Eggplant with Mushroom-Yogurt Stuffing

This is a delicious meatless entreé for 4 or a side dish for 8. The mushrooms give it a meaty texture and flavor. It's very hearty for a vegetarian dish, especially one that doesn't include any cheese.

I like to spray the bread crumb topping with non-stick cooking spray. It helps the crumbs brown up nicely while adding very little fat. If you want a richer, crispier topping, you can combine the crumbs with 2 Tablespoons melted butter before spreading them onto the eggplant.

You can stuff the eggplants ahead of time and bake them later. You'll need to bake them a bit longer to make sure the center is piping hot, however.

Eggplant with Mushroom-Yogurt Stuffing

(serves 4 as an entreé or 8 as a side dish)

2 large eggplants, 1 to 1¼ pound each, cut in half lengthwise

4 scallions, white and green tops, chopped

½ pound coarsely chopped mushrooms

1 medium carrot, grated
½ teaspoon dried thyme

4 Tablespoons butter

3 Tablespoons flour

¾ to 1 cup Greek low-fat or full-fat unflavored yogurt

1½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon black pepper

½ cup panko bread crumbs

non-stick cooking spray

Spray a 9"x5" baking dish with non-stick cooking spray.

Bring a couple of inches of water to a boil in a large pot with a steamer basket. Place the eggplant halves in the steamer and cook until tender, about 20 minutes. Remove from the steamer and allow to cool until you can handle them. Remove the pulp, being careful not to tear the skin. Chop the pulp coarsely, season with ¼ teaspoon salt and set aside. Place the eggplant shells in the baking dish and season them with ¼ teaspoon salt.

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the scallions, mushrooms, and carrots. Sauté for 5 minutes until carrots are limp and the mushrooms have started to lose their liquid. Lower heat to low. Sprinkle with the flour and cook for another minute. Stir in the yogurt and chopped eggplant. Season with the rest of the salt and pepper. Taste for seasonings and add more salt if needed.

Fill each eggplant half with ¼ of the filling. Sprinkle 2 Tablespoons panko crumbs on each eggplant half. Moisten with a generous dose of non-stick cooking spray. Bake for 25-30 minutes until crumbs are browned and filling is very hot.

Adapted from The Good Cook: Vegetables, Time-Life Books, 1979.

Kohlrabi with Tofu and Dried Shiitake Mushrooms

Kohlrabi is an uncommon vegetable. My research puts it mostly in the turnip sphere and treats it thusly: saturate in butter and/or cream. That's a very European view of this vegetable. Kohlrabi is also popular in India and China, though you wouldn't know it looking through most vegetable cookbooks.

A kohlrabi along with some Kashmiri saag (probably mustard greens)

I'm here to fix that. Kohlrabi does not need to be cooked to death, then puréed, and finally bathed in butter and cream. It's quite delicious lightly cooked. In texture and flavor, it is similar to broccoli stems, which you could use instead of kohlrabi in this recipe. It has great crunch. It isn't overly cruciferous in flavor. Perfect for a stir fry.

This is a mild flavored dish with a play of textures: crunchy from the kohlrabi, chewy from the mushrooms, and soft from the tofu.

Kohlrabi with Tofu and Dried Shiitake Mushrooms
(serves 6)

8-10 large dried black mushrooms (shiitake)
1 ½ pounds kohlrabi
2 scallions
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 Tablespoon Chinese rice wine or dry sherry
¼ teaspoon black pepper
1 ½ teaspoons salt
¼ teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon Asian roasted sesame oil
3 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 Tablespoon minced ginger
14-16 oz. tofu, cut into cubes

Soak the black mushrooms in about 2 cups boiling water for at least 30 minutes.

Peel the kohlrabi and cut into thick julienne, like thin French fries. Cut the scallions into 3" lengths, then slice thinly lengthwise. Set aside.

Remove the mushrooms from the water, cut off the woody stems, and slice the caps. Pour off ½ cup of the soaking liquid, being careful to leave the bits at the bottom of the bowl in the bowl.  Mix 4 Tablespoons of the soaking liquid with the cornstarch, rice wine, black pepper, ½ teaspoon salt, sugar, and sesame oil. Set aside. Add ½ teaspoon salt to the remaining ¼ cup of the soaking liquid and set aside.

Heat up oil in a wok or large skillet until nearly smoking. Add the ginger and stir until fragrant, about 10 seconds. Add the kohlrabi, scallions, and mushrooms. Stir fry for one minute. Stir soaking liquid with just the salt added and add to wok. Reduce heat to medium and cook, covered for 4 minutes.

Add the tofu, but do not stir, and sprinkle with remaining ½ teaspoon salt. Cover and cook for 3 minutes. Stir the mix of soaking liquid, etc. to redissolve the cornstarch. Pour over everything. Stir lightly. Bring liquid to a boil to thicken sauce; there isn't a lot of sauce. Serve immediately over rice.

Photo: By Tarunpant (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Lentil-Mushroom Soup

What a pretty basket of mushrooms!

