Individual Mushroom Souffles

Post 5 years ago From The Kitchen
This delicious and relatively easy recipe is from
The Diplomatic Kitchen

This recipe is easily increased, you’re only limited by the number of ramekins you own.

Ingredients:

  • 5 ounces of button mushrooms, coarsely chopped, and a couple of extra ounces, sliced, for arranging on the tops of the souffles
  • 4 Tablespoons of butter, and some for greasing the baking sheet and browning the extra sliced mushrooms
  • 4 Tablespoons of flour
  • 1 and 2/3 cups of milk
  • 3 ounces of grated Gruyere, Emmentaler or a combination of them, and some extra to sprinkle on the tops of the souffles
  • 3 large eggs, separated
  • 8 teaspoons of creme fraiche or heavy cream

Equipment:

  • a frying pan
  • a large baking sheet
  • Parchment paper (also known as baking paper)
  • 8 half-cup size ramekins

  • The First Baking: it may be done up to two days ahead:

    1.  Preheat the oven to 350 F. Cut 8 circles from the parchment paper to fit the bottoms of the ramekins.  Butter the ramekins well and line them with the circles of paper:

  • 2.  Heat a little butter in the frying pan and fry the sliced mushrooms that will go on top of the souffles until they are golden.  Cool, cover and refrigerate them to use for the second baking of the souffles.  In the same pan, heat the 4 Tablespoons of butter and cook the chopped mushrooms for several minutes until they brown a little.  Add the flour and cook it for a minute, stirring.  Add the milk and continue to stir until a sauce forms and thickens.  Add the 3 ounces of grated cheese, reserving some extra for the second baking.  Add some grinds of salt, pepper and nutmeg and cool the mixture:
  • 3.  Beat the egg whites until they are stiff and don’t slide up the side of a tilted bowl:
  • 4.  Beat the egg yolks a little, stir them into the mushroom mixture, and fold in the egg whites:
  • 5.  Divide the mushroom mixture among the 8 ramekins and place them in a roasting pan.  Fill the pan with cold water to reach half way up the sides of the ramekins:
  • 6.  Bake the souffles for about 15 – 20 minutes, or until they are puffed and browned.  Remove them from the roasting pan and let them cool:
  • 7.  The souffles will sink.  When they are cooled, cover and refrigerate them until you are ready to bake them a second time and serve them.  (The souffles may be made up to this point a couple of days ahead.):

  • The Second Baking:  arrange them on the baking sheet a little ahead of time and bake right before serving:

    1.  Preheat the oven to 375 F.  Cut out 8 4-inch squares of parchment paper.  Streak the baking sheet with butter to hold down the paper squares and place the squares on the sheet:

  • 2.  Unmold the souffles, peel off the paper rounds, and place the souffles right-side up on the paper squares.  Over each souffle pour a teaspoon of heavy cream or creme fraiche, sprinkle on some grated cheese and arrange mushroom slices on top:
  • 3.  Bake the souffles for about 15 minutes, or until they rise slightly and the cheese bubbles.  Serve them on the parchment squares.  They look nice garnished with Green Onion Curls and fresh black pepper ground over each plate:
  • parchment squares for baking on
  • ramekins in baking dish
  • folding the cheese into the mushroom roux
  • folded in egg whites
  • souffles cooked and ready to cool
  • souffles prepared and ready for second baking. Serve on the parchment.

Mini Winter Scenes in Glass Domes

Post 5 years ago Create

I came upon these little vintage deer earlier this year and decided to create little winter vignettes under glass domes as gifts.  I found these domes at a craft store, and using hot glue, mounted small trees, mushrooms, etc.  Then I added the fake snow.  The tops and bottoms are hot glued together.  With a small decoration on the top, I’d say they turned out adorable!

I added a few links below for small domes since they can be difficult to find.

Dads Cook – Stuffed Cabbage Rolls!

Post 8 years ago From The Kitchen

Whether you call them ‘Pigs in a Blanket’ or ‘Stuffed Cabbage Rolls’ the same is true that admittedly, these can be pretty labor intensive, but if you have a cold day outside and are hunkered in for the afternoon, pull out the pots and pans because this is a great way to prepare some meals to freeze and enjoy one that day as well.

