Win Sauce

 

That is no typo. This sauce is full of win.

Its also full of wine.

I asked Chris what he wanted for dinner tonight, and he said something along the lines of my Mushroom Chicken Bake dish. I'm plum out of milk or cream though, so I made something up with what I had available: cream cheese. This sauce is simple, and incredibly rich and delicious. I served it with veggie chik'n fillets, but it would probably be great with salmon too.

Win Sauce

3 Morningstar Farms Veggie Sausage Patties

1/3 cup cream cheese

1/3 cup white wine (I used Cupcake Vineyards Chardonnay)

2 tsp. fresh sage, chopped fine

Garlic powder

Cook the sausage patties in a pan with some butter or oil per the directions on the box. Remove from pan and dice. Return the sausage mince to the pan and add the wine and cream cheese. Cook over medium heat until the cheese is melted and everything is hot. Add the sage and garlic powder or other seasonings to taste, stir, and serve. Easy peasy!

Related recipes:

Mushroom Chicken Bake

Boozy Mushrooms and Fresh Pasta

Wine Sauteed Mushrooms

Boozy Mushrooms and Fresh Pasta

I bought myself a pasta machine. I've made fresh pasta once before, using a rolling pin and a pizza cutter, and didn't make it thin enough. Now I can make it extremely thin, and I can't wait to make a truly homemade lasagna.

The dough recipe I used this time comes from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman, which is a great compendium of all sorts of useful information. Its basically the same as the previous recipe, but I used fresh thyme and his food processor option to make it even easier: Put 2 cups flour, 1 tablespoon minced thyme, and a teaspoon of salt in a food processor and pulse to combine. Add 3 eggs and process until a ball begins to form. Add some water or flour, if your dough is too dry or too wet. Sprinkle with flour, cover with plastic, and let rest 30 minutes. Then roll, roll, roll, and cut with the pasta machine.

The rolling was a very cool process. You start on the largest setting and run a chunk of dough through, twice on each setting and sprinkling with flour if its sticky, until you get to the smallest (only once then). A few things I learned: Use a small chunk of dough, because it will get very long in the thinner stages, and difficult to deal with if you're doing this by yourself. And the thinnest setting, 9 on my machine, was too thin for me. The noodles came out soggy even after less than two minutes of cooking the first time. The second time I stopped at 7 or 8 and was much happier with the result.

Once you have your dough to the thickness you want, run it through the cutters, et voila! Fresh pasta. My machine has tagliatelle and angel hair, and you can use the uncut sheets for lasagna. You can then let it dry and store it, or cook it right away in boiling salted water.

I topped mine with Jaden of Steamy Kitchen's Whiskey Mushroom Cream Sauce. And oh my goodness, is this ever good! She uses it atop a steak (and manages to take a mouthwatering picture of it to boot!). I used regular button mushrooms and a ton more garlic, 'cause that's how I roll. This stuff is magic, and it is imperative that you go make this and pour it over whatever you want. Just get it in your pie-hole pronto! And go on over and say hi to Jaden while you're at it; she has a fantastic blog.

Related recipes:
Wine Sauteed Mushrooms
Stuffed Mushrooms

Ring in the New Year

We welcomed the new year with bang this year. For our 1/1/10 dinner, I made Beef Wellington, a classic English dish where a beef tenderloin or Filet Mignon is coated with duxelles (minced mushrooms, shallots, and herbs sauteed in butter) and wrapped in puff pastry. Its easier than it looks, and has a great visual impact. The recipe I used comes from Tyler Florence and pairs the wellingtons with a creamy green peppercorn sauce. I served it with a simple green salad on the side, and made a vegetarian version for myself by using a portabello mushroom and omitting the prosciutto, and using vegetable stock in place of the beef in the sauce. Easy peasy!

Please pardon the over-cooked filet. Chris said it was still good!

Ultimate Beef Wellington (scaled down for two servings)

For the Duxelles:

• 1 pints white button mushrooms
• 1 shallots, peeled and roughly chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
• 2 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves only
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the Beef:

• 1 filet mignon
• Extra-virgin olive oil
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 thin slices prosciutto
• 2 sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves only
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• Flour, for rolling out puff pastry
  
• 1 sheet puff pastry, thawed if using frozen
• 1 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/4 teaspoon coarse sea salt
  
• Minced chives, for garnish
  

Green Peppercorn Sauce:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 shallots, sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
• 2 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves only
• 1/2 cup brandy
• 1 cup beef stock
• 1 cups heavy cream
  
• 1 tablespoon grainy mustard
• 1/4 cup green peppercorns in brine, drained

To make the Duxelles: Add mushrooms, shallots, garlic, and thyme to a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Add butter and olive oil to a large saute pan and set over medium heat. Add the shallot and mushroom mixture and saute for 8 to 10 minutes until most of the liquid has evaporated. Season with salt and pepper and set aside to cool.

