Tag: mushrooms

Vegetarian Quesadillas

When our niece Gina served us her version of quesadillas made with leftover steak and vegetables, I was so impressed that I asked for the recipe. The recipe turned out to be a set of instructions which you can find here. It is easy to follow and produces delicious appetizers or light lunches in almost no time.

Gina’s instructions call for using various leftover ingredients from your refrigerator, but for once there weren’t many leftovers in our fridge. The most obvious one was a resealable package of some corn tortillas that remained after Jerri had made Layered Enchilada Pie . I also found half an onion and a chunk of Cheddar cheese.

A quick visit to the supermarket solved the problem of vegetables for my quesadillas. I chose things that I like, and you should do the same. You might, however, want to avoid broccoli, brussels sprouts, turnips, carrots, beets and other vegetables usually associated with the north country. The ones listed below create a tasty quesadilla and offer a good starting point.

INGREDIENTS:

2 small to medium jalapeño peppers
1/2 medium red bell pepper
1/3 cup chopped zucchini squash
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/3 cup chopped mushrooms
1/4 tsp. Mexican seasoning
Dash of salt
2 T olive oil
1 cup shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
1 or 2 T butter
8 corn tortillas

PROCEDURE:

Wash and cut the stem ends off the jalapeño peppers and slice them into quarters. Remove and discard the white membrane and seeds. Chop the peppers into an eighth to quarter-inch dice. Clean and chop the rest of the vegetables into a third to half-inch dice. Shred the cheese.

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan over moderate heat, add the vegetables, Mexican seasoning and salt. Cook the vegetables three or four minutes, stirring them often, until they are tender but still crisp. They will continue cooking when you fry the quesadillas.

Set the vegetables aside in a bowl and wipe the frying pan with a paper towel. Butter a tortilla very very lightly and put it butter side down in the frying pan over moderate heat. Sprinkle the tortilla with some shredded cheese and spoon on an even layer of vegetables, then top with more cheese. Butter very lightly a second tortilla and put it butter side up on the cheese.

Cover the pan and cook the quesadilla for three minutes. Press the top tortilla down on the filling and turn the quesadilla. Cook for a minute covered and a second minute uncovered. Turn the quesadilla over to make sure that it is lightly browned on both sides. Fry it an extra minute or two if necessary. Place the quesadilla on a warmed plate and repeat until you have made four of these tasty morsels.

To serve, cut in halves or quarters with a pizza cutter. If you wish, pass the salsa.

NOTES: Feel free to experiment with other vegetables, more spice, different cheese, etc. If you are averse to any spiciness, you can substitute a green bell pepper for the jalapeños and make up your own seasoning with salt, garlic powder and whatever. Chopped very fine, however, the jalapeños simply offset the blandness of the other vegetables and do not taste very hot. You really should try it, perhaps starting with only one jalapeño.

MEXICAN SEASONING: You can find Mexican seasoning in the spice section of most supermarkets, or you can make enough to spice up a lot of dishes in a few minutes.

INGREDIENTS:

1 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. onion powder
1?2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1?2 tsp. dried oregano
2 tsp. paprika
1 1?2 tsp. ground cumin
1?2 tsp. sea salt
1?2 tsp. black pepper
1 pinch ground cinnamon
1 pinch ground cloves

PROCEDURE:

Grind the pepper flakes and oregano in a mortar. Add the salt and black pepper and grind more to mix well. Add the other ingredients and grind briefly to mix everything together. Store in a tight container in a cool place out of direct sunlight.

Chicken Stroganoff

Although there were twenty or thirty bottles and cans of dried herbs and spices in my mother’s kitchen cabinet, I can remember only four that she grew herself One was mint, which she tended in a flower bed near the house. As I recall, she used it only to make mint jelly, though I may be wrong about that.

On one side of the garden were several chive plants, which grew in the same row with the winter onions. Because of her I still love cottage cheese flavored with chopped chives. Mom also used chives in soups and roasts, and she added them to lettuce, tomato and cucumber salads.

She planted two or three parsley plants, which provided important flavors to soups, meats and other vegetables like boiled and buttered new red potatoes. The fourth herb was dill. On the same day we planted the hills of cucumbers, we planted a long row of dill seeds. Dill was of course the primary flavoring ingredient in her dill pickle recipes, and she used it occasionally in other dishes.

Although dill is grown and used in countries as far apart as India and Iceland, I have always associated it with northern European cooking. I even think of dill pickles primarily as a way German and Slavic housewives preserved the cucumbers they grew in the short summers of the northern hemisphere. However, dill may have actually been brought to northern Europe by Roman soldiers and settlers. Archeologists and food historians have found evidence of dill being cultivated in Celtic Britain after the Roman invasion.

Since dill was thought to have medicinal properties it was added to wines and other foods to cure diseases or give people more energy and strength. Roman gladiators are said to have rubbed their bodies with fresh dill to give them more strength and it was added to wine as an aphrodisiac.

However, I like dill for the subtle flavor it adds to many of my favorite foods including pickles, potato salad, cabbage rolls, poached salmon, fish soup and this recipe for chicken stroganoff derived from the Use It All Cookbook by Jane Marsh Dieckmann.

INGREDIENTS:

1 medium onion (about 3 inches in diameter)
3 T butter/margarine
1/2 lb. mushrooms
1 T flour
1/2 salt
2 tsp. paprika
1/4 tsp. basil, crumbled
1/4 tsp. thyme, crumbled
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup dairy sour cream
1/4 cup Swiss cheese
2 cups diced cooked chicken
2 tsp. lemon juice
2 T chopped fresh dill
8 oz. noodles

PROCEDURE:

Clean and chop the onion into a quarter-inch dice. Clean and thinly slice the mushrooms. Chop the chicken into a half-inch dice. Grate the cheese and wash and chop the dill. Start heating water to cook the noodles.

Melt the butter over medium heat in a large saucepan or Dutch oven and sauté the onion until it just begins to turn gold. Add the mushrooms and cook for three or four minutes, stirring constantly. Blend in the flour, salt, paprika, basil and thyme and cook for two minutes. Lower the heat and gradually stir in the chicken broth and wine. Cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture bubbles and thickens.

Reduce the heat to very low, cover, simmer for five minutes and remove the pan from the heat. Blend in the sour cream and cheese. Add the chicken, lemon juice, and dill. Heat thoroughly over low heat, but do not boil.

Serve over hot cooked noodles with a cucumber and tomato salad and good bread.

NOTES: You can substitute leftover turkey for the chicken. I use rounded tablespoons of dill. Sauvignon blanc or chardonnay wines are both good choices for the recipe and to serve at the table. This recipe makes four generous servings.