside down on baking tray. Fill each cup with tomato stuffing. Top with walnuts, a sprinkle of salt and pepper plus cheeses. Bake for 25 minutes. Remove from oven and serve!

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bolo de feijão rosinha com cogumelos, or vegetarian mushroom and pink bean loaf

by Heguiberto on November 1, 2010

This recipe was adapted from The Best – Ever Vegetarian Cookbook by Nicola Graimes. I bought it recently while perusing a used bookshop in downtown Reno a couple of weeks ago. We went there to visit our friends Karen and Veronica.

bolo de feijão rosinha com cogumelos, or vegetarian mushroom and pink bean loaf

bolo de feijão rosinha com cogumelos, or vegetarian mushroom and pink bean loaf

It was fun spending the weekend at their gi-normous house, their two lovely and charming kids, Cooper and Madison, plus all their pets. Wow! They’ve got four dogs, two bunnies, two cats and a lizard. Amazingly, everyone got along just fine, that is until we brought our English bulldog, Clarence, to the party. I guess he needs to get out more and socialize. He freaked out for the first evening we were there but thank goodness he finally settled down! We were afraid that our weekend was going to turn into a disaster. Maybe with Clarence entering middle age now, he’s becoming a little less rambunctious.

This loaf cake is a very granola-style dish, though it tastes great even so. All of your vegetarian and even “full-feeding” friends will enjoy it. It calls for a lot of ingredients and it is a bit laborious but well worth it.

The original recipe used red kidney beans, but I only had pink ones, feijão rosinha in Portuguese, which I cooked myself from a package of dried beans. I think they have a sweeter taste and look cuter than red kidney. You can use canned beans to save time. I prefer the taste of home cooked beans over the canned type, plus they’re cheaper and they freeze well.

My version of this dish departs in numerous other ways from the original in the Graimes cookbook, though she remains my inspiration. In a way, it reminds me of Taste of Beirut style eggplant bulgur casserole, as some of the ingredients are very similar.

bolo de feijão rosinha com cogumelos, or vegetarian mushroom and pink bean loaf

1 lb crimini mushrooms, sliced
1 white onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 red bell pepper, diced
2 tbsp dry white wine
1 tbsp sherry vinegar
2 cup cooked pink beans
1 egg white, lightly beaten
½ cup cream of wheat
1 cup cracked wheat (bulgur), pre-soaked for 2 hours and drained
1 tbsp fresh thyme, minced
1 tbsp fresh rosemary, minced
Kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp nutritional yeast
extra virgin olive oil
red pepper flakes

Pre-heat oven to 350F. Grease a loaf pan with olive oil then line with parchment paper and set aside.

Place 2 tbsp of olive oil, onion and garlic in a pan on medium heat. Sauté for a couple of minutes to bring to a sweat. Add mushrooms, bell pepper, white wine, sherry vinegar and continue sautéing for few minutes until mushrooms and peppers have softened slightly. Turn heat off and let cool a bit.

Transfer sautéed vegetables to food processor. Add beans and process until smooth. Transfer to a bowl and using a spatula add cream of wheat, bulgur, nutritional yeast, black pepper, salt, thyme, rosemary, pepper flakes and about one tbsp of olive oil. Taste it and adjust flavors if necessary. Fold in egg white.

Press dough into leaf pan. Bake for about an hour. Check for doneness during the last 10 minutes of cooking. Remove from oven let it rest for 5 minutes. Invert loaf on a platter and remove parchment paper. Turn it over again. Drizzle olive oil over loaf and garnish with fresh herbs. Serve warm or at room temperature.

The nutrional yeast gives this loaf a bit of a parmesan cheese-like taste, and, with the mushrooms, makes the dish rich in B vitamins.

Cooper on the move

Cooper on the move


Maddie says hi

Maddie says hi

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spaghetti with tomato, chipotle in adobo, mushroom sauce

by Stevie on April 23, 2010

I’ve always struggled with chipotle in adobo simply because even if you use a tiny can, there are far more peppers than can easily fit in a single recipe. Since we don’t really think about it much, in the past, the remaining peppers have gone to waste. But that’s not a green practice, and we’re trying to be more Earth-conscious, so here we are.

spaghetti with tomato, chipotle in adobo, mushroom sauce

This is a variation of Roman style tomato pasta sauce using chipotle in adobo instead of dried red pepperoncini. The chipotle gives the dish more of a smoky sweet flavor which I really enjoy. This sauce sort of reminds me of linguine with harissa, chick pea, mushroom and spinach. The heat is different though.

Frankly, we’ve been experimenting with chipotle in adobo. The other day, Hegui made an amazing black bean soup and we’ve tried it in some less successful ways lately, too, which we didn’t bother to publish here. If you have any favorite recipes with chipotle in adobo, get in touch!

key ingredients for tomato, chipotle in adobo, mushroom sauce

Spaghetti with Tomato, Chipotle in Adobo, Mushroom Sauce

1 28oz. can diced tomatoes
4 cloves garlic, peeled and left whole
4 tbsp. olive oil
2 cups mushrooms, cut to bite sized pieces
2 bay leaves
2 chipotle in adobo, minced
1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes, sliced in thin strips
1 tsp dried oregano
Kosher salt and black pepper to taste
1 lb. package spaghetti or similar
Soft goat cheese (or feta) as garnish
Finishing olive oil for garnish

Begin boiling a large pot of water to cook pasta before starting sauce.