Here's something warming for fall. Though most people don't think of mushrooms as a fall product, it's when many mushrooms varieties show up in the forest. Porcini (called Cepes in French, Steinpilz in German, Boletus edulis in Science) are my favorite fall fungi, though in our Colorado mountains, they show up after good rains all summer long. You don't need fresh porcini for this soup - good thing, as they are not available in most places and they cost $30-50/pound when you can find them. Dried porcini are not inexpensive, but a little goes a long way. You need 1 oz. to make a big, rich, flavorful soup. Add some fresh mushrooms at the end for even more umami. You can use whatever kind you can find in the supermarket: button, cremini (baby Portobellos), oyster, or if you are feeling flush, some fresh porcini.

This soup is hearty enough for a simple dinner. Serve it with some crusty bread and a big salad.

Lentil-Mushroom Soup
(serves 4-6)

1 oz. dried porcini mushrooms
1 cup brown lentils, rinsed
2 stalks of celery, cut into small dice
½ medium red onion, cut into small dice
⅔ cup passata (see Note)
2 bay leaves
¾ - 1 teaspoon salt
¼ cup olive oil
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1 pinch crushed red pepper flakes
½ pound sliced fresh mushrooms
¼ teaspoon black pepper

Soak the dried mushrooms in 2 cups of hot water, until rehydrated, about 30 minutes. Remove the mushrooms and pour the soaking water through some cheesecloth to strain. Reserve the water for the soup. Chop the porcini and put in a soup pot with the lentils, celery, red onion, passata, bay leaves, and ½ teaspoon salt. Combine the mushroom soaking water with cold water to make a total of 6 cups and add to the pot. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low to maintain a simmer. Cook for about 45 minutes, until the lentils are tender.

Heat the olive oil in a medium skillet. Add garlic, red pepper flakes, and mushrooms. Cook for 10 minutes until the mushrooms and garlic are lightly browned. Add to the soup along with the black pepper. Taste for salt and serve.

When reheating the soup, add a bit of water because it will thicken up when chilled.

Note: Passata is Italian tomato puree. Unlike American canned tomato puree, it is not cooked, so it tastes fresher. I like Mutti brand which is sold in bottles. You can find it at World Marketplace stores. Pomi brand is another good one. It's sold in cartons and is available in supermarkets.

Adapted from Fagioli: The Bean Cuisine of Italy by Judith Barrett, Rodale, 2004.

Photo: By George Chernilevsky (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Turkey Mushroom Burgers

Turkey burgers are a tricky thing. Turkey is so lean that by the time the turkey is cooked through, your burger is as dry as sawdust. Poultry products need to be cooked to 170°F  and that's high enough to start forcing the moisture out of the proteins. Adding fat is one way to keep the burgers from drying out. Bread products can help as well, but too much and your burger gets gummy and the meaty flavor is lost. I like to add mushrooms because they have a texture that resembles meat and add their own meaty flavor. The downside is that they don't hold together as well as meat or bread. Grilling them is not easy. I panfried them because these burgers are rather delicate. Sorry, grilling fans.

Turkey Mushroom Burgers
(serves 4-6)

4 Tablespoons oil
1 onion, peeled
8 oz. mushrooms, wiped clean (see Note)
2 cloves garlic, peeled
2 slices whole wheat bread, crusts removed
1 pound ground turkey
1 large egg
3 Tablespoons minced fresh dill
1 ½ Tablespoons coarse deli or Dijon mustard
¾ teaspoon kosher salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper

Heat 2 Tablespoons oil in a large cast-iron or non-stick skillet over medium-low heat. Coarsely chop the onion, then mince finely in a food processor. Add to the skillet and cook gently while you prep the mushrooms. Coarsely chop the mushrooms and then mince using a food processor. With the food processor running, throw in the garlic cloves to mince. Dump into the skillet with the onions and cook for 10 minutes.

While the mushrooms are cooking, coarsely chop the bread and pulverize to fine crumbs in a food processor. When the mushrooms are done, remove from the heat and mix in the bread crumbs. Allow to cool. Place the mushroom mixture, turkey, egg, dill, mustard, salt, and pepper in a large bowl. Mix until uniform.

Wipe out the skillet. Heat the remaining 2 Tablespoons of oil over medium heat. Divide the turkey mixture into 4 to 6 portions and form into burgers. Cook burgers until browned on both sides and no longer pink in the center, if in doubt use a thermometer to assure the center reached 170°F.

Serve on a bun as a burger but it's also good served as a mini-meatloaf. Leftovers are delicious cold.

Note: You can use any kind of mushroom but porcini, portobellos, cremini, or white mushrooms will add a nice meaty flavor.

Adventures with Bison Liver: Mushroom and Liver Pate

A dear friend of mine has an unusual perk at her place of employment: access to bison meat. Because I have room in my freezer, I have a bit of it stashed in my chest freezer, including a heart and a tongue. The liver was in there too, but I saw a recipe for a wild mushroom-liver paté and I had to break into the liver. I had picked some wild mushrooms (don't worry - you don't need to pick your own wild mushrooms to make this) which would be perfect for mushroom-liver paté. I've never used bison liver but how different could it be from beef liver? Actually, it's even better than beef or calves liver,  mild and sweet. Now, I don't expect you to find a bison liver either. This recipe will work with any type of liver, including chicken livers. The mushrooms mellow the liver-y flavor. It's rich and delicious. The recipe makes quite a bit, so it's best made for a party. Unless you plan on eating it on everything. I'll be posting a recipe I created to use up some of this paté soon.

Mushroom and Liver Paté
(makes about 2 cups)