Vegetable Mushroom Soup

I went to a friend's house last night for a small get together. Instead of ordering food or doing our usual appetizers-for-dinner, I offered to cook. Originally I suggested a mushroom-squash soup, broth based because one of my friends recently discovered that her body is having an all out battle with dairy (or maybe that should be the other way around). The other friend indicated she's less than fond of squash, so I had mushrooms as a start and had to apologize to all the squash sitting in my kitchen unused. I hope they aren't sitting there, crying to each other about how nobody wants them. (As a side note: I have a ton of squash because, when my brother and sister-in-law left for a month in France, they left me their enormous csa share which included a ton of squash).

Back to our unpaired mushrooms... While sitting around knitting (I had the day off), I was thinking through different vegetables I could use. Oh, the no-dairy friend is also not a huge fan of meat, so I was going for an all vegetable soup. I recalled a delicious soup I had a local restaurant; it had beets (immediately nixed because one of the people eating doesn't really like those) and mushrooms and a very rich and complex broth. There were a lot of tiny pieces of root vegetables at the bottom of the bowl, so I assumed they had roasted the tiny vegetables with beef, deglazed the pan, and used that as the base. Since I wasn't using beef and didn't want to roast as well as cook stove-top, I wanted to try obtaining the richness in one pan.

In the end, I selected onions, garlic, potato (russet, for the starch), carrots, and parsnips. I used a mixture of baby portabella mushrooms and shitake. I heated a generous amount of olive oil in a heavy soup pot over medium heat. Once that was hot, I added the onions and garlic and cooked those, stirring occasionally until they started to brown. Then I added the potato, and again, cooked with occasional stirring, until that started to brown and stick to the bottom. Next were the carrots and parsnips, a little more browning, some salt and pepper, and then I deglazed with a little bit of red wine. Once the bottom was scraped clean of all those delicious brown bits, I added water, vegetable and beef bullion (my friend isn't averse to that), and the mushrooms. It simmered for about 30 to 45 minutes and I added some more salt and pepper. The end product was a peppery, rich broth filled with perfect little cubes of root veggies and sliced mushrooms. And it was a definite hit with all friends involved.

Vegetable Mushroom Soup

1/4 cup olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, smashed and peeled
1 large russet potato, washed and diced into 1/4 to 1/2 inch pieces
1 cup carrots, diced or sliced into 1/4 to 1/2 inch pieces
1 cup parsnips, diced or sliced into 1/4 to 1/2 inch pieces
1/4 cup dry red wine
3 to 4 quarts water
1 to 2 teaspoons beef bullion
1 teaspoon vegetable bullion
3 cups variety of mushrooms, sliced
salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in a heavy soup pot over medium heat.
When hot, add onion and garlic, stirring occasionally until onion begins to brown.
Add potato, stirring occasionally until potato begins to brown and stick to the bottom of the pan.
Add about 1 teaspoon and 1 teaspoon black pepper at this point.
Add carrots and parsnips, stirring occasionally until they also begin to brown.
Pour in red wine and scrape the bottom of the pan clean.
Add water, bullion, and mushrooms and bring to a boil.
Reduce heat and simmer for 45 minutes.
While soup is simmering, taste occasionally to test the levels of salt, pepper and bullion, adding more if needed.

Sheepish return...

So, a year? Wow. Basically, anyone beyond my family has probably given up checking this site for updates; even they might have abandoned me. I don't blame you. That's a long period of silence. It's not as though my kitchen is a gloomy pit of dust and cobwebs. (Truth be told, it's currently covered in dirty dishes from last night's dinner). I have no good excuse. So, after a brief "I'm sorry," I'm going to jump right in.

After a week of scrounging for meals from what I had in my house, I got paid, went grocery shopping, and made meatloaf. But, this was no ordinary meatloaf. I honestly love my mother's recipe for meatloaf; it is the epitome of comfort food when served with mashed potatoes and cooked carrots. However, beyond really wanting meatloaf, I've had a hankering for mushrooms and rosemary. There is something about those items that just screams winter. Or rather, as their scents drift through the house, they slowly wrap you in a warm blanket of aroma and whisper to you to curl up on your couch and enjoy their company. I'm so ensnared by their intoxicating combination that they play a pivotal role in my fall/winter cooking regiment. It might come to bore someone else, but I wouldn't know; I'm usually cooking for one. I have a feeling it would take a lot of coaxing from a special someone for me to refrain from their weekly use.

All this ruminating aside, let's get onto the recipe and the process. I started with my mother's basic recipe: 1 pound of ground beef, an egg, crushed cracker crumbs, salt, pepper, splash of tomato sauce, and a small finely chopped onion. My changes: I used Stone Wheat crackers instead of basic saltines (I thought their heartier flavor would go well and add more complexity) and replaced the tomato sauce with milk (a la our recipe for Swedish Meatballs). I also added: 3 portabella mushrooms which I whirred in my food processor and then sauteed with two minced shallots, a tablespoon of dried rosemary leaves crushed, pepper and salt. I chose to precook the mushrooms so that I could cook off some of their moisture. My mother's meatloaf is normally shaped into a loaf and baked in a cast iron pan on top of a circle of tomato sauce, the covered in the remaining tomato sauce. Add a loose cover of tinfoil and bake for about an hour at 350 degrees. My resulting mixture was too wet to hold its own shape, so I actually used a loaf pan (ungreased) and covered with tinfoil for baking. The result: a winter wonderland of flavor and a new addition to my comfort food collection.

Rosemary and Mushroom Meatloaf

1 tablespoon oil
2 shallots, peeled and finely chopped
1 tablespoon dried rosemary
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
3 portabella mushrooms, minced in a food processor
1 pound ground beef (I used 85% lean)
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground pepper
5 ounces Stone Wheat crackers, crushed to a fine powder (either in food processor or with a rolling pin)
1 egg

Heat oven to 350 degrees.
In a cast iron pan, heat the oil over medium-high heat.
Add the shallots and cook until translucent.
Add the rosemary, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper and cook until fragrant.
Add mushrooms and cook, stirring, until mushrooms release their moisture and most of the moisture cooks off.
Remove from heat and allow to cool.
In a large mixing bowl, place beef, onion, milk, remaining salt and pepper, crushed crackers, egg, and mushroom mixture.
Mix with your hands until everything is well incorporated.
Place mixture in a loaf pan, pat down gently, cover with tinfoil, and bake for about an hour, or until center is cooked through and no longer pink.