Sauté mushrooms in 2 tbsp olive oil with a pinch of salt in a deep skillet until they have browned and released some of their juice. Set aside.

In same skillet, add remaining olive oil, garlic and chipotle in abodo. Sauté for a minute or so until garlic becomes fragrant. Add diced tomato, sun dried tomato, bay leaves, oregano and salt and black pepper to taste. Cover and bring to boil then lower to simmer while pasta is cooking.

Just before tossing with pasta, remove garlic cloves and bay leaves from sauce. Add cooked mushrooms to sauce and stir. Toss cooked spaghetti in sauce. Pour into a serving bowl. Garnish with cheese and finishing oil. Enjoy!

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mushrooms with red quinoa

by Heguiberto on February 12, 2010

mushrooms and red quinoa

This is a simple to make dish that’s both nutritious and elegant. It makes a wonderful side dish. I served it with sautéd red snapper fillets in garlicky clam and mussel sauce. It’s as easy to make as rice. The color of the red quinoa is stunning and I think stimulates the appetite. Recently I used shitake mushrooms to make the dish though I’ve made it with white buttons, too.

Mushrooms with Red Quinoa

1 cup red quinoa
3 cups water
½ lb shiitake mushrooms cut in half of left whole if small
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil plus additional for drizzling in the end
3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
Kosher salt to taste
Fresh black pepper to taste

How to:

Bring water to a boil then add quinoa. Turn the temperature down to medium, cover pan and let quinoa cook for about 15-20 minutes. Remove from heat and let it stand for 5 minutes. Drain excess water if there is any.

dried red quinoa


Add two tablespoons of olive oil to a pan on medium high. Add garlic and sauté for about one minute. Add mushrooms. Toss to coat with oil and garlic. Sauté for a couple of minutes until the mushrooms are tender but not mushy. Add salt. Stir in quinoa. Adjust flavors.

Transfer to a nice platter or bowl, drizzle some olive oil over it and serve.

so-called ugly shitake mushrooms from the farmers market though they look beautiful to me

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spicy Thai vegetable soup for the soul

by Heguiberto on January 11, 2010

Steven and I both got hit with bad colds last weekend. We felt like crap with body aches, coughing, difficulty breathing… you get the picture. Ugh! While suffering miserably, by chance, I picked up the latest edition of Vegetarian Times. They’ve a recipe for a soup that sounded exactly like what we needed to get better. It’s earthy with sweet and sour flavors. The magazine claims it’s also supposed to nurture your digestive, circulatory and respiratory systems. I totally believe it because some of the ingredients in the soup are the same things my mom used to give me when I was a kid to help recover from illness. The spiciness of the soup certainly helped clear my respiratory tract right away!

spicy Thai soup for the soul

I’ve made South East Asian inspired soups before, though usually with fish sauce. So this vegetarian/vegan soup is sort of intriguing. I’ve adapted the recipe to my taste and to the ingredients that I had handy at home.

Spicy Thai Vegetable Soup for the Soul

Paste for broth:

some key ingredients for spicy Thai soup for the soul

16 dried Mexican chiles de arbol
10 peeled garlic cloves
½ tsp kosher salt
1½ stalk lemon grass, light green part only, outer extra tough layer discarded, minced
4 minced shallots
2½ tbsp dark Miso paste

For the soup:

8 cups water or vegetable broth
4 tbsp light soy sauce
4 cups roughly chopped Napa cabbage
4 cups roughly chopped arugula
½ cup fresh mint leaves
½ cup cilantro
¾ cup firm tofu, cubed
¾ cup white mushrooms, quartered

Soak chiles in hot water for 15 minutes. Drain and chop them up fine. Grind chiles, garlic, shallots and lemon grass in a food processor. Add miso and run processor to incorporate into a thick aromatic paste. At this point your respiratory system will be already starting to clear while your kitchen will be invaded with amazing garlicky and peppery aromas.

Put water or vegetable broth in a large pan and bring to a boil. Add chile/miso paste. Stir to dissolve. Add soy sauce, mushrooms and Napa Cabbage. Cook for about four minutes. Add tofu cubes and cook for two more minutes. Remove from heat. Add arugula, mint and cilantro. Adjust flavor with more soy sauce if necessary. Serve with a side dish of rice.

just because he's cute

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portobello mushroom tofu

by Stevie on October 22, 2009

portobello mushroom tofu

portobello mushroom tofu

I threw this dish together the other night to go with Hegui’s kimchi fried rice. We had these stunningly beautiful portobellos from Trader Joe’s. Our original plan was to stuff them but that didn’t seem to match well with the rice. Fortunately I had some Chinese bean sauce, spicy garlic sauce and a vegetarian mushroom oyster sauce lying around. I cut the mushrooms into large cubes and the tofu into bite size ones. The mushrooms shrink with cooking, making the two about equal in size by the time the dish is served.