The ingredients to this dish are pretty simple, just increase amounts if you are preparing several pans for freezing.

One head of cabbage – remove tough outer few leaves

1 1/2 cups white rice (uncooked)

4 pounds ground beef

1 large onion, chopped

1/2 green pepper, finely chopped

1/2 yellow pepper, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 6 oz. can tomato paste

1 tbsp. cumin

1/2 tbsp. paprika

salt and pepper

1 jar of your favorite marinara sauce

Cook the rice according to the directions and set aside. Cut the core deeply out of the head of cabbage.  Place in a large pot and fill with water.  Bring to a boil.  Meanwhile, sauté the onions, add the meat and brown completely.  Add the peppers and garlic and cook until the peppers are completely softened.  Stir in the tomato paste and seasonings.  Cook thoroughly, remove from the heat and stir in the cooked rice mixing well, set aside.  As the cabbage cooks, the outer leaves will gradually peel off.  Gently lift them with tongs and put aside.  Place the cabbage back into the boiling water and continue to cook, removing the outer leaves as they cook.  As the cabbage gets smaller you may need to score the bottoms of the leaves near the core in order to remove them, they should easily peel off.  Continue this until you have used almost the entire head of cabbage, there should only be a small grapefruit-sized piece left that is usually too difficult to get apart – set that aside.  Take one of the cabbage leaves and place about scant 1 cup of the meat filling in the center of the leaf, fold the sides in and roll up.  Place in a prepared ‘lasagna style’ baking dish.  Place the rolls in a single layer, they can be packed firmly together.  Spread about 1/2 jar marinara sauce on the rolls and cover with foil.  Bake in a preheated 350F oven for 40 minutes, remove the foil and continue to bake another 15 – 20 minutes.  Serve with a fresh loaf of crusty bread and an extra dish of warmed sauce to spoon on if desired.  Enjoy!

*If you are going to freeze the cabbage rolls, do not add the pasta sauce.  When you remove them from the freezer to cook, add the sauce at that point

Stuffed Acorn Squash

Post 10 years ago From The Kitchen
stuffed and ready for the oven

Once autumn comes around, my family requests this recipe time and time again.  These can be served two different ways as shown above.  If you use a small sized squash, they make adorable single sized portions – perfect for entertaining, otherwise larger sizes can be cut in half and served as shown on the right. You can also use buttercup squash.

2 medium to large sized acorn squash, washed and cut as desired (see above), seeds cleaned out. If you choose to make the individual sizes be sure to cut a thin slice off the bottoms so the squash will stand upright.

1 1/2 lbs ground beef

1 medium onion, coarsely chopped

1 tbsp garlic

1/2 6oz. can tomato paste

1 tbsp fresh or dried parseley

1/2 tbsp oregano

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 F. Place the squash in a microwave safe dish and microwave on high for approx. 7-8 minutes or until slightly tender.  Remove and cool.  Meanwhile brown the ground beef and the onions simultaneously until cooked through and onions softened.  Add the garlic and continue to cook. Add the tomato paste and the seasonings and cook for another 10 minutes to mix all ingredients.  Place the squash in a casserole dish. Fill all the halves with the meat mixture, let the excess spill over and around the squash.  Cover loosely with foil and bake for 30-45 minutes.  Optional – sprinkle with fresh grated parmesan cheese.

 

Fried Green Tomatoes

Post 10 years ago From The Kitchen

 

6-8 small to medium green tomatoes, tops and bottoms removed, sliced 1/2″ thick

1 Cup seasoned bread crumbs

1/2 Cup yellow cornmeal

2 tbsp. flour

2 eggs, beaten

salt, pepper, cayenne pepper

Place the sliced tomatoes on a wire rack over a cookie sheet.  Sprinkle with the salt, pepper and cayenne pepper to taste.  Allow to sit for 1/2 hour to drain excess moisture.  Combine the breadcrumbs, cornmeal and flour in a bowl.  Dip each slice of tomato in the beaten eggs and then in the breadcrumb mixture to coat well.  Place in a fry pan coated lightly with olive oil.  Repeat this with all the tomatoes.  Fry on medium heat until browned, turn over and brown on other side, add a small amount of oil to the pan if needed.  Serve immediately.

I like to serve these with a side of remoulade sauce.