White Rice with Assorted Mushrooms

Every dish contains a lesson, yet, its teaching can often be overlooked or ignored. As part of my effort to incorporate Buddhist principles into cooking, I decided to make this dish -- White Rice with Assorted Mushrooms -- as part of a meal for New Year's Eve. The lesson that emerged from this dish became apparent, but only after the dish was completed and eaten.

I approached this dish -- and, indeed, the whole meal -- being mindful of the preparation of each ingredient for each dish. I laid out everything on the island in my kitchen. I went dish by dish, ingredient by ingredient, down the island until I had just about everything prepped. The kitchen island was basically one very large mis-en-place. 

To this point, it seemed like I was approaching my cooking with a certain mindfulness, especially with this dish. After all, it comes from the book that serves as my guide, Wookwan's Temple Food. The recipe seemed simple and straightforward - a variety of mushrooms, some dried and some fresh, served with rice. The key to the recipe can be found in the dried mushrooms. The water used to rehydrate the mushrooms is used to prepare the rice, imbuing the white rice with a flavor that is very similar to wild rice. The use of the water from rehydrating rice (or other dried ingredients) is not new to me. I have done it before, but, I was reminded about how much flavor can be added to a dish by using what is in front of you, rather than discarding it down the sink. 

As I continued to prepare and even cook this dish, I had not realized that the lesson was still to come. All of my focus, the entirety of my effort to be present in the moment, seemingly vanished in the final minutes of the cook. I soon became enmeshed in the completion of not just this dish, but the main course and other sides as well. My thoughts about how I would present this dish receded as the urgency of actually plating the dish gripped me. In the end, I fell back upon a traditional way I plate dishes, putting the rice in the center and the mushrooms around the side. It was not what I initially planned to do and it looks nothing like the picture in the cookbook. 

However, I was still mindful. I noted that my rush to plate the dish, and others, did not lead to what I had envisioned for this dish. This recipe could be an entire meal in and of itself. Mushrooms have many important health benefits, including (when eaten regularly) decreasing the risk of cancer, lowering cholesterol, promoting brain health, providing a good source of vitamin D, and helping to ensure a healthy immune system.

The lesson from this recipe is that there comes times when I lose my focus and my mindfulness. Those times occur when multiple things (like different dishes) are competing for my attention. I need to remember that, when my attention is pulled in different directions, I need to keep myself centered on the present moment and what I am trying to accomplish.  

WHITE RICE WITH ASSORTED MUSHROOMS

Recipe from Wookwan's Korean Temple Food, pg. 35

Serves 3-4

Ingredients (for the mushrooms):

• 1 cup short grain rice
• 15 grams dried shiitake mushrooms
• 15 grams dried white wood ear mushrooms
• 50 grams king oyster mushrooms
• 50 grams enoki mushrooms
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon perilla seed oil
• 2 cups water, for soaking dried mushrooms

Ingredients (for the seasoned soy sauce):

• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon perilla seed oil
• 1 tablespoon roasted sesame seeds
• 1 Korean green chile pepper, seeded and minced

Directions:

1. Prepare the rice. Wash and rinse the rice. Soak in water for about 1 hour.

2. Prepare the mushrooms. Rehydrate dried shiitake and dried white wood ear mushrooms by soaking them in water. Save the water after soaking the mushrooms. Cut off the stems of the shiitake mushrooms and slice thinly. Cut white wood ear mushrooms into small bite-sized pieces. Slice king oyster mushrooms thinly. Cut the bottom of the enoki mushrooms, and tear it into thin pieces by hand. Tear oyster mushrooms by hand as well. 

3. Continue to prepare the mushrooms. In a mixing bowl, add all of the mushrooms except the enoki mushrooms. Add soy sauce and perilla seed oil. Mix well. 

4. Prepare the rice. In a pot, add rice and water from soaking the mushrooms. Add seasoned mushrooms on top. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low for about 10 minutes. Add enoki mushrooms and cover for 1-2 minutes. Turn off heat. 

5. Finish the dish. Stir rice gently. Serve with seasoned soy sauce on the side. 

This post is part of my project, the Mindfulness Foodways. To check out other posts that are part of this project, please click here.

ENJOY!

Mushroom Bolognese

When one thinks of a Bolognese, it is a sauce made with onions, celery, tomatoes and cheese, with meat.  Beef, pork or lamb.  One never thinks of a vegetarian Bolognese and a vegan Bolognese gives me the shivers.  A true Bolognese has been on my short list of dishes to make.  However, because Clare does not eat beef, pork or lamb, that dish has to wait for a night when I am only cooking for myself.  