This dish is earthy, salty and spicy. The textures of the mushrooms and the tofu are nice contrasts. I thought that the color of the final dish was stunning visually, too.

Portobello Mushroom Tofu

black bean sauce and vegetarian mushroom oyster sauce

black bean sauce and vegetarian mushroom oyster sauce

1 package tofu, cut into bite-sized cubes
Kosher salt for tofu “bath” and to taste
4 fresh Portobello mushrooms, cleaned and cut into large cubes
2 tlbs. oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
½ tsp garlic chili sauce or similar
2 tsp black bean sauce (I used Lian How Brand)
2 tsp vegetarian mushroom oyster sauce
Soy sauce to taste

To give the tofu some extra flavor, place tofu cubes in small bowl filled with warm water and about two tsps. Kosher salt. Let sit for about twenty minutes. When ready to cook, drain and rinse.

Sauté mushrooms in a non-stick pan with half the oil for about five minutes or until they have released a lot of their liquid and have shrunk in size. Set aside.

Sauté tofu in same pan with remaining oil for about five to ten minutes until tofu has browned a bit and released some of its water. Set aside with mushrooms.

Add garlic, garlic chili sauce, black bean sauce and oyster sauce to pan. Sauté for about a minute. Add mushrooms and tofu. Fold mushrooms and tofu into sauce. Add some soy sauce and salt if needed. Cover to warm through. Serve with rice.

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poached king salmon spicy Thai tom yum soup

by Heguiberto on October 7, 2009

this poached king salmon spicy Thai tom yum soup is so good, we forgot to take a picture!

this poached king salmon spicy Thai tom yum soup is so good, we forgot to take a picture!

For our recent Thai-themed night, I made this fabulous tom yum soup to go with my almost vegetarian pad Thai. This soup has wonderfully fresh, spicy, sour, herbal and earthy flavors; and it’s incredibly easy to make. I learned the recipe in the 1990’s while living in UK. There I worked for a few months in the kitchen of The Blue Elephant, a popular Thai restaurant in Fulham – South West London. There I assisted with pretty much everything except for the actual cooking. When I was not super busy doing stuff, I loved watching Madam Too prepare dishes like fried rice with fresh crab meat, pad Thai, various soups and vegetable dishes like snow peas, broccoli, and Chinese cabbage with oyster sauce among many, many other dishes. It was exciting because most of the ingredients they used were unknown to me at that time. Brazilian cuisine focuses more on salt and less on herbs and spices. To me, this Thai place was at first dreadful, because the flavors seemed so alien, but gradually, as my senses were awakened, it offered me a doorway into a new, thrilling eating world!

I bought all the ingredients for this soup in the Sunset district. There is an Asian supermarket a few blocks west of Irving and 22nd Market that carries most of the products that I needed. That store is a cultural food experience! Besides a lot of canned, jarred and dried ingredients, they have an exciting selection of sushi grade fish and other Japanese delicacies. That’s where I got this appetizing king salmon.

some key ingredients: galangal, lemon grass and kaffir lime leaves

some key ingredients: galangal, lemon grass and kaffir lime leaves

Unfortunately, my guests, Steven and I were so excited by this soup that we gobbled it down completely before taking a picture. Besides being completely delicious, it was quite photogenic, too. Oh well. So admire my artistic rendering of empty bowls while you enjoy your own…

Poached King Salmon Spicy Thai Tom Yum Soup

5 & 1/2 cup water or vegetable broth
1 inch of galangal root, cut into a few pieces
3 kaffir lime leaves
2 stalks lemon grass, cut into approximately 5 inch sticks and flattened with a cleaver

I use Squid Brand Fish Sauce

I use Squid Brand Fish Sauce

2 dried chili, cut roughly and crushed
¼ tsp of garlic chili paste or chili oil
5 tbsp of fish sauce (or more)
½ tsp sugar
¼ lb button mushrooms, thickly sliced
¾ lb king salmon, cut into 4 pieces
Leaves from 2 sprigs of mint
Leaves from 2 sprigs of Thai basil
1/3 cup cilantro leaves

How to:
Bring water or vegetable broth to boiling. Add kaffir lime leaves, galangal root and lemon grass. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 5 minutes. Add fish sauce, sugar and mushrooms. Stir then taste to adjust flavors. Add salmon and poach it for about 3 minutes. Add fresh herbs. Transfer to individual bowls and serve at once. It really is good!

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linguine with harissa, chick pea, mushroom and spinach

September 17, 2009

Harissa is a spicy chili paste commonly associated with Moroccan cooking but it is widely used all over North Africa. Harissa is made with hot chili peppers, sweet peppers, tomatoes, preserved lemons, olive oil, salt, cumin, caraway, coriander and other spices. The flavor may sometimes vary, depending on the brand you buy. When you taste [...]

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