Mushroom Lasagna

We hosted my husbands family for a games afternoon on Sunday.  He is one of 5 siblings and they all enjoy playing games and each others company, so we try to bring the family together a few times a year to do this.  I decided to cook lasagna as it is easy to cook for a crowd and who doesn't love lasagna.  My Sister in law however is vegetarian and so I try to make some main course that she can eat, and decided to make a vegetarian lasagna.

It turned out to be a good job as my nieces husband had also given up eating meat for lent!

This made enough for 4 if that was all you were having

1 onion finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic sliced
2 tablespoons of olive oil
6 cups of mushrooms chopped
2 cups of white sauce (see below
lasagna noodles (preferably the oven ready ones)
1/2 cup of ricotta cheese
1 cup of grated mozzarella cheese.

White sauce
2 tablespoons of butter
2 tablespoons of flour
2 cups of milk
1/2 cup of grated Parmesan

Put the butter in a large microwavable bowl and microwave for one minute.
Add the flour stir and microwave for one minute
Add the milk and using a whisk mix together microwave for 2 minutes
Whisk again and microwave for a further 2 minutes.
The sauce should now be thickened, but if not whisk again and microwave for a further minute.
When the sauce is the required consistency add the Parmesan cheese and mix well.

Add the olive oil, onion and garlic in to a large pot and cook until the onion is translucent.

Then add the chopped mushrooms.

Lower fat shepherds pie

I have called this lower fat, because I think anything cooked with ground beef can't really be called low fat.  I got this idea from a friend at work.  She and I and a couple of others have formed a "support group" to check in with once a week to help us with our weight loss journey. I think the thing we all have in common, is that this is a lifetime journey for all of us, and we enjoy food and do not like to feel deprived.  She described this recipe that she had seen on .skinnytaste.com, though she sent me this link I am afraid I had already gone ahead and made it based on her description.

I love shepherds pie and this sounded like a good way to make it a little healthier.

1 lb of lean ground beef
1 onion chopped
1 garlic clove chopped
4 carrots chopped
2 cups of chopped green beans or peas
2 cups of tomato puree or crushed tomatoes
A good dash of worcestershire sauce
3 large Yukon gold potatoes
2 tablespoons of low fat sour cream
2 tablespoons of milk
A little Parmesan cheese for the top

Add the first 3 ingredients into a large pot and stir until the ground beef is cooked.  I find that there is enough fat even in lean ground beef that you do not need to add any.

Now add the chopped mushrooms.

Mini mushroom tatin

Saturday night was our first entertaining of the holiday seas and I was looking for new ideas for appetizers. I saw the idea for these on Martha Stewart's website, I find that there are often some good ideas there, but I do not follow the recipes, lets be honest I hardly ever follow a recipe. I have called them mushroom tatin as they are made using the same method as the classic french tarte tatin.

Enough for 24 appetizers


2 cloves of garlic sliced
1 onion chopped

2 tablespoons of olive oil
6 cups of sliced mushrooms
sprig of fresh thyme
1/4 cup of sherry or wine
11/2 packages of puff pastry

Saute the onion and garlic in the olive oil a large frying pan until the onion is transparent, then add the mushrooms

Saute stirring frequently until the mushrooms have given off their liquid, then add the sherry or wine and thyme.  Continue to cook stirring occasionally until the liquid has all been absorbed. taste for seasoning and add salt and a good amount of pepper.

Generously butter 24 muffin tins then spoon the mushroom mixture in dividing it evenly amongst them.

Now cut rounds of puff pastry that exactly fit the top of the muffin tin.

Salmon Wellington

We were invited to go to Goodwood races with an old school friend and we were to bring a picnic.  I felt that this had to be a high class picnic not just some sandwiches, a bag of chips and a couple of scotch eggs, so Jacky suggested we make something with salmon. Between us we came up with this idea for a salmon wellington.