To prepare the beef: Tie the tenderloin in 4 places so it holds its cylindrical shape while cooking. Drizzle with olive oil, then season with salt and pepper and sear all over, including the ends, in a hot, heavy-based skillet lightly coated with olive oil - about 2 to 3 minutes. Meanwhile set out your prosciutto on a sheet of plastic wrap (plastic needs to be about a foot and a half in length so you can wrap and tie the roast up in it) on top of your cutting board. Shingle the prosciutto so it forms a rectangle that is big enough to encompass the entire filet. Using a rubber spatula cover evenly with a thin layer of duxelles. Season the surface of the duxelles with salt and pepper and sprinkle with fresh thyme leaves. When the beef is seared, remove from heat, cut off twine and smear lightly all over with Dijon mustard. Allow to cool slightly, then roll up in the duxelles covered prosciutto using the plastic wrap to tie it up nice and tight. Tuck in the ends of the prosciutto as you roll to completely encompass the beef. Roll it up tightly in plastic wrap and twist the ends to seal it completely and hold it in a nice log shape. Set in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to ensure it maintains its shape.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

On a lightly floured surface, roll the puff pastry out to about a 1/4-inch thickness. Depending on the size of your sheets you may have to overlap 2 sheets and press them together. Remove beef from refrigerator and cut off plastic. Set the beef in the center of the pastry and fold over the longer sides, brushing with egg wash to seal. Trim ends if necessary then brush with egg wash and fold over to completely seal the beef - saving ends to use as a decoration on top if desired. Top with coarse sea salt. Place the beef seam side down on a baking sheet.

Brush the top of the pastry with egg wash then make a couple of slits in the top of the pastry using the tip of a paring knife - this creates vents that will allow the steam to escape when cooking. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes until pastry is golden brown and beef registers 125 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer. Remove from oven and rest before cutting into thick slices. Garnish with minced chives, and serve with Green Peppercorn Sauce.

To make the sauce: Add olive oil to pan after removing beef. Add shallots, garlic, and thyme; saute for 1 to 2 minutes, then, off heat, add brandy and flambe using a long kitchen match. After flame dies down, return to the heat, add stock and reduce by about half. Strain out solids, then add 2 cups cream and mustard. Reduce by half again, then shut off heat and add green peppercorns.

* * * * *

By the way, Anna at twelve22 is hosting a giveaway for Zevia all natural zero-calorie sodas. The ginger ale looks great to me! Go here to find out how to enter.

Happy New Year!

Making Stuff

I'll start off with an almost-fail recipe I made late last week. I had seen a recipe somewhere for Spinach Ricotta Dumplings with a Roasted Garlic Cream Sauce, and could not get it out of my head. I could not find the original recipe, so I cobbled it together with a couple of other recipes I found online. However, I substituted mozzarella for Parmesan in my dumplings and they turned out soggy. That was all overshadowed by the sauce. ZOMG, it was good! The sauce is from Chocolate & Zucchini, and it would be delicious over pasta or gnocchi.

Why yes, that is a lot of sauce

I also made a pizza that was one of my best yet. I made my usual dough, with 1/3 whole wheat flour, garlic, and red pepper flakes. I topped it with a mushroom basil cream sauce (I've been on a sauce kick lately), similar to the garlic sauce above; chopped marinated artichoke hearts, chopped spinach, grated cheddar, and vegetarian pepperoni slices. I had it for lunch today, and Chris had it for breakfast.

Acres of pizza

I've also finished the other front piece of my Soap Bubble Wrap. I'm already about four inches into the back too. This sweater is going very quickly! The lace pattern is simple and fun, and I've gotten through it with a minimum of problems, which makes me happy. A few more weeks and I suspect I'll have a finished product.

Soap Bubble Left Front

Pot Pies and Polkas

Vegetable Pot Pie

This week's Barefoot Bloggers recipe was Vegetable Pot Pie, chosen by Deb at Kahakai Kitchen. I made a few changes: I halved the recipe, I used vegetable stock, I used white wine instead of Pernod (and doubled the amount), I omitted the frozen onions and used frozen peas, and instead of making the dough I used a Pillsbury pre-made. I also didn't make the pot pies in bowls as the directions state, but made double-crust pies in small pie tins so they were more like the pot pies I used to eat in college.