In the meantime, I decided that I would make a Bolognese recipe that Clare would eat.  I found a recipe by Sarah Grueneberg, a Top Chef contestant, which provided a good starting point.  The one thing that caught my attention was the use of a variety of ingredients at the outset ... not just onions, carrots and celery (which are usually found in Bolognese sauces), but also parsnips and turnips.   Grueneberg's recipe also calls for the use of dried porcini mushrooms and king oyster mushrooms.  The latter mushrooms are chopped with the vegetable mixture, while the former provide the "meat" in the dish.

I decided to alter the dish in a few ways.  First, there was the mushrooms.  Rather than use porcini and king oyster mushrooms, I used a combination of portobello, oyster and shiitake mushrooms.  I decided to use half with the vegetable mixture and keep half sliced to serve with the pasta.  The substitution of these mushrooms for the porcini created another issue.  This led to the second substitution.  Grueneberg relied upon the water from rehydrating the porcini for the sauce.  I needed something in place of that liquid.  This was not really a problem at all.  I used about 1 cup of vegetable stock in place of the porcini water.

The third substitution involves the pasta.  Grueneberg uses spaghetti in her recipe.  When it comes to a Bolognese, I think that a flat pasta is better, because it shows off all of the elements in the sauce.   Fettuccine would work well with this recipe; however, if you can find pappardelle, that is the pasta of choice.  Its wide flat noodles provide the most space for the Bolognese sauce to cling to the pasta. 

Finally, the recipe calls for the use of 1/2 cup of wine.  Given that I was making a Bolognese sauce, a wine from Emilia-Romagna -- the region where Bologna is located -- would have been the ideal choice.  I could not put my hands on a non-sparking wine from the region, such as a Sangiovese di Romagna.  So, I went with a Sangiovese wine that is a lot easier to find ... a Chianti Classico from Tuscany.

MUSHROOM BOLOGNESE

Adapted from a recipe by Sarah Grueneberg 

and available at Food & Wine
and some other recipes

Ingredients:
1 small onion, coarsely chopped
1 medium carrot, coarsely chopped
1 celery rib, coarsely chopped
1 medium parsnip, chopped
1/2 small turnip, chopped
3 ounces of shiitake mushrooms, sliced
4 ounces of portobello mushrooms, sliced
3 ounces of oyster mushrooms, sliced
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup dry red wine (preferably Sangiovese)
1/2 cup vegetable stock
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan
Pinch of crushed red pepper
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon minced rosemary
1 1/2 pounds of pappardelle (or fettuccine)
4 tablespoons of unsalted butter

Directions:

1. Prepare the vegetable base.  Pulse the onion, carrot, celery, parsnip, turnip and one-half of the mushrooms in a food processor until finely chopped  In a large pot, heat the oil.  Add the vegetables, season with salt and pepper and cook over moderate heat until softened, about 20 minutes. 

2. Make the Bolognese sauce.  Add the sliced mushrooms and cook until fragrant, about 5 to 10 minutes.  Add the wine and red pepper, and cook until the wine evaporates.  Add the vegetable stock, cover partially and cook over low heat, stirring until thick, about another 25 minutes.  Add the cream, rosemary and 1/4 cup of grated cheese and simmer for 5 minutes. 

3. Cook the pasta.  Heat a pot with salted water until it boils.  Add the pasta and cook according to the directions on the package.  (Generally, dried pasta takes several minutes while fresh pasta only takes about 1 to 2 minutes.)

4.  Finish the dish.  Add the warm pasta, butter and 1 cup of water to the sauce and toss, stirring until the pasta is well coated.  Serve immediately.

ENJOY!

Orecchiette with Mushrooms and Shrimp

Many of the Chef Bolek original dishes are conceived and executed on a whim, with thought given to complementing and contrasting flavors and cooking techniques.  Sometimes, those thoughts change while I am actually making the dish. 

This recipe is a good example of this process.  Initially, I decided to make a dish that incorporated three main ingredients: (1) pasta; (2) shrimp and (3) mushrooms.  The latter two ingredients do not necessarily go together, although the first and third ingredients definitely go well together.  So I gave a lot of thought about how to tie them all together.  I decided to use flavors that work well with all three ingredients, such as shallots, garlic and white wine.  I also added a few herbs and seasonings to complete the dish. 

During the prep work, however, I decided that I should use the stems from the shiitake mushrooms and the shells of the shrimp to make an impromptu stock.  I added a couple of other ingredients, such as bay leaves, peppercorn and salt to help develop the flavors of the stock.  I had intended to use the stock as the beginning of the sauce that would go over the pasta.  As the cooking process began, I decided to use only some of the stock.

