Creamy One Pot Mushroom Pasta

 

I wanted to make a one pot no-fuss pasta dish that was rich in umami mushroom flavor and creamy without the heaviness of cream. Look at the unctuous glossy sauce coating every centimeter of glorious pasta surface area and tell me I didn't succeed! Gochujang is once again my secret ingredient for depth of flavor and hint of heat without overpowering the earthiness of the mushrooms. This recipe is much better using half fresh mushrooms for their meatiness, half dried mushrooms for the liquid (brown) gold you get from reconstituting them.

Panko Broiled Green-Lipped Mussels

A lot has been happening in the world since my last post. G is currently on a 3 week tour with his band and I have a lot of free time on my hands, which I've not completely been able to enjoy because of how much the Palestinian genocide has permeated my thoughts and daily conversations with others. It weighs heavily on my mind and I worry we're watching what little humanity we have left be torn to shreds, dividing us as people even further than we've ever been, on a global scale. Still no ceasefire. It robs the appetite, and I have not been cooking well or eating much on my own. These mussels were something I whipped up with stuff from my pantry, they are nutritious, cheap, and just fancy enough to seem like more effort than they were, but only require 15 minutes to prep and cook, start to finish.

Muskoka Lake Mushrooms

 

Triaging the haul. Milk cap and Hedgehog mushrooms.

Year 3 at the cottage on Muskoka Lake, and year 3 of mushrooming. I brought a log book this time, hoping to continue to document the species I find around the property. We've driven up around Labor Day each time so it was interesting and very exciting to see all the new mushrooms I encountered this year. To my delight: many yellowfoot, hedgehogs and a few chanterelles. The previous two times I was only able to familiarize myself with boletes, which were mostly wormy and inedible.

Easy Morning Migas

I liked to dish this up on a lazy sunday morning when G and I just want to do the wordle and read. I actually learned this dish from him, and ate it for the first time when we went to CDMX in 2019. Sometimes I'll throw in black beans, or punch it up with gochujang, but this is the basic recipe which puts an emphasis on cooking the eggs and tortilla strips first.

Red Pepper Pasta

updated: 1/6/24

I love tomatoes. A LOT. Sometimes raw with just a little salt on top. But marinara sauce done over and over feels stale now and then. This is why I'm subbing it out completely for another member of the nightshade team: red bell pepper. 

Top 10: March

while packing I discovered we have a museum of balsamic vinegar

Between moving and SXSW smack in the middle, this month got away from me. I had to trawl my phone photos to remember just where I went and what I did. I take a lot of photos for this very reason.

Tomatillo Yuzo Kosho Tsukemen with Pan-fried Mushrooms

Freshly returned from Austin, I was obviously very inspired by tex-mex flavors when making this dish. I had my first birria ramen from a food truck called Los Danzantes and realized the intersection between Japanese and Mexican flavors can actually make a lot of sense. Enter Tsukemen: a dipping ramen where the noodles are served cold with a warm side of broth. With the looming heat of a NYC summer in mind, I take shortcuts so as not to have to spend a lot of time over a hot stove, while also delivering a lot of refreshing acidity in this preparation. 

Dining Out: Launderette

The Sunday come-down after the fun-but-intense music marathon that is the SXSW pushed me to seek refuge in a meal that might pull me back into active consciousness. I was alone after the band I was staying with left that morning and while I wasn't too hungry, I was on a mission to put some vegetables in my taco meat-soaked body. Launderette was in walking distance of my airbnb and to my surprise their menu revealed very reasonably priced veg options. I jogged over to prevent the unseasonably cold weather from discouraging me, the neon pink sign drawing me to the washateria-turned-restaurant from blocks away.

Easy Chicken Ramen

Nothing hits home like a hot bowl of delicious ramen. When I make this recipe for others, everyone thinks it took way longer than it actually does because the return on flavor is worth the minimal effort it requires. All you need is pre-cooked chicken and some chicken broth. I always use the rest of a rotisserie chicken to save time, but you can cook your own before hand. If you wanted to make this vegan, just use more pan-fried mushrooms and mushroom broth instead.

Dining Out: La Vara

suckling pig, anyone?

Had a lovely little bday dinner for G at La Vara over a week ago that I thought was worth taking notes about for later reference. I'd been years ago but could only afford a cocktail and the fried chickpeas they're known for. What makes this Spanish restaurant worth the price and hype is the creativity around Jewish and Moorish-inspired dishes. The cocktails were standard for the price but the food really surprised me.

Top 10: February

A new rapid fire-style post where I round up my 10 fav dishes I've consumed during the month, made by myself or served to me.

Our go-to fancy date spot in red hook is HoeK. They make a solid, generously-sized martini. We always get the meatball bruschetta which is still affordable and delicious, as well as one of the salads, usually the radicchio or the little gem. The pizza depends on our mood, sometimes we go for the zucchini and white sauce, but I love the one with prosciutto and a heaping of arugula on it.

Salmon Head Chowder

 

the eyes are the best part

YES. I always pass these delicious looking salmon heads in the store and this time I said TODAY IS THE DAY. A quick google search for salmon head recipe reveals that chowder is the no-brainer recipe for them. I got that itchy, tingly feeling at the prospect of something new: I've never made chowder before. 

I did once collect oysters from the Puget sound with G's brother before we really knew each other. With our beach harvest, he made a stew for the family involving a lot of milk. I don't love milk, I always thought it was odd as hell to drink the liquid of another animal in such gross quantities like those huge highball glasses filled to the brim on the table where the blonde blue-eyed kid is eating breakfast in US TV commercials. But the thing about chowder is you do have to splash at least a little dairy for it to be considered a proper chowder, so I used a little half and half we keep on hand for G's coffee.

Thickness is another contention point the world of chowder. As a kid I LOVED the Campbell's Chunky cans of New England Clam Chowder, and while there will always be a soft spot in my heart for that gloopy texture, it just ain't right. So we're going to make a broth-forward chowder using these super cheap salmon heads. You could also use steelhead trout, they're practically interchangeable. 

Fancy Avo Toast

At last, the long end-of-year-sprint, traveling-for-the-holidays, NYE-birthday-bash, has finally come to an end. It's January 2023 and there's finally time to relax and readjust to daily life again. The back-to-work-slam has been dealt with. It's time to eat.