I really liked these pot pies. The sauce is thick, creamy (despite having only a little cream), and tastes great. It would be very easy to switch up the vegetables to use whatever you have on hand. And since I only made two pot pies, I have a lot of leftover filling. I think I'll put some more pot pies together with the remaining filling and freeze them for more easy meals.

I also made some Portabello Steaks from Diet Dessert & Dogs. I marinated the mushrooms most of the day, so they were very flavorful. I think I'd prefer to cook these on the grill rather than with my cast iron grill pan. Still, they were very good and the juices mixed nicely with the pot pie sauce.

Mmmm... comfort food

* * * * *

So, yesterday's performance was a lot fun. I sat in with the San Mateo Elks Club Band to play for the residents at the Masons House in Union City. The house is basically a retirement community for former members of (or widows of) the Masons. It turns out my tenor-playing friend is a Mason and a Shriner - now I better understand his incredible generosity.

I got a tour of the facilities - its like a really nice hotel and they provide everything for the 200 or so residents; quite impressive. We ate in the cafeteria with the residents and then headed down to the hall to play. The band was about 25 people strong (and there was one other woman this time!), and they decked me out in red suspenders and a green German cap to match everyone else. We played polkas and waltzes for about an hour, for an audience of about 50 people. They were not able to dance, but they cheered for the song announcements that they recognized and seemed to have fun. I had a great time playing the music, and kept remembering dancing the polka with my grandfather - I think my feet hardly ever touched the ground when I danced with him.

* * * * *

That's a big pumpkin!

Today I ran a few errands in the morning. Then I carved my pumpkin (but I'll hold off on posting the picture of the carved pumpkin until Halloween).

Cable-Down Raglan

I finished the body of my Cable-Down Raglan. I think I could have started the waist cables a little lower and made it longer, but it might block out so we'll see. Now I just have to do the sleeves (3/4-length, or full?). I've really learned a lot about cable construction and have enjoyed it. The sleeves should go a lot faster, which will be nice.

I hope you're as relaxed as Mac.

Get to Work!

I had to go in to work this past Saturday to provide meeting support. This means I had to make coffee and fetch lunch for about 50 people. Fun times. But the overtime is nice. I figured I could amuse myself by taking Ayla to work with me. Here she is in my office:


We went to The Stuffed Inn in Berkeley to pick up sandwiches for the hungry researchers. They make really tasty sandwiches and soups there. Ayla hung out in the good ol' company car and people-watched while we waited:

In the afternoon we took a field trip down the hill to stretch our legs a bit:


Poor Ayla didn't really settle down the entire day in my office. She only barked a few times and she got to meet a few of my coworkers (and did well, too!) but she was in a new place and there were lots of strange sights, sounds, and smells to contend with. We finally got home after 5 that evening and she went straight to bed for the rest of the night! She sure made the day pass faster for me though.

Sunday Chris and I watched movies. We watched the third disk of the last season of The Sopranos (they were really good episodes this time, especially the first on the disk). I don't know how they can tie up all the story lines in the next few episodes, but we've really enjoyed the series and I'm looking forward to the ending. I've been able to shield myself from spoilers thus far, so I don't know what happens. We also watched The Bourne Ultimatum and it was great, as were the first two.

We made pizza at home, though my dough recipe needs some tweaking so I'll have to post it another time. Half of it we topped with bechamel sauce, mozzarella, parmesan, mushrooms, spinach, tomatoes, and basil. The other half we used a tomato sauce in place of the bechamel. If you've never made bechamel you really should try it. Its easy, decadent, and probably terrible for your waistline:

Bechamel Sauce

- 6 cups milk
- 1 cup butter
- 1 cup white flour
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

Heat the milk until very warm but not boiling.
In another pan melt the butter on medium heat; do not let it brown.
Whisk in the flour and cook for 3 to 4 minutes, stirring constantly.
Gradually add the hot milk and continue whisking until the sauce thickens.
Add salt, pepper, and nutmeg to taste.

I made a half batch and we used it on the pizza, on pasta later, with artichokes tonight, and there's still more left. It is really good in a lasagna instead of tomato sauce. It would be good over steamed vegetables too I'm sure. I hope you try it and enjoy!

Here's a picture of Chris and Gretel catching some afternoon sun.