In the end, this recipe is still only a rough one.  It needs work, but the experimentation with the flavors worked.  I hesitate to add this to the blog; however, the improvement of this dish is something that I want to add to my "to do" list. As I make changes or improvements to this recipe, I'll update this post.

ORECCHIETTE WITH MUSHROOMS AND SHRIMP

A Chef Bolek Original

Serve 2-3

Ingredients:

2 cup of orechiette

2 garlic cloves, finely diced

2 shallots, finely diced

1/3 pound of shiitake mushrooms, sliced, stems reserved

1/3 pound of cremini mushrooms, sliced

2 bay leaves 

1/4 teaspoon of pink or black peppercorns

1/2 tablespoon of flat leaf parsley

12 shrimp, de-shelled and de-veined, reserve shells

1/8 teaspoon of sea salt

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper

1/4 teaspoon of dried thyme
12 teaspoons of dry white wine

1 cup of Pecorino Romano cheese, grated finely

Directions:

1.  Make a stock.  Add the shrimp shells, shiitake mushrooms, parsley, sea salt, peppercorns to a small pot and cover with water.  Heat on high and boil for at least 30 minutes and no more than sixty minutes.

2.  Heat the water for the pasta.  Bring a pot of water to a boil.

3.  Saute the mushrooms.  Add the mushrooms to a pan over high heat.  Stir occasionally while the mushrooms release their moisture, for about four to five minutes.  Add a tablespoon of stock, stirring the mushrooms, until it is absorbed by the mushrooms.  Repeat this several times, adding a tablespoon of stock while stirring the mushrooms.  Then add the shallots and garlic.  Saute until the shallots are soft and translucent.  Add six teaspoons of white wine and continue to stir the mushroom, shallot and garlic mixture.  Remove and set aside the mushroom mixture.

4.  Cook the pasta. Once the pot of water is boiling, cook the pasta according to the directions on the package.  It should take between seven to ten minutes to cook. 

5.  Cook the shrimp.  As the pasta is cooking, heat 2 tablespoons of butter and 2 tablespoons of oil over high heat.  Add the shrimp and cook for one minute.  Flip the shrimp and add the mushroom mixture, as well as the remaining six teaspoons of wine.  Continue to cook for a couple of minutes.   

6.  Finish the dish.  Once the pasta is cooked, drain the pasta and add it to the saute pan with the shrimp and mushrooms.  Stir well to coat the pasta, and add two large pinches of Pecorino Romano.  Season with ground black pepper and salt.  Serve with the remaining Pecorino Romano. 

PAIRING THIS RECIPE

This recipe is best paired with white wine.  I chose a white wine from the Languedoc region of France, which worked fairly well.  The clean taste of the wine, which included some grapefruit, lemon and mineral, actually paired well with the mushrooms and the shrimp.

Unfortunately, I could not think of a beer that would go well with this dish, at least as the recipe is currently written.

ENJOY!

Buttery Salmon with Shiitake Mushrooms and Shallots

Every once in a while, it is okay to splurge.  This meal is definitely a splurge.  It is a sockeye salmon sauteed in butter and then topped with a little "salad" of shiitake mushrooms and shallots and topped again with a chiffonade of sage.  The butter makes this dish decadent,  making each mouthful of salmon something to treasure.  I would not make this often, but it is definitely a good creation.

BUTTERY SALMON WITH SHIITAKE MUSHROOMS AND SHALLOTS
A Chef Bolek Original
Serves 2-4

Ingredients:
1 pound of sockeye salmon fillets
8 shiitake mushrooms, medium to large
1 shallot, julienned
1 garlic clove diced
5 tablespoons of butter
4-6 large leaves of sage, chiffonade

Directions:
1.  Cut the salmon into 2 or 4 slices.  Salt and pepper liberally.  Clean the shiitake mushrooms and slice them into little strips.  Heat a pan on high and throw the mushrooms into the pan.  This will draw the moisture out of the mushrooms.  Stir the mushrooms.  After a couple of minutes, add 2 tablespoons of butter, the shallots and garlic.  Saute for about five minutes.

2.  In a separate plan, while the mushroom mixture is sauteing, heat 3 tablespoons of butter on medium high heat.  When the butter is melted and bubbling, add the salmon, flesh side down.  Saute for about 5 to 6 minutes and flip.  Saute for about five more minutes.  Take a knife and poke gently into the salmon to determine if it is done. If the salmon begins to flake, it is basically done.  If it is not flaking, turn it one more time for a couple of minutes.

3.  Remove the salmon and plate.  Take a spoonful (or three, as I like it) of the mushroom mixture and gently pour the mixture over the salmon.  Garnish with the sage chiffonade.

ENJOY!