2 shallots or one small bunch of green onion
1 clove of garlic chopped
1 tablespoon of olive oil
4 cups of mushrooms chopped finely
1/4 cup of chopped parsley
4 portions of salmon fillet
1 package of puff pastry

In a small saucepan sweat off the shallot and garlic in the olive oil until it is transparent, then add the mushrooms. Cook stirring fairly often until the mushrooms have collapsed down and all the liquid has been cooked out, about 10 minutes. Add a good grind of black pepper and some salt, I do think mushrooms like black pepper.

Almost ratatouille

We came home from a hard day's shopping in Watford looking forward to moules marinier and french fries, a quick easy dinner to make, especially as Jacky's husband was making the fries.  So we did not really start thinking about cooking until very close to dinner time.  The fries were cut and soaking in water time to prepare the mussels.  Horrors the mussels were past their due date and not looking as healthy as they should and none of us wanted to take a chance, so plan b it was.

Jacky produced some chicken breasts and assorted vegetables from the cellar, we perused the ingredients and we came up with roasted ratatouille (substituting the eggplant with mushroom) chicken in home made barbecue sauce, green salad with warm balsamic dressing and of course french fries.

Jacky took on the chicken and salad, Howard the fries and I was responsible for the roasted vegetables.  I had

• 2 portabello mushrooms, 
• 2 red peppers, 
• 2 zucchini (courgettes), 
• 2 small red onions 
• a box of cherry tomatoes

I quickly chopped all the vegetables up through them in a roasting tin added the tomatoes and drizzled on some olive oil, and threw them in a 400 oven.  These cooked for just over half an hour which was the time it took to prepare the remainder of the meal. The vegetables were soft and just turning black on the edges, absolutely perfect.

Steak and mushroom pie

What better food to eat on a rather cool June long weekend in England than pie.  We decided to make two pies fish pie and steak and mushroom pie.  Jackie was in charge of the fish pie and I took responsibility (with a little help) for the meat pie.  We picked up some braising steak from the store and set that to cooking before we walked up to the Chipperfield fair

getting ready for the children's races

First I browned the steak that was cut up in to chunks in pot with a little olive oil. I did this in 3 batches as we were making two meat pies as there was 12 for dinner.

You really do not want to overcrowd them. Then when the last batched was browned I added 3 small onion chopped by my able co chef Jacky.

I stirred these in to cook with the meat and then when they were softened added about 2 tablespoons of flour.

Mushroom stuffed pork tenderloin with roasted tomatoes

I was talking to a friend yesterday and she was mulling over what to cook for a dinner party, she wanted to cook fish, but she said the fish alone was going to cost over $40.00.  I said I entertain a lot and most of the time I make chicken or pork, one reason being that you can feed quite a few people very reasonably.  Actually I like chicken and pork as well though.

Any way we were have a couple of neighbours over for dinner and I went to an old standby pork tenderloin.  This is not only relatively cheap, but it is low fat, tasty and very versatile.  Since it is a long weekend and I have a little more time than usual, I decided to do something a little fancier than normal.
Which involves "butterflying" the tenderloin to make it much larger and flatter, therefore making it easier to stuff.  I took pictures, so I am hoping it makes sense.

First take the pork tenderloin and cut it length ways 1/3 down and do not cut all the way through, so that you can open it up making the meat already twice as wide with one side being twice the thickness of the other side.

Now turn over the tenderloin.

On the thicker side (that would be on the side closest to my camera, cut length ways again from the middle and again not all the way through so that you can open it up again.

Poulet saute chasseur

This is comfort food French style, and is the first full dish that I made at college.  We spent the first couple of months learning to cut up vegetables in different shapes and making stocks and basic sauces, so it was with great delight that we actually got to make a whole dish.  Therefore it holds a special place in my culinary heart, and I like to pull it out once in a while.  This Saturday was one of those times.

We had three couples coming over for dinner, not a dinner party just a get together with neighbours to celebrate surviving the week and looking forward to a week off work for most of us due to Spring Break. Poulet saute chasseur was the perfect dish, simple and tasty.

1 large chicken cut up, or equivalent in pieces
1 onion chopped
2 cups of sliced mushrooms
1 cup of white wine
1 tablespoon of dried tarragon
1 quart of canned crushed tomatoes

Crispy braised chicken with mushrooms

Last Saturday I was lucky enough to be riding out a very windy west coast winter storm up at Pender Harbour on the Sunshine Coast.  The wind was howling and it was cold outside, but there was a little sunshine and we were cozy inside.  We found some free range chicken thighs at the Oak Tree Market which looked good, and there was some mushrooms in the fridge so we decided to have a thighs with mushroom sauce.

One of the things I like about chicken thighs is the crispy skin, so I did not want to braise them in liquid which would have made the skin soggy so I did a combination braise and saute.


4 chicken thighs, bone-in and skin-on
1 onion chopped
1 garlic clove sliced
3 cups mushrooms, sliced
a dozen sage leaves
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 cup chicken stock

 Pat chicken thighs dry and sprinkle with salt. Add thighs to pan skin side down, then turn on to high and the thighs will release their own fat, cook until both sides are golden brown

When chicken is nicely browned remove  and set aside.  Pour off all fat but one tablespoon. Reduce heat to medium low and add onions and garlic. Cook onions, stirring regularly until translucent.

Quick and easy mushroom soup

We are waking up to frost in the mornings, and even though the days have been sunny there is little warmth left in the sun, so my thoughts turn to soup.  Home made soup is a real comfort food for me, but I have to say I really do not like canned soup and making soup does not have to be too time consuming or difficult.  One of the canned soups that I can remember my mother serving when I was a child was cream of mushroom, and I would not eat it, as I declared I did not like mushroom soup

I came to terms with my hate for mushroom soup a long time ago when I realized it was not mushroom soup I did not like it was canned mushroom soup. I made this the other evening after work, and it filled my need for a warming soup and was very quick and easy to make.

1 onion chopped
1 garlic clove chopped or sliced
1 tablespoon of olive oil
3 cups of sliced mushrooms (any mushrooms will do I used one portabello and the remainder button)
A sprig of fresh thyme if you have one
2 cups of chicken stock
1/2 cup of cream (or milk if you are feeling virtuous)
1/2 teaspoon of fresh grated nutmeg

Sweat off the onion and garlic in a large saucepan until the onion is transparent but has not started to go golden.

Week night dinner - Steak with mushroom sauce

This is a quick dish to make, that although it meets the criteria of a weeknight dinner, quick and easy, it is good enough to serve to company.

Serves 2

1 tablespoon of olive oil
2 steaks (I found strip loin on sale)
1/2 onion finely chopped
1 clove of garlic thinly sliced.
1 cup of sliced mushrooms
1/2 cup of red wine
handful of chopped parsley

Salt and pepper the steak then cook in the olive oil in frying pan to your preferred doneness rare for me well done for my husband.

Roasted vegetables

Roast vegetables is a an old standby of mine that I cook on a very regular basis, in the winter they go well roasted in the oven along with a roast meat or poultry of any kind, and in the summer they are a regular on my barbecue.

My favourite vegetables to roast are Bell peppers, eggplant, onions, zucchini, fennel, mushrooms.

Mushroom salad

Mushrooms are one of my husbands favourite foods, if I ask him to pick up a vegetable he will invariably pick up mushrooms, which as neither of my sons will touch them is a bit of a problem.  Tonight I was making Italian sausage pasta and needed a salad to go with it, so I decided to make what I call mushroom salad.

This is easy and quick and as long as you have mushrooms in your fridge, just about everything else is probably there.

Mushroom ragout

One of my husbands favourite foods is mushrooms. So since I am about to take off and abandon him for over two weeks and fresh mushrooms are everywhere at this time of year  I thought I would make mushroom ragout.

I bought a container of chantrelle mushrooms and another with a mixture including portabello and oyster as well as the more common button mushrooms.

This recipe is quick and simple and just shows off the wonderful flavour of the mushrooms.